How many times in our lives have we heard the phrase "No pain, no gain?" I have clients who explain certain pain as if they're supposed to have it from certain exercises. Muscle soreness from use I understand, some of the pain from incorrect use or pushing their bodies beyond their limits? I'm not so sure.
The following is an excerpt from a New York Times article dated January 22, 2021 titled "‘Slowing Down to Feel’: Moving Our Minds Around Our Bodies" by Gia Kourlas:
"It’s cold outside. The pandemic is getting worse. It’s time to look inward with the help of movement practices that create healthy bodies and minds.
The Feldenkrais Method, created by Moshe Feldenkrais, does that and more with its system of exercises that zone in on skeletal function and self-awareness through movement. It’s slow, methodical and controlled. Sometimes the movements seem imperceptible. You are told to hold back, and you are also on your back a good deal. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Rebecca Davis, a Feldenkrais practitioner, broke it down: “You do a movement and you pay attention to how it feels,” she said. “You do something with the right side. You do that same action on the left side. I’ve tried to distill it to that I teach people how to pay attention, what to pay attention to and why it matters.”
In one class I took focusing on the feet and legs, Davis told us — repeatedly — to stay in a 5 percent zone of range and effort. This, it turned out, was impossible. It’s like my muscles were laughing at me. Attempting to do less is a hard, humbling act.
“When I say, ‘Now slowly tilt your legs to the right,’ what comes out of people is definitely not my idea of slow,” Davis said later. “We have to recalibrate pacing, timing because for
this work in particular it’s the sensory details that we’re interested in. Once you slow down and start paying attention to yourself in a different way, that’s really where change can happen.”
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It literally took me YEARS to understand and follow the instruction of Feldenkrais teachers to do less, in terms of range, effort, and speed. Like it says in the article, doing less is incredibly challenging. It seems like doing less should be easier, but for many of us, it isn't.
I tell my clients, "This is not the 'No pain no gain' method." I want you to move within your range of comfort and do less than you can do. In our culture that focuses on a certain definition of success, we value achieving, and often achieving at great costs. One example of achieving at great cost that comes to mind is when American gymnast Kerri Strug in the 1996 Olympics continued to perform her vault routine despite a severe ankle injury. She stuck her landing on her other foot and collapsed in pain, after which her coach Bela Karolyi carried her off the floor. Her routine helped Team USA achieve the gold medal, but at what cost to her body?
Olympic Gymnast Simone Biles withdrew herself from competing in July 2021 due to experiencing a dangerous phenomenon known as the "twisties." She received some backlash from critics who thought she should have toughed it out and competed despite this dangerous disorientation causing her mind and body to be out of sync, making it challenging to know where she was in space and having no control over which part of her would land - her head, her back, her feet. Should she have risked injuring herself and soldiered through for the sake of trying to win a medal? Former gymnast Jacoby Miles broke her neck on landing and became paralyzed after a particularly bad bout of the twisties.
This cultural emphasis on pushing through pain and working harder to achieve is something you can leave at the door when you arrive for a Feldenkrais class. When you're in a Feldenkrais class, whether a one-on-one or a group class, you won't be forced to achieve or be pushed. You will discover gentle options that you may not have realized were available to you. You may learn things about yourself as you change from your habitual patterns into non-habitual patterns of movement. You can still achieve greatness in your field of music, sports, or art and continue to be at the top of your game. You may just find ways that you can perform more efficiently and be less vulnerable to injury.
During sessions, Feldenkrais practitioners ask things like, "Does it feel better with three pads under your head or two pads?" Practitioners truly want to guide you to choose what feels the best for you. The more comfortable you are during a lesson, the more you will be able to benefit from the work and learn from the changes you experience. With this increased comfort, there will be less interference or "noise" from your nervous system. Your nervous system will quiet down and you'll be able to integrate changes that allow for neuroplastic learning and leave you feeling better.
To schedule a Feldenkrais session, click here.
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