In the last chapter we made the case that flexibility is not in the muscles nor the joints, but in the brain!

That in order to be more flexible, it is more useful to improve the way our nervous system controls movement.

We also covered the three reasons why we are not as flexible as we would like to be. These are:

• The presence of needless muscular effort that we are unaware of,
• Super-specialization of movement in the modern environment and as we age, &
• An incomplete internal image of the skeleton and its inter-connectedness.

 

The numerous degrees of freedom inherent in the human body afford us almost limitless possibilities for movement. In this edition we will cover three simple approaches through which anyone can become significantly more flexible over time.

The three approaches are as follows:

1. Introducing Novelty,
2. Reducing Unnecessary Muscular Effort &
3. Improving One’s Self-Image

 

While based on the Feldenkrais Method®, each of the above approaches can be readily incorporated into any form of exercise or practice that you follow.

So what can we do in order to be more flexible?

Put another way, how can we improve the way our nervous system controls movement and unlock more degrees of freedom?

Let’s begin with the first approach which harnesses the power of novelty.

Approach # 1: Introducing Novelty

The value of novelty lies in the response it elicits from the nervous system.

Novelty attracts the brain’s attention.

And we learn anything we pay attention to. It’s really that simple.

We covered the role of attention in learning in Chapter 1. During childhood almost every experience is novel. And that is part of the reason children learn so quickly.

The brain remains sufficiently “plastic” throughout our lifetime so we can continue to learn new behaviors and skills. However, there is a difference in how children learn as compared to adults.

As children, our learning machinery is always “on” during our early years.  As a result, children learn just from being exposed to stimuli from the environment. This window of “effortless learning” closes during our teenage years and as adults, we have to “pay attention” to learn.

As adults we go through our daily routine operating largely on auto-pilot vis-à-vis movement. We always have our eyes on our goals, or the “endgame” so to speak. Our attention is not on our movements but on our task list, our “to-dos.”

So much so, that we are barely even aware of how we are doing what we are doing. Even though our list of to-dos rarely diminishes, our ability to move does shrink from lack of attention.

By introducing novelty in movement and paying attention to how we move, we re-deploy the brain’s resources towards improving movement.

Having made the case for novelty, just how do we go about introducing it?

Much like our potential for movement, there is no limit to the number of ways we can bring novelty into our movement and our routine.

But there is an art to it.

Novelty must be introduced gradually and safely. We want just the right amount of newness along with a generous serving of the old and the familiar.

Learning happens at the cross section of the unfamiliar with a feeling of safety. Exploring the unknown in a secure setting is what sets the stage for learning.

Keeping you safe is the top priority for your nervous system.  This feeling of safety allows your brain to focus on and engage with the novel sensation. We never feel playful when the task is too stressful, or occurs in surroundings that are too unfamiliar, or unsafe.

The right dose of novelty also depends on the context.

As an example, let’s take people who work at their desks looking at screens all day. For them, the simple act of looking up at their surroundings every few minutes may be the right amount of novelty to begin with.

Getting up more often and walking to the water cooler or going for a short stroll during lunchtime would be the next step.

Similarly for couch potatoes, the right start is to be more active around the house or walk to the neighborhood grocery store instead of driving.

For people who walk every day, the next step may be to start walking on trails instead of paved roads.

High level athletes often cross-train by including an exercise regimen from outside their own sport. The added novelty leads to a more well-rounded or “flexible” athlete and improves their performance in their own discipline.

Novelty can be introduced by adding changes in the surroundings, or by focusing one’s attention on a different aspect of the same environment.

For instance, one approach to novelty is taking a different route each day for your daily walk.

Another tactic could be to change what you pay attention to as you walk your normal route. You could pay attention to your breath one day as you walk and the sounds your feet make as they hit the ground the next. Or the movements of your spine as you walk.

The use of constraints is another way to add novelty and induce learning.

The next time you are out for a walk, limit your gaze above the horizon throughout your walk. We rarely look at the sky in the era of mobile phones. You will be surprised by the number of times you catch yourself looking at the ground as you walk.

You could also try walking while turning your head and eyes slowly from side-to-side. Take time to notice what you see instead of being in your head, or thinking about the next item on your to-do list.

Remember, flexibility comes into play in response to the environment. If we rarely pay attention to it, or our environment gets confined to a screen, our flexibility gets curtailed accordingly!

Most people looking to change their fitness or flexibility make too drastic a change to their routine. A person with a sedentary lifestyle may suddenly decide to start running ten miles a day with predictable results. Injury or lack of follow-through are the most likely scenarios.

If the change is too extreme, it rarely sticks.

