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/

Rethinking Effort

An intense societal pressure to perform drives our North American culture: bigger, better, faster, higher, more, again and again and again. There is little room for error and no room for rest. With all kinds of electronic gadgetry, people are potentially available to others every hour of every day. Individuals are pressured to be experts in their work and finances, to be fantastic parents raising fantastic kids and to be actively involved in their local schools and communities. People schedule an impossible number of activities into every day and when a free moment appears, more things to do quickly fill the void.

The pressure to perform has squeezed its way into our understanding of physical health as well. The picture of physical health fed to the public over the last several decades speaks mostly to measurable cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and stamina, combined with balanced caloric intake. Over the years, a healthy active lifestyle has been largely replaced by the repetitive flexing of isolated muscles in a gym or fitness class setting. For those who carve the time out of their busy schedules, most will attack their physical play time with a particular intensity - wanting to sweat, burn calories, fatigue the muscles and generally flex, flex, flex to a fit and healthful state in as little time as possible.

Traditional fitness plays an important role in the sphere of overall health. However, if the equation for physical health is reduced to nothing more than energy burned always being more than or equal to energy consumed, then the bigger picture is lost. What goes on in the rest of the body when we attempt to burn the most possible energy in the shortest amount of time - time and time again? Are we creating effort where there could be ease, tension where there could be flow? Consider this: how many people do you know who regularly get less than 8 hours sleep a night, or suffer from restless sleep or insomnia? How many people do you know who suffer from frequent joint pain and stiffness? How many people do you know who just cannot seem to stick to an exercise routine? Can our approach to physical activity have a part in any of these questions? Perhaps a more holistic view of fitness, taking the relationships between all of the body's systems into account could offer us more support for our whole lives.

Many of the activities people choose in their pursuit of fitness, and the way they attack these activities can potentially promote a sympathetic (fight or flight) response in the body. Combined with other stresses in life, it seems possible that working out this way on a regular basis could contribute to a state of sympathetic stress over time. Under stress, the body loses resiliency (more lost resiliency than can be explained away by the aging process). Musculoskeletal dysfunction and injuries, immune system depletion, hormone imbalances, digestive stress - all of these are indicators that the body is regularly working beyond its capablity as a whole, and moving into stress. There is mainstream medical evidence that suggests that chronic sympathetic overload can have serious consequences for every system in the body. What can we do about this? Good nutrition and adequate rest certainly play a part. I also believe that training in a physically mindful way can help us embody our experiences for more health benefits over the long run.

Imagine a world where it is possible to create strength, stamina and agility without the kind of willful effort many people are used to imposing on themselves. I am not talking about the fabled fluff of infomercials: "Ideal fitness in 3 minutes a day!" No. That's still just fluff. It is true that in order to grow (stronger, smarter, more flexible) we have to ask more of ourselves than we are currently able to handle easily. I am simply suggesting that it is possible to redirect our sense of effort into working in a more mindful and sensory way. To begin to find "the zone" more often in our physical experience - that integrated state where everything seems to move smoothly. It is still possible to work on the edge, in order to challenge oneself, without bracing the body and forcing oneself onward. It simply takes attention, and a sometimes little more time. With time though, it feels BETTER.

I believe that the foundation for a more holistic approach is breath and a true connection to the body's core (not just strong abdominals!). Through those connections, it is possible to release tension in the body that is not serving a purpose. Free up inefficiently expended energy to allow yourself to move more easily, able to take on a new/different load. Play with the idea of softening your strength and strengthening your softness. Dissolve tension and muscle density into flow. When you want to bear down to find strength, challenge yourself to resist compression and reach out instead! You'll find a different kind of intensity to satisfy you. Train the body in a balanced way - not too much of any one thing. Don't forget to play! Establish relationships to the world around you - physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. Movement practices like yoga and Pilates can offer a gateway to working the body in this way, but it is possible to find even while training for a marathon, playing hockey or playing with the kids. Perhaps, if we can begin to adopt this approach in our own bodies, we can start to slow down and find balance in the rest of our lives as well.

My challenge to you for the New Year is this: look for ways to balance effort, intensity and drive with mindfulness and sensory awarenss in your physical pusuits. Be present in your body and observe what is going on in the moment. Make choices regarding your training based on what is really there, not what you wish was there. Feel your edges. Are you hanging on by the skin of your teeth and the sheer force of your will? Mental toughness is one thing. Integrate it with physical smarts and your body will love you for life. You may find that in relating better to your own body, the rest of your world is a little easier to deal with too!

"Core Stability" - What Does It Mean and How Do I Get It?

Core stability. These words are tossed around easily these days: common "jock talk." But what do the words really mean? A strong core enables a stable pelvis and spine. Yes.... But what is the core? Strong abdominal muscles? I have worked with many wonderful people who have beautiful, "ripped" and rock hard abdominals, but who have back pain due to a lack of spinal/pelvic stability. Okay - perhaps core training involves more than simply strengthening abdominal muscles. How do the pelvic floor muscles fit in? The respiratory diaphragm? The back muscles? Simply "tightening those abs" may not be enough...

