FELDENKRAIS® and Performance

I am amazed that so much time has passed since my last post, but a few projects have been in my way.  I am excited to announce that a Feldenkras workshop will be offered in the 30th Anniversary World IDEA Conferance in 2012, the World's largest, most comprehensive and longest-running fitness convention. This places Feldenkrais amongst other mainstream strategies to address finding and achieving optimal performance. Since this will be a first exploration with this type of sensory motor learning, I will be using this space to start to introduce some concepts that are key to learning from a Feldenkrais perspective. Stay tuned...

Feldenkrais^® is a sophisticated method of improving the body’s coordination, flexibility and intelligence of movement. It is a unique system of exercise, which can be thought of as the ‘missing link’ in performance training for athletes, musicians, dancers, and those who desire easier movement in everyday tasks.— Mark Reese, Feldenkrais® Trainer

FELDENKRAIS®: ACTURE AND TENSEGRITY

As a Physical Therapist, I have long been interested in the study of posture. When I was in PT school, my learning tools were posters, cadavers, skeletal models, ..., all creations that were static. It wasn't until I entered a Feldenkrais training that I discovered how to address this study through my own skeleton while I was using movement. Dr. Feldenkrais helped me think of posture in a more action ready way. 

He coined the term "Acture", which combined the word ‘posture’ and ‘action’ together to help illuminate dynamic posture. This would make the static concepts around posture to be more action oriented. 

When foam rollers were first accessed by Dr. Feldenkrais, they were used for support, balance and to help facilitate new learning while using movement. We used them in ways that avoided stretching or over stimulation to help create ideal conditions for learning.

As some of you may know, I have been using the SMARTROLLER® to create access to these ideas that I discovered in studying the Feldenkrais Method®. I found that most people's body tissues were not prepared for the harsh pull that they were reproducing and when I came across the word tensegrity, it all made sense. “Tensegrity” is a term that Buckminster Fuller, (engineer and creator of the geodesic dome) also created with combining two words together, ‘tension’ and ‘integrity’. In Amy Edmondson's book, A FULLER EXPLANATION, she states "all systems consist of some combination of tension and compression forces." 

Thank you again Sara.

So what about the human musculoskeletal system? And what happens when we apply too much tension in the fascial system? What happens to the biological balance and the Feldenkrais ideas we support for motor learning? I would like to not make this a commercial for the Smartroller, but instead I would like to invite the dialogue of how props can be used in support of the tensegrity and  acture models when we are looking to improve posture.