| Most therapeutic exercises used to treat lingering | | | | amounts to an acknowledgement of the obvious: |
| pain from postural stress fall into one of two | | | | the person lacks the ability to relax muscles to |
| classes. | | | | allow them to lengthen. Since a person should be |
| - strengthening exercises | | | | able to relax at will, it's a control problem, again. |
| - stretching exercises | | | | So, stretching involves either actions of the |
| Another, new class exists, however: | | | | therapist upon the patient or actions of the |
| - somatic exercises | | | | patient that involve muscles other than the ones |
| Somatic exercises improve awareness of | | | | needing to lengthen to force those muscles to |
| movement, control of movement, and | | | | lengthen. The control problem remains and does |
| coordination. While they belong to a different | | | | not change until the patient learns to control the |
| category than strengthening or stretching, | | | | tension and movement of the shortened muscles, |
| somatic exercises accomplish what therapists | | | | themselves. |
| ordinarily seek through strengthening and/or | | | | Because the brain controls muscle length and |
| stretching exercises: both greater strength and | | | | tone, efforts to stretch muscles forcibly by |
| greater suppleness. | | | | whatever method -- active isolated stretching, |
| Strengthening and Stretching -- Quick Insight | | | | yoga, traction -- miss the mark: the brain's habitual |
| Let's take a quick look at what's behind | | | | patterns of control develop through movement |
| strengthening and stretching as therapeutic | | | | conditioning, which involves the full range from full |
| exercise strategies. | | | | strength through to complete relaxation, not |
| Strengthening | | | | through stretching actions. |
| The most common way of looking at pain and | | | | The proof is in the results people experience. |
| injury tends to describe any chronic condition that | | | | Somatic Exercises |
| involves pain or dysfunction as the result of | | | | Somatic exercises may be categorized as |
| "weakness": weak back, weak bladder, weak | | | | "functional exercises" -- but of a special sort: |
| eyes. This term, "weakness," lacks descriptive | | | | generalized functional exercises -- the |
| power, however. | | | | underpinnings of all other exercise regimens. |
| First off, people commonly confuse strength with | | | | Somatic exercises recognize that muscular |
| control. If a person has poor control of a muscle | | | | conditioning results from three things: |
| or movement, they describe themselves (and | | | | |
| others describe them) as "weak". | | | | 1. awareness of movement |
| While a person may have a deficiency of | | | | 2. basic control of muscle tension |
| strength, the idea that a muscle is weak and | | | | 3. coordination |
| needs strengthening misses the point: Usually, the | | | | Awareness of Movement |
| problem lies not with the muscle, but with the | | | | Before you can control it, you have to feel it. We |
| person's ability to control it. That kind of control | | | | guide our actions (such as typing or pushing the |
| develops through a process involving movement | | | | button of a doorbell) by feel. We walk by feel; |
| and the brain's ability to learn to control | | | | we're not always watching our feet (unless we |
| movement. It's not a muscle problem; it's a brain | | | | have mobility problems). |
| problem, and not even (except for certain medical | | | | Basic Control of Muscle Tension |
| conditions), a problem of the muscle, but a | | | | By that, I mean the ability to regulate how much |
| problem of the brain -- a developmental (i.e., | | | | strength (i.e., how much muscle tension) we apply |
| learning) problem -- learning to control muscles and | | | | to any movement. Precise movement requires |
| movement. | | | | precise control. Precise power requires precise |
| Half of strength is muscle bulk, and the other half | | | | control. |
| is control. People get their greatest strength when | | | | To have that control, we need two things: (1) |
| their muscles work in coordination. Witness the | | | | basic sensory awareness of movement, and (2) |
| wind-up of the baseball pitcher; he doesn't throw | | | | the ability to activate and to relax muscles at will. |
| "with his arm"; he throws with his whole body. | | | | Coordination |
| Secondly, weakness is rarely the issue. Usually, | | | | Awareness and basic control are not enough. In |
