Free Yourself From Back Pain 2nd Ed

Free Yourself
from
Back Pain
2nd Edition, revised
and enhanced
nine weeks or fewer

to a comfortable back
you can trust
TM
Hanna Somatics Gold

Lawrence Gold, Hanna somatic educator
Free Yourself from Back Pain, second edition
copyright 2004 Lawrence Gold
awareness@somatics.com
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Brief portions of this volume

may be reproduced
for use in articles and reviews.
More extensive portions may be reproduced
with written permission from the author.
The movements shown in this book are inherently natural
and safe. However, if you have a medical condition or are
concerned that you may have a medical condition, consult a
physician and show him or her this program and get
approval before beginning the program.
Done properly, these movements relax and coordinate the

muscular system. Occasionally, soreness may result for a
day or two after doing them. Such soreness is normal.
However, if your soreness persists for more than 24-36
hours or your symptoms worsen, stop doing this program
and consult your physician or physical therapist.
Since the author cannot be present to supervise you, you

and he must rely upon your good judgment and intelligent
application of the instructions found herein. In undertaking
this program, you assume all risk of injury that may result
from failure to follow the instructions correctly or from
inappropriate use of this program.
.
Look forward to the Whole Body yawn.
This is a book to help you work smarter
rather than harder,
to reclaim your body
from the tyranny of pain and stiffness.
The instruction comes from outside.
The learning comes from within.
i
.
ii
PREFACE
How Is This Program Different from Other Programs?

The movements found in this book are designed to create sensations that
enable you to improve your muscular control. They can free you from back trouble
for a lifetime.
They involve a new approach to back trouble. Instead of strengthening and

stretching muscles (a common approach) they change the brain-programming
that controls your entire muscular system (a more effective approach).
Instead of merely strengthening your back muscles, these movements

improve your ability to control your muscular tension. That means you can relax
tight, painful muscles.
Instead of stretching your muscles, these movements restore your muscles

to their natural pliancy and suppleness.
Instead of confining you to a “neutral spine position,” these movements

free you for all kinds of movement.
This book teaches a progressive program of brain-muscle reconditioning,

rather than a selection of movements from which to choose. That means you do
all of the movements in sequence for at least the minimum amount of time speci-
fied.
The benefits are cumulative. You are likely to experience immediate relief
each time you do a movement sequence, but as you are changing habits of muscu-
lar tension, you may sometimes find that your progress goes “two steps forward,
iii
one step back.” Don’t be discouraged. Persist.
Each movement addresses a different aspect of the muscular system. All of

these movements are of equal importance.
Instead of a symptomatic approach that involves working on painful areas,

only, this book provides a whole-body approach. A whole-body approach is impor-
tant because the muscular system works as a whole, through coordinated move-
ment, to maintain balance in movement.
Above all, this movement program involves a learning process. You are
building a sound foundation for a secure back. To learn what’s here, you will be
doing some new things. Have patience; explore and practice. Go slowly and gen-
tly. To work this way is perhaps the biggest change you will have to make.
The sensations these movements create are as important as the time you
spend doing them. Put attention into feeling. Feel the movements as you do them.
You’ll feel the difference.
iv
INTRODUCTION
D id your back pain start mysteriously one morning? Did it start suddenly,
when you lifted something? After an accident?
A large percentage of people with back pain have nothing more than tight
back muscles. Tight muscles are tired muscles, and tired muscles are often sore.
Tight, tired muscles are also more prone to cramping than relaxed, refreshed
muscles. Very tight back muscles may pull neighboring vertebrae together closely
enough to pinch nerve roots that exit the spinal canal, causing pain and numb-
ness in the extremities. When vertebrae are pulled closely together, discs
between the vertebrae may get compressed and even break down (bulge or rup-
ture) from long-term pressure.
Many symptoms of back trouble and their underlying causes can often be
corrected, or their progress stopped, by the movements shown in this program.
Here’s the simple premise of this approach: Muscular tension is controlled

by the brain. Some muscular activities, such as ordinary movement, are con-
trolled by the part of the brain dedicated to voluntary control; other muscular
activities, such as reflexes, are controlled by the part of the brain and nervous
system dedicated to involuntary bodily functions; still other muscular activities,
such as coordination, result from deliberate learning and become automatic, even
involuntary. After injury, long-term performance of a movement, holding of a
position, or stress, tension habits form and some freedom of movement is often
lost. Control has shifted from the voluntary to the involuntary centers of the
brain. The movements found in this book retrain the voluntary part of the brain
to take back control of those muscles from the involuntary parts of the brain.
v
Freedom of movement and comfort quickly improve.
I am a certified somatic educator who, by using the methods of somatic

training, has had consistent success with clients who have back trouble. The
results I get with the methods I use are highly reliable, even with difficult cases.
Because not everyone can get to see me or my colleagues (usually for geo-
graphical reasons), I have created this self-help book. Although not nearly as fast
to produce results as clinical sessions at my office, the methods found in this book
do bring relief to people with back trouble, results that are durable enough to
stand up to all of the activities of daily living. All that is required is to do the
movements I describe in the manner I describe, which is slowly, with awareness
of the sensations of movement, and within your comfort zone.
Your days of guarding a bad back can be over.
Lawrence Gold
Certified Hanna Somatic Educator
awareness@somatics.com
vi
CONTENTS
PREFACE
How Is This Program Different from Other Programs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
INTRODUCTION
Understanding and Overcoming Back Pain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
The Status Quo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Conventional Therapeutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
A Fresh Look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
The Significance of the Obvious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
My Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Stories of Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
INTRODUCING THE METHOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Orientation to the Somatic Coordination Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Whom is This Program For? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
What to Expect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
If You’re Overweight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
The Origins of the Somatic Coordination Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
UNDERSTANDING THE SOMATIC COORDINATION PATTERNS

About the Coordination Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
How to Go About Doing this Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
How Best to Learn the Somatic Coordination Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
The Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
The Feeling is the Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Pace Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Why “Gently”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Learning Control vs. Stretching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
What Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
The Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
The Meanings of Certain Terms Used in the Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Self-Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Preparatory Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
CHECKLIST A: Learning the Coordination Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
CHECKLIST B: Integrated Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

THE PROGRAM
MODULE 1A: Spine Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Special Technique: Muscle Equalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Hidden Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Spine Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
MODULE 1B: Lazy “8”s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

On Gravity and Sensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Lazy “8”s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
MODULE 1C: The Folding Seesaw and The Kite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Centering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
The Folding Seesaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
The Kite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
MODULE 2A: The Wiggling Jig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Explanation: The Whole Body Yawn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
The Wiggling Jig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
MODULE 2B: The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

Lengthening Your Sides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
MODULE 2C: The Twist that Untwists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Explanation: Security for Your Low Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
The Twist that Untwists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
MODULE 3A: In-Bed Stretches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

Relation and Mutuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
In-Bed Stretches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Module 3B: The Rising Sphinx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189

Introduction: Claiming Your Full Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
The Rising Sphinx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
Module 3C: The Mortar & Pestle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211

The Role of Adequate Water Intake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
The Mortar and Pestle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216
QUICK REFERENCE
Pictorial Summaries of Coordination Patterns
SUMMARY 1A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223
SUMMARY 1B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224
SUMMARY 1C(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
SUMMARY 1C(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226
SUMMARY 1C - COMPLETE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227
SUMMARY 2A(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228

SUMMARY 2A(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229
SUMMARY 2A(c) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230
SUMMARY 2B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231
SUMMARY 2C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232
SUMMARY 3A(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233
SUMMARY 3A(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234

SUMMARY 3A(c) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235
SUMMARY 3B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .236
SUMMARY 3C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Some Comments on Typical Terms Applied to Back Pain

Degenerative Disc Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241
Spinal Subluxations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242
Injury vs. Spasm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242
Referred Pain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
Facet Joint Syndrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
Radiculopathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
Appendix B: An Experiment in Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245
Appendix C: We Become How We Live: An Expanded View of The Three

Reflexes of Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249
Appendix D: A Functional Look at Back Pain and Treatment Methods . . . .265

.
Understanding and Overcoming Back Pain
This book has one basic message: you have a good chance of getting control
of and getting rid of your back pain - even if you’ve already had surgery. In
fact, if you’ve already had surgery and still have pain, what’s in this book
could be what frees you from it.
Such a claim may seem presumptuous. Can’t help it. At some point, when
better help is available, it ought to be declared. There’s inevitably a sound of
audacity to such a claim, particularly if it’s about a method other than the most
well-known and accepted methods, or the newest that medical science (e.g., exotic
surgeries or machines) can offer.
One of my favorite sayings is, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Still, if I am going to make a claim, I owe it to you to back it up with an

explanation.
Let me present a premise:
“A large percentage of chronic pain can be traced to tight muscles.”
Consider for a moment: What happens to muscles that stay tightly

contracted for a time? First, they tire; then, they burn; then, they lose strength.
Keep working them, they go into spasm, meaning, they simultaneously hurt and
become difficult to relax. (For commentary on technical terms associated with
back pain, see Appendix A.)
Consider your sore back muscles. Does that description sound familiar?
In that case, the question becomes how to get your tight back muscles to
relax.
You’ve tried massage. It works for a while, but then you tighten up, again,
and you need another massage.
Same thing with acupuncture; you go every two weeks or every week.
1
Same thing with chiropractic.
Perhaps you’ve been around the health care system and found the same
thing no matter where you’ve gone: temporary or incomplete relief.
That wouldn’t surprise me. Most ways of treating back pain have one
thing in common: they’re something done to you or for you, not something that
improves your control over your own muscles.
And then, something caused your pain to return, your muscles to tighten
up, again.
What might that be? What causes muscles to contract?
Answer: your nervous system.
Your nervous system, meaning, by and large, your brain, controls your
muscular system. Lift your arm, it’s your brain controlling that movement.
Your muscles don’t decide to contract, or to stay contracted, on their own.

Something has to control them all so that they act in coordinated ways. That
something is your brain.
This explanation has so far been a bit of an oversimplification, so let’s go

back and fill in the picture, a bit.
Firstly, there are at least two varieties of pain often experienced by back
pain sufferers that are not the pain of sore muscles. One variety is “nerve pain.”
Nerve pain occurs when a contracted muscle squeezes a nerve trapped between it
and another muscle or a bone. Sciatica is of that variety. Another variety is joint
pain, resulting from overcompression by tight muscles. Hip joint pain and facet
joint pain are of that variety.
Secondly, parts of our nervous system are under our voluntary control, and
others run on automatic.
2
In fact, though some of our brain functions are strictly automatic, our
brain is designed to establish new patterns of control and to make them
automatic by a process known as . . . . . learning.
Learning is what happens to make our muscles stay tense. Through injury
(which prompts our nervous system to contract muscles in an involuntary
cringing action) or through what I call, “insult” -- stressful, demanding, or plain-
old hard times, (which also prompts us to tighten up) -- our brain learns to accept
tension as the norm. After that, tension is established as a habit, and our brain
forgets to relax muscles during times of supposed rest.
Thomas Hanna, a pioneer researcher in the field of somatic education,

coined a term for that condition: Sensory-Motor Amnesia. He explained the
condition concisely, if technically: “It is my understanding that perhaps as many
as fifty percent of the cases of chronic pain suffered by human beings are caused
by sensory-motor amnesia (SMA). This is a condition in which the sensory-motor
neurons of the voluntary cortex have lost some portion of their ability to control
all or some of the muscles of the body.”1
The brain is the master-control organ of the muscular system. As an organ

of learning and conditioning, ones own brain has a power that manipulative
therapeutics does not: the ability to change how our muscles function.
The question is how to activate that power.
The answer is as simple as the first premise above (that much pain is
muscular in origin), and this answer is my second premise: the brain changes
how muscles function by learning.
This learning is not an alien kind of learning. Actually, it’s a familiar kind
of learning, one you experienced as you developed any skill. You learned to walk,
to write, to drive, all of which are activities with a large automatic component.
1. Hanna, Thomas L., Ph.D., “Clinical Somatic Education -- A New Discipline in the
Field of Health Care”. Somatics -- Magazine-Journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences, Vol.
VIII, No. 1. autumn/winter 1990-91.
3
You learned to control your muscles better by causing them to do what
muscles do, which is to cause movement. It’s learn by doing -- and your brain
does the learning.
The learning gained from this book, although a similar kind of learning,
occurs in a more organized way. It’s concentrated learning, structured (and
therefore easier) learning. For that reason, brain-muscle learning occurs fairly
quickly and can result in changes, in weeks, of conditions that have existed for
years.
If you have back trouble, it is likely that you’ve lost significant control of
the tension in your back muscles. You’re involuntarily tense. You need to
improve your control of those muscles, so that you can relax, again. Let those
muscles rest, let the soreness go out of them. Let the over-compression come off
your discs.
You may not be able to do that, now, but with the help of the coordination
pattern sequences presented in this book, you’ll learn to do it. These coordination
pattern sequences, as training exercises, can restore your trust in your back. By
relaxing your muscles, your back muscles become refreshed and comfortable. By
learning more efficient coordination, you get better balanced and more flexible.
By learning to control your strength better, you gain better use of your strength
and reduce the possibility of injury.
Words like that may still seem too incredible to be believed -- an

oversimplification of the problem. Many people think, "Back trouble is too
painful, too serious a condition to be dismissed that quickly, or that easily."
Why do people think so?
Perhaps it’s due to the history of conventional treatment methods. Based

on common experience, popular opinion holds that the problem of back pain is
large and difficult and anyone who says anything to the contrary suffers a loss of
credibility. So, let’s do a “reality check.”
4
The Status Quo
According to the mass communications media, back pain is a costly
epidemic that afflicts eight out of ten of us sometime in our lives. Medical
solutions -- drugs, exotic surgeries -- are the common fare of such reports.
Sometimes other methods are featured -- acupuncture, biofeedback, relaxation
techniques.
For the good these approaches do -- and some people do get relief from
them -- they often fail to bring lasting relief -- as you may have experienced.
Conventional Therapeutics
The traditional therapies with which most people are familiar often
require regular -- even lifelong -- care. It's either that, or drugs. Something else
is needed.
The results of conventional therapeutic measures are often temporary and

the person remains vulnerable to re-injury and subject to prescribed limitations
to movement. If you have had back trouble and been told to expect to live with
the problem for the rest of your life, you know what I mean.
Medical doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, osteopaths, and

bodyworkers use manipulative methods supplemented, in many cases, with
recommendations for "strengthening and stretching".
Let’s think about strengthening and stretching, for a moment. When

muscles contract, they always do one thing: shorten. The stronger the muscle
contracts, the shorter it gets. Weak muscles, on the other hand, cannot contract
and shorten as much as strong muscles do. The idea that a muscle is both weak
(and unable to shorten) and needs stretching (because too short) is a
contradiction. If a muscle is too short (and needs stretching), it’s most likely
because the muscle is too strongly contracted.
5
A Fresh Look
Clinical practitioners of the methods presented in this book very often find,
upon examination of a person's musculature, that their back trouble is not a
medical problem; it's a conditioning problem. Our clients usually have back
muscles conditioned into a painfully high state of tension that predisposes them
to muscle spasms. High-tension back spasms cause muscular soreness, compress
intervertebral discs (leading to bulging or herniated discs and so-called
“degenerative disc disease”), and cause the pain and numbness of sciatica.
Whatever medical problems may accompany back pain, they are usually
not the cause, but the effect, of heightened back tension. Back pain comes from
something the body is doing, not something that is happening to it.
What evidence do we have for this assertion?
The Significance of the Obvious

