NeuroMovement for Whole Body Fitness Introductory Info
Have you ever asked yourself what makes some movements easy to do and others clumsier? Perhaps even painful, or impossible to do?
When we try to improve our ability to perform, we often focus on the muscles and joints, because that is what we feel and see moving.
However, when we have a limitation, or pain, it is our brain that needs to change first. The brain is the CEO of all of our actions. It is the brain that tells the muscles what to do, forms our thoughts and beliefs and decides how we will perform any movement or action.
In order to be able to organize our movements, the brain first needs to map our body into itself through multitude of experiences. Through this process, the brain grows billions of new connection from which it creates our unique patterns, or what Anat calls self image.
Every person’s self image is different. For example, a concert pianist will have very dense brain maps associated to her hands and fingers, and might have a much more limited representation of her pelvis. Whereas a belly dancer will have a much fuller self image of her pelvis then most of us.
Anat calls this the “Swiss cheese effect.” The areas that are less mapped in the brain are like the holes in the cheese. Pain, limitations and feeling stuck are often associated with the areas of ourselves that are under developed, that have not been sufficiently mapped into the brain, and that we are less aware of—the holes in the cheese.
It’s also important to understand that any movement we do, is a whole brain/body movement. When we lift our arm, it’s not only the arm that the brain has to organize. It has to account for every part of our selves. It has to know where every part of the body is in space and the dynamic relationships between the different parts of the body at all times. Without it, we couldn’t have successful and continuous movement.
In this program, we focus on different areas of the body to insure sufficient connections in the brain that allow it to successfully organize basic and more complex movements. Each movement lesson will help map the areas of focus more fully in the brain and also form new connections and relationships between different parts of the body resulting in greater flexibility, strength, dexterity and ease of movement.
The NeuroMovement for Whole Body Fitness is the foundational program for all other NeuroMovement programs and should be completed first.