The problematic issue of stretching.

(I’m referring to stretching with a sustained stretch, pushing into a limit.)

 

Stretching doesn’t do much to
teach your brain out of the tension habit.

 

The brain doesn’t learn much from a stretch.

 

Siberian Tiger Pandiculating

Cats don’t do yoga.
They pandiculate.

Cats pandiculate about 40 times a day.
That’s how they stay so supple!

Is stretching helping you feel at ease?
Is stretching getting the results you need?

Stretching confuses your tension calibration system.

The limit in a stretch is due to a spinal cord reflex. Very little cortical learning comes from stretching. Stretching does not give the brain the sensory -motor feedback it needs to learn to lower levels of resting tension. Stretching gives a short-lived sensation of relaxed tension, but the system becomes determined to return to its intended tension equilibrium.

“No amount of force or effort will release the
involuntary contractions in your body.
Pushing against all tightness will always fail.”

-Thomas Hanna, Original Developer of Clinical Somatic Education

 

Stretching confuses your
tension control system.

 

Stretching can create a recoil effect and stretching injuries.

Micro-tears from accidental or intentional over-stretching can cause a recoil effect. Your nervous system perceives the stretch sensation as an emergency. When you push into a stretch, you are making an attempt to override a self-protective reflex, the Stretch Reflex, a built-in safety mechanism. At the limit, to prevent tearing, the spinal cord creates an active response, in effect saying: “Stop!, That’s as far as I’m going to let this go!”. The need for protection from tearing injury is urgent, and is hard-wired into your nervous system. Proceed at your own risk if you push past the limit.

Do you really need the range of motion of a circus performer?

If your muscles are relaxed and under your full control, you will have a healthy range of motion. The problem that needs to be addressed is persistently high levels of resting tension. We live most of our lives near the middle of our range, that’s where the problem hides.

 

What is the range of your ease?

 

Pandiculation is:

Pandiculation is a specialized type of movement that all vertebrates do.

Simply put, pandiculation is a yawning-like contraction followed by a relax.
A pleasurable morning yawn is a natural example of pandiculation.

It is a powerful method for making changes in persistent tension when
great care and precise control is applied to the movement.
Making it a controlled crescendo of contraction,
followed by a smooth, slow, controlled lengthening to a full rest,

(There’s a lot more to it than explained here. There are ways to optimize its effect.)

Pandiculation is your system’s natural tension control reset.
It allows you to change deep automatic tension habits.

It allows your brain to fill in the spatial map it has of the body.
It is re-calibration that allows true relaxation!

 

When you feel the need to stretch, Pandiculate.

Consider the places you feel the need to stretch. Learn to move them in full body pandiculations.
Pandiculation is a better way to create ease, comfort,  and spaciousness.

Pandiculation teaches your brain to have lower levels of resting tension,
and a new internal awareness of control through the range of motion.

After you have regained control of tension, it’s ok to do gentle somatic stretching to change length. You may not need to. Use great caution any time your are extending past safe ranges, which can lead to injury. Somatic stretching means looking at your internal experience, being observant of the safe change in internal space.

Stop stretching, until you regain voluntary control of your muscle tension.

Stretching hinders this process of somatic restoration and recalibration. Pandiculation is how to teach your brain to let the muscles relax and to restore your ability to let the muscles fully lengthen.

 

 

About Yoga:

Consider doing your Yoga practice more somatically,
with your perception focused on the internal experience of movement.

“Now that I know how to be more somatic,
my yoga practice is ecstatic.”

 -R., Children’s Librarian, Eric’s daughter.