What, exactly, is it that seizes up and hurts when you have a back spasm?
Everybody knows the answer to that; what they do not know is, Why?
Thomas Hanna
pointed out that one
thing you will almost
always notice about
people with back pain
is their high shoulders
and swayback. One
thing that is almost
always said about
people with back
trouble is that they
LANDAU REACTION
have weak back CLOTHES DON’T MAKE THE MAN.
muscles. That’s rarely the case. Touch the lower

back of people with back trouble, and you will usually find the same thing: hard,
contracted muscles, not soft, flaccid muscles.
6
Except for momentary reflexes controlled in the spinal cord, muscles and
movement are controlled from the largest nerve center of the body, which is the
brain. That's the whole story. So, if you have tight, spastic muscles or pinched
nerves, the problem starts in your brain.
This answer is a "good news/bad news" type of answer. The bad news is
that your muscles are out of control, and it's your brain's fault! The good news is
that your muscles obey your brain, and your brain can be retrained.
The tension habit that keeps your back tight is the habit of being “wound
up,” “on the go” -- driven, driving, and reacting to every situation. That emotional
state triggers an ancient bodily reflex (known to developmental physiologists as
The Landau Reaction); this reaction tightens the muscles of the spine in
preparation for going from rest into activity. The Landau Reaction occurs as we
go into a heightened state of alertness in preparation for moving into action;
triggered incessantly for years -- by telephone calls, deadlines, hurrying to
placate impatient people, and general aggravation -- that reaction becomes a
tension habit, one that might outlast the stage of life when it seemed necessary.
Now, because physical therapists and exercise physiologists are going to be

reading this book, I need to make a bit of an aside, here. It is taught that the
Landau reaction is outgrown after a certain stage of infancy and does not appear
in the adult. However, the muscular pattern of contraction associated with back
pain matches the Landau Reaction, and it persists throughout a lifetime.
Perhaps this difference of opinion is only a matter of what we call the pattern of
contraction, but whatever name we use, this pattern of contraction is common
among human beings, is associated with heightened alertness, and lasts
throughout a lifetime as a normal response to the demand for action. So, despite
this disagreement, I refer to this pattern of contraction as the Landau reaction.
Many consequences of back pain -- degenerative disk disease, facet joint

irritation, pinched nerves, sciatica, headaches -- stem from habituated Landau
Reaction. These consequences arise from excessive tension and strain on body
tissues. They cannot be "cured" by manipulation because the body is "doing it to
7
itself" and does not stop “doing it to itself” until the tension habit of The Landau
Reaction is broken.
The Landau Reaction is behind the back-pain epidemic in our society.

However, just to clarify, The Landau Reaction is not “bad”; to the contrary: it’s a
normal arousal-response to situations that need our attention. What’s “bad” is
getting stuck in Landau Reaction. Getting stuck in Landau Reaction is a
consequence of accumulated stress.
Treatments for persons stuck in Landau Reaction (chronic tension and

stress) include pain-relievers, relaxation techniques, hypnosis, massage, skeletal
adjustments, electrical stimulation, muscle relaxant drugs, bed rest, and at last
(as at first) pain-relievers. Bed rest has been discredited, doctors having
discovered that people recover from back pain episodes more quickly when they
stay active (use, i.e., assert voluntary control over, the involved muscles.
Until recently, there was nothing better than

the therapeutic options listed above. Now there is.
New methods of learning and conditioning, such as
those found in this book, rapidly improve ones
ability to feel and control muscles tension, improve
freedom of movement and muscular control,
improve physical comfort and natural grace.
Once you have sufficiently improved your

control of your own body to regain your comfort and
trust in your back, a brief daily regimen of
movements is sufficient to keep you from
accumulating the daily tensions of a driven life of
job, schedules, home and career. COMING OUT OF LANDAU REACTION
8
My Story
It was Chrismas, 1979.
I was moving Christmas presents from their hiding place in the hall closet
to their place under the Christmas tree. This was not a particularly heavy box,
but as I leaned over to pick it up -- you know what happened. It was my first back
spasm, sharp and surprising. It lasted a few days and then was gone.
In the years that followed, my neck would from time to time seize up in
pain, preventing me from turning my head. A subsequent injury made things
worse, with searing pain that went down behind my right shoulder blade and
that lasted for months.
In 1988, I was a student at the California State University in Fresno,

majoring in Physical Therapy. Friends and family lived in the Santa Clara
Valley, a three hour drive from Fresno, and I made the trip as often as time
would permit.
During that time, a mysterious sensation appeared in my right leg. It felt

like a hot cable running from my buttock down the back of my thigh to my knee. I
didn’t know what it was, but I found that the only way I could get comfortable
was to tuck my leg under me and use my left foot for the accelerator. That
became my driving style.
By 1990, I was a student-in-training under Thomas Hanna, developer of

the approach presented here.
Dr. Hanna was a character with a penchant for the dramatic, a man who
at age sixty-one had the body of a forty-year-old. I have a picture of him grinning
down from the branches of an apricot tree on the campus of the Dominican
College in San Rafael, California, where he was conducting our training. He had
climbed the tree without a ladder.
On the second day of training, he announced with characteristic flair that

he was going to show us something that would seem to be miraculous. On the
day before, he had started preparing us to learn something that had never been
9
taught, before, but when he made this announcement, my “hype” meter came on
strongly. I sat up, and with arms crossed, thought to myself, “O.K. Let’s see it.”
He asked for a volunteer, and from those who raised their hands, he
selected a tall man in his sixties with rounded shoulders and a sunken chest. He
invited the man to lie down on a padded treatment table, on his back. After
explaining what he was about to do, he proceeded to guide the man through a
series of slow-motion, hands-on movement maneuvers that, in the space of about
thirty seconds, shifted one shoulder from its held position, lifted off the table, to a
new position, relaxed and flat on the table -- this, without massaging or
stretching. One of the other students, a trainer in a method of bodywork called
Hellerwork, had one word to say: “Astonishing!” Then, Dr. Hanna and his
volunteer did the other shoulder.
I had just seen something I had never seen before. Dr. Hanna had told the
truth.
In the weeks that followed, we students-in-training learned Dr. Hanna’s

methods by ministering to each other. In the process, the hot cable behind my
right thigh and my searing neck pain have disappeared and never returned.
This is not the end of the story, however.
In my mother’s side of the family, there is a tendency toward lower back

pain. Some older members of the family have a forward-leaning posture
characteristic of the elderly. I, myself, have had a similar tendency, with
nagging, low-level pain at the waistline that came and went, but presented no
limitation to my movement -- until one day.
I had just finished delivering a workshop on somatic techniques and was

helping to stack chairs when a very unexpected thing happened. My low back
seized up. The pain was deep in my pelvis and felt like lightening bolts that went
down the fronts of my thighs. (The ministrations of my fellow students during
our training period had failed to reach that deeply.)
I thought to clear the pain up by using the somatic techniques that I knew,
but I couldn’t reach it. Something new was needed, and I didn’t have it.
10
After weeks, the pain subsided, but in the months that followed, recurred
several times.
If I was to get relief and to be able to walk my talk, I felt I had no

alternative but to explore the problem and arrive at a solution.
I took two years or so of delving into movement explorations, but I finally

found a combination of coordinated movements that reached where nothing had
reached, before. I was able, at last, to relax the deep contractions of my pain and
achieve relief.
“Physician, heal thyself,” was a phrase Dr. Hanna used in one of his
lectures to us. I was at last able to be true to Dr. Hanna’s challenge and to be a
well-tested example of what I represented to others.
Further exploration of those coordination patterns have led to new

techniques and to refinements of the movements, themselves, which I present to
you in this book.
Stories of Others
In working with clients, I have come across some interesting situations.
I’ll present some here.
“Tobe,” an avid rider and fox hunter, had a history of injuries from falling
off her horse. She had what she described as “horrible sciatica and lower back
pain” that was ruining her life. In her own words, “I hurt all the time. I tried
chiropractic, massage, and pain killers. Nothing worked.” She was unable to
sleep on her back or to maintain any lying position for more than a few minutes.
I will not pretend that this was a quick fix. Tobe had so many injuries that
the pain of one injury would prevent us from doing the movements that would
free her from the pain of another. Eventually, however, we were able to unravel
the situation, and she now sleeps comfortably on her back and has no need of
either treatment or pain medication.
11
“James,” a sculptor, suffered debilitating back and neck pain that
interfered with his ability to work. A tall man, he had multiple postural
problems. In addition to a tight low back, he had a tight chest that pulled his ribs
down, restricting his breathing and forcing his head forward. A moment’s
visualization and you can see how this would be the posture of someone who
stoops forward to be close to his work, and perhaps to be less tall in a world of
shorter people. In fact, because of the nature of his work, James tends to recreate
the problem.
Under my guidance, using the methods shown in this book, he has been
able to get relief and to maintain it by himself for long periods of time.
The significance of his story is that people’s occupations can cause them
problems, but that by using the methods shown in this book, they can recover and
maintain their physical comfort. As Dr. Hanna put it, “You can have your cake
and eat it, too.”
Another person, Janette, was unable to see me in person, due to

geographical distance. Having been diagnosed with a slipped disc and a disc
bulge, and having failed to obtain relief from physiotherapy or from two years of
osteopathic treatment, she sought help on the internet and found Somatics on the
Web (somatics.com). After consulting with me by e-mail, she began a program of
somatic instruction that brought her relief. Her letter appears on the website at
www.somatics.com/JCourt.htm.
“Sally,” a health-educator in California and a small woman, suffered injury

when she was hugged rather too enthusiastically by a large man. You can
imagine. She also found me on the internet. Her diagnosis: ligament damage.
Listening to her story, I was unconvinced of the diagnosis. It takes an awful lot
to damage ligaments. Since the methods I offer are gentle and non-invasive, it
was perfectly safe for Sally to try them. She has since recovered her physical
comfort.
I have presented some rather challenging cases, including my own. I am

confident that with the methods presented here, you, too, can obtain the relief
you need.
12
Introducing the Method
13
(This page deliberately blank.)
14
Orientation to This Program
Whom is This Program For?

This program is for people who have had back injuries that have not
healed as expected, for people with discomfort accompanying scoliosis or
excessive kyphosis (types of curvature of the spine), for people who want to
improve their posture, and for professional athletes who want to improve their
performance and reduce the likelihood of injury.
It is appropriate for people with long-standing chronic, and recent acute

injuries. If you have had a recent injury, however, get the advice of your
physician before beginning any regimen of physical conditioning. Show this
program to your physician and to your physical therapist, if you are under their
care, to find out if they are ruled out by your condition. Ask if you might try the
coordination patterns under their supervision (with them guiding you).
What to Expect
Generally, you can expect decreases of chronic pain and increases in
freedom of movement. You can expect improvements in flexibility, strength,
coordination, balance, posture and appearance. You’ll feel better and look better.
Your energy for movement is likely to increase. In fact, expect to discover that
you have more strength and more energy for movement.
You may find that your comfort and flexibility improve immediately with
each pass through a movement sequence. Sometimes, you may also notice that
some of the pain returns. If it returns, that means you haven’t yet sufficiently
retrained your brain; your old conditioning is reasserting itself. Don’t worry.
Just persist in the program, and you’ll find that your improvements accumulate.
The results you get will largely reflect how well you convert words into
actions. Your first performances of these coordination patterns are likely to be
approximations of the instructions; you may find, at times, that what you think
you are doing and what you are actually doing are a bit different! With practice,
15
you will find you can do the movements more exactly as instructed and get
quicker improvements.
These coordination patterns are safe to do, provided you do them gently
and with consideration for your comfort. Regulate your effort to be within the
range of sensations you are willing to experience.
If You’re in the Acute Phase of Back Pain

You’ll have to go more gently and exercise patience.
It’s a practical question: Can you do the movements as shown or does your
pain prevent it? If your pain prevents it, you need to do what you can and work
up to doing the movements as instructed.
If you’re in acute pain, I recommend that you do three gentle sessions per
day. The pain will subside in the hours that follow each session. Once you’ve got
more movement, you may reduce to two and then one session per day.
If You’re Overweight
If you’re overweight, particularly if you have a belly that protrudes
significantly, you have a preparatory project ahead of you: lose the excess weight.
I’m sorry to say it, but that belly adds significant strain to your back. The
more weight you have forward of your midline, the more you must bend back
from your waist, up, to stay in balance. Otherwise, that weight pulls you forward
and off-balance. The muscles that enable you to bend back are found in your mid-
and-upper back, aided by your low back muscles.
In other words, you are unlikely have a completely successful outcome

from this program without dealing with your excess weight.
I have some suggestions -- the usual ones. Diet and exercise.
By “diet,” I don’t mean go on a diet. I mean change your diet and eating
habits permanently. That may mean eating smaller portions, and it probably
means changing your dietary mix. Carbohydrates, particularly simple
16
carbohydrates -- sugars and white flour -- raise the blood insulin level and cause
carbohydrates to be stored as fat. As dietary recommendations are beyond the
scope of this book, my recommendation is that you start reading about diet and
start experimenting until you find a dietary mix that works for you.
By “exercise,” I mean some activity that gets your metabolic rate up. A
walk for twenty minutes, twice a day, will help. Your metabolic rate, once
elevated by exercise, tends to stay elevated for hours. I also mean some activity
that builds muscles, as muscles burn fat. If you hurt too much to exercise, start
with this program, and when your pain levels are lower, exercise more.
About Emotions and Nervous Tension

The term, “nervous tension,” has a physical as well as an emotional
meaning. It’s summarized in the slang expression, “uptight,” and refers to the
fact that emotional tension is accompanied by muscular tension. It’s the mind-
body connection in action.
Sometimes, habits of life contribute to emotional tension. Sometimes,

muscular tension lingers after the emotional tension has passed.
If you’re passing through an emotionally trying period of life, you need to

handle the issues surrounding your emotional tension, which by itself can trigger
nervous tension and back pain. Even so, this program will give you relief.
To help you get a handle on clearing up the habits of life that may be
contributing to emotional tension in some readers, I have included a reprint of an
article of mine originally published in Somatics -- the Magazine-Journal of the
Mind-Body Arts and Sciences. You’ll find it in Appendix C. If you’re under
emotional stress beyond that caused by your back pain, I recommend you read it
and make the necessary changes in your habits of life.
The Origins of the Somatic Coordination Patterns

