The Art Of Mastering Movement

If you have ever taken a vacation, you may have noticed that is takes time to relax. Depending on how busy your schedule is leading up to the vacation, it may take a few days to a few weeks to feel like you are finally yourself again. We are so good at getting through the day’s activities; work, school and family obligations, that it is sometimes hard to notice all the muscular tension that adds up in our bodies like plaque on our teeth.

For example, guess one of the main body parts that tend to hold your daily tensions? Hopefully, you guessed the shoulders. In working with people and movement during the day, I notice the shoulders up in the ears syndrome a lot. I often bring the phenomenon to the attention of my students, and their shoulders will immediately drop 2-4 inches. You may think that one reminder of the shoulders being tense is all that is required. Alas, it is not. For most people, you could remind them that their shoulders are tense every 30 seconds for an hour, and then, just maybe they would begin to notice their holding tension.

Muscular tension is a challenging partner in your body. Once you notice it, and then release it; it tends to come right back the moment you reach for the phone. I remember spending so much time teaching myself to release the tension in my shoulders. I would start by being aware of the tension and then asking my shoulders to release. Immediately after the first release of tension, I would ask my shoulders if there was any more tension to release. Astonishingly, there was always more tension to release. I remember being in bed and starting to fall asleep. Which when you think of it, you think you would be pretty relaxed while about to fall asleep. Well, being curious, I asked my shoulders if they were relaxed and what do you think? No, they were not. I was amazed. I began to realize that I had layers of tension in my body. Even when I thought I was relaxed, there was still more release to be done.

So, why is release of muscular tension important? Of course, some tension is necessary to hold the bones in proper alignment move and stand upright. The amount of tension needed to accomplish these basic tasks is minimal. In fact, it would be hard for you to feel. In comparison to the amount of chronic tension we hold in our bodies. Chronic tension can lead to chronic pain or injury. Chronic tension can also minimize our range of motion and our coordination. So, if you decide to go workout with an already tense body, you are increasing your risk of injury. A teacher of mine once said in class, “you can put a bigger engine in a car with a broken transmission, and it will run, but for how much longer?”

One tool I have found to release tension and restore balance in the body is called Constructive Rest. I first learned it from Eric Franklin. It was developed by Mabel Todd and then Lulu Sweigard. They along with Barbara Clark are the founders of a body of work called Ideokinesis. It is a term to describe the relationship between ideas and movement, or the nervous system, and muscles. Today, Constructive Rest, has become very popular in Alexander Technique.

Franklin describes in his book “Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery”, that Todd called the position hook lying. Sweigard choose to call it the constructive rest position because it more fully describes the goal of the exercise, which is to create a means of resting the body so it can release the muscular tension that happens when you stand. Being supine, or back down on the floor, changes your relationship to gravity by spreading the body horizontally on the floor. The surface area of your body in relationship to gravity increases in this supine position, and this helps to more fully connect your body to gravity and thus release muscle tension.

Below is a description of a Constructive Rest Position by Andre Bernard. He was a student of Barbara Clark’s He taught dancers and actors about alignment and movement all over the world. He was particularly know for his contributions in the Dance Department at Tisch School of the Arts in New York . He taught there from 1965, until his death in 2003.

Constructive Rest Position

To find the optimum Constructive Rest Position, Todd and Sweigard took a skeleton that had no muscular representation, only ligamentous representation, and balanced it in the constructive rest position. One of the things that we do in the position is to bend the legs, flex at the knees. The reason we bend the legs is because when you straighten out the legs, the weight of the legs against the front of the pelvis tends to tilt it down in front. That increases the anterior tilt of the pelvis. It has a normal tilt, but you do not want to increase it. By flexing the legs it lessens that tendency and makes the position much more efficient. When you increase the tilt of the pelvis there, it puts a stress on the lower back and lumbar curve.

The next thing we do it put a tie on the legs to keep the legs from falling out. The tie takes the place of muscle work. Let the legs rest against the tie. Then we put a little cushion under the balls of the feet. We also put a little support under the skull. When you put the balls of the feet on a support, it tends to make it easier for the back and the thighs to release. Your arms resting on the body is fine. You can also support the underneath side of the elbow or shoulder. Put support under the head to bring the cervical spine in line with the rest of the spine. Some people will need more or less cushions than others. The goal is to feel perfectly relaxed. When you find your perfect position, resist the urge to move for the duration of the exercise. Moving tends to pull you out of your body and distract you from releasing your tension. Find your comfortable position and notice your breath and the weight of your body in relationship to the floor. When you have done that, you can add imagery.

Imagery for Constructive Rest

The classic image for a Constructive Rest is to imagine that you are a suit of clothing being spread out on a surface. I like to imagine a clean sheet being lifted into the air and slowly falling on the bed before it is made. Another popular image is to imagine your body filled with sand, and slowly letting the sand falling out of your body and onto the floor.

