Filed under: Feldenkrais, Fitness, Omaha, Somatics | Tags: Emotional health, Feldenkrais, Fitness, Nia, Omaha, Somatics
photo credit: Nia International Inc.
Sometimes, you just have to get up and move. Alot. Plus, there is the cool music. For anyone who ever got bored during an Awareness Through Movement class, don’t despair, try Nia, “movement-medicine for the body and soul.”
“Nia simultaneously addresses the body, mind, emotions, and spirit, and puts them on the “same page” using music, movement and personal expression to integrate one’s neurology (including the mind, emotions, and spirit) with one’s outer body, or musculature. To achieve this whole-being integration, Nia addresses the whole person using a comprehensive, holistic exercise approach designed with a combination of nine classic movement forms.
Martial Arts: T’ai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido
Dance Arts: Jazz Dance, Modern Dance, Duncan Dance
Healing Arts: Yoga, Alexander Technique, The Teachings of Moshe FeldenkraisNia teaches you how to physically interpret and internally direct your actions and choices, and to listen to the voice of your body and allow the body to be your guide in discovering Dynamic Ease. Practiced barefoot to music, Nia is self-guided, adaptable and safe for any fitness level, from stiff beginners to highly fit athletes. Delivering cardiovascular, whole-body conditioning, Nia is based on creating a loving relationship with the body and following The Body’s Way – the innate intelligence of the body.”
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Nia International headquarters in Portland, Oregon, to take a couple classes with Carlos and Debbie Rosas, the founders of Nia. They are amazing folks with a beautiful vision – “Through movement we find health”- who have a following of over 2000 professional Nia teachers worldwide. Lately, I have been taking some Nia classes with local Nia blue belt Janice Batt. She is the embodiment of Nia: a tall, beautiful, warm, confident woman who inspires me to move with pleasure and joy. Janice teaches classes in Omaha at Prairie Life and Nebraska Dance. She is organizing the first Nia white belt training in Omaha in early August. Come move with us!
An article on Feldenkrais and Nia by a Nia teacher
Filed under: Feldenkrais, Fitness, Somatics | Tags: Feldenkrais, Fitness, Somatics, sport performance
What does Feldenkrais, a method of learning, have to offer the fitness community? How does freedom from boredom with your training routine without having to change it sound? Or how about a built-in injury detection and prevention device hit you? Or improved athletic performance without increasing your training time?
How does practicing Feldenkrais relieve training boredom, prevent injury, and improve performance in sport? By teaching you to move your attention. Chances are, you are attending to a few specific areas or your body while you work out or compete. Some of you may be completely on automatic pilot, especially during that 100th rep. The thing is, you are using a very small part of your consciousness when you do a routine task. We all know the old saw about only using 10 percent of your brain. Imagine what adding a little bit more of your brain to your sport will do for you.
Sounding like too much work? Not interested in radical changes? Not to worry, Feldenkrais is subtle and you will hardly know you are doing it after you become familiar with the approach. Once you get through the initial approximations and find the best way to apply it to your training or sport, you will be happy with the results. And maybe apply it to other things you do, like your job, your everyday movements, how you play with your kids or pets, the applications are endless.
Photo Credit: NY Times
What do I mean? To give you an example, take swimming. How many strokes does it take to make a lap? Do you breathe on one side only? If so, is it because you can only breathe on that side? How do you make your turn? How do you feel as you swim, what are your body sensations and emotions? Can you visualize your stroke in your own body in real time, or do you see yourself in your mind’s eye as if from another person’s point of view?
These are the sort of questions that may come up when you apply Feldenkrais to swimming. And they are all areas for potential change. Imagine being able to use fewer strokes per lap, being faster and smoother and easier in your style. What would it be like to be more versatile? To enjoy your swimming even more than you do now?
How do you transfer what you learn in a Feldenkrais class to your sport? Or in the case of swimming, a land-based lesson to the pool? It’s easy. Feldenkrais teaches you to attend to yourself. You will become an expert in knowing how your body works, what is possible and easy, what is more difficult, or even impossible at the time. You will experiment with variations in your movement patterns and expand your repertoire of possible ways to do the same movement. You will grow your perceptions of yourself, in field size and in accuracy. You will include more of yourself in your movement, lessening the work for individual parts. You will reduce the wear and tear on your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, joints, and nerves. You will last longer and perform better. You might even be happier. When you know what you are doing, you will be better and more easily able to do what you want, to paraphrase Moshe Feldenkrais, the originator of the Feldenkrais Method.
Moshe Feldenkrais on exercise:
And that’s how we can avoid the tedium of repetition of exercise, by finding that if you differentiate yourself; if you know that the object is to differentiate – it means make a difference between two similar movements or similar actions. And the next thing, generalize – it means involve your entire being. If parts of yourself do not participate in the movement, it will never be as good as you can make it. And it will never become a habit with you because it’s uncomfortable so long as you don’t involve your entire person in it………. That is not learning. That’s exercising. So, slowly, the most important thing is not to achieve the movement, but to find the process of organizing yourself for the action and introducing to that a generalization. Involve your entire self and not those little bits which (you) are used to. And as, especially if you carry it over in other walks of life, it’s extraordinarily important.
From - Feldenkrais® Professional Training Program Transcripts. Amherst, Mass. 1981. Ed. Humiston, B. Week 7, 8, 9. Morning Session Tape #61. Page 7 and 8 of 38.
- by Holly Bonasera, M.P.T., G.C.F.P.
a licensed physical therapist, certified Feldenkrais practitioner, and avid cross-country skiier
Another article on Feldenkrais and Fitness.
A great swimming blog, includes training tips and international coverage of the sport.