The word, “somatic,” is a word with a special meaning. It refers to the body
experienced and controlled from within. Derived from ancient Greek, “soma,”
17
means “living, self-aware body.” This self-awareness includes the kind of
internal self-awareness you have of chewing or yawning, for example.
Though the somatic coordination patterns are new, their underlying

principles are similar to those of ancient yoga, dating back thousands of years.
The word, “yoga”, means “union,” including, specifically, the union of mind and
body. The somatic coordination patterns improve your sense of the union of your
mind and body; your body will be able better to do what your mind intends it to
do. So both the meaning of the word, soma, and the basic discoveries upon which
the somatic coordination patterns are based, are ancient.
More recently, four individuals stand out as originators whose work

contributed to the methods found in this program: F. Mathhias Alexander, Gerda
Alexander ((no relation to F. Matthias), Moshe Feldenkrais, and Thomas Hanna.
F. Matthias Alexander developed a system of movement education called The
Alexander Technique. Many practitioners of that approach exist today.
Alexander was a Shakespearean orator whose techniques grew out his search for
a way to control his stage fright, which was causing him to lose his voice. Gerda
Alexander was another developer of somatic education, whose method was called
Eutony. Feldenkrais studied both Alexanders’ work, and evolved it with his own
insights and methods. He called the result, Functional Integration. Hanna, in
turn, evolved Functional Integration along his own lines, calling the result
Hanna Somatic Education, which he first described in his book, Somatics:
Reawakening the Mind’s Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health (published
by Perseus Publishing).
In each case, what was involved was a way to improve self-awareness and
freedom of movement - intentions originally found in ancient yoga.
All somatic coordination patterns, including those developed by Alexander,

Feldenkrais, and Hanna, enhance your ability to function by having you put your
intention where your attention is and your attention where your intention is.
The integration of what I learned from Thomas Hanna and others, coupled with
my own research and development efforts, has led to the somatic coordination
patterns found in this book.
18
Understanding the
Somatic Developmental
Coordination Patterns
19
20
About the Coordination Patterns
THE COORDINATION PATTERNS DON’T LOOK LIKE MUCH.
WHAT THEY FEEL LIKE IS SOMETHING ELSE.
In the sessions that follow, you will recover and improve voluntary control
of the muscles that affect your back. Some of these muscles are in your back and
others affect the muscles in your back by affecting your posture and balance. As
you improve your control of these muscles, involuntary tensions let go. The
muscles stay in a relaxed state unless you are using them.
The most common mistake people make doing the coordination patterning
is to use too much effort, which sometimes leads to cramping. If you get a cramp,
use less effort and lend more attention to what you are feeling. Soon, you will no
longer tend to cramp.
You should also know that there is a possibility of some soreness appearing
once you have started working with the coordination patterns. Don’t worry.
Soreness is a normal, but temporary, outcome for a certain percentage of people.
It passes by itself in a day or so. If you do get sore, give yourself a rest for a day,
then pick up where you left off in the program.
I present these coordination patterns in a specific sequence; each

coordination pattern builds upon the gains produced by those that came before.
If you find a coordination pattern too difficult or painful, don’t worry.
Instructions will guide you to a preparatory coordination pattern that will make
things easier. Take your time progressing from one coordination pattern to the
next; be thorough and patient. You need the results from the earlier coordination
patterns to get the best results from the later ones.
21
How to Go About Doing this Program
Since you’re making changes in yourself, it’s important to know what you
mean to do. My basic suggestions:
• Make sure you understand the ideas in this section.
• Play the audio CDs and follow along in this book. Use the illustrations
to make sure the instructions make sense to you.
• When doing the coordination patterns, exercise patience. Allow for

some confusion at the beginning. This is a learning process, after all.
At the end of this section, you will find a checklist that guides you through
the program. Each day has a space for you to make an appointment with yourself
and with me (via this program). Each time you complete a session (daily is best),
check off the corresponding place in the checklist abd decide on a time for your
next session. Enter it into the space. It’s now a “prior engagement.”
How Best to Learn the Somatic Coordination Patterns

First, set a time in your schedule. There is a checklist at the end of this
section To be effective, the somatic coordination patterns require concentration,
care, and undistracted time. Allow yourself about thirty minutes, each session;
many will be shorter.
The coordination patterns provide a learning experience. Learn to perform

them equally well, with equal control. After you have learned a coordination
pattern, you are ready to learn the next.
• Start with larger muscular efforts; use enough muscular effort to feel
where the muscular effort is; gain confidence.
• Decrease the amount of effort; improve your control of how much effort
you use (more or less).
The meaning of the instructions becomes clearer with experience. Always

do them in an exploratory, deliberate way, rather than in a rote, mechanical way.
There is an unsuspected depth of self-awareness in you, revealed by the
22
coordination patterns, and the more you do them, the more you will benefit. The
somatic coordination patterns are more than they may seem to be.
To get the most benefit from a somatic coordination pattern, go slowly

enough to sense the movement as you do it, using just enough effort to sense the
movement, and feeling the areas indicated in the instructions. If you feel areas
tense other than those indicated, feel whether they are actually needed for the
movement, and if not, relax them. That way, you will continually uncover
patterns of tension you have held without awareness and be able to relax them.
Practically speaking, the first time you do a movement, you are likely to
need more muscular effort to sense your muscular effort than you will with
subsequent repetitions. Use as much effort as needed to get a bit more sensation
in the involved areas (the amount of sensation you are willing to experience);
never cause yourself to cringe, from pain, from over-effort, or from fear. Once you
can feel how you cause a movement to occur, decrease the amount of effort as
your ability to feel muscles awakens. Soon, you will be more able to distinguish
the muscles that are non-essential to the movement and to let them be relaxed.
To repeat, as you start a coordination pattern:
• Notice the first sensation of effort as you move from rest into action.
• During the contraction phase of a movement, hold the contraction long

enough for the feeling of the contraction to “fade in” and stabilize.
During the relaxation phase, relax slowly; the relaxation phase, done
slowly, produces significant improvements in muscular control.
• As you end a movement, notice the last sensation of effort as it

disappears into rest.
• Always relax completely between repetitions of a movement. Take your

time.
The earlier sessions prepare you for those that come later. Do one new
session several times within a week until it’s very familiar to you. Follow each
23
session with a brief review of the previous one; use the illustrated summary page
to remind you how to do it.
If a coordination pattern seems too difficult or feels painful, go more slowly

and more gently. If you haven’t spent enough time with an earlier coordination
pattern, you may need to go back to an earlier session to prepare yourself better.
If you find that going back to an earlier coordination pattern doesn’t help, follow
the instructions to a coordination pattern elsewhere in the program that can
prepare you for the one with which you’re having difficulty.
Given the tendency people have to accumulate nervous tension, you will
probably find it beneficial to spend about ten minutes a day reviewing the
coordination patterns in the order in which they appear, in this program. You
may be surprised at the new improvements you get with each pass through.
24
The Instructions
Each set of instructions starts with a STARTING POSITION, followed by
the KEY to the coordination pattern. The is a special hint for doing
the coordination pattern in good form, for best (and easiest) results. The
symbol appears at instructions where the helps to get the result.
The somatic coordination patterns often have several parts, which you add
together for greater potency. The simplest steps of the movement are numbered.
More advanced additions to movements appear as follows:
1. (main instruction, basic

level)
⇒ 2nd level⇒ (additional instruction)

(intermediate level)
⇒ 3rd level⇒ (additional instruction)

(more proficient level)
Adding the additional parts makes a coordination pattern more potent,

provided you are doing the basic part correctly. For that reason, it is necessary to
rehearse the basic part until you can do it easily, before adding the additional
parts.
Within each module, you’ll notice that numbering often starts over at (1.).
Each new set of instructions starting with (1.) is a unit to be practiced by itself
until you get the intended sensations, before moving on. Do all of the units of a
module.
In a section that follows the instructional modules, you will find a pictorial
SUMMARY. In most cases, the SUMMARY is a short form of the instructions. As
with any summary, it’s useful only as a reminder of what you have already
25
learned, not as a substitute for the full instructions, themselves. Once you have
gotten the results from this program and are in the maintenance phase, when
you do a few minues a day, use a SUMMARY to remind yourself how to do a
coordination pattern.
Significant results come relatively quickly from doing the somatic

coordination patterns. Make them part of your daily regimen. With experience,
you’ll know how much time you want to take.
The Feeling is the Thing

Unlike most systems of exercise, the essence of the somatic
coordination patterns is the sensations they produce, particularly
during the slow relaxation phase of each somatic coordination
pattern. The long-term change occurs during the relaxation phase.
Pace Yourself
Doing things at the usual speed, we tend to do them in the usual way.
The whole point of these coordination patterns is to do something in a new

way: to change how we move and how we feel.
You may have noticed that you can’t see much detail in things that are
moving quickly; it’s much easier to see the details of things that are moving
slowly.
The same is true of your body-image.
In the case of the somatic coordination patterns, the slower you move, the
more time you have for details to “fade in” to your perception. In other words,
during a movement, you may not at first perceive the restrictions and habitual
tensions of your usual way of moving. However, as you slow down and pay
attention to the sensation of effort, you discover the unnecessary tensions you
hold during movement. For example, people forget to breathe! You may even
discover that you are holding tension that directly interferes with the movement
of a coordination pattern.
26
If you catch the interfering tension at the very moment it begins, you will
be able to relax it. At that point, you can release the interfering tension. As you
do, you will notice your movement getting smoother, feeling more elegant and
under your control. If you catch interfering tension too late (because you’ve gone
too fast), it is already too much a part of the movement for you to relax. So, to go
slowly is essential.
Go slower with each repetition, maintaining the smoothness of the

movement.
At the beginning of this explanation were the words, “The whole point of
these coordination patterns is to do something in a new way: to change how we
move and feel.” These words are, at this moment, an abstract generality to you;
they don’t have much meaning. Their meaning will be obvious once you
experience results from the coordination patterns.
Here’s another set of words that will have meaning once you start the
coordination patterns: INTEND, ALLOW, DO.
That means, “Know exactly what you INTEND to do, get the distinct
feeling of ALLOWING yourself to do it (relax into doing it), and then, DO it.
Why “Gently”?
Another way of putting it would be, “in a leisurely way.”
To do the movements in this program gently (or in a leisurely way) calls for
you to develop more care and awareness of what you are doing. So going gently is
not being lazy, nor is it a sign that you are weak. It is a way of operating more
carefully and attentively, and it is particularly valuable when confronting a
challenge. It is a way of working smarter, not harder.
It also teaches your brain what less contracted muscles feel like and
cultivates a shift from more contracted (at rest) toward relaxed.
27
Finally, it teaches control. Instead of muscles being stuck in contraction,
you develop the ability to control the degree of contraction -- essential for balance,
agility and grace.
So, “gently” is a secret key to improve control.
Learning Control vs. Stretching

Concerns with stretching muscles point to one key observation: muscles
get shortened.
The key question is, “Why?”
The nervous system controls the muscular system. Muscles have no

control of their own. The obvious conclusion to draw is that muscles get
shortened because the nervous system is stimulating them to contract.
That being the case, how can someone’s being stretched (or adjusted or
massaged) by someone else possibly change the person’s way of controlling their
own muscles? How can a person internalize the change merely by being
manipulated from outside? To internalize a change requires learning (to do for
oneself), the need for which is neither recognized nor intended when being
stretched by another. The changes that result from stretching are therefore
generally unpredictable and unstable.
As a result, people return, by tendency, to the level of tension (or

shortening) they experience habitually.
Athletes and dancers attempt to stretch their hamstrings (at the backs of
the thighs), for example, to avoid injury. “Attempt” is the correct word because
stretching produces only limited and temporary effects, which is one reason why
so many athletes (and dancers) suffer pulled hamstrings and knee problems.
Clearly, whatever benefits stretching confers, it has some significant

drawbacks.
As anyone who has had someone stretch their hamstrings (or any other
muscle) knows, forcible stretching is usually a painful ordeal. Because muscles
cannot relax and lengthen beyond what the conditioned postural reflexes permit,
attempts to stretch muscles work against those reflexes. Someone stretches their
muscles. The muscles resist. It hurts. Afterwards, the muscles feel weaker. So
28
they tighten up, again. This return of muscular tension (controlled by
conditioned postural reflexes) makes repeated stretching necessary.
Fortunately, there is a way out of this situation, another way to deal with
muscular tension than by stretching. To understand how it works, we must first
start with the recognition that muscles that need stretching are usually holding
tension -- that is, they are actively contracting. The person is holding them tense
by habit, usually involuntarily and without awareness.
Oddly enough, if you try to relax muscles that are habitually tight, using
an act of will, you are likely to find that your ability to do so is limited; you cannot
relax past a certain point, even with special breathing, visualization, or other
non-learning based techniques.
At that point, you may assume that those muscles are completely relaxed
and need stretching. You may not recognize that you are contracting “on
automatic” due to postural habits stored in your brain.
Any attempt to stretch them simply re-triggers the impulse to re-contract

them to restore the sense of what is “familiar”. That is why hamstrings (and
other muscles) tighten up again so soon after stretching or massage.
Better results come by changing the muscles’ tension-set-point -- the

degree of relaxation muscles attain when we are not voluntarily contracting
them. Ponder this point for a moment until you understand it.
What Works
... is to shift the “tension-set-point” that your muscles habitually assume from one
of continual tension to natural relaxation. That way, you contract only when you
intend to do so.
To change the set-point requires more than stretching or massaging; it

requires a learning process that affects the brain, which controls the muscular
system. Such a learning process is referred to in some circles as “somatic
training” or “somatic education.” Somatic development involves enhancing the
ability to feel the body from within. The brain “wakes up” and its ability to
control muscular tension, relaxation, and coordination, is enhanced.
Techniques that enhance the ability to feel the body from within often use
systematic exercise techniques and movement maneuvers to improve the brain-
29
body connection. These techniques do what biofeedback does, but without need
for electronic instruments -- and the results are usually more durable, more
robust, than the results of biofeedback.
The Mechanism
By deliberately contracting already-contracted muscles, using patterns of
movement, the coordination patterns send a clear sensory signal to the brain, a
signal that wakes up (or refreshes) the related nerve pathways. By releasing the
contraction in slow motion, you improve your brain’s ability to control the amount
of muscular tension. Performance in slow-motion gives a clearer and more
complete body image.
Slow motion is the key to coordination patterns and to any other learning
process where details make a difference.
Significant results come relatively quickly from doing somatic coordination

patterns, and when they do, the benefits are durable, feel second-nature, and
require no special attention during ordinary activities.
To avoid accumulating tension from stress responses in daily life -- or from

repetitive use of certain movement patterns -- it is advisable to include a few
minutes of somatic coordination patterns in your daily health regimen.
Continuing to do somatic coordination patterns produces cumulative
improvements in muscular control and decreases the likelihood of injury during
vigorous activities. With the looseness that develops, you are likely to develop a
preference for somatic coordination patterns over stretching.
TO CHANGE YOUR SET-POINT REQUIRES MORE THAN STRETCHING OR

