Issue 1: Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled
Hello Somatics Fanatics,
This summer, I spent a a good chunk oof time writing about somatic nervous system anatomy and function in relation to yoga practices and physical-emotional healing. The whole piece will posted here on my Blog in separate Issues. I've been nerding out on somatic muscle science for years now for a few reasons: 1) to find relief from chronic hip pain after a series of cortisone injections in the facet joints in my spine in 2011 after being seriously injured by a fellow yoga trainee, and 2) as a recent certified Clinical Somatic Exercise Coach I want to help others figure out the root cause of their pain.
May the Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled Issues feed your practice, nourish your teaching, and heal your body-mind.
Xxx Alyson
Issue 1: Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled
What is Somatic Muscle Science?
Somatic muscle science focuses on somatic nervous system functions and pathways that control the body's voluntary muscle movements. We will be looking at how voluntary and involuntary muscle movements are affected by the stretch reflex, delving into muscle spindles, the gamma feedback loop, pandiculation, and stretch techniques. You will learn how to apply this knowledge and put it into practice. Let's unveil somatic muscle science and retrain your brain to optimize flexibility, strength, joint range of motion, pain relief, poor postural habits from injury, physical and emotional trauma, and social conditioning. Woven into this dialogue are the reasons why I think conventional yoga lacks in somatic movement education and what I am doing about it.
Conventional Yoga Classes Are Not Based On Somatic Nervous System Muscle Science
This info may push your buttons.
I invite you to let go of some of the yoga anatomy and stretch techniques from yoga styles such as Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Power Flow, Yin, and all the stuff that you’ve learned, have taught or are still teaching. You may feel as though a lot of what you’ve been told about flexibility was incorrect. Somatic exercise techniques use cutting-edge muscle science for more efficient and embodied methods that help you benefit more from your sacred yoga practice. This information is here to inspire you, offering tools for you to incorporate Somatic Nervous System anatomy into your practice, and advance your teaching and sequencing skills with somatic movement principles.
Anatomy is a story.
Anatomy is a story that evolves with each civilization that has been told and retold in countless ways for centuries. The more that we discover about the body through advancements in science, research findings, and the different ways anatomy experts wield their scalpel, provide new perspectives on the human body on all levels– physical, emotional, and energetic. As our knowledge expands the story of anatomy evolves. As the story of anatomy evolves so do yoga asana practices. The physical practice of asana is becoming less rigid, veering away from the Newtonian view of the body and power flow has become popular. I started teaching Prana Vinyasa Flow in Montréal in 2009 when I introduced the Plank Wave (a spinal wave from Downward Facing Dog to Plank Pose) and students and studios thought I was bonkers... but they loved it. They loved it because it moved not only their bodies but their minds in novel ways. Now it's all the rage.
Paying Homage to the Pioneers of Movement.
Somatic movement pioneers have been busy paving the way to deeper body-mind connection since the early 1920's (more to come on the history of the Somatic Movement Arts later). Somatic therapies and somatic movement are starting to be incorporated into yoga classes and now "flow yoga" is now more popularized, which is good news. Although the reason behind flowy yoga is not woo-woo-- it's based somatic muscle science which is neither properly explained nor taught. I’ve been developing and teaching my signature somatic yoga style since 2014. It’s time for somatic nervous system anatomy to reach mainstream. My mission is to bring somatic exercise (pandiculation) into yoga asana practices and share this knowledge with teachers and students so that they too can embody the story written on their body.
Somatic Movement is a Bottom-Up Practice.
Counsellors and psychologists often provide top-to-bottom talk therapy which is necessary in certain cases. But bottom-to-top modalities tend to trigger fight-flight-freeze responses less establishing feelings of safety which have been proven o rewire the brain and help heal trauma. Working with Somatic Nervous System anatomy cultivates a profound relationship between Body and Mind. Your body and mind carry their own individual stories. Imprinted in every cell of your body is the story that your nervous system has written to keep you alive. You can re-write the story that your cells carry from years of gripping in fight-flight-freeze postural reflexes from unconscious muscle tension due to trauma, injury, and social conditioning. Somatic Muscle Science and Pandiculation are biomechanical ways (involving no talk therapy) to release the body-mind from old stories and make the shift towards emotional and physical transformation. Somatic movement practices give your body permission to “talk” by offering a bottom-up means to unravel muscle tightness. Unconscious muscle tension release results in improved flexibility, lean, strong muscles, and joint range of motion. Restoring and regaining control of muscle tension levels is your gateway to more efficient musculoskeletal functioning leading to a more regulated nervous system.
Two-Way Street of Yoga and Somatics.
In my Yoga Somatics Teacher Trainings you learn tools that bridge the gap between unconscious muscle memory that no longer serve you, keeping you bound physically and emotionally, and conscious movement patterns that serve to free layers (koshas) of your mind-body from years of stiffness, pain, and poor posture. For example, say you or one of your students have been practicing yoga for decades with little flexibility gains specifically in the hamstrings. A person can stay stuck in flight mode, never finding stillness by avoiding feeling too much, being on the run in order to feel safe– and the result is the stubborn hamstrings literally won't let go because your muscle memory story keeps you chronically contracted for survival.
