Q&A Video #9: How big should I make the movements when I’m practicing Clinical Somatics exercises?

Transcript of video:

Hi guys! Today I’m answering the question: How big should I make the movements when I’m practicing Clinical Somatics exercises?

This is such a great question. There’s actually a lot of value in exploring a range in size of these movements. Very small movements, which I call micromovements, help you to develop finely tuned control of your muscles. They also help you to develop finely tuned proprioception, which is your ability to sense your body position in space.

Staying in a really small range of motion is also a great way to start practicing these movements if you’re in a lot of pain. Larger movements simply may not feel good to you if you’re in a lot of pain. Practicing these exercises as very small movements also allows you to avoid muscle cramping, and can allow you to avoid recruiting other muscles unnecessarily to help you with the movements.

Most of the time, most people practice these exercises somewhere in the middle of their range of motion, which is a good way to start when you’re first getting comfortable with the movements. So, this means not forcing yourself to move to your maximum range of motion, but also not forcing yourself to keep the movements really small.

Now, when it comes to doing big movements, and moving through your maximum range of motion, you just need to be careful. When you contract your muscles as much as you can, it’s easy to trigger a muscle spasm, or you may just get kind of a crampy feeling in those muscles temporarily. So, if you’re prone to muscle spasms, or if you have a high degree of muscle tension, I’d suggest not doing these movements through your maximum range of motion.

With time and regular practice of these movements, you’ll develop a finely tuned sense of how far you can safely contract your muscles before triggering a muscle spasm or cramp. And that’s the farthest you should go with any of these movements – as far as you can go without triggering a spasm or cramp. If you’re not sure where that point is, just play it safe and keep the movements smaller for now. There is no benefit to forcing yourself to move through a larger range of motion until it feels comfortable.

So, during your daily practice, I encourage you to feel your way through your practice and explore each movement in a range of sizes. You can start very small, and then make the movement a little bigger, and a little bigger, until you’ve made it as big as you want to that day. With daily practice, you’ll develop a sense of what your body needs and which size of movement you need to do in order to release your muscles that day. I promise, this internal sense does come with time and practice.

So, I hope that was helpful! Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time!