MASSAGING; IT REQUIRES YOU TO IMPROVE YOUR CONTROL OVER YOUR
MUSCULAR TENSION -- BOTH YOUR AMOUNT OF STRENGTH AND YOUR
COORDINATION. THIS BOOK TEACHES YOU TO DO JUST THAT.
30
The Meanings of Certain Terms Used in the Instructions
In the instructions, certain terms have specific meanings. So you have an
easier time understanding the instructions, I define these terms, below. To
understand them once is sufficient -- so take your time to understand them.
lift = to move away from the ground, against gravity

up = away from the ground, against graviy
lower = to move toward the ground, giving in to gravity
down = toward the ground, giving in to gravity
push = to apply force away from yourself
pull = to draw toward yourself
underside = the side on which you are lying or sitting
topside = your uppermost side in relation to the Earth
slowly = slowly enough to feel your movement continuously as
you move
gently = two “degrees” more gently than you think of as gentle,
but with enough effort to feel what you are doing
smoothly = without sudden movements or loss of control
where the movement comes from = as you move, the location of
the most vivid sensation of muscular contraction, as revealed by
the sense of effort ... the location of a contraction, not of a stretch.
hold = to maintain an effort at a steady level
Pause in place. = Stop moving and stay in position.
Pause and feel. = Stop moving, and in the position you are in, feel
your muscles at work.
Feel what’s working. = Feel which muscles are working by the
sense of effort.
31
Getting Started
The coordination patterns in this book are organized so that if one
coordination pattern is too painful or difficult for you to do, another coordination
pattern will prepare you for it. When you return to the previous coordination
pattern, you will now find it do-able.
The following diagram shows the main sequence (coordination patterns of

same color) and the “debugging” sequence (indicated by arrows). You go to the “de-
bugging” pattern and do it for four days, then return to the coordination pattern
from which you came.
Table 1: Learning Plan
MODULE 1 MODULE 2 MODULE 3

COORDINATION Spine The In-Bed
PATTERN A Waves Wigging Jig Stretches
Yoga of the
COORDINATION Lazy “8”s Reclining The Dog Stretch
PATTERN B Buddha
The The Twist The
COORDINATION Folding that Untwists Mortar & Pestle
PATTERN C Seesaw
Do the coordination patterns at least once each day. Twice is better -- once
in the morning and once in the evening: before dinner, after dinner, or just before
going to bed. That way, you set the tone for your day (more comfortable) and for
your night of sleep (more relaxed).
The hardest part of this program will probably be to get started. So, begin
the program immediately by reading Self-Assessment and Preparatory Learning,
which follow this section. Then do the coordination pattern. It will take you
about five minutes.
32
To start any new program requires an act of will -- self-determination. An
easy way to see how determined you really are is to repeat the following sentence
to yourself: “I’m doing this program until I get results.” Repeat it to yourself now,
three times. Afterwards, notice what you feel about doing the program. That
may also reveal something about how you “do” your life.
As a general guideline, spend at least one week with one coordination

pattern, done thoroughly several times, before moving on. These coordination
patterns have a depth that is not achieved in one or two performances. More
performance brings more results; there is an unsuspected depth in these
coordination patterns and in you.
One final word: You may get results early on in this program. You may be
inclined to stop there. Continue through the whole program. Unsuspected
benefits await you.
33
NOTE: THE IMPROVEMENTS YOU GET FROM THE SOMATIC
COORDINATION PATTERNS ARE CUMULATIVE. UNLIKE CONVENTIONAL
POSTURAL TRAINING, YOU DO NOT NEED TO HOLD GOOD POSTURE TO
HAVE GOOD POSTURE AFTER DOING THESE COORDINATION PATTERNS.
YOUR POSTURE WILL IMPROVE NATURALLY. DO NOT HOLD “GOOD
POSTURE,” AS IT ONLY ADDS TENSION TO YOUR OTHER HABITUAL
TENSIONS. IF ANYTHING, ASSUME A LONG, TALL POSTURE THEN RELAX
INTO IT AND LET GO.
ONCE YOU FEEL IMPROVEMENTS, GET ACTIVE. DON’T GUARD AREAS

BECAUSE THEY “MIGHT” HURT. THE SAYING, “USE IT OR LOSE IT,”
APPLIES.
34
Self-Assessment
There is a common pattern of muscular tension in people with back
trouble. This pattern usually involves tension in the muscles at the backs of the
shoulders, along the spine, in the buttocks, and sometimes the neck and
hamstrings.
This section gives you a chance to get familiar with your pattern of
muscular tension. It’s useful to have a clear picture of where you’re starting, so
you can recognize and own your progress. After you complete each coordination
pattern, you will have a chance to feel the changes.
Lie on your back. As you lie there, notice how much space there is between
your low back and the surface on which you’re lying. Slide a hand under your low
back and feel the space. Do that now. (Stop reading.)
- ~ o 0 O 0 o ~ -
The space you felt is the result of the muscles of your low back contracting.
As they do, their tension has the same effect on your back as the string of an
archer’s bow: The tension of your back muscles creates a curve in your back just
as the tension of the bowstring creates the curve of the archer’s bow.
Other muscles at the front of your hip joints may be contributing.
The coordination patterns that follow will retrain your muscles to relax.
You will feel this curve decrease as you do them.
Lie on your back, again. Feel how your shoulders and buttocks contact the
surface. Do this now. (Stop reading.)
- ~ o 0 O 0 o ~ -
After each coordination pattern, take some time to feel how your shoulders
and buttocks meet the surface.
35
Preparatory Learning
STARTING POSITION:
• lying on your back
• knees up, legs balanced (upright)

leaning neither in nor out
• arms bent with hands at shoulder

height
1. Bring your attention to your

breathing.
2. Bring your attention to your

5 throat behind your nose.
3. Feel your throat (behind your

nose) cool with inhalation,
warm with exhalation.
You have located the place where your head

rests upon your topmost neck vertebra, on
the inside. In the following coordination
patterns, this place is called, “the place
behind your nose.”
36
4. By moving your head slowly in
a nodding (“yes”) movement,
locate the head position at
which the place behind your
nose, in your throat, opens, and
the place at the back of your
head where your neck meets,
begins to close.
That’s known as “the neutral position.”
37
• Always regulate your effort to be within your comfort
zone: the amount of sensation you can experience
without fear or cringing.
• Follow the instructions, but breathe when you need to!
• Begin with the least amount of effort needed to

feel your effort. You may need to contract and
relax a number of times to feel it.
• Contract your muscles in a leisurely way and

slowly enough to feel the first sensation of effort.
Notice where you feel it. Feel there
continuously through the movement.
• Let the sensation “set in” before relaxing.
• Be sure to relax completely between repetitions.
• To repeat, be sure to relax completely between

repetitions.
38
CHECKLIST A
Learning the Coordination Patterns
The following checklist helps you get and stay on course. Each time you
finish the day’s program, check the box [ ] and make an appointment for your
next session in the space marked, “NEXT APPOINTMENT DATE AND TIME.” Mark
your calendar, also. That’s your next appointment with me, via this program.
If you miss an appointment, just set another time and pick up where you
left off. If you don’t complete a day’s program, complete that day’s program, next
time. Start the next day’s program, the time after that.
Light face indicates “introduction”; bold face indicates instruction.

Day 1 MODULE 1 [ ] Spine Waves page 45 CD 1 tracks 4, 5
________________________
NEXT APPOINTMENT DAY AND TIME

________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________
Day 7 MODULE 1 [ ] Lazy “8”s page 77 CD 2 tracks 1, 2

________________________

________________________
39
________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________
Day 16 MODULE 1 [ ] The Folding Seesaw

________________________ and The Kite page 91 CD 2 tracks 3, 4, 5

________________________ and The Kite page 91 CD 2 tracks 4, 5

________________________ and The Kite page 91 CD 2 tracks 4, 5

________________________


40

________________________
Day 23 MODULE 2 [ ] The Wiggling Jig page 111 CD 2 tracks 6, 7

________________________ page 118 CD 3 track 1
Day 24 MODULE 2 [ ] The Wiggling Jig page 111 CD 2 tracks 6, 7

________________________ page 118 CD 3 track 1
Day 25 MODULE 2 [ ] The Wiggling Jig page 118 CD 3 track 1

________________________ page 130 CD 3 track 2

________________________ page 130 CD 3 track 2

________________________ page 118 CD 3 track 1

________________________ page 118 CD 3 track 1

________________________ The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha page 137 CD 3 tracks 3, 4

________________________ The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha page 137 CD 3 track 4


41

Day 35 MODULE 2 [ ] The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha page 137 CD 3 track 4
_______________________ [ ] The Twist that Untwists page 149 CD 4 tracks 1, 2
Day 38 MODULE 3 [ ] In-Bed No-Stretch Stretches page 165 CD 4 tracks 3, 4, 5

________________________ page 171
Day 39 MODULE 3 [ ] In-Bed No-Stretch Stretches page 165 CD 4 tracks 4, 5

________________________ page 171
Day 40 MODULE 3 [ ] In-Bed No-Stretch Stretches page 165 CD 4 tracks 4, 5

________________________ page 171
Day 41 MODULE 3 [ ] In-Bed No-Stretch Stretches page 165 CD 4 track 4

________________________ page 183 CD 5 track 1

________________________ page 183 CD 5 track 1

________________________ page 183 CD 5 track 1
Day 44 MODULE 3 [ ] The Rising Sphinx page 193 CD 5 tracks 2, 3

________________________
42
________________________

________________________
________________________

________________________
Day 49 MODULE 3 [ ] The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha page 137 CD 3 tracks 3, 4
________________________

________________________
Day 51 MODULE 3 [ ] The Mortar & Pestle page 216 CD 5 tracks 4, 5

________________________

________________________

________________________
Day 54 MODULE 3 [ ] The Mortar & Pestle page 216 CD 5 track 5

________________________ The Rising Sphinx page 193 CD 5 track 3
________________________ The Mortar & Pestle page 216 CD 5 track 5
Day 56 MODULE 3 [ ] The Mortar & Pestle page 216 CD 5 track 5

________________________
43
CHECKLIST B
Review
Day 57 [ ] page 45 CD 1 track 5
________________________ page 89 CD 2 track 4

________________________ page 137 CD 3 track 4

________________________ page 137 CD 3 track 4

________________________ page 137 CD 3 track 4

________________________ page 183 CD 5 track 3

________________________ page 183 CD 5 track 3

________________________ page 214 CD 5 track 5
Congratulations! You’ve done what you set out to do!
44
MODULE 1A
Spine Waves
5
Ø
45
Module 1A: Spine Waves

46
Special Technique: Muscle Equalization
Why Equalize Muscular Efforts?

The procedures that follow have a very interesting feature: they involve
equalizing the tension and sensation of muscles in two or more areas at once.
Why equalize tensions? It unlocks tension patterns.
A very odd thing happens when muscle groups that ordinarily work
together get conditioned to maintain unequal degrees of tension. They get stuck
in unequal degrees of tension!
That means that as soon as one group goes below its usual degree of rest-
ing tension, its co-worker group,which may already be at too low a level of tension
for postural stability, goes even lower. For the sake of stability, the brain brings
the too-low group back up to a higher level of tension, which brings its co-worker
group back to where it started.
It’s a stuck situation.
The solution is to link the two groups together in a single

action and to bring them to comparable levels of tension and sen-
sation.
That’s what the following coordination patterns do. THE “EQUALIZE” ICON
By so doing, they produce some remarkable changes of muscular control,

posture, and balance, for which there is no adequate substitute.
The effect on back spasms? Permission to relax!
All of the coordination patterns in this book consist of a contraction phase

and a slow relaxation phase. As you do these coordination patterns:

47
Hidden Connections
Among the body’s parts, there are hidden connections, in
which movements of one part elicit responsive movements of other
parts. By moving both parts together and feeling the effort, we can
reset muscular tensions that are otherwise habitual. THE “FEEL” ICON
The following coordination pattern, Spine Waves, makes use of such

hidden connections.

48
Go slowly enough to notice the first sensation of effort.
Always work within your zone of easy effort. Never cause yourself to cringe. If a movement hurts, use less effort.
Spine Waves
STARTING POSITION:
• knees up, legs balanced,

leaning neither in nor out
• arms outstretched, hands

in line with shoulders
IF NECESSARY FOR
COMFORT,
• place your hands on your

belly
• place a pillow under your

head.
Locate the tension of the effort your are applying at each step.
If your condition makes you want to cringe in this movement, use less
effort. If you still tend to cringe involuntarily, go to Module 2A
(page 101), then come back to this coordination pattern.

49
First, we make the connection between the back of the neck and the
upper back.
1. Press the back of your

head down.
Ø
Feel your neck stiffen and your
low back lift, a bit.
2. Slowly relax.
Repeat until you feel your chest lift and lower, your back arch and
flatten a little bit.
Ü 1. Press the back of your

head down and help
Ø your back arch where
you feel it arch.
Ý
2. Slowly relax.
Ø Feel your chest sink.

Repeat until you get good at arching your back deliberately where you
feel it arch, automatically.

50

head down and help
your back arch where
Ø
you feel it arch.
Ü 2. Inhale, gently lift your

breastbone and hold.
Ø
Feel the back of your neck and
your mid-back tighten more.
Feel your breastbone lift.
3. Equalize the efforts at

your neck and chest.
Ý
4. Slowly relax, first
your neck, then your
Ø
chest.
Feel your chest sink.

Repeat until the sensation is familiar.

51

Ü
head down and help
your back arch where
Ø
you feel it arch.
2. Turn chin up and

hold.
Ø Feel tension move up the back of

your neck. Stop at the position
of most vivid sensation.

Ø
your mid-back tighten more.
Feel your breastbone lift.
4. Equalize the efforts of

lifting your chin and
tighening your back.
Ø

52
5. Slowly relax.
Ý
Done correctly, you feel your
upper back relax.
Ø
Repeat about five (5) times at decreasing levels of effort.

