“You are only as young as your spine is flexible” - as spoken in the words of my yoga instructor.
Personally, I am a physically active person both during my working hours as a bodywork therapist at Evolve, as well as during my free time, when I swim, cycle, and practice yoga. I also compete in one or two sprint triathlons per year. I have come to the realization that I reach the peak of my own Body Awareness when I am either practicing yoga or receiving a bodywork treatment.
During yoga I become acutely aware of my physical and mental state of being as I move through each pose. During a bodywork session, I am usually looking for my shoulders and neck to be released but often am surprised how locked my gluteal muscles are when the therapist works on my hips. But I’m not walking around in my day-to-day life noticing tightness in my glutes the same way that I notice tightness in my shoulders and neck. This a discovery I make as my Body Awareness increases during a bodywork treatment.
Listening to your body is a skill that every being is capable of acquiring, but few take the time to develop regularly. How many times have you woken up in the morning, only to realize how stiff you feel when you stand up and take your first step out of bed? This initial stage of having Body Awareness - which I refer to as Recognizing Restrictions - is the first step towards making a change in improving the way you feel.
However, most of us have a train to catch, a child to get off to school, an appointment to make. You overlook the actions necessary to overcome your body’s trauma (i.e. stretching the spine) and push your way into the day. Imagine how much better you would have felt if you had taken the time to lie down and pull your knees into your chest, cross your legs over to one side and then the other, and stand up and fold your body forward, hands reaching for the floor. What I have just described is one of the key components of “unbinding” locked muscle tissue – stretching to open and elongate muscles. Stretching is the fastest way to release a restricted muscle, and you can learn do this with ease and grace as you become more tuned in to your body’s ability to
move.
The cycle of improving your Body Awareness and subsequently improving your ability to perform certain exercises correctly will come when you include stretching into your daily routine.
What will you accomplish by stretching? Your brain’s relationship with the muscles and joints will improve because it can now monitor muscle receptors and reflexes involved with muscular coordination and function. This is a way for people who are not natural athletes to become more in touch with their bodies.
But many people just go through the motions when it comes to stretching. What should be included in your stretching routine are the following techniques:
- Breathing steadily throughout each stretch
- Patience while enjoying the process
- Knowing how far to take a stretch and when to back off and relax
- Clearing your mind so that you can focus on stretching and body awareness
- Practicing body awareness by listening to when a muscle is tensing up and then easing off enough so that the muscle can stay relaxed in the lengthened position and improve to a new and longer length
- Using proper posture while stretching – avoid slouching or sagging by activating your core
- Make sure a muscle needs to be stretched or not – some muscles should actually first be strengthened to maximize joint stability
Each joint in your body performs a function that allows you to move bones and muscles. Sometimes a joint is restricted in completing its full range of motion, perhaps due to overuse or trauma. One of the most important results of this therapy is that it can restore the range of motion in restricted joints by smoothing out the connective tissue, aka. the "fascia," that covers your muscles and tendons. For example, while the therapist is elongating and stretching the muscles in your legs (i.e. quadriceps), you might notice that you have a restriction in your range of motion that prohibits you from bending your knee more than 90 degrees. This new information becomes available to you by experiencing a treatment in unbinding your muscle tissue.
If you are at a point where you want to increase your Body Awareness but don’t know where to begin, consider coming in for an Unbinding Bodywork Session at Evolve Restorative Therapy.
During your session, you will be asked how you are doing along the way. Don’t be surprised if you discover things about your body for which you had no conscious awareness. We will be teaching you how to take care of yourself when you leave our office by continuing your journey of Body Awareness.
Call (908) 232-2226 to book your bodywork session and bring Body Awareness to the forefront of your life!
Elyse Breit is a licensed massage therapist who has been practicing for over 20 years. She specializes in Myofascial Release unbinding techniques coupled with stretching.
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