Thanksgiving, Chicago and two Aussies!

Last weekend I was in Chicago with 50 other movement nerds. We were hanging on every word of two Aussies. One a former professional tennis player turned osteopath and another an Olympic kayaker turned chiropractor.

The former, the developer of The OOV and the latter helped develop a protocol for using this interesting device to correct movement dysfunction.

Most of us were women from the age of twenty up to the age of eighty. It was a relief not to be the oldest in the room. The group was comprised of Pilates teachers, physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors and yoga teachers.

We were all there to learn, not to defend our particular modality as being superior to another. As a result, it was a rich and nuanced learning experience.

We learned how to work with the hip and shoulder joints to get more internal or external rotation or more extension or flexion by engaging the opposite muscles and pressing into a soft exercise ball until the tight muscles fatigued and the deeper muscles that were having a party in Florida were put on notice to go back to work. It was a brilliant technique and I look forward to using it with my clients.

We learned about balance and the fact that the postural position we assume in the spine is usually the opposite of the direction we need in order to get pretension through our tissue…sort of like pulling the string of a bow back before firing the arrow.

The body is so smart…it’s just we humans are pretty stupid sometimes in forcing things on our bodies that really don’t make sense or science.

I love studying with people who are constantly evolving in their understanding of movement and how science is either backing up or disputing their claims, and working with people that are brave enough to say “that wasn’t right and now we know better”, or that “they don’t know or understand how something works.”

We need to move. Our bodies are designed for it. It feeds our hearts, our brains and our souls. This week I’ve gone for long walks and been to the pool twice. I am grateful for the things I’ve studied and the passionate and engaged people I study with and the clients who come to my classes and get me to guide them in figuring things out.

There is a movement path for everyone… we just have to find it and follow it.