Put more AMPs into your sessions
Advantages & Tips for Active Movement
Participation (AMP)
of the client during the hands-on myofascial work
Robert Schleip
§
Generally
any active motor output tends to decrease the pain sensitivity (even if the movement would
be totally unrelated to the working area)
§
Client
feels more involved (and
responsible) in the Rolfing process
§
Slow
and subtle body movements tend to trigger a more trophotropic state (relaxed, parasympathetic) and therefore a
lower general muscle tonus in the whole body.
§
Increases
body awareness in the client
(specifically in the moving body parts)
§
The
dynamic interplay of "stretch" and "slack" of the moving
fascial or muscular fibers under your hands can allow you to reach deeper (to
deeper fascial layers) through certain "windows" that you feel
opening in the "river" of constant flow of the connective tissue
fibers under your hands.
§
Can
be used in a specific way to have the client stretch (or lengthen) a particular
fascial sheet against the pressure of your working elbow/knuckle/fingers (e.g. elbow to the side while you work on the pect. major). The effect of this
specific application can be explained with
the increased stretching force on the mechanoreceptors of this tissue.
§
Can
be used in a specific way to have the client contract a particular muscle while you work (push,
lean, sink) on this muscle. This
simultaneous contraction brings a very high degree of nervous system attention to the working area (e.g. specially via
the Golgi receptors in the fascial envelope) and often results in a significant
tonus deregulation immediately after the Rolfer's hands are removed. Example: while working on upper pecs, you ask the client to pull
this shoulder forward against your hand with different degrees of strengths
(e.g. 50%, then decreasing slowly to 20%, increasing to 60%, then slowly
letting go to 40%, 30 –20-10 and
finally zero %).
§
As
an educational tool to include the functional change of the work, e.g.
teaching a movement quality that is initiated by lengthening rather than
contraction).
§
To
break habitual and limiting movement patterns by showing new options (e.g. if the pelvis always goes into an anterior
pelvic tilt in any hip flexion, have the client explore the opposite pattern
(knee and tailbone forward simultaneously).
§
Leading
from undifferentiated to differentiated movements
(e.g. if pelvis and whole ribcage tend to behave like one block, you can teach
differentiated rotations in the sidelying position (first pelvis, then ribcage,
or only pelvis, etc.)
§
Generally:
Active motor learning is the fastest and most effective way of learning
of our nervous system (Sherrington: ‘The
motor act is the cradle of the mind.’)
§
Describe movement directions in a language that relates
to the client's body as reference point, instead of to the outside room (e.g. "knee forward" instead of "knee up" in supine position). Yet the first couple a times you
might use dual context descriptions with the body reference first and the outside
room reference second (e.g. ‘Let your
tailbones come forwards, towards the ceiling’.).; changing it later
gradually to the body reference descriptions only.
§
Include
so called right brain oriented descriptions
and images
E.g.: flower opening its petals,
wings opening,
growing a long heel all the way to the end of the room,
a
string pulling on your nose to the left,
a
deer rubbing its back at a tree,
spanning a sail between your elbow and your back; etc.
§
Ask
for subtle movements. The smaller
the movement, the more effective the new information is for the central nervous
system (Weber-Fechner Law)
§
When
using language to describe a
movement, be aware that our cortex organizes movements in SKELELTAL (and not
muscular) terms and thinks always in directions. It also prefers to organize
the DISTAL elements of a movement. Therefore use a language that describes the
direction of the most distal skeletal part
(e.g. instead of "Lengthen
your deltoid" say "Let your
elbow float away from your shoulder down towards your right foot")
§
Stay
in constant verbal contact with the client (" yes ...very
slowly... yes ...that's nice, now, slowly backwards...even slower...yes ...just
a tiny smidgen ... yes! ... that's it
.. hmm ... and now let your..."
etc.)
§
Move
from simple movements to more complex and sophisticated ones, finally leading
to very differentiated movements that are new and non-habitual to the client (and of course related to the work of
this particular session).
An optimal use of AMPs could include the
following elements:
·
Finding out where the client has
limited choices of movements that are related to the main goal(s) of this
session in this particular client
·
Asking
for his most familiar movement
pattern related to this complex (e.g. hip flexion together with lumbar
shortening). Then breaking that up in minor
steps towards a new and unfamiliar option..
·
Example for a person with habitual
anterior pelvic tilt during most knee forward motions (application here in the sidelying
3rd or 4th hour position):
A) Separate motions: having client move
only the knee forward/back couple a times. Then only tilting the pelvis a
couple a times.
B) Habitual combination: Then anterior
pelvic tilt (‘sitbones backwards’) and knee forward at the same time. First
with the initiation of the this combined movement at the knee, then at the
sitbones.
C) Interspersed second joint motion:Tilting
pelvis with sitbones forwards. In this position sliding the knee forwards once
and then backwards again.
Then tilting the pelvis with the sitbones
backwards. In this position slide the knee forwards once and then backwards.
Repeating
this cycle until it becomes fluent and familiar (usually 3-6 times).
D) New combination: Finally the new &
unfamiliar combination pattern: ‘Start by
tilting your sitbones forward, then slide your knee forward too. Then bring the
sitbones back and let the knee follow backwards too. And let’s start again:
your sitbones float forwards as your lower back lengthen, then your knee slides
forward to continue that motion, ....’ etc. When fluent, let the client
gradually change from a sequential movement (first sitbones, then knee) to a
more smooth simultaneous one.
During all these steps (takes 2-5 minutes the
first time) you continue to work on the connecting fascia between knee and
pelvis, e.g. in 3rd or 4th hour.
§
Closing the session with having the client feel their new mobility - and
comparing it with the old pattern - in the gravitational field (e.g. legs
swinging from LDH in walking) and combining it with some specific "home
work" or movement cues.
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