Which ever image you choose, you want to start with the back of your pelvis falling into the floor, then the femurs falling into the pelvis and then onto the floor. Move to the lower leg releasing and then the feet, even the toes. Release the back of the spine, spreading out to the shoulders, down the arms and fingers. Notice the back of the neck and head release as well. Go through this process of release with your body at lease twice. If you have chronic tension, this would be an exercise you would want to do at least once a day. You can start with just a few minutes and work up to a half hour.

Constructive Rest is an amazing tool for creating body awareness, and decreasing tension. In my own experience, I have found Constructive Rest a very annoying exercise. Mainly, because I do not feel like I am doing anything. That is the point. The constructive rest, or sometimes called active rest, is doing more for you than a bowl of broccoli. Besides releasing tension in the body, it also helps create space and alignment in the joints, and gives your nervous system the sense of what it would be like to be effortlessly in alignment. Who could ask for more? Try it a few times before you make your own conclusions. You made need some time to warm up to the idea of doing nothing for so much.

Cats have a natural sense of Constructive Rest.  Picture by David Gelphman.

Bernard, Andre.  Ideokinesis; A Creative Approach to Human Movement and Body Alignmant.  North Altantic Books.  Berkeley, CA. 2006.

Franklin, Eric.  Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery.  Human Kinetics. Champagne, IL. 1996.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year we focused on the basics of how the body works.  We did anatomy and started with the feet and moved our way up the body to the shoulder and neck.  This year, the focus has been on alternative ways to sense your body.  We did a heart workshop in February.  In March, the studio organized Reiki training, and April was about the energy of various stones.  It is interesting what is showing up in the Art of Mastering Movement.   There are many levels and layers to the human experience.  They seem to revel themselves with appropriate timing, and as you allow them to.  I will continue to write about the workshops here at the studio.  I am just not able to predict at this time what they may be about. 

 Continuing with the idea of things being revealed to you in the appropriate time, I found this article on Reiki from the Wall Street Journal in March.  I thought I would include it here to give you a sense of what Reiki is and how it is used in the world.  It is simple and profound at the same time.  Below is the article called “A Touch of Massage Therapy”, by Laura Johannes and printed on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

 Reiki, a therapy in which hands are placed lightly on the body or just above it, is increasingly being used to reduce cancer-related fatigue, anxiety, nausea and pain.  Several studies suggest a benefit to patients, but scientists say more large, rigorous studies are needed. 

 Cancer patients – due to the disease and to side effects of chemotherapy – often suffer from severe mental and physical fatigue, doctor’s say.  Anxiety, nausea and pain are also common.  In recent years, many cancer centers have been offering Reiki, a form of healing which originated in Japan in the early 1900’s, according to scientific literature.  In a session of Reiki, hands are placed lightly on the body.  Each spot is treated for three minutes or longer and sometimes therapists place their hands just above the body without touching, says Donah Drewett, a Fairlee, Vt. Based Reiki therapist who works at Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Lebanon, N.H.

 Extra care is needed with cancer patients.  Therapists must avoid sensitive areas on the body such as ports used to administer medications, doctors and therapists say.  The gentleness of Reiki is appealing to cancer patients, many of who are too ill to tolerate a deep tissue massage, doctors say.

 Reiki is often described as a treatment that helps life energy to flow in a patient – an explanation not generally accepted by scientists.  Barrie Cassileth, chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, calls the energy theory “absurd” but says light touch therapy can have a “great relaxing effect” on cancer patients “who are constantly poked, prodded and given needles.”

 Adds Deborah Steele, manager of patient and family support services: “How it works is a mystery, but we see anecdotally the amount of delight” it brings to patients.

 Some scientists think the benefits may be as simple as the warmth of human tough and the feeling that someone is caring for you.

 At Memorial Sloan Ketering, treatment for inpatients is available at no extra charge; outpatients pay $90 to $110 a session.  At Norris Cotton, trained volunteers administer treatments free of charge.  Insurance typically doesn’t pay for Reiki.

 Other centers don’t offer Reiki, citing insufficient evidence.  “There isn’t a good evidence base for its utility in cancer care as of yet,” says Lorenzo Cohen, a professor in the departments of general oncology and behavioral science at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

 David S Rosenthal, medical director of the Leonard P Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies at Dana Farber Center Institute in Boston, co-authored a January study on Reiki that was published in Cancer.   The study found twice weekly, 50-minute sessions reduced anxiety in 18 men with prostate cancer, but the benefit wasn’t statistically significant compared with a control group.  A larger study is needed to determine if a benefit exists, Dr. Rosenthal says.  “The evidence for Reiki is still slim, but there are trends and we have to show whether those trends are real,” he says.

