From:  (Michael )
Newsgroups: misc.health.injuries.rsi.misc
Date: 5 Dec 1995 23:24:09 GMT

Here's a very short summary of my experience with the Feldenkrais
Method:

I'm a pianist with chronic RSI pain, and the most help I've found is
from the Feldenkrais Method.  In fact, I consider myself 95% cured.  

The Feldenkrais Method (FM) deals with the "organization" and "use" of
the muscles.  For example, many people think of an activity like
lifting their arm as pretty basic and simple, something that doesn't
require practice.  But there are many ways of coordinating the muscles
that lift the arm.  In particular, the muscles of the torso can hold
themselves rigid and let the arm muscles do all the work, or the
muscles of the torso can assist the movement.  My habit was more like
the former, but with the help of FM I have learned to better organize
my muscles so that they assist each other.

Many kinds of movement have gotten easier for me, including playing
the piano, walking, and typing.  I have gotten much more comfortable
maintaining postures like standing, sitting, or lying down.  I feel
more relaxed and energetic throughout the day.  The most exciting
benefit is that most of my RSI pain has gone away.

An advantage of FM is that you can practice it on your own with taped
lessons called "Awareness Through Movement."  In fact, an economical
way to get started in movement practice is to order some tapes and
practice them often while occasionally seeing a Feldenkrais
practitioner (or perhaps a chiroprator or a bodyworker of some
sort...I believe they all address the organization of the mind/body
system).

There are many other ways of developing the organization of your body,
including yoga, T'ai Chi, Charlotte Selver's "Sensory Awareness," and
the Taubman method of piano.  For me, the advantage of FM is that it
helps me get past my blocks and blind spots, and it helps me to
understand how every part of my body can assist a movement, even one
that appears to involve only one part of the body.

You will find that conventional medicine puts emphasis on the
"structural" model of the body; that is, your muscles are masses of
tissue that can change character in response to various exercises or
medications.  Exercise makes the tissue stronger.  Streching makes it
more flexible.  Anti-inflammatories reduce the swelling.  This model
ignores the importance of how your brain *uses* your muscles.  After
an Awareness Trhough Movement lessons, my muscles are stronger, more
flexible, and more relaxed, and the only difference is in the signals
coming from my brain to the muscles.  

You can learn more about the Feldenkrais Method at

http://www.caprica.com/~rstrauch/
http://www.usc.edu/hsc/neuroprotection/feldenkrais/

You can also call

Sensory Motor Learning Systems 1-800-735-7950

Feldenkrais Resources 1-800-765-1907

to get catalogs of books and tapes.



-- 
Mike                "Give any one idea a push and it falls down
                           easily.  The pusher, and the pushed, are then
                           engaged in that entertainment called a discussion."
                               - John Cage