In order to stay a particular course, it is very important to stay within what feels safe and keep making small improvements. This is especially true in the case of learning.

As you continue to add novelty in small doses and stick with it, you will be pleasantly surprised with the difference it makes.

The benefits of these simple practices are not limited just to your flexibility. Every aspect of your life will benefit. It may even make you feel younger!

In Chapter 1, I made the case that ageing is a form of progressive specialization, whereby viable options for acting that are available to us become more and more limited with time. Each time we introduce novelty into our routine and pay attention to what we are doing, we reverse this process in a small but significant way.

People familiar with meditation or mindfulness will recognize the resemblance to some methods of directing and focusing the mind.  Once we begin paying attention to ourselves, lots of good things also come to pass as a result.

For example, when we pay attention to our movement, we can become aware of the extra effort we are making all the time. The clenching of the jaw when we lift something heavy, or when we are feeling tense.

Or the stiffness in our neck and shoulders when we are under time-pressure.

It is part of the neural pattern of that movement that we have become habituated to. We are so used to it, that we don’t even notice it anymore.

Once we become aware of this habitual pattern of unnecessary muscular contraction, it opens up the possibility of reducing, or even eliminating, these unhelpful patterns.

Which brings us to the second approach to becoming flexible.

Approach # 2: Reducing Unnecessary Effort

All of us are doing more work than is necessary to be upright in gravity. The ideal posture is impossible to achieve but we can all improve the way we operate while standing on two feet.

As we saw in previous chapters, good posture comes from reducing muscular effort. Movement, balance, posture or just about any skill improves more by elimination of what is unnecessary than by an injection of effort.

In Chapter 5, I clarified that becoming aware of and eliminating what is unnecessary, is the most important skill we can learn. In fact, the improvement comes as a result of eliminating that which is not necessary.

If we reduce unnecessary effort in everything we do, we go through life with more mastery and less friction. This applies not only to movement, balance and posture but to all areas of life.

When we learn to eliminate unnecessary effort in our careers or our relationships, or even in raising our children, we bring more skill to bear in those areas. This leads to more options and an increased capacity to realize our intentions and to reach our potential.

Reducing unnecessary effort is a lifelong process. In fact, it is my own personal mantra for improvement.

As we saw in the last chapter, needless muscular contractions prevent joints from moving freely. In the context of flexibility, reducing unnecessary contractions allows muscles to lengthen and increases the degrees of freedom and range of movement in the body.

So how do we reduce unnecessary muscular effort?

Should people just learn to “relax”?

Being told to “relax” is not a very helpful instruction. It is not only incomplete, it also does not convey clearly what is being asked.

When we suggest reducing unnecessary muscular work, we are not implying a total relaxation of all the postural muscles. That would only happen if we lose consciousness and collapse in a heap on the floor.

Instead, we want to become aware of and release muscular work which does not contribute anything to the outcome.

For example, clenching your jaw while lifting something heavy does not contribute anything to the effort. It only leads to jaw pain and a visit to the dentist some years down the line.

So the aim in doing any movement should be to accomplish what we want with the minimum of effort. In every iteration, we should try to achieve the same result by doing less.

If you think about it, that is the difference between being a beginner and a skilled performer. As beginners, our lack of skill is readily apparent from the extra movements and the effort we put in.  As we get better at it, we start to do less. When we have mastered the skill, we make it look almost effortless.

A further refinement is to “equalize the effort throughout the body so that the entire body participates in the movement while no one muscle or part works harder than the other.”

In other words, look for even muscular tone and distribution of effort through the whole body. This will become clear once you do the short audio lesson that follows later in the chapter.

It may seem obvious that we start the process of reducing un-warranted effort by first becoming aware of it. However, there is more to it than that.

In Chapter 5 we introduced the Weber-Fechner Law. It is worth revisiting it here briefly.

According to this law, when we reduce effort while doing something, we can discern finer differences in the quality of the movement. Conversely, when we increase effort, our ability to sense and feel ourselves goes down.

This forms a virtuous loop. The more we reduce effort, the more we are able to sense where we are making an effort.

The converse is also true. The larger the effort or force we use, the less we are able to sense ourselves.

In the process of reducing effort and as a result of it, we improve our ability to sense ourselves.

That brings us to the third approach to improving flexibility.

Approach # 3 Improving One’s Self-Image

The hip joint is one of the largest and arguably the most important joints in the human body.

Understanding the location and function of the hip joints in an embodied way can be life-changing. It can reduce or even eliminate back pain. It will improve your posture in sitting, standing, walking as well as running.