 A 2004 study of 1,290 cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering found a light touch massage, standard Swedish massage and foot massage all helped symptoms including pain, depression anxiety, nausea and fatigue; the study didn’t have a control group.  In a 16 person study published in 2007 in Integrative Cancer Therapies, a team of Canadian scientists found five daily Reiki sessions of about 45 minutes improved quality of life and general well being reported by cancer patients on a 28 question survey significantly more than resting for about the same period.  Study co-author Linda E Carlson, a psychologist and an associate professor in the oncology division at the University of Calgary, says she thinks it is possible that a good rapport between the Reiki therapist and the patients could be the reason for the positive result.  This is the conclusion of the article.

 To continue, last week we finished our part two of level one Reiki workshop.  In that workshop we got to do hands on work on each other.  We had six people doing Reiki on one person at a time.  We all had the best of intentions and the most positive outlook possible.  The experience was amazing.  The work is simple, profound and mysterious.  It could be that six positively minded people are putting their attention on you that it feels good.  It could be because of the ancient symbols that the practitioners are channeling.  I think it is most likely a combination of both.  Everyone in the room was transformed by the experience, both the person being worked on and the people doing the work.  We were all giddy, excited, calm and relaxed.  We could have gone on for hours.  In fact the class ended two hours later. I feel we had the same conclusion as the article.  Reiki works, but I am not sure why it works.  Some things may be better left unanswered, or maybe by doing the work the answers someday may be revealed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Neck

       It was interesting when writing this workshop that when I googled neck pictures on the internet, the only pictures that came up where those of neck and back injuries, or pain.  In this culture we relate the neck to pain rather than about something beautiful.  I had to look up pictures of diamond necklaces to get this nice picture of Kate Winslet at the 2010 Academy awards.  Doesn’t she have a nice neckline and shoulder girdle? (even without the beautiful necklace).  You have to have a nicely aligned neck, shoulders and mid back to pull off that dress and not let your cleavage loose.  We are so willing to let our necks be thrown around like a sack of potatoes, and think of it as painful.  The neck also has the possibility of being attractive,well aligned and beautiful.

 Atlas/Axis Joint

       The Atlas/Axis joint is the first two joints of our cervical spine.  Atlas named for the Greek God that holds up the world.  The Axis is the second cervical and it rotates our head.  I am not going to go into too much detail with this joint because we have already covered it in previous workshops.  There are a few important points to review though to maintain alignment and reduce stress and tension in the neck.

       Remember that the skull needs to sit on the Altas in a balanced way so that the neck stays aligned and the muscular around the neck does not need to work too hard.  The bite plane should be parallel to the ground.  Eric Franklin often gives the image of a helium ballon floating on top of your spine.  Try it, it is a nice feeling.

       If the skull and the Atlas are in the correct position, then it is quite easy to allow the Axis do it’s job of rotating the skull.  Allow your skull to be heavy and collapse on your spine and try to move your head side to side.  Now lift your head away from your spine and move your head side to side.  Which do you like better?

 

 

 

Shoulder Girdle

       You have previous experience about the alignment of the shoulder girdle.  Just a reminder to keep the clavicles parallel to the ground and the head in line with the shoulder girdle.  If you look at the person sideways, their ear will be right over their shoulder.  Another great image from Eric Franklin to keep the front of the shoulder girdle open is to think of big eyelashes eyes at the corocoid process that are wide open.  If you collapse your shoulders forward, the eyelashes will get smooshed!

Trapezius

       The Trapezius is a key muscle that connects your neck to your shoulders.  It is one of the first muscles to get tight under stress, and when it is relaxed it has a beneficial effect on our mental state.  It is thought that the Trapezius was originally a gill lifting muscle and tends to drag the whole shoulder girdle upward toward the neck (Franklin p. 45).  Although the Trapezius is one muscle, it is discussed in three separate parts; upper trap, middle trap and lower trap.  The job of the upper trap is to lift the shoulder blades,  the job of the middle trap is to bring the shoulder blades toward each other, and the job of the lower trap is to pull the shoulder blades downward.  See if you can feel the difference between the three parts on your back.

       A partner can help you feel the three parts of the Trapezius by stroking the lines on your back.  Make sure the person being touched is standing tall with the shoulder girdle open and the head nicely aligned.  On an exhale, stroke the upper trap from the neck to the shoulders, then the lower trap from the mid back up to the shoulders, and then the mid trap by stroking the two shoulder blades toward each other (Franklin p. 48).

Arm Lines

       In Tom Myers’s book,  Anatomy Trains , he discusses how the body connects the neck, shoulder, mid back, ribs, and beyond to the arm, hand and fingers.  He calls them armlines, and defines four of them; the  deep front, superficial front, deep back and superficial back.  Any tension along the line can impede the performance along the whole line or part of the line.  The following are the armlines, which do you think needs the most support in your body?

