"Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds" -Albert Einstein
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Our culture believes strongly that the abdominal muscles need strengthening. The media permeates this thinking in
our culture on TV, in commercial ads, and in health club ads. The physical therapy profession and personal trainer
profession ads to this thinking. Vanity is a powerful selling emotion. This abdominal strengthening issue frequently
comes up during my work with clients. I have found over the years working with people the abdominal muscles are
very strong with back pain sufferers. To me the abdominal muscle only need the ability to minimally contract to
produce maximal effort. One way to learn the ability to use the abdominal muscles efficiently is by doing this method,
or to learn movement with attention. The ability to efficiently learn how to use abdominal muscle can not happen
lifting weights or doing traditional sit ups, because full power is used. Actually infants develop their abdominal
muscles early on by lying on their backs, lifting their head, folding the rib cage/spine, counter weighting
the pelvis, resulting in coming to one side to come to sitting. So if you want to develop your abdominal
muscle (like I teach) get down on the floor and do easy, efficient movement with attention of coming up to sitting.
Frequently my clients comment on the new learned ability of using the abdominals is that I'm not going to walk around
letting my belly hang out like children. I chuckle because of the beliefs we hold. I also mention to clients that if you
learn to use the movement of the ribs the perks are the rib cage will morph into your natural shape. The natural
shape is the v back for males and hourglass for females. The abdominal muscle also contract with the emotion of
anxiety. So if you are doing many sit ups your are feeding your anxiety loop of your brain. Ah ha!
Feldenkrais®, Awareness Through Movement®, Functional Integration, and Feldenkrais® Practitioner are
registered service marks of the FELDENKRAIS GUILD® of North America.
This method is considered a learning approach, not medical treatment. If you are seeking medical advice,
consult with your physician.
“After 4 sessions of ‘hands on’ Feldenkrais®, the chronic pain of 20 years in my low back is gone.
These sessions, coupled with Ray’s group class, have been a wonderful experience.”
-Sperry G. Saginaw, Michigan.
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“This is the most sophisticated and effective method I have seen for the prevention and reversal of
deterioration of function. We’re condemning millions of people to a deteriorated old age that’s not
necessary.” -Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
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