53
Now, we learn to locate the base of the throat.

Ø
Feel your chin automatically
(slightly) tuck toward your
throat.
2. Slowly exhale and

relax all efforts.
Breathe freely.
Ø
Feel your throat relax, your
chest sink and your low back
flatten.
Repeat until you can feel your chin tuck in toward your neck.

54
1. Lift your breastbone,

Ü hold.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Inhale.
2. Help tuck your chin

Ø toward your neck by
increasing its natural
Ø movement, press your
head down, and hold.
Feel the tension at the front of

your neck and base of your
throat.
3. Equalize tucking your

chin and lifting your
breastbone.

55
4. Slowly exhale and

relax all efforts.
Breathe freely.
Ø
Feel your throat relax, your
chest sink and your low back
flatten.

56
Now, the first spine-wave, a movement that enables you to relax the
muscles of your mid-to-upper back.
1. Press your head

5
Ø
down, turn chin up,
and hold.
Feel the back of your neck

tighten and shorten.
Ü 2. Inhale, lift your

breastbone, and hold.
Ø
the muscles of your mid-to-
upper back tighten. Feel your
breastbone lift.
Ü 3. Equalize tensions at
the back of your neck
Ø and mid-back.

57
4. Slowly relax the back

of your neck until
5 tension moves in a
Ø wave to your mid-to-
upper back.
(Breastbone stays
lifted.)
As you relax your neck, stop at

a position where you feel the
tension or sensation in your
back the most. Hold that
position until you feel the
sensation change.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Move your

shoulders evenly toward
the tight place in your back,
without changing the
position of the tension in
your neck, and hold.
Compare and equalize
the effort in your two
shoulders.

58
5. Breathe freely. Slowly

and together, lower
Ø
5 your breastbone and
relax your neck.
You may notice that your back

feels longer and flatter.
Repeat until you feel the muscles of your mid-back relax as you lower
your breastbone (at least three (3) times at decreasing levels of effort)
until you can feel the movement as described.

59
Now, the second spine wave. This movement improves your control of the
muscles that run from the base of your throat, up through the back of your
throat (the front of your neck vertebrae), to the place behind your nose. It
relaxes the back of your throat and gets your whole spine ready to relax and
lengthen.
1. Inhale, breastbone up,

Ü and hold.
Feel the effort of lifting your

chest.
2. Tuck chin, flatten neck

down, and hold.
Ø
Feel the front of your neck
tighten, and throat, constrict.
3. Equalize the
sensations of the front
of your neck and mid-
to-upper back by
adjusting the efforts.

60
4. Exhale and let your

Ý breastbone sink.
Ø When you feel the front of your
neck begin to tighten ...
5. Slowly relax your

neck.
Ø
Feel the wave of tension move
from the base of your throat to
the place behind your nose.
5 6. Relax all efforts and

breathe freely.
NO EFFORT
Repeat this combination movement until you can clearly feel the wave
of tension move to the place behind your nose (at least three (3) times
at decreasing levels of effort) until you can feel the movement as
described.

61
Always work within your zone of easy effort. If a movement hurts, use less effort. Never cause yourself to cringe
Now you are ready to involve the muscles of your low back in the third
spine-wave.
1. Press your head down

and hold.
Ø
2. Breastbone up, and
Ü
hold.
Ø Feel the effort of lifting your

chest at your mid-to-upper
back.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Inhale fully,

then breathe lightly.
3. Chin up, and hold.
Feel the wave of tension go up

the back of your neck as it
tightens and shortens.
62
4. Tighten your low back

(turns tailbone down
into the surface).
Continue to tighten until you

feel your neck tighten slightly
more.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ To help your

back arch: take a bit of
pressure off your feet by
lifting so the sensations at
low back and groin are
equal.
5. Equalize the efforts in

your neck and back.
Ø
neck until you feel the
Ü
tension in your low
Ø back increase.
63
7. Equalize the tensions

at mid- and low-back
by adjusting your
efforts.
8. Exhale until you first

Ý feel your back tighten
more.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Help your back

arch: take a bit of pressure
× off your feet by lifting.
⇒ 3rd level ⇒ Pull your elbows

and shoulders toward the
tight place in your back.
9. Without changing
Ü
position, inhale.
64
10. Actively exhale, relax

Ý all other efforts, and
relax your back nd
Ø flatten.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Lower your feet.
Feel equal pressure at the

heels and the balls of your
feet.
Ý 11. Continue to exhale.
Let your back flatten more.

Ø
12. Relax all efforts and

breathe freely.
NO EFFORT Notice what your low back feels.
65
13. Exhale until your

belly tightens.
14. Lift a bit of weight off

5 your scalp and look
Û
5 toward your knees.
HEAD LIFT EXAGGERATED FOR VISIBILITY. If you can’t lift your head,
imagine you are lifting your
head.
15. Inhale, lie back and

relax.
NO EFFORT
16. Breathe freely.
Repeat at decreasing levels of effort until you cease to feel your back
flatten further (about five (5) times, total).
66
Now, you connect the muscles of your mid-back to those of your throat
(inside-front of your neck). Once you have gotten good at the movement
shown below, it is optional for future sessions of Spine Waves. Thereafter,
skip to the next set of instructions that begins with the number (1.).
Ü
1. Lift breastbone and
hold.
2. Tuck chin and hold.

Tuck by increasing the natural
Ø head movement.
3. Gradually tighten the

small of your back
Ø and hold.
Feel your back curve.

of your low back and
throat by adjusting
your efforts.
67
5. Press your feet down

Ü and hold.
ØØ Feel the pressure equally on
heels and balls of feet.
6. Turn your face toward

Þ the ceiling, look there
ØØ Ø
5 relax and slowly let
your back flatten.
7. Slowly relax all efforts

and breathe freely.
NO EFFORT
Repeat until you can feel your low back flatten a bit more (about three
(3) times, total, at decreasing levels of effort).
68
Now, the same move with breathing, ending with a relaxed belly.
Ü 1. Lift breastbone and

hold.
Feel your mid-to-upper back.
2. Tuck chin toward

neck, and hold.
Ø
Feel the front of your neck
tighten.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Inhale.
3. Gradually tighten the

small of your back
Ø and hold the shape.
4. Equalize the front of

your neck and low
back.
69
5. Sense your back

Ý muscles and exhale
until you first feel
them tighten.
Feel where your back muscles

are tightest.
6. Press your feet down.

ØØ
Feel the heels and balls of feet
press equally. Your back
tightens more. Regulate the
effort for comfort.
7. Hold the shape, relax

your belly and breathe
ØØ
freely.

back muscles and let
ØØ Ø your back flatten.

NO EFFORT breathe freely.
70
10. Exhale until you feel

5
Û your belly tighten,
then look between
your knees.
HEAD LIFT EXAGGERATED FOR VISIBILITY.
If you can’t lift your head,

head.
5 11. Inhale, lie back, and

Þ
relax.
Ø
5
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Keep the back of
your pelvis snug against
the surface as you lie back.
Lie back slowly enough
to stay in snug contact.
5
Þ ⇒ 3rd level ⇒ Locate the place
Ø
5 behind your nose as you lie
back.
12. Breathe freely.

NO EFFORT
Repeat about three (3) times, total.
71
Now, you’re ready to combine the two movement combinations to involve

your entire spinal musculature.
1. Tuck chin, push head

Ü down, and hold.
5
Ø Feel the place behind your nose.
2. Tighten the muscles of

the small of your back,
and hold.
Feel the hollow arch in the small

of your back; feel your tailbone
turn down into the surface.
3. Lift breastbone and

Ü hold.

your neck and back.
Take some time to feel what’s

working -- where the effort is.
72
5. Lift a bit of weight off

your feet.
×
6. Tip your chin up to

the neutral position,
5 and hold.
Ø
Feel the connection between the
place behind your nose and the
muscles at the base of your
5 head.
Þ
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Look up toward
your brow.
Ø
Ý
your back muscles
tighten further.
Notice where you feel it in your

back.
8. Lower your feet and

ØØ press down gently.
73
9. Equalize the
downward pressure
of your feet and head.
ØØ Ø
Allow time for the sensation
to “set in.” You may feel
muscles changing.
10. Relax your belly and

ØØ Ø breathe freely.

back muscles. Let
ØØ Ø Ø your back sag.
You feel your back flatten, a bit.
12. Relax all other efforts.
NO EFFORT
74

5
Û your belly tighten,
then look between
your knees.
HEAD LIFT EXAGGERATED FOR VISIBILITY.
If you can’t lift your head,

head.
14. Inhale, lie back and

Þ breathe freely.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Lie back slowly

Ø enough to keep the back of
your pelvis snug against
the surface as you lie back.
⇒ 3rd level ⇒ Locate the place

behind your nose as you lie
back.
75

breathe freely.
NO EFFORT
Repeat the preceding movement about five (5) times or until you cease
to get changes.
For best results, please follow

the checklist (page 39).
76
MODULE 1B
Lazy “8”s
×
×
77
Module 1B: Lazy “8”s

78
On Gravity and Sensation
The next coordination pattern makes use of gravity to create sensation in
the muscles of your legs and low back, to restore comfort to your low back.
Gravity is a universal force affecting all of our actions. Its pull is constant
and steady.
Most of the time, we are unaware of gravity, itself. What we are aware of
are our sense of balance or imbalance and our sense of strength or weakness.
Any movement, such as standing up, produces sensations that, like grav-
ity, are smooth and steady -- unless our movement itself is unsteady, in which
case gravity gives us instant feedback in the form of inconstant and unsteady
sensations of movement. In that sense, gravity is our friend; it tells us when we
are out of balance and out of control and gives us a sense of support when we are
functioning well.
Knowing this, we can use gravity to improve our muscular control, and
thus the steadiness of our movements.
To do so is simple, if not easy. When doing these coordination patterns, we

simply slow our actions down until we can sense the bodily position at which our
movement becomes unsteady. That’s the position in which we have some loss of
muscular control, felt as weakness or inability to regulate our strength. Once we
have found it, we can apply our will, in subsequent repetitions of the movement,
to smooth our movement out. An immediate, if gradual improvement of muscular
control results. Subsequent repetitions produce cumulative improvements.
Good muscular control is essential for easy balance. Control and balance
are essential to our ability to relax unnecessary muscular tensions, such as those
in your back. The following coordination pattern, Lazy “8”s, improves muscular
control of the muscles of our legs and low back. A common result is the feeling of
coolness and spaciousness in the sacral area, the area below our waistline and
above our buttocks -- the lowest part of the low back.

79
.




repetitions.
THE “FEEL” ICON THE “EQUALIZE” ICON

80
Lazy “8”s
STARTING POSITION:
• legs: knees up, feet

spaced so legs balance
vertically, leaning neither
in, nor out
• arms back by head, bent

90 degrees at elbows
IF NECESSARY FOR
COMFORT, use a pillow under
your arms or head.
Support your weight evenly on the whole sole of one foot as

you lower the opposite hip; minimize wobbling.
effort. If you still tend to cringe involuntarily, go to Module 2A (page
101), then come back to this coordination pattern.
1. By pushing down on
one foot, cause its hip
to lift.
Ø
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Take a bit of
weight off the opposite foot.

81
2. Slowly lower
the lifted hip.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Press down

with the opposite foot.
Rehearse that movement a few times until it’s easier to lift the hip.
Repeat for the opposite side.

82
1. Press down on one

arm and shoulder,
and hold.
Ø
Feel your shoulder come back
and chest lift, a bit.
×
× ⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Turn your face
and eyes toward the same
side.
⇒ 3rd level ⇒ Lift the opposite

elbow, slightly.
2. Slowly relax.
Ø
Feel your chest sink.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Simultaneously

return your face to front
and center.
Rehearse that movement until it’s easier to feel your chest lift.

83
1. By pushing down on
one foot, cause its hip
to lift, and hold.
Ø ⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Take a bit of

weight off the opposite foot.
Ö 2. Squeeze the knee of

the other leg toward
Ø
the lifted side.
Feel the sensation at the groin of

the squeezing leg.
3. Slowly lower
the lifted hip.
Keep the legs upright, feet flat

on the surface. Avoid wobbling.
4. Slowly relax all

efforts.
Rehearse that movement a few times until it’s easier to keep the legs
from wobbling.

84
1. Lift one hip and hold.
2. Press down with the

same-side shoulder
Ø Ø and hold.
Feel how pressing down with

the shoulder helps the hip lift.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Lift the opposite

elbow, slightly.
Feel how that helps the over-

all movement.
Ö 3. Squeeze the opposite

leg in and hold.
Feel the sensation at the groin of

the squeezing leg.

85
Ö 4. Equalize all efforts --

groin and shoulder(s).
When you have equalized the

feelings, you’ll feel certain ten-
sions in your back shift.
5. Slowly relax all

efforts, continuing to
keep the efforts equal.
Your hip comes down.
Rehearse that movement five (5) times, total, at decreasing levels of
effort.

86
1. Lift one hip and hold.

×
Feel the twist of your pelvis.
Ø
Ö
2. Press down the same-
side shoulder, squeeze
the opposite knee in,
and hold.
Ø
Feel at the groin and behind the

pressing-down shoulder.
3. Keep the twist as you

lift the other hip and
×
hold.
5 Press down with both feet.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Feel the place

behind your nose.

87
4. Shift all of the weight

to the foot of the hip
just lifted.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Let your back

sag.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Brace against

(push down) the same side
shoulder as your higher hip.
Equalize that shoulder and
the opposite foot.
5. Slowly lower
the higher hip part
ØÜ way.

88
6. Shift the weight to

that foot.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Brace against

(push down) the same side
shoulder as your higher hip.
Equalize that shoulder and
the opposite foot.
7. Slowly lower
Ø the higher hip part
way.
Alternate lowering sides until both are down.
Repeat, starting with the other side. Do 3 - 5 sets on each side.
Stand. You may experience of rush of sensation to your neck and head.
The sensation is harmless. It is your brain readjusting muscular
tensions and blood pressure. Stand tall, relax and let it pass. Then,
take a few steps forward and a few steps backward.


89

90
MODULE 1C
The Folding Seesaw

The Kite
91
Module 1C: The Folding Seesaw & The Kite

92
Centering
Since our ideal resting position is one in which we are moving neither one
way nor another, it is appropriate to end a coordination pattern module in a cen-
tered position.
For that reason, the key for the following coordination pattern is to keep
the weight on your feet balanced and equal.
When done properly, one of the results of the following coordination pat-
tern is a relaxation of the upper back muscles. You may find your spine elongat-
ing, as you come to rest.

93



repetitions.

