One of the course subjects of the recent Equine Advanced course was working with the nervous system. This isn't working with a nervous horse, but rather working with the nerves themselves and understanding where they may be contributing to the many of the common issues we see in horses.
Anyone who has had a lameness exam to the extent that the vet does a nerve block, knows that the nerves contribute to the perception of pain. Hell anyone who's hit their "funny bone" knows this. What if many of the common movement problems we experience with horses are caused by a problem with entrapped nerves?
Eight years ago I started on a journey of working with nerves in my human practice when my friend and colleague Christoph Summer introduced me to this work. At the time the only book on the subject was in French.
Three years ago I attended a 3 day workshop developed by another rolfer and chiropractor Don Hazen, who has been investigating the implications of nerve entrapment in postural issues.
It was after this workshop that I started to develop the work with animals which requires some "translation" from the human context.
If you are interested in this check the website www.animalsi.com in the next couple of weeks or sign up for the newsletter on the site to be notified when new material is put up.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I Learned to Moon Walk
I have a client who is a professional dancer and Michael Jackson fan. She told me that when she was a young girl she bought the Michael Jackson video where he revealed Moon Walking to us. I think it was Thriller?
She watched this video, over and over, rewinding it until she was able to pick out the particulars of how he did the Moon Walk. Me being me, asked her to show me. She Moon Walked across the carpet in my studio, not hard wood floors, carpet! Then she told me the secret and coached me in how to do it. I Moon Walked! Now this might not seem like a big accomplishment, but when you're as big as I am, it is impressive.
But that's not what I want to write about. In Malcolm Gladwell's excellent book "Outliers", he talks about the need to practice a craft--10,000 hours--to become competent in it. What my client did was analyze the video and the movement of Michael's feet to determine the mechanics of Moon Walking. She spent hours rewinding and mimicking his movements until she determined the secret and was able to pass it on to me.
This is what we pay teachers for. Those of us who teach spent hours studying, researching and practicing so we can figure out some of the secrets to our profession and pass them on to others so that it looks simple.
She watched this video, over and over, rewinding it until she was able to pick out the particulars of how he did the Moon Walk. Me being me, asked her to show me. She Moon Walked across the carpet in my studio, not hard wood floors, carpet! Then she told me the secret and coached me in how to do it. I Moon Walked! Now this might not seem like a big accomplishment, but when you're as big as I am, it is impressive.
But that's not what I want to write about. In Malcolm Gladwell's excellent book "Outliers", he talks about the need to practice a craft--10,000 hours--to become competent in it. What my client did was analyze the video and the movement of Michael's feet to determine the mechanics of Moon Walking. She spent hours rewinding and mimicking his movements until she determined the secret and was able to pass it on to me.
This is what we pay teachers for. Those of us who teach spent hours studying, researching and practicing so we can figure out some of the secrets to our profession and pass them on to others so that it looks simple.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
When pain limits your motion
I have a wonderful human client--I feel like I need to clarify the species--who has extreme shoulder restrictions on one side. I don't want to write about the mechanics of the human shoulder girdle--the most complicatedly orchestrated joint complex in the body--suffice it to say if one part of the girdle isn't working properly it can reflect pain to other parts of the girdle.
In the case of this client there was/is a restriction in the soft tissue scapula on thorax portion of the shoulder girdle which prevents the shoulder from rotating when the humerus is abducted over the head--the scapula has to rotate to accommodate the deltoid tuberosity's "bumping" into the glenoid fossa. What happens is that the nervous system rather than damaging the joint causes the arm to abduct across the clavicle when the arm reaches 105+ degrees.
The client wants to raise his arm. This is his measure of success or shoulder freedom. But each time he raises his arm to test two things occur: 1. the movement is prevented by the lack of scapula rotation so the arm is abducted across the clavicle 2. the pattern of abherrant motion is more ingrained in the nervous system.
