Teresa Malins

What a weekend!

WOW!

I've just completed the last three days of a six day course on Structural Anatomy and my brain feels a little frazzled to say the least! 

To say that this course was an anatomy course wouldn't give it, or the course leader, Jo Avison enough credit. This course was a journey, not just for the body but for the spiritual and the emotional aspects of ourselves that we so often choose to disregard as we get caught up in our day to day life of distraction and entertainment.  Aspects such as intuition and instinct, like energy flow and creativity and like, dare I say it...clairvoyance and intuitive healing.

This course has made me look at anatomy in a completely different way.  Rather than just focusing on the nice, tidy, 'pockets' of muscle, that those in any human body work proffession have related to for so many years, ie; biceps, triceps, deltoids, pec minor, pec major, gastrocnemius...etc, I have been made aware of 'lines' of intellegent connective tissue that run through our bodies encompassing those 'tidy pockets' of muscle along their way, following lines which are pretty similar to those meridian lines that have been used for thousands upon thousands of years in Chinese medicine.

The fibre of these lines of connective tissue (fascia) run in different directions through the body.  For instance, the Superficial Back Line, as it is refered to in Tom Myers book Anatomy Trains, runs from the bridge of the nose (inbetween the brow) over the scalp, down the the erector spinae(muscles each side of the spine), past the sacrum, down the hamstrings, down the gastrocnemius(calf muscle) and achilles tendon, underneath the foot to the tip of the toe! This is just one whole line of connective tissue, there are lots more which include all other areas of the body.

Watching the whole Superficial Back Line of the body taken off a cadavar during a human dissection proved that our muscles are totally connected and affected by one another. By observing this complete line of connective tissue being removed in full and then placed back onto a skeleton, showing the bony landmarks it covers, just confirms the fact that if there is an area of tension or dis-ease somewhere along that specific line, we can affect it by treating another area of this line where the localised pain does not reside.  This may happen by treating the lower leg, or the sole of the foot to realease tension in the upper back or around the neck - as long as the treatment that is given is on the same fascial line as the injury or the tension, it will be released!

Results can be achieved and chronic pain can be eased by treating these lines of fascia through either manual or movement therapy. 

Although alot of my Pilates movement work already includes queing these lines to allow clients to achieve subtle and yet optimum results, it has dawned on me that I have just scrtached the surface of something huge here and something I will undoubtably explore in more depth.

For more information take a look at www.anatomytrains.com

Where's my energy?

Self practice at the moment in't coming easy to me!

After teaching so many classes aswell as doing my 'day job', some nights I get to the evening and putting my feet up is about all I can manage!  LAst night was a typical example!  I started the day with all good intentions to finish the day by winding down on the reformer, but 5 classes later and I had zero energy left for myself.  My self practice has seriously gone out of the window!

I truely love my work so I'm not complaining, but sometimes I forget just how much energy I give away.

For instance, at the weekend I was tutoring a matwork Pilates course, which was great as all the students were really interested, focused and eager to learn, which made my job very rewarding but the amount of energy I gave away was astonishing! I always come back after tutoring feeling very satisfied that I have been able to pass on my knowledge, it's fab, but I always forget how tiring it can be. Sounds funny- I mean how much energy do you actually expend whilst teaching Pilates?  That's not it.  I suppose I'm a perfectionist and want the students that I teach to be able to fully understand why we do the things we do rather than just showing the exercises, so in a way a make a rod for my own back as far as giving is concerned. I give them SO much information, maybe sometimes TOO much.  I'd rather do that.  Give more, take less.  That's what I say. We could all do that a little more I think.

So, today will be different.  I'm raring to go, I'm as fresh as a daisy and willing to take on anything life throws at me! ( Good job I'm not doing this by web cam- sitting in my jim jams, yawning!!!) Today I'm going to take some time out and give back to myself which doesn't always come easy to me but this time I really need to and you know what they say, if you NEED to then you MUST. 

 

Too much navel to spine

As I mentioned in one of my last posts, we have assossiated modern day Pilates with a 'navel to spine' technique.  It does infuriate me!  Although 'navel to spine' gives the impression that we're 'drawing in' or 'scooping'(I prefer the latter), it also is very often confused with sucking in the stomach and if you do this, you automatically hold your breath, which gives the opposite to the desired effect. 

It's pretty difficult from an instructors standpoint as sometimes, and especially when teaching beginners, we have to find cues to describe the technique of recruiting the deep abdominals without adding too much confusion. Hence 'navel to spine'!

So often my clients tell  me that during their daily activities, they remember what they have learnt during their Pilates session and start to draw in their navel to their spine.  This is great! It helps to create a more general awareness of how we carry ourselves and also helps to improve posture- but have you ever considered that maybe you are using your transversus abdominus(deep abdominals) too much?

Have you ever considered that our transversus abdominus(TVA), which along with other muscles, help to protect our spine and if recruited too much will lose its desired effect?  If we spend all our time in Pilates sessions pulling navel to spine and then practise again whenever we remember during the day, for sustained periods of time, our poor TVA loses its power of contraction when it is really needed. 

If we were to have an accident or fall over for example, normally at times such as these our TVA will automatically contract to protect our spine (the flight or fight syndrome).  If it has been previously recruited over long periods of time, come to the time when it's really needed, it will inevitably lose its power, making us more prone to injury.

So what do we do?

We chose our teachers carefully. 

By finding an instructor that knows enough about the functioning of the human body and its responses to different, subtle anatomical changes - the TVA can fire naturally and great results can happen in the body without one mention of pulling 'navel to spine'! 

Back Again!

It's been over a week since I've updated my blog!  How neglectful of me!!!

I've got my excuses...I've not been well...I've been run down(ahhhhh)so, I've booked myself a holiday and I'm going sailing in Greece...hooray!

After coming back from spending around a year living onboard a sailing yacht in the Caribbean, I have been in a state of longing for the sea -and then I decided to move to Nottingham- the furthest place from any coastline!?!

I miss the constant movement, and the energy that the sea brings.  I miss the sky, I miss the smell of the sea and the sheer liberation of living so naturally without the weight of possessions and ties of bills and mortgages!  I miss the natural feeling of being driven by the wind and hearing the wind against the sails...ooh it's all coming back to me!

The countdown has started and I've got around 6 weeks to go until I put my sailing skills back into use!  Until that time I promise I to write more frequently!!