94
The Folding Seesaw
STARTING POSITION:

in, nor out
• arms back by head, bent

90 degrees at elbows
IF NECESSARY
FOR COMFORT, use a pillow
under your head or elbows
Keep the weight on your feet equal, with pressure on both

the “ball” of your foot (the pad behind your toes) and your
heel. Feel behind your nose when indicated by .
5
effort. If you still tend to cringe involuntarily, go to Module 2B

95

your belly tighten.
2 2. By pressing
×
down with your feet,
lift your hips high.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Look at the

space between your knees.
Feel how looking between

your knees changes your
alignment.
3. Take a full breath in

that position.
4. Exhale until you feel a

pull on your chest.

96
5. Lift some weight

× × slightly off your scalp.
5
NOTE: If it hurts to
lift your head, use less
effort or don’t lift it.
Imagine that you are
lifting it.
× × ⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Keep your chin

Ø tucked near your neck.
You feel your throat

constrict, a bit. If it doesn’t
constrict, make it constrict
by tucking your chin
towards your adam’s apple.
× ×
Ø
5 ⇒ 3rd level ⇒ Feel the place
behind your nose.

97
6. Inhale and
× slowly let your hips
Ø
5 come down.
7. Let your head sink

Ø down.
5 Feel your neck relax.
8. Relax the rest of your

body and breathe
freely.
NO EFFORT
Repeat twice more (3 times, total), at decreasing levels of effort.
Once you are familiar with this coordination pattern, use the summary
on the next page to remind you how to do it.


98
The Kite
If you’ve seen a diamond-shaped kite, you may have observed that the cross strut
is much like an archer’s bow, held curved by the tension of the string attached to
its ends. Likewise, the vertical strut, attached to the cross strut at its center, is
also bowed. The cross strut corresponds to the line that connects your elbows; the
vertical strut corresponds to your spine.
STARTING POSITION:
• on your back

in, nor out
• hands: fingers interlaced

at the base of your head
• head: resting in the cups

of your palms
• elbows: flat on the floor

Place cushions under your
elbows if needed for
comfort.
Gently equalize the effort used to contract the muscles

along your spine and those between your shoulders
until you feel the tension in your back move. Be leisurely.

99

CHIN UP
head against your
hands.
Notice the first sensation of

effort as you gently press .
CHIN UP
5
NO EFFORT
2. Slowly relax.
Repeat a number of times until you can sense the moment at which effort
begins and the place where it begins.

100
1. Bring your attention

to your arms and
shoulders.
2. By pulling your
shoulder blades
together in back,
Þ Ý gently pull your
shoulders back into
the surface on which
you are lying.
You may notice that your chest

lifts. Do not force; just notice
it.
3. Slowly relax.
Repeat a number of times until
NO EFFORT
you can sense the moment at
which effort begins and the place
where it begins.

101
Now, we combine the two movements:

back to your head.
2. Press your head down

CHIN UP,
against your hands
Ø 5Ø and hold.
You may feel your low back

tighten a bit, and the pressure
against the back of your pelvis,
increase.

102
3. Pull your
shoulders back and
5 hold. Use effort equal
to the effort of
pressing your head
down.
TIP: Alternate your attention

Ø Ø between your neck and your
Ø
shoulders to make the efforts
equal.
Feel the pressure of your head

and shoulders as a triangle.
Feel yourself resting on “the
head and shoulder tripod.”
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Notice how your

low back feels as you hold
the “head and shoulder
THE TENSION
IN YOUR SHOULDERS AND BACK
tripod.”
IS SHAPED LIKE A “PLUS” (+).

103
4. When the tension is

equalized, take a deep
breath and look
straight up at the
ceiling.
5. Slowly relax your low

back muscles.
You feel your lower back flatten.

The tension moves to your ribs,
in back.
6. Slowly relax the rest

of your efforts.
Feel your upper back relax

between the shoulder blades.
You may want to stretch the
area out, now that it has some
slack.
Repeat the movement a few times at lower levels of effort.


104
MODULE 2A
The Wiggling Jig
NO EFFORT
105
Module 2A: The Wiggling Jig

106
Explanation: The Whole Body Yawn
Yawning is relaxing -- but it’s not an attempt to relax.
Next time you yawn, notice what’s happening. You’re not relaxing the
muscles of your mouth and neck; you’re tightening them! It’s afterward that you
experience relaxation.
This is an important clue. You are experiencing a basic way we operate.

To relax, we must be reminded of the difference between tension and relaxation.
We must feel the difference. Yawning does that.
This process of tension/relaxation can be applied systematically to the

whole body. The movement maneuvers given in this program do exactly that.
They involve very much the same slow quality of tension and relaxation as yawn-
ing does − and they produce a similar result: relaxation, greater freedom of
movement, and recovery of our energy from wasteful habitual tension.
Now, this matter of “the whole body” yawn is relevant to the way this pro-
gram of coordination patterns operates. Consider: where moving at balance is
concerned, the whole body is involved. Any movement requires adjustments of
the entire musculature for balance to be maintained. We move as a whole body.
The coordination patterns presented in this book systematically address various
aspects of the whole body as an integrated movement system. For that reason,
there are coordination patterns presented here that involve areas other than your
back, coordination patterns that affect how your back muscles operate by affect-
ing the whole-body balancing process. This concept is a significant departure
from other exercise programs, which concentrate only on the area where symp-
toms appear.
Doing movements in slow motion for the feeling they produce is the key to
somatic developmental coordination patterns. The changes in muscular respon-
siveness occur during the relaxation phase of these movements, which is another
reason to do them slowly.
The effects of these exercises are cumulative. The various positions reach
different muscle groups that together are involved in a muscular reflex pattern

107
associated with stress. This reflex pattern involves the muscles of the back of the
body.
First, you improve your control of the involved muscle groups individually;
then, you activate these muscle groups together in coordinated movements, each
of which decreases your store of held muscular tension. You’ll feel yourself get-
ting better control of the involved muscles, and you’ll feel yourself relaxing.
Immediately after you do this session’s sequence, follow it with a few repe-
titions of Spine Waves. Do this regimen for one week or more before you move
forward in the program.

108

109



repetitions.

110
Always work within your zone of easy effort. If a movement hurts, use less effort. Never cause yourself to cringe.
The Wiggling Jig

Part 1
STARTING POSITION:
• face turned to the side

with your ear in the palm
of your hand
• the knee of the same side

bent and turned out to
the side. If necessary for
comfort in your groin,
place a pillow under your
knee.
Tense your muscles in sequence, then tense them together

and equalize their tensions.
effort. If you still tend to cringe involuntarily, go to Module 3A (page
157), then come back to this coordination pattern.

111

to your bent arm.
Û
(×) 2. Slowly press the side
of your upper arm
Ø into the surface. Do it
by pulling your shoulder
against the surface,
which lifts your chest.
Don’t roll onto your
(×) side; just move your arm
Ø and shoulder.
Feel the muscles of your shoul-

der blade contract as you press
your arm down and back into
the surface. Can you feel your
shoulder blade pull toward your
spine?

112
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Inhale as you

(×) press your arm down. You
Ø may feel your back arch
slightly on that side.
Feel how your shoulder
blade tucks under.
Ø 3. As slowly as you can,

Ø relax that effort, so
your chest sinks
down. Let your
breath go.
Feel where you relax last.
Relax completely between

NO EFFORT
repetitions. Notice if you feel
new muscles working with each
repetition.
Repeat this pressing and releasing action until you can feel where the
movement comes from and can do it slowly and with confidence.

113

to your bent arm and
shoulder.
(×)
Û 2. Press down into the
surface, and hold.
Feel the muscles at the back

Ø of your shoulder blade
(behind your shoulder)
tighten.
3. Still pressing down,

gently tug your elbow
toward the hip of the
same side, and hold.
You may feel tension at your

shoulder blade and in your
low back on the opposite
side.

114

your shoulder blade
and opposite side low
back.
5. Slowly relax all

efforts.
NO EFFORT
Repeat this movement about five (5) times, at decreasing levels of

effort, until you feel a shift of muscular tension.

115

shoulder.
(×)
Û 2. Press down into the
surface, and hold.
Feel the muscles at the back

Ø of your shoulder blade
tighten.
3. Push your hand

(×) toward the back of
your ear, and hold.
Ø
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Tip your chin
away from your throat
(head back).
Feel the muscles contract

that run from the top of
your shoulder to the back of
your neck.

116

pushing down with
your shoulder and
Ü pushing your ear, and
hold.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Equalize the

effort of tipping your head
back with the other efforts.
5. Slowly relax all

efforts.
NO EFFORT
Repeat five (5) times, total, at decreasing levels of effort.
Now, stand and feel the difference between your two sides. You may
feel a rush of sensation go to your head. This is a harmless sensation,
though perhaps unnerving if it is new to you. Your brain is readjust-
ing your blood pressure and muscular tensions. Stand relaxed, feel
your weight on your feet, and wait for the rush of sensation to pass.
Now, take a few steps forward and a few steps backward.
Now, do your other side.

117
The Wiggling Jig, part 2

shoulder.
Û
2. Shorten your neck by
Ý shrugging your
Ü shoulder toward the
side of your neck.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Notice the first

place in your neck you feel
contract. Tighten toward
there.

118
⇒ 3rd level ⇒
At the same
time, sense the place
behind your nose. Feel
how feeling that place
5 changes the direction of
pull of your shoulder.
If you are particularly

sensitive, you may feel the
shoulder pulling more
toward the back of the nos-
tril of the same-side.
Ý
3. Slowly relax.
NO EFFORT
Repeat the movement until you can more easily feel the first place that
contracts.

119
1. Reach with the

straight leg to tighten
Þ the waist muscles on
Ø Û the same side as your
bent-arm shoulder,
Þ and hold.
You may feel your back arch a

bit. Muscles may tighten
between your shoulder blade
and your waist on that side.
Notice how your ear presses

against your hand.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Notice the first

place in your waist that
contracts.
Þ ⇒ 3rd level ⇒ Turn the knee

Ø Û of the straight leg
toward the other leg.
Feel how turning the knee
Þ toward the other leg helps
you to lengthen the
straight side.

120
2. Slowly relax all

efforts.
NO EFFORT
Repeat the movement until you feel it get stronger, then at decreasing
levels of effort -- about five (5) times.

121

to the bent knee.
2. Slightly lift the bent

¬ knee to feel its weight,
and hold.
Feel the contraction of your

front hip joint muscles.
3. Slowly relax.

122
1. By reaching with the

Þ straight leg, tighten
Ø Û the muscles at your
waist (opposite side)
Þ and hold.
2. Lift your bent knee

enough to feel the
weight of your leg,
¬ and hold.
Þ 3. Equalize the efforts at

Ø Û
waist and groin
¬ Þ
muscles.
Û
Þ 4. Relax your waist
muscles. Your knee
¬ stays lifted.

123
5. Lower the bent knee.
6. Come to complete
rest.
NO EFFORT
Repeat the sequence until you feel your back flatten more.
Repeat five (5) times, at decreasing levels of effort.
For best results, please

follow the checklist.

124
1. Slowly shorten your

neck by shrugging the
Ý bent-elbow shoulder,
Ü
and hold.
Feel the first place where

you tighten in your neck.
If you can’t feel it, at first,

tighten more and hold until
you can feel muscles warm
up.
2. Slowly relax.

shrugging toward that
tight place.
4. Slowly relax.
Repeat the action until you can feel the place that tightens more
clearly.

125
1. By reaching with the

straight leg, tighten
Þ
Ø Û the muscles at your
waist, and hold.
Þ Feel where you tighten at
your waist.

shrugging the bent-
Ý elbow shoulder, and
Ü
hold.
Feel where you tighten in

your neck.

Þ your waist and neck.
Ø Û
Decrease or increase effort
as needed to get the two
Þ places equal.

126
4. Lift your bent knee

enough to feel the
Ø weight of your leg,
¬ Þ
and hold.
5. Press your bent-elbow

(×)
shoulder down, and
hold.
Ø
Feel the tension behind your
shoulder blade.

Ø your shoulder and hip
joint.
¬ Þ Decrease or increase effort
to get the two places equal.

127
You’re now tight and

equalized at waist, neck,
groin, shoulder.
Ø
¬ Þ
7. Slowly relax all efforts
and come to complete
rest.
You’ll probably breathe a

NO EFFORT
spontaneous sigh of relief!
Do the sequence five (5) times or more, until you feel your back flatten
more. Then stand. Allow any rush of sensation to your neck and head
to pass. Then, take a few steps forward and a few steps backward.
Feel the differences between your two sides. You’ll probably feel a
difference in balance.

128
The Wiggling Jig, part 3
TO GET INTO THE NEXT

POSITION:
• on your back
• both legs straight
• one arm straight along

one side, hand as a fist
• face turned
• other hand above your

head
• Bend your leg as shown;

your elbow also bends.
Your hand now fits into a hollow where your leg and hip meet, where
a pocket might be.
If necessary for comfort, place a

pillow under your knee.

129
1. Press your elbow

then very slowly
Ú relax.
Feel the tension at your

shoulder blade, directly behind
your shoulder, in back.
Go slowly enough to feel where

the movement comes from.
Don’t force past any
restrictions to full relaxation;
instead, if you feel a restriction
to movement,
a. Pause in place.
b. Scan the whole body for ten-
sion.
c. Relax any tension you find.
d. Recontract the muscles that
pull your elbow against the sur-
face (the ones that are too tight),
and very slowly relax again.
Gently contract and slowly relax until you can do it comfortably and with
confidence. Continue until you get as loose as you’re going to get.

130
2. Press your elbow

down and hold.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Turn your eyes

to the side and look over
Ø your shoulder by turning
your head a bit more. You
may feel the muscles of your
neck and upper back
contract and your waist lift
up, slightly.
3. Tighten your waist on

Ø that side by stretching
the opposite leg.
Þ
Done correctly, you feel the
muscles of your back contract
on that side; your back may
arch, a bit.

your shoulder and
Ø
waist.
Þ

131
5. As slowly as you can,

relax.
If you pay special attention, you

feel gravity as a very steady,
NO EFFORT
continuous pull.
Be sure to relax completely

between repetitions.
Repeat this movement slowly until you can feel where the movement
comes from and can do it slowly and confidently (about five times).
Then stand. Allow any rush of sensation to pass, then take a few steps
forward, a few steps backward.
Immediately after you do both sides and stand, follow with a few repetitions of
the last movement of Spine Waves.

follow the checklist
(page 39).