I see the same thing happening in the horse world, where riders are not happy with their horse's foreleg extension and try to stretch the leg to increase this. The problem is that the horse's gleno-humeral joint has to accomodate the greater and lessor tuberosities and rotate out of the way. When we passively stretch the leg--the only kind of stretching we can do with an animal--we are not engaging the nervous system to rotate the scapula and can impinge, during the stretch, on the gleno-humeral joint.
Often these horses with restricted movement that have been "over" stretched will have over developped and hypertonic supra and infra spinati, which are gleno-humeral stabilizers.
To increase fore limb extension we have to assure that the horse has scapula that are free to rotate.
In the case of this client there was/is a restriction in the soft tissue scapula on thorax portion of the shoulder girdle which prevents the shoulder from rotating when the humerus is abducted over the head--the scapula has to rotate to accommodate the deltoid tuberosity's "bumping" into the glenoid fossa. What happens is that the nervous system rather than damaging the joint causes the arm to abduct across the clavicle when the arm reaches 105+ degrees.
The client wants to raise his arm. This is his measure of success or shoulder freedom. But each time he raises his arm to test two things occur: 1. the movement is prevented by the lack of scapula rotation so the arm is abducted across the clavicle 2. the pattern of abherrant motion is more ingrained in the nervous system.
I see the same thing happening in the horse world, where riders are not happy with their horse's foreleg extension and try to stretch the leg to increase this. The problem is that the horse's gleno-humeral joint has to accomodate the greater and lessor tuberosities and rotate out of the way. When we passively stretch the leg--the only kind of stretching we can do with an animal--we are not engaging the nervous system to rotate the scapula and can impinge, during the stretch, on the gleno-humeral joint.
Often these horses with restricted movement that have been "over" stretched will have over developped and hypertonic supra and infra spinati, which are gleno-humeral stabilizers.
To increase fore limb extension we have to assure that the horse has scapula that are free to rotate.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
More danger of anthropomorphism
Those of you who read this blog--thanks for your time--know that I am concerned about how we assume that therapeutic interventions used with humans are being taken without translation into the animal therapy world. I call this "anthropomorphism".
The latest trend in this has been in the idea of "core" muscular strength as a deterrent to back pain in humans. This idea is now being promoted in the equine world. There are now such things as equine "pilates" that are pilates in use of the name only. It is a sad situation to me, that two medical professionals decided that a series of stretches, using enticements like reaching for a carrot, to get the horse to move in a non-traditional way is the same as Pilates. This is an obvious rip off of a branded name.
But beyond this there is still the problem of taking the concepts of "core" strength and equating it to something useful for the equine, when, in fact, it is still a controversy in the human context as pointed out in this NY Times Article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/core-myths/?em
Let me get off my soap box and state that anytime we humans or our animals can be encouraged to perform non-traditional movements our body will benefit from it. Getting up from the computer and stretching, teaching your horse carrot stretches or better yet clicker, taking your dog for a swim will all tend to increase the options for movement available to the body. Increasing the movement options--or as Rolfers say "adaptive capacity"--allows the body to choose from a greater repetoire of movements to remain energetically efficient.
Any thoughts?
The latest trend in this has been in the idea of "core" muscular strength as a deterrent to back pain in humans. This idea is now being promoted in the equine world. There are now such things as equine "pilates" that are pilates in use of the name only. It is a sad situation to me, that two medical professionals decided that a series of stretches, using enticements like reaching for a carrot, to get the horse to move in a non-traditional way is the same as Pilates. This is an obvious rip off of a branded name.
But beyond this there is still the problem of taking the concepts of "core" strength and equating it to something useful for the equine, when, in fact, it is still a controversy in the human context as pointed out in this NY Times Article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/core-myths/?em
Let me get off my soap box and state that anytime we humans or our animals can be encouraged to perform non-traditional movements our body will benefit from it. Getting up from the computer and stretching, teaching your horse carrot stretches or better yet clicker, taking your dog for a swim will all tend to increase the options for movement available to the body. Increasing the movement options--or as Rolfers say "adaptive capacity"--allows the body to choose from a greater repetoire of movements to remain energetically efficient.
