EXPLORE! Applying an Holistic Approach to Movement Training

As Wikipedia describes it, holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave. Certainly we've seen a rise in the number of people looking beyond allopathic medicine to find professionals who espouse holistic practices. The increasing popularity of so-called "body-mind" practices speaks to people's desire to find a more integrated approach to movement as well.

For most, those body-mind practices tend toward activities like yoga and tai chi. Activities like these have given us a language to use in connecting to movement in a holistic way. They have opened a door to modern fitness enthusiasts into moving and thinking about moving in a different way. The quality of breath is important, not just the speed with which respiration returns to normal after exertion. Finding a degree of ease in movement, no matter what the level of exertion, is important too. With a little awareness and a little practice, one can begin to apply a holistic perspective to training movement of all kinds.
That being said...Where do we begin?

1. Breathe
Probably one of the easiest places to start is with breathing. Notice the quality of your breath. Where do you feel it moving through your body? Is each breath free and deep, reaching down in to the bottom of the lungs easily? Do you feel any restrictions along the pathway of your breath: in the throat, the shoulders, the spine, chest, belly, pelvis or tailbone? As your level of exertion changes, how does your breathing change? What does your breath sound like? Different movement modalities often teach different breathing techniques. Play with some of them in your day to day movement and notice the effects.

2. Feel Your Skeleton
Our bones provide a solid structure which enables us, with the assistance of the muscles, to move our way through space. We tend to focus so much on muscles, that we often forget that the bones are supports and levers that we can use too. A simple way to play with the skeleton is to feel, in a variety of positions, the stacking of your bones in relation to each other and to gravity. How does gravity move through the bones into the floor? What feels supported - and what doesn't? As you release your bones into gravity, can you feel the support of the floor underneath you? Does this have any effect on the sensations in your muscles?

3. Layer the Work of the Muscles
Play with feeling the layers of work that exist in the muscular system. There is one group of muscles that essentially snugs the bones together (local stabilizers) and another group that moves us through space (global mobilizers). Coordinating these muscles in different ways creates different qualities of movement and sensation. How different can it feel doing a pilates class or walking the dog, or playing a shift of hockey, skiing a slalom course or dancing petit allegro variations in a ballet class? You can tweak your coordination of these layers of muscles to find the optimum support for YOUR body in any of these situations. Your activity will determine to some degree how you use these muscles - but a conscious connection to them may offer possibilities you hadn't considered before.

4. Connect to Other Systems in the Body
Practice making connections to other systems in the body while you are moving. Feel your heart beat. Can you find a sensory connection to your ciculatory system anywhere else in your body? Can you feel the blood moving through the arteries in your arms or legs? What is the quality of that sensation?

Visualize your major internal organs. They are densely packed within the trunk, and in their own way provide a kind of support for the structure of the body from the inside out. Each organ has its own mobility and motility within the body. Can you begin to differentiate different organs by their feel: weight, quality of suspension in the body, vibration?

Imagine the intricate web of your nervous system: the brain, the spinal cord, the nerves themselves and moving further down the scale...the nerve synapses themselves. One way to begin getting in touch with this part of the body is to become aware of the overall "vibration" in your body at various times.

5. Cellular Movement
Yeah, right. Right? Believe it or not, it is possible to get a deeper sense of movement on a microscopic scale in the body! This is movement that may or may not register as "movement" to the eye of an oustide observer, but that can be perceived as movement within the body. Often times, these kinds of movements are felt as waves or undulations in the body - a flow of spirals, whirls and eddies that wind and unwind within. No doubt it is best to begin tapping into this kind of thing in a more meditative state, graduallly allowing your growing perception of these flows to create "micro-movements" which may or may not inspire larger movement. Let go of any preconceived ideas about what "should" happen, and just feel what is there.

These few steps are a very brief overview of some of the ways you can connect to a more holistic view of your own body in movement. At first, you may want to explore each of these pieces on their own. Be aware though, that our bodies are much like holograms and that all of these pieces exist in the body at the same time. Our sensory awareness becomes an ongoing stream of information. As we develop our skills in embodying the information, we improve our ability to understand our bodies and can make better choices about how we are working them.

