Somatic Mechanic

Fascia

Connective Tissue for Trees and Humans

 

When we think about movement or working out, we're used to thinking about muscles and bones, but fascia?  Not so much.  This important structure connects everything together!  If you have ever cut up a chicken and noticed that translucent "silver skin" that surrounds the chicken breast, leg, thigh, etc. then you have seen fascia.  It's what makes up our tendons and ligaments and surrounds our muscles.  Last week when I was out and about, I noticed this palm tree with its fascia hanging out.  Notice its basket-weave structure, how strong this "tissue" is.  I can understand how Polynesian natives might have used this in building their houses -- it looks really strong.  This is the palm tree's fascia, our fascia is very similar. 

Gyrotonic Imagery

 

My 10-year old son is mad about the ocean and I came across this book on amazon's site when shopping for him. It jumped out at me not for my boy, but because of the instant recognition of the movement principles of Gyrotonic. 

 Juliu, the creator of Gyrotonic, refers to the movements of certain animals as being part of the inspiration of his exercise method.  A couple of my bestest girlfriends are Gyrotonic Master Trainers and they have related stories of him referring to the octopus, the dolphin and the cat. Gyrotonic is made up of smooth, fluid movements that express different characteristics during different exercises.  You might move with the quality of fluid, soft, powerful, sustained, linked, or rounded.  Regardless of the quality in the exercise, there's always a spiral present somewhere.  This spiral might be expressed by moving the body literally in a spiral shape, or perhaps the spiral is observed or felt within the body, or it appears as a pattern in the choreography.

I love this photograph by David Liittschwager.  Particularly the spiraling tentacle in the lower portion of the photo -- the octopus, entirely flexible, moves so powerfully and smoothly.  A natural result of his life force and body structure is the spiral.  Next time you do your Figure 8s on the handle unit, do so with spiraling tentacles!