About the Anat Baniel Method

^{Moving better means living better}

Four Basic Priniciples of the Anat Baniel Method

As students learn to move better, eliminate poor habits, and become more discerning, they become increasingly aware of how they move: how their back twists to answer the phone, or how weight shifts onto one foot as they reach. The real benefit of this awareness comes from addressing pain at its source, before issues develop. If performing an action leads to pain, the aware person will notice early and adjust their movement.

Although the theory behind Dr. Feldenkrais's work is complex and multifaceted, there are four basic principles we use in the Anat Baniel Method to achieve more effective awareness:

• Full Body Participation
• Habitual Contractions
• Differentiation
• Application
  
  

Full Body Participation

Any time you move, your entire body gets involved whether you realize it or not! Each individual muscle fiber either helps or hinders action, contracting or relaxing as appropriate. Likewise, a muscle fiber contracting or relaxing at the wrong time hinders action. The Anat Baniel Method teaches you to become aware of this type of holding and to utilize your whole body more effectively when performing any given action. 

Feldenkrais has studied the body in movement with a precision that I have found nowhere else.
Peter Brook, Film and Stage Director

For example, think about how you might stick out your tongue when hammering a nail. While it might improve concentration, it actually hinders action, making it more difficult to perform. As your tongue sticks out, muscles in your tongue, face, neck and shoulder contract, and your arm actually has to do more to supply the force and accuracy needed to drive in the nail. If your neck and facial muscles stay relaxed, your shoulder muscles are available to contribute to the task, and your brain is not preoccupied with contracting inappropriate muscles.

Habitual Contractions

Each of us acquires habits in how we speak, act, and react, or habits in movement, thought, and emotion. While habits allow us to work without reinventing the wheel every time we perform an everyday task, not all habits are good.

For example, one common bad habit is keeping the abdominal muscles contracted throughout the day in order to either appear more slender or athletic, or because they don't know how to relax them. Rigid abdominal muscles reduce the availability of movement in the back and can lead to back pain or soreness. Other areas have to overcompensate, pulling the upper body backward to prevent you from falling over forward. The result is a tug of war between the front and back muscles, with both becoming chronically contracted.

(This) work deserves to have the greatest possible audience, both in the rehabilitation medicine community and beyond.  I believe that it is one of the most important approaches to physical rehabilitation, especially when conventional physical therapy is insufficient.
Daniel Graupe, Professor of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Illinois, Chicago

Habitual contraction reduces movement, causes rigidity, expends unnecessary energy, and leads to overworking other areas. The brain instructs the muscle to contract, flooding the muscle with Glycogen, the chemical energy used to make the muscle fiber contract. Both muscle and brain are expending unnecessary resources. Releasing habitual contraction makes more chemical energy and processing ability in the brain available for both movement and mental activity.

Differentiation

Habitual muscular contraction, combined with a lack of refined movement, is called "undifferentiated movement."

Think about picking up a pen from the floor while sitting in a chair. Many people bend mostly at the waist with little movement in their trunk area. In other words, they bend in an "undifferentiated" way. Performed repeatedly, picking up a pen in this way will likely result in back pain. Undifferentiated movement with activities like assembling conveyor belt parts or working at a keyboard is the major factor behind repetitive stress injuries. People with well-differentiated movement experience fewer chronic injuries and less pain.

The Feldenkrais Method has allowed me to play pain free golf, without worrying about injury.
Duffy Waldorf, PGA Tour Golfer

Application

Most people are attracted to the benefits ABM offers, but anticipate it will be difficult and overly complicated to learn. In fact, the reverse is true. The brain will not adopt new movement patterns in a state of discomfort. ABM is based on learning through ease and comfort.

In group lessons, students go through a structured, predefined sequence of movements with the teacher as a class. For individual sessions, the practitioner creates the lesson in the moment, based on the needs of the student as observed both before and during the lesson. The practitioner uses both hands and words to guide the student, adjusting to student's response and modifying the movements accordingly. The series of movements place increasing demand on the nervous system while making sure the body remains comfortable. Lessons take place while sitting in a chair, lying on the floor, or standing.

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