A body working with attention to the whole is a little like a moist sponge; supple and resilient. This sponge is able to absorb from without and release from within. One can twist it, bend it, squish it - and it simply returns to its original shape. Every cell is included - not just the ones outside we can see and touch. This sponge has a huge potential for movement! Take the time to begin to know your body in a new way. The simple act of exploring a new perspective can open a vast array of inner resources on which you can draw for living a vital, healthy and moving life.

Metabolism of Non-steady State Work & Sport

Endurance sports such as running and cycling performed in a steady state condition have been thoroughly investigated over the years largely because they could be studied in the laboratory. However, much of work and sport occurs intermittently under non-steady state metabolic conditions. Only recently has portable equipment assessing oxygen uptake been available to study the metabolism of non-steady state activities performed outside laboratory conditions such as basketball, volleyball, tennis, and the martial arts. Dr. Kris E. Berg, professor and director of the Exercise Physiology Lab at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, discussed the implications of his research on physical conditioning, nutritional support and exercise adherence at the recent 2008 AAHPERD Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

Commonly, cardio-vascular fitness is measured by the volume of oxygen one can consume while exercising at maximum capacity. "VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen in millilitres, one can use in one minute per kilogram of body weight. Those who are fit have higher VO2 max values and can exercise more intensely than those who are not as well conditioned. Numerous studies have shown that one can increase VO2 max by working out at an intensity that raises the heart rate to between 65 and 85% of its maximum for at least 20 minutes three to five times a week." (Brian Mac) Typically, these same studies have been based on time-motion analysis and heart rate data and have not taken into account the fluid relationship between heart rate and oxygen uptake in the context of sport, or non-steady state activities.

Often, the calculation of VO2 energy expenditure of various sports is effectively a laboratory estimation based on distance travelled. What this doesn't take into account is the energy cost of continual changes of velocity and direction, or the cost of acceleration and decceleration. Neither does it factor in elements like temperature, emotional state and hormonal effects. With recent advances in technology, Dr. Kris Berg has been able to generate accurate data for studying the VO2 and energy expenditure values for tennis, racquetball, basketball and martial arts. What he discovered is that the mean VO2 values for these activities is very similar to those for steady state modes of exercise (i.e. endurance sports). Many of these activities meet the current aerobic exercise guidelines for aerobic fitness - even when the heart rate has NOT been elevated for a steady 20 minutes. Apparently, short bursts of intense activity interspersed with periods of rest are the key. Numerous speed bursts are supplied mostly by phosphagens in the body. Phosphagen synthesis is largely dependent on oxidative metabolism. Consequently, high intensity bursts of activity elevate the uptake of oxygen considerably - even when the heart rate is not continuously raised.

This has important implications for physical conditioning in general. Where previously medical and fitness professionals recommended only endurance type activities such as running and cycling for cardio-vascular fitness, they can now recommend other activities and be assured that guidelines for aerobic fitness will still be met! People who prefer a more social atmosphere for fitness, or who prefer playing sports to the solitary pursuit of running, for example, will enjoy the fact that they can play their favourite sport a few times a week and improve their cardiovascular fitness at the same time. In terms of athletic conditioning, activity specific interval training can be used to improve aerobic fitness within the context of the sport; by including more frequent, short bursts of intense activity. The emphasis is still very much on getting out and getting active, but the range of activities that will improve cardio-vascular fitness is obviously much wider than researchers have credited in the past. So enjoy - get out and play!!

(This information is based on an Alliance Scholar Lecture by Dr. Kris E. Berg at the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (AAHPERD) Convention April 10, 2008 in Fort Worth, Texas.)

The Living, Breathing Spine

The human spine has an incredible ability to support, move, inform and nourish the rest of the body. It acts as the integrating factor between the upper and lower halves of the body and supports the weight of the head, limbs and organs. Protected within the spine's bony structure lies the spinal cord; a key element of the body's neural network. Around the spinal cord we find the dural tube, a conduit for the "fluid" body. To function at its best, the spine must be stable, mobile and balanced. We can choose to support the spine's best function by working it biomechanically. I think though, that by adding a little "magic" we can considerably enhance the movements of the spine, finding the inherent life and breath in this fascinating structure.

