Personal Practices

In writing this blog one of the themes I keep coming back to is movement. As a bodyworker, I cannot stress enough how important movement is. The movement we do and the movement we do not do will impact us substantially over our lives. Having a conscious movement practice, of any kind I would argue, is fundamental to repair our bodies from injuries and every day strains. I would also argue a movement practice is essential to prepare our bodies for whatever life will challenge us with next. So this week I would like to share some tenants that inform my practice.

So first rule. Be precise in whatever you are doing. However, you are choosing to move, put as much consciousness into your movement as you can. Muscle cells are binary. They exist in either a contracted or relaxed state. Either we are engaging a certain muscle cell or we are not. This means that when we engage in activities that require more strength we are not employing more force from our muscle cells but rather employing more muscle cells to generate more force. We do this by sparking them awake with our efferent (motor nerves). The more we have awareness we have over this process the greater control we will have over our bodies. Movement practices are space not just to burn calories, but a time to grow this consciousness., We can become aware of any biomechanical habits that need airbrushing. As we increase our physical consciousness we will increase our functional strength allowing us to do more with our bodies with less risk of injuries.

This means we should ask ourselves what is the quality of the movement we are practicing. We should acknowledge when we no longer have the energy to move through a routine at its fullest expression. This is the precise time to cease that movement. This does not necessarily mean we have to cease our movement practice altogether. We may have the energy to do other movements that require less energy. Also changing our movements will break us out of a routine which can energize us. But what we do not want to do is practice subpar movement. We don’t want to strengthen efferent ( motor ) nerve pathways that result in sloppy body mechanics. This is a time when we are teaching our bodies habits that it will use throughout the rest of our lives. What habits do we want to teach our bodies?

Breath comes into play here. If our breath is out of synch with our movement then we are reinforcing inefficient movement patterns. Do we really want to do this? I find I can gain a lot more out of my movement practice if I take a moment or 20 to reconnect to my breathing. Paradoxical the more I do this the less I have to do it. By taking the time to teach my body how to let the breath be the catalyst for movement the more my breath and movement will naturally find their rhythm.

It's quite amazing how long humans can sustain movement for. Some people run marathons. Then some people run ultra marathons. Many traditions have dance celebrations that can last all day or all night. As long as our cells have calories and oxygen they can burn energy. The better we become at syncing up our movement and breath the more our cells with receive oxygen just as they need it. By doing this we can prevent that winded feeling we get when we don’t provide our cells with enough oxygen for the movements we demand of them.

Another concept which I feel is under honored is taking time out when to treat injuries. I use the word injuries although that is not exactly the right word. We may not have a commonly used word for what I exactly mean here. Injuries are usually thought of as things like sprains, strains, breaks, dislocations. And of course, if these things do occur you should rest and let your body convalesce. But also there are small insults our bodies will endure. Sometimes these “injuries” will be really really small. Maybe we were just startled by something unexpected. This doesn't mean we have to sit out on the bench for the rest of the time we allotted to our movement practice but we can take a moment, maybe only a few seconds to check in with ourselves. What this does is it gives our nervous system a chance to see if we can safely resume our previous actions without further injury.

Bodies are cautious. Without making time for this check-in our bodies can create compensation patterns to protect any possible injured tissues, whether it actually is injured are not. These compensation patterns can be slight especially if our “injury” is slight, but over time they will accumulate. By taking a moment to access ourselves we will either conclude our tissues is fine and our actions do not need to be modified or we have hurt ourselves to some degree. Again this can be slight. Some injuries may only require a few minutes to heal fully. Others times we may only need a few seconds to assure our bodies that we are not hurt. By doing this we once again avoid engaging biomechanically poor efferent nerve channels. While again these injuries may be small in and of themselves over time they can accumulate and take a toll on the body.

So far we have been talking about trying to move with ever more precision. But we should also celebrate our failures. If we don’t occasionally fail in whatever we are doing it just means we are not pushing against our edges. We are not in a place of growth. Of course, if we are failing too much we are not being realistic with our current limitations which is its own trap, but we should be acquainted with failure. As an example, I love to play with balance. I enjoy finding the place where I am struggling from falling and see how long I can stay there. I find great benefit in trying to extend where that place is. By doing this I will increase my balance, but I will fall. Any growth requires failure. If there another way I certainly don’t know it. So let's feel free to drop any culturally acquired baggage that demonizes failures and spend some time in our danger space where we push against our limitations with uncertainty.

Well, I hope this inspires more awareness about our movement. There are of course many more concepts we can play with to improve our practices whatever they may be, but I this give me at least quite a bit to chew on. At least for now.

Anthony Bruni