132
MODULE 2B
The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha
133
Module 2B: The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha

134
Lengthening Your Sides
Having freed yourself of a degree of tension in the muscles of your sides, it
now becomes possible to obtain even more length of your spine.
In particular, you can now become more long-waisted. The pull on the sides
of your ribs has decreased and your sense of “the sides of your sides” has been
clarified. What this does is reduce some of the tendency to “swayback.”
Posturally, this decreased tendency to “swayback” further allows your back

to flatten.
Again, this doesn’t mean that your back is held flatter; it means that your
back is released from muscular pulls that interfere with your low back flexibility.
At the same time, the increased muscular control gives you greater stability -- flex-
ibility with stability.
The feeling is of being taller and better balanced.
Better balance allows us to relax more, when standing and walking.
Named after a famous sculpture, The Reclining Buddha, the following

coordination pattern suggests what the Buddha may have been doing when no-
body was looking! It particularly frees our whole spine for sidebending, so we can
curve sideways uniformly from the base of our head to our waistline, with no stiff
places in-between. Our spine curves and lengthens as a whole.

135
.




repetitions.

136
The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha
STARTING POSITION:
• sidelying
• propped up on one elbow
• underside knee bent, foot

near the topside knee
• topside leg straight
Maintain constant, gentle tension in your neck as you bend.

This is a good movement to do in bed.
effort. If you still tend to cringe involuntarily, go to Module 3A
(page 157), then come back to this pattern.
1. Place the heel of your

topside hand
weightlessly against
your head, centered
above your ear.
Your fingers wrap over the

top of your head.
2. Inhale and hold.

137
3. Gently press your

head against your
hand, and hold (“Set
the tension.”)
With your hand against

your head, return the pres-
sure with equal force, using
shoulder muscles.
Feel the side of your neck

tighten and shorten.
5 ⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Feel the place

behind your nose, with your
head in the neutral position.
4. Bend your
neck sideways (head
down), so your
underside ear
5 approaches your
underside shoulder.
The pressure between your

hand and head remains

138
constant as you bend.

Breathe when you need
to.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Cause your

topside leg to reach.
You feel tension in the
Õ underside of your waist.
⇒ 3rd level ⇒ Feel the place

behind your nose as you
Õ
5 curve.
Your head is in the neutral
position facing forwardly.
5. Exhale and hold the

tiny bit of breath that
remains.
Hand switches.
6. Move your hand so
the fingertips grasp
your head above the
other ear.
The heel of your hand rests

on the crown of your head.

139
7. Set the tension in the

underside of your
neck by pressing your
head against your
fingertips, and hold.
With your grasping hand, resist

with equal force, using the
muscles of your side.

behind your nose.
8. Slowly bend
your neck sideways
(head upright), so
your topside ear
approaches your
topside shoulder.
The pressure between your

hand and head remains
constant as you bend.
Breathe when you need
to.

140
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Cause your

underside ribs to sag. Your
underside shoulder moves
Ö × toward or against your
Ö neck.
Ø You feel tension in the top
side of your waist, as
your topside leg draws
short.
9. Inhale, move your

hand to the other side
of your head, and
repeat.
Repeat at decreasing levels of effort until you get better at curving
your neck and spine sideways as a single, continuous curve.
Now, turn over and do your other side.
Please follow the checklist

for best results (page 39).

141

142
MODULE 2C
The Twist that Untwists
143
Module 2C: The Twist that Untwists

144
Security for Your Low Back
It is common for people to do abdominal exercises to relieve back pain. The
rationale is that “strong abdominal muscles strengthen the low back.” A clearer
understanding is possible. Let me explain.
Most muscles or muscle groups of the body operate in pairs, each member
of which does the opposite action of its partner. For example, the biceps muscle of
the front of your upper arm bends your arm at the elbow; the triceps muscle at
the back of your upper arm straightens your arm at the elbow. These muscles
perform reciprocal (opposite and complementary) actions. Their tension levels
vary accordingly: when one muscle contracts, the other muscle relaxes. This ten-
sion-relaxation pairing is controlled by your brain. Relaxation of the opposing
muscle permits its partner more easily to contract and cause movement. The
term physical therapists use for this brain-controlled muscular behavior is “recip-
rocal inhibition.”
Ideally, when one muscle contracts, its opposing partner relaxes to the
same degree. This may not always happen. When your brain is conditioned to
keep a muscle contracted at all times, the muscle does not relax freely; it may
relax only partially and interfere with its partner’s efforts at movement.
Now, let’s consider the muscles of your abdomen and low back.
In the case of back pain, the muscles of the back exist at a heightened state
of tension, a heightened state of “burn.” That’s the usual origin of chronic back
pain. The result of back muscle contraction is a forcing forward of your low back,
as if your spine were an archer’s bow and the muscular tension, the taut bow-
string. This postural change gives the appearance of weak abdominal muscles.
When your abdominal muscles contract, your back muscles relax to some
degree. Your brain causes this relaxation-response. As your back muscles relax,
they burn less fuel and oxygen; as the “burn” decreases, muscle fatigue and sore-
ness decrease. That’s why abdominal exercises produce temporary relief of back
discomfort.

145
Contracting your abdominal muscles has not strengthened your back; it
has (to some degree) relaxed your back muscles. Relaxed muscles are much less
likely to go into spasm. They feel more under your control. Your back feels more
secure -- but only as long as you keep your abdomen tight. But you cannot keep
your abdomen tight and breathe freely at the same time. A tight abdomen inter-
feres with free breathing.
Because the muscles of the back and front of your torso are related to each
other, to change how one muscle group operates, we must change how both mus-
cle groups cooperate. We want the two muscle groups to work freely in coopera-
tive coordination.
In the previous set of coordination patterns, you gained some control over
your back muscles; you increased both your ability to relax and to contract mus-
cles. But to feel really secure, you need to feel that the muscles at both the back
and front of your trunk are working in closely matched coordination. They both
must feel both free and strong.
The following coordination pattern sequence integrates the muscles of your

back with the muscles in the front of your torso. The added security you feel
comes from their close, cooperative relationship. (Close, harmonious cooperation
gives the feeling of security.)
Do the following coordination pattern sequence and feel what I mean.

146

147



repetitions.

148
The Twist that Untwists
STARTING POSITION:
• face turned, hand under

your ear
• legs straight
Relax your back muscles before you relax your front.
If your condition makes you want to cringe in this movement, use

less effort. If you still tend to cringe involuntarily, go to Module 3B
1. Press your arm and

shoulder into the
× surface, so your chest
lifts a bit, and hold.
Ø You lift the ribs near your belly,

not near the top of your chest.

149
2. Press your ear against

your hand, and hold.
Ø You feel your back arch a bit, as
you press.
Ø Ü
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Tip your
ARCH
head far back, so the

base of your head pulls
against your shoulder.
You feel a tight muscle
running from behind
your ear, to your
shoulder blade.
3. Equalize the efforts.
Feel how the two moves

combine into one. Ear
against your hand; shoul-
der against the surface.
4. Slowly, relax.
NO EFFORT
Repeat this combination movement at decreasing levels of effort until

you feel the two movements combine into one.

150

to the leg opposite
your bent elbow.
2. Turn your leg so your

toes point straight up.
You feel pressure on the back-

center of your heel. You may
feel that you have turned your
toes inward and are “pigeon
toed.” Take a look. You may be
surprised to see that your toes
are pointing straight upwardly.
So go for that feeling.
3. Tighten your buttock

(same side), so your
hip lifts, slightly.
You feel a bit of pressure on the

back of your calf and heel, of the
same side.

151
4. Slowly relax all

efforts.
NO EFFORT
Repeat this movement until you get a bit more strength in the buttock,
with your toes pointed upward.

152
1. Press your head and

bent-elbow shoulder
× down, and hold.
Ø ⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Breathe in to

help your chest lift as
your shoulder goes back.
2. Turn the opposite foot

toes-upward.
3. Tighten the toes-

upward buttock and
hold.

153
4. Equalize head,
shoulder, buttock.
5. Sense shoulder and

buttock, then slowly
relax.
NO EFFORT
Repeat until your shoulder comes a bit looser from your ribs and your
chest lifts a bit more.

154
1. Press your straight-

arm shoulder down
and hold.
Feel the muscles that
Ø connect your shoulder blade

to your spine.
2. Turn the same-side leg

toes-in and hold.
Feel the muscles of your
Ø groin.
3. Equalize the two

efforts.
4. Slowly relax.
Repeat until both sensations (shoulder and groin) get clearer.

155
1. Press your bent-elbow

shoulder down.
×
Ø
2. Switch shoulders and
press down.
Ø
3. Alternate shoulders.
This is a kind of wiggling

movement. Hold and let the
sensation set in before
switching.
Repeat five (5) times at decreasing levels of effort.

156
1. Turn the toes of the

bent-elbow side
straight up, and hold.
Ø 2. Press your bent-elbow

shoulder down. Hold
and feel.

hold.
Ø 4. Turn the toes of the

straight-arm-side in
and hold.
Press down on that foot,

knee straight.

157

Ø hold.
Shoulder and opposite foot

press down.
6. Lift the straight arm

slightly and hold.
7. Take a bit of weight

off the opposite foot.
× The knee slightly lifts

straight up.

158
8. Equalize the lifted

arm and lifted leg and
hold.
You may feel a sensation

from your groin deep
into your pelvis.
9. Using your
belly muscles, flatten
your low back down
to the surface and
hold.
10. Slowly lower your

lifted arm and foot.

159
11. Come to
complete relaxation.
Repeat five times or more, at decreasing levels of effort, until your

coordination improves.
Now stand and feel your weight on your feet. Allow any rush of
sensation to pass. Take a few steps forward, a few steps backward.
Notice any difference between your two sides.

follow the checklist (page
39).

160
MODULE 3A
In-Bed No-Stretch Stretches
5
Ø
161
162
Relation and Mutuality
Whenever we’re talking about things functioning, we’re talking about
relationships -- mutual interaction. To make any kind of change in a relation-
ship, it takes the collaboration of at least two involved parties to make it effective,
particularly when both parties have a stake in the same situation. Otherwise,
the change initiated by one will be countered or limited by the other.
In the case of excessive muscular tension, the situation is excessive back

tension, and the parties involved are your upper body and lower body. The coor-
dination patterns in this section locate positions in which different actions of both
your upper body and lower body affect the same place in your back. It’s a two-
against-one type of arrangement. As you will see, the combination is both easy
and potent.
Module 3A: In-Bed No-stretch Stretches

163



repetitions.

164
In-Bed No-stretch Stretches

STARTING POSITION:
• face turned to the side

with your ear in the palm
of your hand
• the knee of the same side

bent and turned out to
the side. If necessary for
comfort, place a pillow
under your knee, elbow,
or head.
Look over the shoulder of the bent arm.

165

to your neck and
head.
Û 2. Press your underside

ear down onto your
palm.
Feel the side of your neck

shorten and the back of
your shoulder area tighten.
3. Slowly relax.
Repeat this action until you can feel the tension increase and decrease,
then continue at decreasing levels of effort.

166
1. Press your arm and

shoulder down and
hold.
Û Feel your shoulder blade

tighten, in back.
2. Press your ear down

against your palm and
hold.
Û Û Feel the tension in your

neck and shoulder area.
⇒ 1st level ⇒ Look over your

shoulder, toward the
surface on which you are
lying.
Feel how looking there
affects your ability to
turn.
Ü
3. Help your low back
on that side arch, a bit.

167

shoulder blade and
low back.
Ü
5. Slowly relax all

efforts.
NO EFFORT
Repeat this movement about five (5) times -- until you can feel the
tension increase and decrease, then at decreasing levels of effort.
Now, stand and feel the difference between your two sides. Allow any
rush of sensation to pass. Walk foward, then backward.
Immediately after you do this sequence, follow it with a few repetitions of the
last movement of Spine Waves.

168

169
zone: the amount of sensation you can experience without
fear or cringing.

feel your effort. Contract your muscles in a
leisurely way and slowly enough to feel the first
sensation of effort. Notice where you feel it. Feel
there continuously through the movement.
• Learn the parts (elements) of multi-part movements, then

put them together.
• Go slowly enough to feel tension increase or decrease.

repetitions.

170
The In-Bed Precision No-stretch Stretch

STARTING POSITION:
• face forward
• one hand with your

fingertips behind your ear
• one leg bent, knee up,

foot near your buttock
• toes of straight leg facing

straight forwardly
Visually check to see that your

toes point straight upwardly,
and not to the side.
Find the amount to reach with your straight leg and to turn
your head to tighten the same place in your back.

head down and hold.

171
2. Tighten the buttock of

your straight leg, and
hold.
Ø
3. Equalize the two
efforts, head and
buttock.

5 behind your nose with your
Ø head in the neutral position.
4. Slowly relax both

efforts together.
Repeat this action until you

NO EFFORT feel some place in your back
contract and relax.

172
1. Press your head

down, and hold.
Ø
your straight leg, and
hold.
Toes point straight-forwardly,

not turned out.

173
« 3. Slowly turn
your face toward your
bent elbow to locate a
position that reveals
any (probably mild)
discomfort in your
back, and hold.
4. Lift your breastbone,

slightly.
Û 5. Reach and
relax with your
straight leg just
enough to feel the
tight place contract
more.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Help that place

in your back contract.

174

Û
straight leg down, and
Ø hold.
7. Equalize the leg effort

Û
with that of your
Ø head.
You’ll probably feel your back

flatten and something near your
Ø solar plexus relax.
8. Slowly relax all

efforts, completely.
Tighten and slowly relax in

NO EFFORT
the same position at
decreasing levels of effort
until the discomfort fades
or ceases to fade further.

175
1. Press your head

down, and hold.
2. Tighten your
straight-leg buttock,
and hold.
Ø
3. Slowly turn
your head a bit more
to the side to locate
another position that
reveals mild
Ø discomfort in your
back.
4. Reach with
Û
the straight leg enough
to help feel the
discomfort more, and
hold.
Help your back tighten.

176

Û
straight leg down.
Ø
Û
Ø head and leg.
7. Slowly relax.
In this way, continue to
locate and release the dis-
comfort in a number of
positions until your head is
NO EFFORT
fully turned.
177
Now, in reverse . . .

your straight leg and
hold.
2. Turn your leg so your

knee and toes point
upward, and hold.
You may feel your hip lift up, a

bit.
3. Press your shoulder

down and hold.

178
4. Press your head

down, and hold.
You may feel your hip lift up, a

Ø Ø bit more.
5. Slowly, turn
your face forward to
locate a position that
reveals some tightness
or discomfort in your
back. Stay there.
6. Press your
bent-knee foot down
enough to tighten the
ØØ tight place more.
Experiment with more and less

pressure on that foot to find the
best amount of pressure to feel
the tight place.

179
7. Equalize the head and

foot pressures.
ØØ Ø
8. Slowly relax in that

position.
In a similar manner, locate
and release soreness in vari-
NO EFFORT ous positions until you are
facing forward.

