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Other/Mixed Stability is Nice

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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Kyrinov

Kyrinov

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I grabbed myself a copy of Feldenkrais's "The Elusive Obvious" yesterday. As always I'm struck by the intelligence of this man and envious of the way he seemed to saunter through the company of the greatest minds of his era. The man worked in the Joliot-Curie lab and taught David Ben-Gurion....not bad for a kid who went to Israel alone at 14 to work manual labour. Anyhow, I came across the following that I found particularly incisive in its simplicity. I felt it would be appreciated by this lot:

"Stability is nice. It also means difficulty to initiate movement as well as difficulty to be moved. A boxer on the ground is saved only by the rule not to be destroyed before he is unstable again. He will then be able to move to attack and move to avoid being knocked down again. Stability (when one is protected) increases the feeling of safety. Instability means risk but easy mobility. Both are biologically important. Becoming addicted to one of them makes one unsafe for lack of choice."
 
I hope no one will begrudge me riffing about Feldenkrais here but this truly is a fantastic book and the insights keep coming. There is an anecdote regarding how he had injured a knee quite badly playing soccer. At one point he was hopping along on his good leg, which was growing stiffer and more irritated by the additional load it was being forced to shoulder. The load was too much and the "good" knee was sprained. F had to then continue hopping home on the newly-injured knee, barely managed to crawl up the stairs, and went to sleep, believing in the morning he would not be able to stand at all with two bad knees. When he awoke, as expected, the formerly "good" knee was no longer functional, being swollen and stiff with inflammation. Here's the kicker, his until-then useless injured leg suddenly had drastically improved function. He reports thinking he had lost his mind and kept it to himself. He reported that the formerly "bad" knee was now so functional with suddenly improved muscle tone after weeks of atrophy that he would have been able to walk more or less normally had the "good" knee not been injured. What this anecdotally illustrates is an interesting property of the nervous system. His left leg had been inhibited insofar as he could compensate with his right. The nervous system identified it as "the bad leg" and inhibited nervous impulses. With the other leg injured more recently, this nervous balance shifted and the formerly "bad" leg was now, relatively speaking, the "good" leg and so impulses were disinhibited. This is interesting in and of itself but I think relates so clearly to the principles underlying SF methods insofar as what seems to be taking place is training the nervous system to ensure maximal stability of the whole structure while loading a limb(s) so that we attain maximal nervous disinhibition in a symmetrical way. The nervous system knows the best distribution of resources in accomplishing movement tasks and knows when it is stable or not. Through SF methods and writing I've come to realize that my inability to press 40kg is not a reflection of the incapacity of my muscles, but rather a dearth of stability. My nervous system inhibits the contraction necessary to raise the weight overhead because it senses that the overall structure may not be able to remain stable throughout such a heavily loaded movement. Anyway...just my thoughts this morning.
 
Interesting that you mention Feldenkrais work Charles, such an incredible wealth of information that is contained in those books. I assume you have been doing the lessons as well? There we can really talk about a "what the hell effect". I was completely stunned by the experience when I first was exposed to it 10 years ago, changed my outlook on life and training completely.

It is true many of the principles in Feldenkrais work are directly compatible with the strongfirst philosophy. Though I get the impression not very many here are doing any Feldenkrais-work?
 
Interesting knee mystery. Happened to me twice, very similar. Looks like some more reading material for me........for those in the know and excuse my ignorance, is Feldenkrais method similar to Hanna somatics? Any differences?
 
Alistair,

I don't know the particular teaching you're talking about but the more time I spend studying methods for training the nervous system (this site's included) the more it seems to converge. The things that work may use different words and emphasize different elements but they all end up doing similar types of things, only arranged in different ways. Physical culture, it seems, is not far from myth in that across various cultures one sees regularities that emerge spontaneously and yet bearing strikingly similar characteristics.

