The Feldenkrais Method uses gentle exercises to promote efficient, pain-free movement. It was developed by physicist and judo master, Moshé Feldenkrais, who was a martyr to his knees.
He first injured them playing football and then finished them off by falling into a submarine in the late 1940s. When doctors were uncertain about how successful an operation to fix them would be, he decided to take his knees into his own hands. He taught himself to walk again without pain, and while he was doing so, made some important discoveries about movement education.
He came up with two interrelated educational methods. The first, called Awareness Through Movement, is a verbally directed body movement technique, which is designed for groups, while the second, Functional Integration, is a non-verbal manual contact technique designed for those who need more one-on-one attention.
Awareness Through Movement classes incorporate active movements, imagined movements and forms of directed attention. Typically, a single lesson lasts about 45 minutes. Each lesson has a theme - e.g. standing up, walking, breathing - and students complete dozens of different exercises that are designed to make that function easier. These new movements are designed to help the student use their latent abilities, break bad habits, increase self-awareness and facilitate new learning.
With Functional Integration, the Feldenkrais practitioner uses his or her hands to guide the student into better movement habits. However, don't worry about being bent over backwards by a large man called Horst. According to www.futurelifenow.com there is no demand for a specific change or posture, "rather, through small and new variations, the nervous and muscular systems are stimulated, awakening the brain to new possibilities."
Feldenkrais proponents believe that most people know just enough about movement to walk without falling down. However, they haven't given up on us just yet. They think that if we could just stop dragging our knuckles on the ground long enough to get to a class, our performance would improve immeasurably. As students become more aware of their skeleton (perhaps with a chorus of Dem Bones) they begin to notice improvement in posture, coordination, flexibility and muscle tone, a greater fluidity of movement and the relief from pain. As well as this, athletic types may find that their performance, agility and speed develops as they attend lessons. |