Deep Front Arm Line                             Superficial Front Arm Line

3rd, 4th and 5th ribs                             Lateral clavicle and costal cartilages

Pectoralis minor                            Pectoralis major and Latissimus dorsi                

Coracoid process                          Medial humerous

Biceps brachii                                Medial intermuscular septum

Radial Tuberosity                           Medial humeral epicondyle

Radial periosteum                          Flexor group

Styloid process of radius                Carpal Tunnel

Radial collateral ligaments                      Palmar surface of fingers

Scaphoid, Trapezium in the hand

Thenar muscles

Outside of thumb

       The Deep Front Arm Line relates to the front aspect of the shoulder to the thumb.  It is released by hanging by your arm.  When it is tight it tends to pull the head into a forward position over extending the upper cervical spine.  A tightness in this line can also negatively affect your breathing.  A nice image for the deep front arm line is to think of the arm hanging from your occiput or bottom of the skull.

       The superficial deep arm line follows  the medial edge of the deep front arm line all the way down to the palm and palm side of the fingers.  To feel this arm line, stretch your arm against the wall with the palm side toward the wall, or lie supine on a table and allow the arm to hang down, palm side up, below the table. 

 Deep Back Arm Line                                     Superficial Back Arm Line

Spinous process of lower cervicals and upper thoracic   Occipital ridge, nuchal ligament, thoracic SP

Rhomboids and levator scapulae                   Trapezius

Medial border of scapulae                             Spine of scapula, acromion, lateral clavicle

Rotator cuff muscles                                    Deltoid

Head of humerous                                Deltoid tubercle of humerus

Triceps brachii                                       Lateral intermuscular septum

Olecranon of ulna                                  Lateral epicondyle of humerus

Ulnar periosteum                                  Extensor group

Styloid process of ulna                                  Dorsal surface of fingers

Ulnar collateral ligaments

Triquetrum and hamate (hand)

Hypothenar muscles

Outside of little finger

        The deep back arm line runs from the back and neck down to the little finger.  It is a line of the arm that would be used in a tennis backhand, or in a judo roll on the floor.  A collapse anywhere along this line can lead to injury.  The superficial back arm line also begins in the back and runs to the backside of the fingers in the hand.  The tendency in this line is to get stuck around the anterior deltoid where the line transitions from the back to the front.  The line again transitions from the front to the back at the lateral humeral condyle above the elbow before running down the back of the arm.

       These four arm lines cover all aspects of the arm.  They originate mainly from the neck, mid back and ribcage and continue on to the hand and fingers.  Being mindful of these arm lines can keep the alignment open from the neck down to the fingers. 

The Thoracic

       We have just discussed how the mid back is related to the neck and the lines of movement that go all the way through the shoulder and down to the fingers.  If the previous imagery of the alignment of the neck and the identification of the arm lines does not help to relieve tension, there is still one more strategy to release the neck, back and shoulders.  It means we have to go deeper to find and release the tension in the body.  We need to look at the organs of the thoracic.  In the thoracic, the main organs to examine are the heart and the lungs.  Today we are primarily going to look at the lungs.

       We have two parts to the lungs, one on the right and one on the left.  The right has three lobes, and the left has two in order to make room for the heart.  They are so precious that they are wrapped in a pleura or double layered membrane.  We take air into our lungs approximately 18,000 to 30,000 times each day.  The air follows our bronchial tubes down to the lungs to feed oxygen to our blood.  The bronchial tubes are covered with little hairs called cilia that pull the impurities from the air before going on to the pulmonary alveoli.  That is the point where your body is separated from the outside world by just a few cells.  The blood is then circulated by the heart, and our exhalation carries out carbon dioxide and waste material that our body does not need. 

       Like all organs, the lungs are an extension of our brain and emotional system.  From an mechanical point of view, people with lung issues tend to have increased tension in the neck, shoulders and mid back which causes postural problems, lack of color in their skin, a tendency to sweat, and make noise while they breathe.  From an emotional point of view, these people can seem shy, subdued, and fearful.  They may feel locked in and inhibited to go out and live life.  They are afraid to bother people and have a tendency to stand back.  They can do very well, but their lack of self confidence hampers their intentions (Barral, pg. 47).

      Noticing your lungs and how they move in the thoracic cavity can be another way to release your neck and shoulder tension.  In addition, breathing is central to feeling a vitality in your life.  In this workshop you have learned numerous techniques through imagery, muscular skeletal lines and organs that can all be used to assess your current physical state and also aide in releasing tension in your body.  So, you can look like Kate Winslet wearing a beautiful Neil Lane diamond necklace.