Any thoughts?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Fascination
My dog, the star of my canine mfr video "Jake", has come up with a new game. He goes into our backyard. This causes the rabbits to run under the deck to get away from him. This in turn keeps Jake on the deck looking and smelling through the spacing in the decking to "chase" the rabbits. He runs from one place to another, chasing after the rabbits, as they move to avoid his scrutiny. If one of the rabbits decides that the best solution to the dog is to stay still he scratches at the deck to get them to move. It frustrates the you know what out of him but he loves it. Or should I say he's addicted to it. It's really not much different to my addiction to TV or the internet.
As I'm writing this Jake and me are outside on the deck. He's taking a break from the rabbits. Perhaps he got bored with his cure for his boredom, who knows why he's on break?
It has me contemplating how much of my time is spent in my habitual pattern. This is something we talk about in Meditation as well as Rolfing. How we become habituated to our simple activities, the easy ones, or easy way of doing things. I have taken this a little bit further to suggest that this is how we survive. Through the a minimum expenditure of energy to accomplish a task. If we habituate something than it becomes "natural" and easy. From the Rolfing body view we can say that this habituation originates in an avoidance of a restriction, which makes it easier to follow a certain movement path. In meditation we could say that each action plants a karmic seed which will come to fruition later when the same conditions arise. In other words if Jake scratches on the deck to get at the rabbits and I get mad at him this plants a seed of being mad. The next time he scratches--the condition--that karmic seed of mad can come to fruition. If through meditation I become familiar with my mind and its speed I can make a break the habit and decide if I want to get mad or ? That plants the seed of decision which eventually may over plant the seeds of mad. Complicated eh?
Back to the body's habitual patterns. My premise is that a body will not, should not change what we consider a habitual pattern if that pattern is energetically efficient, unless we propose to it one that is more efficient. We can experience this on the micro level as a guide to our work at a more macro level. We all approach our work with hoping to see a change in our client's structure, movement, etc.. This is the macro. We all have to try and translate this macro strategy into a series of smaller micro interventions that will hopefully accumulate into the resulting macro change. Unfortunately we sometimes get hooked into a habitual pattern while working with our client that is not supporting the micro.
What I am saying is that every micro intervention has to be accepted as an energy efficient change by the body to be accepted. If not than we risk depleting the client's available adaptive capacity and not getting the results we hoped for.
My suggestion to people who train with me is to make small interventions. If these are accepted--as evidenced by local tissue change--than continue with that. If they are not accepted stop and reconsider the local intervention in favor or a different one that is accepted.
This is contrary to what happens in most massage settings or anything that promotes a routine--read habituated pattern--that does not allow for local evaluation of efficacy. This is a sacrifice of the local in hopes of a larger global change--usually one where the client becomes "spaced" out. I'm advocating for local change in support of a more global one. With this strategy we are working with the body and allowing it to direct its own change, one that benefits it more energetically.
Any thoughts?
As I'm writing this Jake and me are outside on the deck. He's taking a break from the rabbits. Perhaps he got bored with his cure for his boredom, who knows why he's on break?
It has me contemplating how much of my time is spent in my habitual pattern. This is something we talk about in Meditation as well as Rolfing. How we become habituated to our simple activities, the easy ones, or easy way of doing things. I have taken this a little bit further to suggest that this is how we survive. Through the a minimum expenditure of energy to accomplish a task. If we habituate something than it becomes "natural" and easy. From the Rolfing body view we can say that this habituation originates in an avoidance of a restriction, which makes it easier to follow a certain movement path. In meditation we could say that each action plants a karmic seed which will come to fruition later when the same conditions arise. In other words if Jake scratches on the deck to get at the rabbits and I get mad at him this plants a seed of being mad. The next time he scratches--the condition--that karmic seed of mad can come to fruition. If through meditation I become familiar with my mind and its speed I can make a break the habit and decide if I want to get mad or ? That plants the seed of decision which eventually may over plant the seeds of mad. Complicated eh?