It will also dramatically improve your flexibility.

Most people, however, cannot accurately locate their hip joints. (See Chapter 11).

There is an inherent logic to the way the human skeleton functions. While we possess innumerable degrees of freedom, certain configurations are more useful than others for movement. That is the reason that most people learn to walk or run in a more-or-less similar manner with some variations.

There is also a deep inter-connectedness within the skeleton. Movement in one part affects the whole.

When we are children, the nervous system “figures” out this internal logic and the inter-connectedness of the skeleton. It does so by direct experimentation through the process of learning how to sit, crawl, stand and run. We all go through it.

As we grow older and stop paying attention to movement, we become less “embodied.” Our internal representation of the skeleton becomes sketchy, less functional.

We “cut-off” parts of ourselves from the whole. The “Neck” becomes the part of the body between the head and the torso instead of a part of a larger whole: the spine as well as the entire skeleton. And we use it accordingly.

Looking at a picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words.

Sensing a movement then, is probably worth a million.

Follow along and do the fifteen minute movement lesson that follows by clicking on the link for the audio file below. It will allow you to experience what a fuller sense of your skeleton and its inter-connectedness can do for your flexibility. More so than reading a hundred pages on the same subject ever will.

All you need is a flat-bottomed stool or chair with the right height, twenty minutes of your time and some of your attention.

Do the lesson now and then come back to read the rest of the article.

It will be worth it, I promise.

 

 

This was a mini “Awareness Through Movement” or ATM lesson from the Feldenkrais Method. I hope you enjoyed it.

So what did you notice? What was the most interesting part of the lesson for you?

Did the lesson change your perception of what is your “neck”?

Did you suddenly become more flexible while doing the lesson?

Were you able to get a sense of what it means to act with “your whole self?”

In the mini-lesson, we used each of the three approaches to flexibility. Did you notice them in action?

So now that we know about the three approaches to flexibility and have seen them in action, what’s next?

Here is another easy way to increase your flexibility by spending as little as five minutes a day. What follows is not from the Feldenkrais Method and is simply a practice that uses the three approaches we have discussed above.

A Simple, Five-Minute Routine

Begin by spending five minutes each day to come up with a one, or a set of completely new movements.

Ones that require entirely new configurations of your skeleton.

Ones that you have never done before.

We are not looking to stretch muscles or get into difficult poses.

They movements need not be large. Just new and different, done safely, with ease and comfort while paying attention to how you are moving.

For example, for a few days in a row, find a new way to get down to and up from the floor every day. Do it slowly a few times, then quickly, always paying attention to how you are moving.

Or try reaching up towards the ceiling in different ways. Or try moving your arms and spine in new ways which involve your whole body.

We saw in the last chapter on flexibility that the human skeleton provides unlimited possibilities for movement. So you will never run out of choices.

Here are five simple guidelines for the movements.

Pay attention to the sensations of the movement and remember to stay well within your comfort. Do only what feels easy and pleasant. If you feel discomfort, stop and go back to what feels good. This is critically important for learning to take place.

Do Less. Each time, try to do the movement with less and less overall effort. Try and sense in which part of your body you can reduce effort which is not required for the movement.

Pay attention to your breath. Notice if you change the way you breathe or even stop breathing during the course of the movement. See if you can do the movement in a way that allows your breathing to be smooth and relaxed.

Be Creative! See what movements you can come up with to express your creativity. Use some parts of your body and then see how you can also involve your whole self into the movement. Close the blinds if you’re worried what the neighbors might think!

Above all, be playful. Make it fun! Children often learn through play. Many young mammals also indulge in play for the same reason. “Play” is the act of paying close attention to something without the intention to learn or achieve something, i.e. without any particular outcome in mind. Enjoy the movements for the sake of moving itself.

If you still have a few minutes left, refresh some of the movements you came up in the last few days or try a different configuration of the same. Do them with less effort than the last time.

This simple five minute routine can be an endless source of new information to your brain on how to utilize your skeleton for movement.

It also breaks up your usual patterns. As you keep making small changes and introducing novelty every day, it quickly adds up. As you pay attention to yourself, you will become aware of patterns or areas where you are using more effort than is necessary.

Doing the simple five minute daily practice as described above will add up to at least 365 new configurations of your skeleton in a year, each providing your nervous system with valuable information on how to effectively manage the body’s degrees of freedom.

Information that leads to steady improvement in flexibility and your ability to move.

If it feels good, feel free to increase the time to ten minutes. Or stay with the five minutes. It is up to you.

I hope you enjoyed this series of articles on flexibility.  Contribute your comments and feedback in the comments section below.