Charles
 
Alistair, Thomas Hanna was a student of Moshe Feldenkrais from the early 1970´s. Hannas work is in all essences built upon the foundation of Moshe Feldenkrais teaching, eventhough it need be said that Hanna was involved in the field of somatics before he met Feldenkrais and that he also differentiates in some aspects. So, there are differences, but I would say for someone starting out the practical differences are neglible.

With that being said the differences between todays Hanna Somatics practioners and todays Feldenkrais practioners might be much bigger due to how the work has evolved (or in some cases devolved..) since the respective founders passed away.

Also, I feel, to get the most out of Hanna, you really need to grasp the concept of Feldenkrais. Hence I would really recomend that you start out by getting to know the work of Feldenkrais before you turn to Somatics. IMO the Feldenkrais framework is much more complex, and if you read Hanna I feel you miss quite a lot by not understanding the work upon which Hanna based his own teachings.

From my point of view Feldenkrais is more advanced, which might be a good or bad thing when starting out, depending on what you are after.

The upside is it won´t exactly cost you a fortune to start out, most of the Feldenkrais and Hanna litterature cost between 10-20$ from Amazon.

If you decide to buy any of the books I would recomend the one that Charles refers to; The Elusive Obvious, it was Feldenkrais last book and gives the best overview of his philosophy. However, I would also recomend you to check out his Awareness through Movement. Mostly for the collection of movement lessons it contains as it will give you a more proper understanding of the practical applications of the principles. As well as Thomas Hanna´s book Somatics. Those 3 books is more then enough to set you on course for many years to come, if you are so inclined.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

Cheers
Marty
 
Thanks for that information Marty. Need to read more about it. Cheers.

Charles, I think so too.I like Gray Cook's view: movement is movement.
 
Todd Hargrove's 'A Guide to Better Movement' is a nice, readable introduction to Feldenkrais method and how it fits into contemporary neuroscience and pain management theories.

I'd highly recommend it to those who are interested in movement education.
 
Alistair,

You're welcome. I hope you enjoy it; I found it to be very informative and very well written.

Mike.
 
Unfortunately I've found the tendency to close-minded group think to be prevalent even in fields where you'd expect more openness. I tend to straddle a pretty wide divide, being someone who trains seriously in both ANS/"soft" work as well as CNS/"hard" work. The ANS people all roll their eyes at me leaving a mellow Feldenkrais class with a heavy pack on my back and would probably mount an intervention if they saw me swinging my bulldog at home, the CNS people scoff and assume that the ANS training stuff is fru-fru self-delusional BS. So its rare to find strong people doing proper ANS work (whether Feldenkrais, proper Taiji or stuff like Systema) and rare to find people into the ANS side of training who also seriously work on their CNS skills. I even hate to differentiate the two at all but at least saying CNS-centric vs. ANS-centric skills is better than the old "hard" and "soft" because anyone who's been hit by a proper internal/ANS/soft practitioner knows just how devastating such work can be.
 
I was actually quite shocked at one point when I raised Systema in this forum and had people for whom I have enormous respect and admiration make derisive comments about the practice as if it were all nonsense because of the lack of visible tension. But such is the power of group think.
 
Charles, I am not sure I follow your meaning with the CNS and ANS terms, I assume you mean Central and autonomous nevous systems? Both not sure about the way you use the distinctions relating to the subject.

As for the close mindedness I do tend to agree. However I am not sure I agree regarding the "mellowness" of the Feldenkrais community as a whole, I think this might be a regional thing more then anything else, with US-based practioners going more "hippie" about it :D. In europe we tend to be a bit more busineslike about stuff. Gross generalization of course.
 
Marty, yes, I meant autonomic nervous system and central nervous system. My rough layman's understanding of some of the classic divisions in physical culture is that there are those whose training looks to improve the function of the CNS, this being the most obvious and easy-to-access and less "abstract" kind of training, then there is ANS training that is kind of murky, has a very steep initial learning curve, is difficult to talk about or quantify and not all that thrilling at first. By "mellow" I meant parasympathetic-dominant vs. sympathetic-dominant.
 