Retraining Muscle Tension Happens in the Brain.
Somatic movement practices help the nervous system and brain become aware of muscle tension in order to release it. Somatic movement like Yoga, is a mindfulness practice and its scope reaches further than flexibility training. Yogi guru’s designed yoga as a means to extend one's lifespan in hopes of attaining enlightenment in their current lifetime, reducing the amount of reincarnations needed to attain samadhi, by catering to the body as the life-giving vessel that it is. Today, the same dedication and discipline (Tapas) is about staying flexible in body-mind, a vital element to moving with ease throughout your lifespan. Yoga practices have always been a two-way street… meaning you get what you give. You must put in the time for your self-care practices, as ancient yogis did, in order to receive the fruits of your labor. But yoga practices do not include the muscle science mindfulness techniques that somatic exercises offer. Read on!
Bridge Between Conscious and Unconscious Movement.
The Somatic Nervous System (SNS) Is The Bridge Between Your Conscious Brain and Unconscious Physical Actions Of The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The Somatic Nervous System (SNS) allows for voluntary control of movement which is distinct from the involuntary reflexive reactions of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). Instead of unconscious reactions to external stimuli you can Retrain Your Brain to enrich sensory experience. Enhancing SNS responsiveness enables you to respond to the world with voluntary action and serve the longevity of your yoga practice and quality of the lived experience in your body– or Soma. Instead of unconscious reactionary, reflexive actions, due to sensory-motor amnesia (SMA) somatic exercises develop sensory-motor awareness.
Flexibility Happens in the Brain-- Not the Muscles.
Let's have a look at why traditional static yoga and stretch practices are not optimal ways to improve flexibility, strength and joint range of motion. Many teachers have been trained in conventional methods despite research proving otherwise. We will look at differences between static yoga and stretch sequences, dynamic movement, and pandiculation. You will start to understand how to use somatic muscle science to Retrain Your Brain and increase flexibility – and how these research-backed methods coalesce into one incredible technique that does all of the above– Somatic Mobility Drills (SMD) Yoga Drills Immersion and soon to come SMD Sequencing Yoga Teacher Training, as well as Bilateral Somatic Movement for the Myofascial Meridians.
Muscles Do Two Things: 1) Contract. 2) Relax.
How We Move.
The only actions that muscles perform is to either contract or relax– that’s how we move! The reason we have the ability to move our joints forwards and backwards is because Skeletal Muscles exist in pairs, called Antagonistic Muscle Pairs. Skeletal Muscles can only pull on bones to create movement so if movement was dependent on one muscle pulling a bone then you would only be able to move that muscle once and then be unable to return your bones to its original position.
Muscles Do Not Stretch.
What we call stretching is really just pulling on muscles. There is no such thing as stretching as our common understanding of it leads us to believe. The idea that muscles stretch is ingrained in our minds. Muscles do two things: Contract/Tighten and Release/Relax. Muscle contraction is the shortening or tightening of muscle fibres. A relaxed muscle involves the return to a normal resting state. A more released resting state may contribute to increased range of motion and this is often misinterpreted as having been stretched longer. Muscles can be pulled passively, actively, or as part of a contraction– but they do not stretch like elastic bands. Imagine what a mess you'd be in if your muscles were longer than your bones. Connective tissue can be lengthened, usually causing permanent damage. As you will discover later in this series of articles, tendons attach muscle to bone, and ligaments hold your bones together. Overstretching these tissues leads to pain, tearing, and joint degeneration.
A New Neutral- Somatic Muscle Science Restores a Normal Base-Level of Muscle Tension.
Somatic pandiculation (we discuss what Pandiculation is and how it can be incorporated into your yoga teaching style or in private coaching sessions with me in upcoming Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled Issues) and dynamic movement teach you how to work with the somatic nervous system and the stretch reflex in order to release years of unconscious muscle tension that causes pain and rigidity. Somatic Mobility Drills (SMD) allow your brain to become conscious of muscle tightness. Only when your brain becomes aware of the tension you’re carrying is it able to Release chronically Contracted muscles. SMD sequencing retrains your nervous system to #PutYourMindIntoYourMuscle. The result is a New Neutral where muscles can finally return to a balanced state of responsiveness. Incorporating Somatic Muscle Science into conventional movement practices restores a muscles to a more normal base-level of tension by using the stretch reflex to your advantage.
Issue 2
Ok, now that you are able to wrap your mind around NOT stretching for improved muscle length and tone– read the next Issue #2. You will continue to learn the process involved in Retraining Your Brain for improved flexibility, strength, joint range of motion, pain relief, postural improvement, and performance enhancement.
Looking forward to connecting with you.
We will be going much deeper into somatic reflex functioning in the next issues.
So far, how did you enjoy Issue 1 of Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled?
If you've taken a course or training with me-- what information was familiar to you, or maybe made more sense in hindsight after practising or studying with me?
Hit Reply.
Love,
Alyson
Questions? Please reach out.