Back to the body's habitual patterns. My premise is that a body will not, should not change what we consider a habitual pattern if that pattern is energetically efficient, unless we propose to it one that is more efficient. We can experience this on the micro level as a guide to our work at a more macro level. We all approach our work with hoping to see a change in our client's structure, movement, etc.. This is the macro. We all have to try and translate this macro strategy into a series of smaller micro interventions that will hopefully accumulate into the resulting macro change. Unfortunately we sometimes get hooked into a habitual pattern while working with our client that is not supporting the micro.
What I am saying is that every micro intervention has to be accepted as an energy efficient change by the body to be accepted. If not than we risk depleting the client's available adaptive capacity and not getting the results we hoped for.
My suggestion to people who train with me is to make small interventions. If these are accepted--as evidenced by local tissue change--than continue with that. If they are not accepted stop and reconsider the local intervention in favor or a different one that is accepted.
This is contrary to what happens in most massage settings or anything that promotes a routine--read habituated pattern--that does not allow for local evaluation of efficacy. This is a sacrifice of the local in hopes of a larger global change--usually one where the client becomes "spaced" out. I'm advocating for local change in support of a more global one. With this strategy we are working with the body and allowing it to direct its own change, one that benefits it more energetically.
Any thoughts?
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Where have the Innovators gone?
I've been on this tantrum about the lack of adaptation of human therapies to animals. For those of you who haven't been bored by this in the past, what I mean is that too often human therapies are applied to animals without thinking about how they may need to be changed/adapted to better work with the animal. For instance, massage therapists who are taught to keep their hands on the animal for the entire massage, similar to what occurs with human massage training, with no thought to how this affects the animal's nervous system.
There was a time when we had some pioneers in the animal world who were willing to "translate" their human therapeutic specialty to animals. For instance Linda Tellington-Jones, who pioneered the use of Feldenkreis techniques to the animal world, especially horses. Some would suggest that Jack Meagher did this with the work of Travell and Simmons and Trigger Point therapy, but I disagree that this was translated--it was simple copied over with some mistakes, like "rotator cuff"...
Recently I saw two examples of simply taking a human therapy's title and applying it to animals: Pilates for Horses, Yoga for dogs. The Pilates for horses is really troubling to me, since as a Rolfer I am concerned when someone who is not trained in Rolfing calls their work this. (It's an irrational response but one I acknowledge having.) This so called pilates therapy for horses consists of some simple stretches that are induced by using a treat--this is the only way my horses get any "finger" food, they have to work for it by stretching. (When I was first developping my equine series I videoed my horse before and after while inducing these "treat" stretches since they repeatable and the tissue response was evidently different.)
Calling these new interventions by a name associated with human therapy--pilates or yoga--is a misleading way of subsuming the reputation of the human therapy and suggesting that these animal "versions" have the same therapeutic benefit as the human one enjoys.
This use of a human therapies branding leads to a dumbing down of the therapy when it is applied to animals, which in turn leads to a dumbing down of the therapist who applys these therapies with humans. What I mean is that the animal therapist stops their critical thinking about how the animal views the world, moves through the world and is motivated. I read another article in which an equine massage therapist was qouted as saying that horses will, I'm paraphrasing hold emotional stress in their shoulders. just like humans in stressful jobs will. Huh? To me this kind of statement can only come from ignorance of the difference in how humans and horses view their environment.
There was a time when we had some pioneers in the animal world who were willing to "translate" their human therapeutic specialty to animals. For instance Linda Tellington-Jones, who pioneered the use of Feldenkreis techniques to the animal world, especially horses. Some would suggest that Jack Meagher did this with the work of Travell and Simmons and Trigger Point therapy, but I disagree that this was translated--it was simple copied over with some mistakes, like "rotator cuff"...