Charles, ok then I understand what you mean´t. However I am not sure I agree 100%. From my point of view Autogenic training would be a prime example of ANS-centered training. Feldenkrais via Awareness through movement would in my opinion have a more secondary effect on the ANS. Main goal via an awareness through movement lesson, or functional integration session, is to clarify the self image and thereby reaching a better overall organization of the nervous system. The means for doing so is actively working through movement. Wheter the movements are actively done or just imgagined is irrelevant, they still activate the same pattern. Any influence on the ANS will be more of a side effect of the now improved organization (better circulation, blood pressure, heart rate etc) and the calming effect it will provide for the nervous system as a whole, often mainly because of an improvement of diaphragmatic breathing.

A more directly centered ANS approach would be the one favored by Émile Coué or autogenic training or even meditation. Here you try to actively influence bodily funtions, over which we have very little direct mental control, via mental cues.

The difference is not clear cut, as Feldenkrais never saw any clear distinction between body and mind you will always get a little bit of both, but the key in an awareness through movement lesson is almost always the central nervous system, just because that is easier to directly manipulate. We wan´t all the positive effects of an ANS approach but the way in is via the CNS. Of course the borders are somewhat blurred, but this was what I could put down on the top of my head. Not sure if I explained that very well, but anyway...
 
Greetings,

Thomas Hanna coined the word ‘Somatic‘. Hanna brought Moshe Feldenkrais to the Unites States for the first time. Hanna revered Feldenkrais, and taught Felkenkrais’ Awareness Through Movement for 20 years.

Hanna made three essential, and critical additions to the groundwork of Feldenkrais:
  1. The Three Stress Reflexes. These patterns of full body contraction that are the brain-body’s reaction to stress and injury. These reflexive contractions are how the human body gets stuck. These are the root of the tension problems people have with their bodies.
  2. S.M.A., Sensory Motor Amnesia, When muscles are tight, they don’t give good sensory feedback to the brain. With this persistent tensions, the brain developes an amnesia these structures. In both subtle and often profound expressions, SMA is expressed in muscles as weakness, persistent tightness, quivering under load, un-smooth in motion, and often with a total inability to feel and control related movement patterns. SMA is the result of the sub-cortical habituation of the stress reflex contractions. We are unaware of our SMA. By definition, we do not know the extent of how we are unable to sense our bodies.
  3. Pandiculation (and Clinically Assisted Pandiculation), the natural way cats and dogs clear out their muscle tension. In its simplest form, a lazy yawning contraction followed by a slow taper to relaxed. This process allows the brain to re-learn how to sense and control our musculature. Basically: pandiculation resets muscle tension. When pandiculation is done with the assistance of a skilled practitioner, long lasting changes in muscle tension can be learned.
There is more vivid feedback from the muscular system in a Hanna Somatics Session, than a Feldenkrais session. There is more direction to regain where we have lost the ability to sense our bodies.
 
In line with the emphasis on the importance of the nervous system in phenomena we tend to think of through a musculoskeletal lens, some other people/resources to check out are Lorimer Moseley and the SomaSimple discussion forum (SomaSimple Discussion Lists - Powered by vBulletin).

Lorimer Moseley is sort of the anti-Stu McGill (probably an unfair characterization, but I think still make a valid point). Whereas McGill is very focused on structural causes of pain, Moseley focuses on the role of the nervous system.

SomaSimple is a very interesting site with a wealth of information and many contributors with a refreshingly (although many others would say frustratingly) critical and rigorous perspective on a lot of accepted wisdom in physical therapy and training. It can be an overwhelming place to jump into, and takes a lot of reading to get your head around a lot things discussed there, but there are a few "start here" type sticky threads that can help make it a little easier.
 
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