In movement training, when we look at methods for supporting and mobilizing the spine, we would do well to take this structure's many and varied roles into consideration. Most often, the biomechanical approach gets first view. Are the multifidi and other local stabilizer muscles being recruited well and consistently enough to stabilize individual vertebral segments in relation to load and range of motion? Are the spinal curves balanced? Can the spine articulate segmentally? Can it work as an integrated unit? In a clinical or traditional fitness setting, what I see most often are strategies either to "hold" the spine in a stable position or to articulate spinal segments individually . In my mind, this translates to a relatively passive role for the spine; with the action of the structures around it taking precedence. That's fine, as far as it goes. Can the spine have a life of its own?

Marc Boivin, a veteran modern dancer from Montreal, PQ suggests that "the spine to coccyx line can be perceived as a fifth limb (like the fifth limb of the starfish integrated within the spine and behind the bellybutton). Listening with perseverance to the dance between the head and the coccyx as an initiation for movement is also a great way to learn about our strategies of movement. We often choose to contract a part of this dynamic opposition in order to push against another body part; this then closes a part of the body and inhibits the movement from travelling totally through us." Suddenly, the spine is not just a complicated series of joints that need stabilizing and mobilizing, it is an active and independent structure that can move and be moved to enhance the quality of our movement overall!

Mr. Boivin's suggestion allows us to introduce a little magic to our biomechanical approach. In an exercise setting, one can visualize his idea in this way: with spine as a train or roller coaster on a track. With the spine in a neutral position, visualize the moment where the cars on the train begin to move. As the lead car on the train begins to move along its track, the following cars on the train (individual vertebrae) engage lightly with each other . The spine becomes an active, integrated unit. Experiment with the different feeling of initiating the movement of the spine from either the engine (head) or the caboose (tail). Feel how the vertebrae in between can be drawn into the action. I have found that quite often, as one taps into this sensation, the inner unit core musculature is activated spontaneously.

What happens in spinal flexion or extension? Imagine the cars on the train moving along a roller coaster track. The cars on the train must stay on their track, following the lead car (coccyx or head) as it moves into space. As the spine moves into flexion/extension by initiation from the head, the tail and all the vertebrae in between are drawn immediately into that action. The vertebrae will move along the identical track that the head has set - only sliding into flexion/extension when it becomes an anatomical necessity for that to happen. The result is a long spine, suppported at every level as it moves into flexion or extension. You will probably notice that the core musculature works more efficiently with this focus as well.

For those with an interest proceeding further, we can begin to play with our magic on a much deeper level. By virtue of its role in the fluid body and nervous system, the spine has internal tides and breath that deserve to be respected and nourished as much as the muscular systems that often receive the bulk of our attention. There are treatments and therapies that will address these living, breathing tides (like craniosacral therapy) - but is there a way to tap into these through movement as well? Absolutely.

Continuum movement is a prime example. Developed by Emilie Conrad, the movements in Continuum "are designed to enhance the undulating spirals and circularity of the fluid system. A full range of non-patterned movement, from dynamic full-bodied expression to subtle micro-movements, stimulates neurological growth and vibrancy. Undulating wave motion permeates tissue, softens boundaries and amplifies sensation. Wave motion is the primary access to our bio-intelligence that is not bound by time, space or condition. "

Body-Mind Centering (BMC), created by Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen offers a whole different approach, including developmental movement patterning. BMC "is an experiential study based on the embodiment and application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical and developmental principles, utilizing movement, touch, voice and mind." By experiencing one's own movement patterns, one can begin to see where there are possibilities for moving in a fuller, more open range.

Contact improvisation, a dance form that began in the 1970's offers an opportunity to explore the flow of movement in an organic and fluid way - playing with weight, flow, fall & recovery, contact, connection and sensory listening. It is playful and contemplative, furiously athletic and still. The movement of the spine and pelvis is central to this work.

Beginning to explore the movements of the spine beyond what is merely "functional'' opens up a multitude of possibilities for movement and self-discovery. The spine comes alive and infuses a new vitality to our whole bodies our lives. Explore the possibilities - a healthy, living, breathing spine can be a sublime experience!

For more information:

Continuum Movement: http://www.continuummovement.com/

Body-Mind Centering: http://www.bodymindcentering.com/

Contact Improvisation: http://www.edamdance.org/