In most fitness and medical circles, the body's inner core musculature is commonly accepted to be made up of four structures: the respiratory diaphragm, the transversus abdominus, the lumbar multifidus and the muscles of the pelvic floor. When this inner unit is strong, the pelvis and spine are generally fairly well supported. This is a good thing; but is it the whole story? I believe not. In my experience, coordination and balance are the key. Strengthening the inner unit within an inch of its life may actually be a hindrance, if it is not strengthened relative to the actual load/movement needs of that particular body. As much as external bracing can hinder mobility in a body with a weak core, bracing of the inner unit can immobilize deep structures leading to dysfunction of a different kind. The trick is to find the balance of strength and mobility that creates the least amount of stress on the body as a whole.

In her article, "Recent Advances in the Assessment and Treatment of the Sacroiliac Joint - Stability &The Role of Motor Control," physiotherapist Dianne Lee describes joint stability as: "The effective accommodation of the joints to each specific load demand through an adequately tailored joint compression, as a function of gravity, coordinated muscle and ligament forces, to produce effective joint reaction forces under changing conditions. Optimal stability is achieved when the balance between peformance (the level of stability) and effort is optimized to economize the use of energy. Non-optimal joint stability implicates altered laxity/stiffness values leading to increased joint translations resulting in a new joint position and/or exaggerated/reduced joint compression, with a disturbed performance/effort ratio." (Vleeming, A. , Albert HB, van der Helm FCT, Lee, D, Ostgaard HC, Stuge B and Struresson, B)

Based on this definition of joint stability, I think that any exercise program with a goal to create core stability must include the following:

• education of the client as to the specific components of the inner unit and its relationship to other structures, increasing both intellectual and felt-sense awareness;
• identification of client's current stabilizing strategies, and a deconstruction of inefficent patterning;
• strengthening, coordination and well-timed activation of specific muscle groups, in relation to each other, in various movements, leading to ease of motion in the WHOLE body.

The really interesting part about creating this kind of training program is that it is not a linear process. The pace of each client's progress will be different as each one encounters his/her own challenges to awareness, balance and strength. One cannot safely deconstruct inefficient postural/movement patterning until the client has something better to take its place. Helping someone to find their way to real core stability is an exciting dance where the persistent and curious usually find their way. There is no instant fix... just an intriguing process whereby the body becomes better and better equipped to handle itself in the world.

Come Home...To Your Body.

As we head into an often busy and stressful holiday season, with our world in turmoil and our lives packed with stuff, here are some words to keep in mind...

"To come to our senses, both literally and metaphorically, on the big scale as a species and on the smaller scale as a single human being, we first need to return to the body, the locus within which the biological senses and what we call the mind arise. The body is a place we mostly ignore; we may barely inhabit it at all, never mind attending to and honoring it. Our own body is, strangely, a landscape that is simultaneously both familiar and remarkably unfamiliar to us."

Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Coming To Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the WorldThrough Mindfulness"

Feel your way home....

Why do we move?

"There is nothing like heading out into the forest for a run at the end of the day." I've heard these words from so many people, and I've said them myself. You head out into the woods where it's quiet, except for the rustling of the trees and the rushing of the water through the creeks and rivers. There seems to be a blanket of calm all around you... and you run.

Your breath full in your lungs, your joints finding their way through the kinks of the day until they feel fluid and lubricated. You feel your muscles working hard as you hit the uphills, running free on the downhills. You hit your stride and with it comes a kind of peace. Your body, your heart, your mind and your environment. You push yourself, just enough. For this moment, there is nothing else. Just you. Moving. Breathing. Being. Now.

"When I don't dance, the rest of my life just doesn't work as well." This one's mine, although I'm sure I share it with countless others. You head into the studio... spend some time just feeling your body as you warm up. What are the possibilities for today? You coax the body into movement, encouraging the more reluctant bits to join in. Gradually, the body comes to life from the inside out. You move through class, bringing all the pieces into cooperation with each other until it seems possible to fly. You move with the other dancers in the room, all of you breathing, sweating, reaching for more. The incomparable ecstasy of a really deep stretch, the exhilaration of a new lift and the strange sensation of moving in contact with someone you haven't danced with before... that foreign intimacy that is at once delicious and terrifying.

You dance. And whether it's a good day or a not so good one, you are there, doing your thing. You can pour your heart and soul into that dance, feeding it with everything you've got. You lose yourself in the movement ... no past, no future just that moment of expression. And come out feeling transformed.

Pure, focussed, physical intensity. Invested with every ounce of heart and spirit. Whether you're dancing, running, skiing, riding... it doesn't matter. When you're really moving, there is no time for trivialities - your movement demands your undivided attention. Right. Now. The air you breathe takes on a whole new priority. You notice every sensation, and you relate to your world in a different way than you do the rest of the time. And, for that moment, nothing is more important. Moving, breathing, living. Now.

I don't know about you... but THAT is why I move.