Nervous System & your Workout
Drawing by Lesley Powell
- How does your bad habits get in the way of your workout?
- Does tensing your shoulders or your back take away from working the correct muscles needed for the particular actions?
Making changes in your nervous system
can make a great difference in your practice.
Amy Matthews in her BodyMind Centering Yoga class at Movements Afoot led us through an awareness of how our nervous system affects our movement. We started a simple roll down observing our nerves, trying to release them and roll down with less tension. How many of us with tight backs try to push from our shoulders or neck when the back is stiff? I obtained a new flexibility and felt so warmed up.
I have been taking this to my own practice and in my teaching. As I become conscious of excess tension and release it such as shoulder tension in downward dog, the workload goes into my arms. Last week in my own practice and then teaching an advanced reformer class, I only allowed myself to move with feeling the release of my bad habits. Anytime I felt bad tension creep in, I would stop in the middle of the movement. I use breath and/or visual cues to release the tension.
I was doing footwork on only 2 red springs with myself and my advanced students. With the consciousness of staying released in unnecessary tension, it was amazing how 2 springs felt like 4. By undoing poor patterns, the workload went all in my legs.
This advanced reformer class is for dancers. It was remarkable how everyone’s posture changed. Everyone was amazed how hard a workout this was even though spent a lot of time releasing of poor tension.
View Lesley Powell's profile
It seems to be be a matter of watching our attention and where it falls. If we lose focus and think of what’s coming up for lunch or mull over something our partner said that morning, our attention shifts to that, much like the beam of a torch moving around a dark room falling on different things.
We can remind our clients through imagery, touch and breath awareness to harness their attention and bring it to the poor habit, it’s then illuminated and can be so easily amended. As Lesley says here ‘the consciousness of staying released in unnecessary tension’ meant she experienced a whole different sensation of her movement.
I often ask clients ‘where is your attention resting?’ Then I use whichever cues work to help them bring the attention back to something simple, like the feel of the footbar at their toes, the way their hips rest on the surface of the equipment, or the feel of cool air moving across their body as they glide. A distracted, busy minds isn’t able to recognise poor movement habits so it’s a key area I consider in my Pilates teaching.
Melissa
Sydney, Australia