| the muscles involved are not weak; they are | | | | the balancing act of life, it's how everything works |
| fatigued from being tight all the time. The fatigue | | | | together that determines the outcome. The same |
| feels like weakness. In other words, to describe | | | | is true of muscles and movement. Again, witness |
| such muscles as weak misunderstands the | | | | the baseball pitcher. |
| situation. All that is needed is for the muscle(s) to | | | | Coordination incorporates many muscles and |
| relax so they can be refreshed by rest; | | | | movements into a single integrated action with |
| strengthening efforts are unnecessary. With rest, | | | | such good regulation of strength and timing that |
| muscles regain their strength immediately. | | | | we get the intended movement. It's strength (well |
| Basic control of muscles is a developmental issue. | | | | regulated) and timing. |
| Sometimes (often), people are awkward or | | | | Awareness, Control, Coordination |
| they're truly weak because they never developed | | | | Somatic exercises use movements to create |
| the ability to move well in certain ways. Look at | | | | sensations that the brain can learn and recognize |
| handwriting as an obvious example; handwriting is | | | | as familiar and associated with a particular muscle |
| a product of movement ("fine motor control"); | | | | and movement. That's the "awareness" part. |
| people acquire good handwriting through learning | | | | With repetition of somatic exercises, one |
| and practice. That example applies to many kinds | | | | develops the ability to regulate the gradual build-up |
| of movements: people may develop "gross motor | | | | and decrease of muscle-power in a movement. |
| control" but not "fine motor control", or they may | | | | That's the "control" part. |
| not have any decent degree of control of certain | | | | With incorporation of smaller movement elements |
| kinds of movement because they never learned | | | | into larger movement elements, done at first |
| it; or they may have lost control from injury, not | | | | slowly and then more quickly, first of individual |
| from damage, but from disruption of control | | | | muscles (and movement elements) and then of |
| caused only by the shock of injury or pain and its | | | | multiple muscles (and movement elements), |
| memory imprint on movement, which shows up | | | | somatic exercises develop coordination. That, of |
| as protective guarding reflexes outside ordinary | | | | course, is the coordination part. |
| control. | | | | Strength and length -- plus coordination. |
| A gross motor control (gross movement) | | | | With these three elements, somatic exercises |
| problem is quickly and easily remedied by such | | | | develop both high strength and the ability to |
| methods as weight training -- but weight training | | | | decrease exertion all the way to full, soft, flaccid |
| goes only so far because only gross motor | | | | rest, true rest, solving both the problems |
| control results from weight training, not finely | | | | otherwise addressed by strengthening and |
| graded coordination. The side-effect of weight | | | | stretching exercises. |
| training may be muscles that are too tight | | | | Because somatic exercises train the brain (the |
| (musclebound) because what strength training | | | | master-control center of the muscular system), |
| teaches is contraction, not relaxation, missing half | | | | they are sufficient to free a person from |
| the control-pattern. | | | | reflexive, protective muscular guarding tensions |
| Finally, the pain. When muscles are too tight for | | | | that have outlived their usefulness and cause pain |
| too long, they inflict compression stresses on | | | | so that (s)he returns to a free, strong and supple |
| neighboring joints (including intervertebral/spinal | | | | state. |
| joints). Muscles in that state have a chronic "burn", | | | | Somatic exercises are a new class of therapeutic |
| another contributor to chronic pain. It's not | | | | exercise that accomplishes and goes beyond the |
| weakness that causes the pain, but overactivity | | | | results ordinarily sought through the more |
| of muscles. | | | | common forms of therapeutic exercise. |
| Recognizing that fact, therapists may prescribe | | | | You can see an example of a somatic exercise |
| the alternative to strengthening: stretching. | | | | by clicking the link, below. This exercise relieves |
| Stretching | | | | hip pain and improves mobility. |
| The very fact that therapists employ stretching | | | | |