Recently I saw two examples of simply taking a human therapy's title and applying it to animals: Pilates for Horses, Yoga for dogs. The Pilates for horses is really troubling to me, since as a Rolfer I am concerned when someone who is not trained in Rolfing calls their work this. (It's an irrational response but one I acknowledge having.) This so called pilates therapy for horses consists of some simple stretches that are induced by using a treat--this is the only way my horses get any "finger" food, they have to work for it by stretching. (When I was first developping my equine series I videoed my horse before and after while inducing these "treat" stretches since they repeatable and the tissue response was evidently different.)
Calling these new interventions by a name associated with human therapy--pilates or yoga--is a misleading way of subsuming the reputation of the human therapy and suggesting that these animal "versions" have the same therapeutic benefit as the human one enjoys.
This use of a human therapies branding leads to a dumbing down of the therapy when it is applied to animals, which in turn leads to a dumbing down of the therapist who applys these therapies with humans. What I mean is that the animal therapist stops their critical thinking about how the animal views the world, moves through the world and is motivated. I read another article in which an equine massage therapist was qouted as saying that horses will, I'm paraphrasing hold emotional stress in their shoulders. just like humans in stressful jobs will. Huh? To me this kind of statement can only come from ignorance of the difference in how humans and horses view their environment.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
How much translation is needed?
I've been working on a tantrum lately about how little the animal body therapy world is doing to develop itself as a unique industry. Rather than approaching the quadruped's body and mind as unique and requiring it's own approach, we too often just take the work being done with humans and assume that they'll work with animals--by this I mean animal quadrupeds.
In the past I worried that animal massage therapists were simply taking human techniques and applying them to animals without any translation for the structural and nervous control differences of between the species. Anthropomorphism in body therapy if you will. This even goes so far as to have the ridiculous measure of time--a marketing measure, not a therapeutic one--applied to the animal in the same way it is to the human. I mean where did 1 hour come about as anything more than a possible way to sell oneself? Chiropractors don't sell their services by time! Neither do medical doctors or dentists or farriers... but the animal therapist copying the human therapist sells their services by the hour, rather than the benefit or by surface area of the animal. OR, perhaps more appropriately the animal's ability to remain focused on the work.
The latest contribution to my tantrum is an article I read on "Pilates" for horses. This was a report on how one of my favorite researchers has fallen into the trance of thinking that work developed for humans--in this case core stabilization, which I'm not sure about--can be used with horses with translation. This requires that the quadruped's transverse abdominus acts the same in both species. The the quadrupedal "core" is the same as the human "core". (It seems to this simpe Rolfer that standing on two legs is more difficult than standing on four, and that human back pain may be caused by a completely different action than bi-pedal pain is.)
I'm really concerned that unless we animal therapists start to do our own research and develop our own methods that we'll be marginalized.
It's time to feed the horses and walk in the mud.
In the past I worried that animal massage therapists were simply taking human techniques and applying them to animals without any translation for the structural and nervous control differences of between the species. Anthropomorphism in body therapy if you will. This even goes so far as to have the ridiculous measure of time--a marketing measure, not a therapeutic one--applied to the animal in the same way it is to the human. I mean where did 1 hour come about as anything more than a possible way to sell oneself? Chiropractors don't sell their services by time! Neither do medical doctors or dentists or farriers... but the animal therapist copying the human therapist sells their services by the hour, rather than the benefit or by surface area of the animal. OR, perhaps more appropriately the animal's ability to remain focused on the work.
The latest contribution to my tantrum is an article I read on "Pilates" for horses. This was a report on how one of my favorite researchers has fallen into the trance of thinking that work developed for humans--in this case core stabilization, which I'm not sure about--can be used with horses with translation. This requires that the quadruped's transverse abdominus acts the same in both species. The the quadrupedal "core" is the same as the human "core". (It seems to this simpe Rolfer that standing on two legs is more difficult than standing on four, and that human back pain may be caused by a completely different action than bi-pedal pain is.)
I'm really concerned that unless we animal therapists start to do our own research and develop our own methods that we'll be marginalized.
It's time to feed the horses and walk in the mud.
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