How to Fix Lateral Pelvic Rotation (Rotated Pelvis) With Clinical Somatics ExercisesIn this article I explain what lateral pelvic rotation is, why we develop it, and the muscular patterns involved. At the end of the article, I list which Clinical Somatics exercises are most effective for fixing the misalignment.What is lateral pelvic rotation?Lateral pelvic rotation, [...]
Sensations You May Notice When Beginning Your Clinical Somatics Practice The main effect of Clinical Somatics exercises is the release of chronic muscle tension. But along with the retraining of the nervous system can come a variety of sensations—some of which may be surprising and even unpleasant. Please read this article if [...]
The Pace of the Learning Process If the course moves too slowly or quickly for you: Some students feel frustrated that their course is moving too slowly, while others feel overwhelmed because it's moving too quickly! The pace of the courses is designed to give you a learning experience similar to working with a [...]
Developing Your Own Daily Practice While the exercises in the courses are taught in a certain order and at a set pace, the intention of the courses is that you gradually develop your own daily practice that addresses your unique patterns of muscle tension. Everyone's patterns are unique, so there is no prescription that works [...]
New Study Shows Pandiculation Relieves Lower Back and Neck Pain Chronic back pain and neck pain are disabling conditions experienced by many people at some point during their lifetimes. A new study published in September 2022 demonstrates the efficacy of using pandiculation to relieve chronic back and neck pain by releasing chronic muscle tension. Jump [...]
Busting the Myth of the Low Sodium Diet For more than three decades, health professionals and organizations including the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association have promoted a low-sodium diet to prevent hypertension, or high blood pressure. However, as Dr. David Brownstein explains in his book Salt Your Way to Health, research shows [...]
From Living Fearful and Limited to Adventurous and Able by Julie Katt I found Somatic Movement Center at the age of 50 after I had been incorrectly adjusted by a chiropractor who ended up herniating discs in my lower back. I was in intense pain and could barely walk without getting shooting pains up [...]
The Role of Belief in Health and Healing Belief is a powerful thing. In a 2001 study, researchers told a group of Parkinson's patients that they were receiving a highly effective new drug that would improve their motor symptoms. However, the patients only received an injection of saline. Half of the patients experienced improvement [...]
How to Retrain Your Proprioception and Posture As our nervous system learns to keep certain muscles tight—in response to repetitive activities, stress, injuries, and athletic training—we lose full voluntary control of the muscles. But this loss of control is only one reason why it's so hard to release muscle tension, get out of pain, [...]
The Health Benefits of Multi-Day and Intermittent Fasting On a Wednesday morning in January, I woke up sick. I had a sore throat, I was unusually tired, and I could feel myself fighting something off. I hadn't been sick in three years! I wondered, why this cold get me? I took an at-home COVID [...]
After a Crisis of Pain by Mia Juhn I thought that Sarah Warren's Clinical Somatics Level One & Two Courses would help me overcome pain. I had no idea how profoundly it would go beyond that to change my life's course. I had pain that would mount during the day, incapacitating me by afternoon [...]
How to Approach Exercise When You're in Pain There are endless benefits to physical exercise, and you should keep up with regular physical activity while you're learning Clinical Somatics exercises—unless your workouts are making your pain worse or preventing you from making progress. In this post, I'll discuss: The benefits of working out while learning [...]
My Journey to Hell and Back by Greg Steidel In 2003, I was in my early 20's. I weighed 150 pounds and was in phenomenal shape. I had no history of back issues and was leading a normal life. One day I was doing some landscaping at my parents' house and decided to go [...]
What type of exercise, and how much, is ideal? Most chronic diseases that humans suffer from are mismatch diseases. Daniel Lieberman, a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, uses this term to describe health conditions that result from our bodies not being adapted to our modern lifestyle and environment. It's not old age that makes us [...]
What is pandiculation? Pandiculation is generally defined as the act of stretching oneself and yawning, especially upon waking. However, our automatic pandicular response has far more significance than simply prompting us to stretch and yawn. As you'll learn in this post, pandiculation is a fundamental part of our neuromuscular functioning. In fact, when it comes [...]
Learning to Relax After Four Decades of Chronic Tension by Lena Pollack Every time I get a tensed muscle to relax, it’s like a little miracle. It leaves me awestruck, much like being chosen by a shelter cat, or finding a beautiful field that’s completely empty. Maybe it isn’t anything objectively earth shattering but getting [...]
Using Polyvagal Theory in Clinical Settings In last month's post, I explained the basic concepts of the Polyvagal Theory, a theory proposed by Stephen Porges that describes how the mammalian autonomic nervous system evolved to keep us safe and alive. In short, the Polyvagal Theory states that: “When challenged, the regulation of the autonomic [...]
What is the Polyvagal Theory? The Polyvagal Theory is a theory proposed by Stephen Porges that describes how the mammalian autonomic nervous system evolved to keep us safe and alive. As mammals evolved from reptiles, our autonomic nervous system developed to automatically communicate with other mammals and engage different self-defense systems when needed. When our [...]
How to Use Clinical Somatics Exercises to Heal Achilles Tendinitis What is Achilles tendinitis? The Achilles (calcaneal) tendon is located at the back of the ankle, where it attaches the calf muscles to the heel bone. Overuse injuries to the Achilles tendon—whether they be inflammatory tendinitis or degenerative tendinosis—can be very painful and limit [...]
How To Retrain Your Brain's Pain Processing System I recently read The Brain's Way of Healing by Dr. Norman Doidge and learned about a fascinating way to retrain how chronic pain is processed in the brain. The approach, developed by pain specialist Dr. Michael Moskowitz, is used with people who have been in pain [...]
