Pandiculating Coast to Coast

Since I player soccer out here on the West Coast, here's what Pete Newman from the East Coast has to say about his experience with Somatics...

In athletics, developing muscle memory through years of practice is a key component in explaining an athlete's initial and continued success on the field of play. The ability to hit a 90 mile-an-hour fastball, a drop shot from the baseline, a 40-foot put, an intricate gymnastics routine, a long field goal, or a bending free kick are all examples of muscle memory in action.

Then again, being able to pop the champagne
comes in handy-well Pete didn't say this, but I'm
sure he'll agree. Ok, back to Pete...

The ability to consistently and reliably repeat these movements despite a host of variables (temperature, wind conditions, mental or physical fatigue) separates the elite athlete from the weekend warrior.

Muscle memory is simply a set of coordinated physical movements that accomplishes a task, or set of tasks efficiently and repeatedly. And the key to repeating those tasks is in the brain's ability to remember an action and then coordinate the muscles to execute that action again and again. Muscle memory enables us to touch-type, play a guitar, ski or ride a bicycle, even if we haven't practiced those movements for a long time. Muscle memory also enables Tiger Woods to pick up where he left off, making birdies and eagles even after he has been out of practice for more than six months. When athletes say they are "automatic" or "in the zone", they are exactly right. The brain is simply coordinating the most efficient physical movements possible without the athlete even thinking about it.

The scientific explanation for a brain forgetting how to coordinate an activity is called sensory motor amnesia, (SMA). If a brain can remember a complex series of movements to enable a gymnast to perform on the parallel bars (without even thinking about it) then the brain can also develop amnesia, and forget how to perform complex or even simple movements. It must be re-trained to perform these movements.

Somatics focuses on re-training the brain to remember how to move muscles efficiently and freely. Somatics is addressing the core problem in the brain, rather than focusing solely on the body alone.

I suffered a sports hernia from playing soccer several years ago, and my road to recovery was at first long and painful (at least the first week of it). Static and dynamic stretching didn't do much for me, nor did heat therapy, and pain medicine provided quick relief but did not address the real issue at hand - which was that my body, in response to the initial trauma of the injury and subsequent surgery - was contracting muscles throughout my trunk, legs, chest and groin, to protect the healing area. That chronic contraction of muscles, most of which were completely unaffected by the surgeon's knife and before surgery had performed efficiently and without pain, suddenly didn't move anymore and were causing me pain and immobility, not just in my groin, but all over. My neck, back, legs and chest were all as tight as could be, and I wasn't even aware of it. I just felt bad all over.

I was guided by a Somatic Educator on the East Coast and learned how to do Somatic Exercises for myself. I was moving, walking, and running without any more pain, and I noticed that I was also moving more freely and more efficiently doing other activities as well. I developed an awareness, for the first time, of how the muscles in my body were contracting to protect the injured area in my groin. My brain started "waking up" to this state of chronic contraction, and then it started letting that contraction go, and the pain and stiffness went away as a result - immediately. It felt like magic, except that I knew it wasn't, it was just my brain re-learning how to move these muscles efficiently.

I also experienced a profound change in my posture as a result of doing somatic exercises which I thought were only going to help me recover from my hernia surgery. After a few weeks of doing my Somatics exercises, I noticed that I when I stood upright, I no longer slouched, my neck no longer stuck out from my body like a turtle, that when I worked at my computer for hours every day I no longer had a stiff neck and related neck pain.

I was back out playing soccer in three weeks, (rather than the estimated 6-8 week recovery period forecast by sports medicine doctors for this injury). More than 4 years later, I have yet to re-injure myself by straining or pulling a muscle playing soccer despite the fact that I am older and that I don't so any dynamic or static stretching before hand. But I keep doing my Somatic Exercises and have found that my recovery time is almost nil, since I no longer have sore muscles after vigorous exercise. Nor has my posture gone back to what it was before, nor do I have any more chronic neck pain despite the fact that I still work at a computer all day. I can help myself with somatics - I don't need to pay anyone any more for massage because the exercises make me feel like I've just had one.

Somatics works so well and so rapidly because it addresses the root cause of inflexible and painful movement. Very gentle, precise, and non-invasive Somatic Exercises help retrain the brain to coordinate efficient muscle movements, reconnecting the brain to the body and in doing so building muscle memory.

Pete Newman
Maplewood, NJ

Thanks Pete... Now score some goals...

I'm looking forward to venturing out East Coast this summer for the USASA Veteran's Cup (next blog)... if you make it up there, there'll be two of us Not in the P.T. and massage tents since we're pandiculating coast to coast, playing the beautiful game sans pain.

Bellingham '08 Over 40's