180
Now, lie flat and compare how your two sides feel. Compare your:
• shoulders
• back
• buttocks
• legs
Stand. Allow any rush of sensation to your neck and head to pass. This
effect is your brain resetting tensions and blood pressure throughout your
body.
Now, go back to the beginning of this sequence and do your other side.
After you’ve done your other side, do a few repetitions of Spine Waves.

181
fear or cringing.

feel your effort. Contract your muscles in a
leisurely way and slowly enough to feel the first
sensation of effort. Notice where you feel it. Feel
there continuously through the movement.
• Learn the parts (elements) of multi-part movements, then

put them together.

repetitions.

182
Spreading Butter
NEXT POSITION:
• palm of your hand on the

front of your hip bone
• same-side knee turned

out
• face turned toward bent

side
Cause the same place to tighten by reaching with

your leg as by pressing down your hand.
1. Pull your shoulder

snugly against the
Ø surface and hold.
“Pull” means to draw your

shoulder behind you, under
your back, toward your spine.
×
Your chest lifts, slightly. If it
doesn’t lift, help it lift.

183
Ø 2. Press your hand

against your hip bone
and hold.
You now feel your upper arm

press against the surface.
3. Press your elbow

Ø Ø and hold.
You may now feel tension in

your back by your shoulder
blade.
Ø 4. Equalize the pressures

of shoulder, elbow,
Ø Ø and hand.
5. Slowly relax all

efforts.
NO EFFORT

184
6. Pull your shoulder

snugly against the
Ø surface and hold.
As you pull your shoulder back,

you may feel your ribs lift up,
increasing the hollow at the
small of your back.
Ø 7. Press your hand

against your hip bone
and hold.
Ø
8. As you press, slowly

slide your hand from
hip bone to chest.
As you move, notice where in

your back you feel muscles
working.

185
9. Slowly relax.
NO EFFORT
10. Replace your hand on
your hip bone.
11. This time, as you press

and slide, stop at any
position where you
feel some tension or
mild discomfort in
your back or
shoulder.
12. Reach with

your straight leg to
increase the sensation.

186
13. Equalize the leg-reach

and hand pressure.
14. Slowly relax.
15. Repeat in place, and

Ø hold.
16. Contract the straight-

leg buttock.
Feel the added effect in your

Ø shoulder. Use this addition
each time.
17. Now, press and slide

your hand more
toward your chest.
Again, stop at any
position in which you
become aware of mild
discomfort in your
Ø back.

187
18. Reach with

the straight leg and
equalize.
19. Slowly relax.

Ø
Continue in that manner until you have located and relaxed all areas of
discomfort. Your hand ends up at your collar bone.
Then, do the process in reverse, moving your hand from your collar bone
down to your hip bone.
Stand. Allow the wave of sensation to your neck and head to pass.

188
MODULE 3B
The Rising Sphinx
189
Module 3B: The Dog Stretch

190
Introduction: Claiming Your Full Flexibility
Now that you have released tension from your back, you have a bit of slack
in those muscles. This next movement distributes that slack along the length of
your spine.
Note that in this movement, you are putting as much attention on con-
tracting and relaxing the muscles of your back as you are on contracting and
relaxing the muscles of your front . Move slowly to give time for sensations to
surface.
You are using this coordination pattern to increase your awareness and
control of the tension you maintain in the active muscle groups. You are decreas-
ing the tension you maintain, at rest.
The flexibility you gain does not come from stretching; it comes from
letting go of muscles you habitually hold tight. You discover these muscles by
moving slowly and gently enough to feel where your effort is.
As with all the developmental coordination patterns found in this program,

your ability to get the result from this session depends upon your getting
sufficient improvement from the previous sessions.

191
.



• Let the sensation “set in” before relaxing, each time at

a decreasing level of effort.

repetitions.

192
The Rising Sphinx

STARTING POSITION:
• on all-fours - go from
a. to b.
a.
• ankles and knees
together
• shoulders directly
above your hands
• head hanging freely
b. • small cushion under

(and over) your ankles,
if needed for comfort
Sense the gradual curving movements go along your

spine.
Coordinating your spine and legs
1. Slowly lift your head

until you feel gentle
tension in the back of
your neck.
Notice how your back sags,

slightly.

193
2. Slowly let your head

hang down.

Notice how your back arches,
slightly.
3. Place your attention

in your low back.
4. Lift your head and

hold.
Notice how lifting your head

tenses your low back.
5. Equalize the efforts

at the back of your
neck and low back.
6. Slowly relax.
Repeat until you can get the
sensations of tension more
nearly equal.

194
The Muscles of Your Front
1. Lift your head

(gently) and hold.
Feel a gentle pressure at the

base of your head.

at low back and back
of neck.
3. Slowly sit back

toward your heels.
Feel the curve of your

back reverse itself from your
waist toward your neck.
4. Rest on your elbows.

195
5. Slowly, let your head

hang.
6. Squeeze your knees

together, and hold.
7. Gently and steadily

pull your elbows
toward your groin,
Ü and hold.
Ü
Feel how the action tightens
your upper abdomen.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒
Draw your abdomen in by
arching your back.
8. Equalize the efforts

at groin, abdomen,
and neck.

196
9. Slowly relax.
10. Lift your head until

× you feel gentle
pressure at the base
of your head.
11. Come back up onto

all-fours.
Feel the curve of your spine

change.
Repeat this movement at decreasing levels of effort.

197
1. Lift your head

(gently), and hold.
Feel a gentle pressure at the

base of your head.
2. Grip with your

fingertips and tug
toward your knees,
and hold.
Feel how your mid-back tenses.
3. Equalize the
sensations at the
back of your neck and
mid-back.

198
4. Slowly relax and let

your head hang
down.
5. Push down with your

feet, and hold.
Feel the tension at the fronts of

your thighs.
6. Look at your belly.

Ø
Feel the tension in your
abdomen and front of your neck.
7. Equalize the
sensations at the
fronts of your thighs,
abdomen, and neck.
Repeat until you get better
Ø at equalizing the tensions.

199
1. Lift your head and

hold.
Notice how lifting your head

tenses your low back.
2. Slowly sit back

toward your heels.
Feel the curve of your

back reverse itself from your
waist toward your neck.
3. Rest on your elbows.

200

together, and hold.
ÖÕ
5. Press your wrists and

hands down, and
hold (within your
comfort zone).
Ø
Ø Feel how the tension moves to
your lower abdomen.

201
6. Press your forehead

gently toward the
ground and hold
(within your comfort
Þ zone).
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Exhale

and cause your belly to
draw up by rounding your
back.
Notice the tension in the

front of your neck and
abdomen.
7. Equalize all the

efforts so they
become unified.
Þ
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ “Pump” the
action a few times.
8. Inhale and slowly

relax all efforts.

202
Adjust your efforts to make the left and right sides of

each effort feel equal.
1. Slowly lift your head

× until you feel tension
in the back of your
neck. Hold.

increase effort.
2. Slowly move forward

onto all-fours.
Feel your back curve increase

from your neck down to your
waist.
If you feel discomfort in your

spine or ribs, back up to the first
point where you felt it. Pause
in place and relax any extra
tensions before continuing.

203

come forward.
3. Contract between
your shoulder blades
to draw them close
together, in back, and
hold.
4. Equalize the
right and left sides of
your shoulder blades,
and hold.
If your right side feels tigher,

sway your hips and head to the
left, and vice-versa.
5. Slowly relax and let

your head hang part-
way.
Ø

204
6. Re-contract your
shoulder blades and
equalize.
7. Let your head come

down a little farther.
Repeat until your head
hangs freely.
Ø Then, repeat the entire
process three or more times.

205
8. Exhale all the way,

× round your back
upward (by
tightening your
front), and squeeze
Þ your knees together.
Û Ø Look at your navel.
Take time to feel the unifying

action on the efforts of the front
of your body.
9. While squeezing, sit

toward your heels.
Feel your spine curve

as you sit.

206

and push your elbows
Ø into the surface.
Û Feel how the action pulls your

Ø knees in toward your chest.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Release and

squeeze a few times.
11. Inhale and apply a

very constant
outward pressure
with your knees, and
hold.
12. Come forward onto

all-fours.
Feel the effort in your buttocks.

Feel how the action unifies the
efforts in the back of your body.
Repeat five (5) times, or so, at deceasing levels of effort.

207
ENDING THE MOVEMENT: Sit back onto your heels. Relax in place
with your hands on your hips, sitting erectly.
1. Lift your head.
Feel gentle pressure at the base

of your head, at the neck.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Look upward at

your brow.
⇒ 3rd level ⇒ Actively inhale.
2. Exhale and begin to

sit toward your heels,
as before.
⇒ 2nd level ⇒ Look at the

space between your knees.
Your head comes down last.
Feel your spinal

curve reverse from your waist
toward your neck.

208

209
Intend ... Allow ... Do
210
.
MODULE 3C
The Mortar & Pestle
Õ
211
Module 3C: The Mortar and Pestle

212
The Role of Adequate Water Intake
It has been written that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated, that
in 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken
for hunger, and that lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
Many people drink insufficient water to allow the body to eliminate

metabolic waste as it should. With insufficient water, wastes get more
concentrated in bodily fluids than they should. Toxicity is the result. Nerve
endings get more irritable. Maybe that partially expains the moods often found
in the office or workplace.
A person should be drinking six to eight glasses (that’s forty-eight to sixty-

four ounces) of water, per day -- and more if they live in a hot or dry climate.
You’ve possibly heard that idea, before. But to be clear, that means water, not
soda, juice, tea or coffee. Water. Anything dissolved in water slows its absorption
and decreases its ability to carry the body’s nutrients and metabolic wastes.
Here are some more good reasons to drink water.
Dehydration makes the fatigue and soreness of tight back muscles worse.
Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could
significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
This last point is pertinent to the session that follows. If you’ve often
allowed yourself to get dehydrated, the tissues of your back may report soreness
with movements that involve bending.
A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory,

trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or
reading material. In other words, the chemistry of your brain requires adequate
water to function.
A bit more on that point. The processes shown in this book are learning-
intensive. That means it’s easiest when your brain functions best. It’s a good
idea, then, to drink a glass of water before each session of the kind of brain-
intensive processes shown in this book.

213
More interesting statistics: Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the
risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 79%,
and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.
Even mild dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the
dieters studied in a U-Washington study. Implication: Drinking water helps
weight-loss, an idea that is backed up by scientists’ understanding of fat
metabolism, which involves a process called hydrolysis, which involves water.
Here’s another reason: as bodily tissues are about 70% water, dehydration
leads to tissue shrinkage. Over a lifetime of inadequate water intake,
intervertebral disks (the cushions between the bones of the spine) lose their
plumpness, leading to spinal compression. This is one reason why people lose
height as they get older.
And yet another reason: dehydration leads to a thickening of the slippery

lubricant found in joints (synovial fluid). The result? Less lubrication of joints.
A final word: Dry mouth is not the first sign of dehydration. It’s the last
sign, the vital organs of the body having priority over the mouth for water.
Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?
For an eye-opener on the widely underestimated role of water in health

and disease, read the book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, by Dr. F.
Batmangelidge, M.D.
A new words on The Mortar and Pestle movement pattern. This

movement frees your spine for bending in all directions. It also teaches you how
to maintain balance while bending. Both benefits reduce the tendency to hold
tension unnecessarily. Work with it until the movement is smooth and your
balance is steady.

214


• Let the sensation “set in” before relaxing, each time at

a decreasing level of effort.

repetitions.

215
The Mortar & Pestle
STARTING POSITION:
• seated
• hands on hips
• feet and knees at shoulder width
Feel the tension “orbit” your waistline as you move, as you

keep the amount of weight on your two feet equal and
constant.
1. Shift your weight to your left

buttock and hold.
Feel your waistline contract on the
× right side.

216
2. Lift your left shoulder

×
to match the effort at
your right waist, and
Õ hold.
3. Arch your back (bring

Ü your chest up), and
hold.
Õ
Feel the tension move
to your back, on the right.
4. Let your right hip and

Ø left shoulder come
down. Stay arched.
Õ
from your right side toward the
center of your spine.

217
5. Lift your left hip and

×
right shoulder, and
hold.
Õ
× × Feel the tension move toward
your left waist.
× 6. Equalize the efforts.
× 7. Slowly let your chest

cave in, so you sag.
Õ Ø
from your left side toward the
center of your belly.
8. Center your weight on

your buttocks.
Õ

to the center of your belly.

218
Continue this cycle of shift-

ing your weight in a circle
and feel the tension “orbit”
your belly. Do five cycles
Õ or more at decreasing levels
of effort
Then, reverse direction.
If you find any position

particularly painful, retreat
from that position to find
the “edge” of the pain.
Then, make slow, small
turning movements, as if to
glance over your shoulder,
back and forth, into and out
of the pain. Find the edge.
Relax into the movement so
the pain disappears.

219

220
QUICK REFERENCE
Pictorial Summaries of
Coordination Patterns
221
fear or cringing.
• Begin with the amount of effort needed to feel your effort

and, with each repetition, start with the least effort you
can feel. Work toward “gentle.”
• Learn the parts (elements) of multi-part movements, put

them together.
• To repeat, be sure to relax completely between repetitions.
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
222
SUMMARY 1A
Ü
2. 1.
5
NO EFFORT Ø
5
Û
1. 5
2.
Ý
3. 5
3.
Ø Ý
2.
Ü 4. 5
ØØ Ø
1.
Ø
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
223
SUMMARY 1B
1.
×
2.
5. ××
ØØ
4.
Ø 3.
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
224
SUMMARY 1C(a)
1.
2
5
4. 2.
NO EFFORT
×
5 5
3.
1. Hips up.
2. Head up.
3. Hips down.
4. Head down.
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
225
SUMMARY 1C(b)
1.
Ø Ø
CHIN UP, HEAD DOWN
NO EFFORT 2.
ÖÕ
4.
3.
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
226
SUMMARY 1C - COMPLETE
NOW, COMBINE THE TWO COORDINATION PATTERNS INTO A CYCLE.
NO EFFORT
7.
1.
5
6. 2
×
×
2.
TRIPOD
5
×
5.
Ø Ø 3. 5
BELLY UP+CHIN UP HEAD DOWN
+
NO EFFORT
Ø
Ø
4.
5
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
227
SUMMARY 2A(a)
Þ 1.
Ø Û
¬
Þ
3.
Û 2.
Þ
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
228
SUMMARY 2A(b)
Shrug to shorten neck.
Ý
Ü 1.
Ø5.
NO EFFORT
2.
Þ
4. (×) Ø Û Reach.
Ø
Þ
Press elbow &
shoulder.
3.
Þ
Ø Û
Lift knee.
¬ Þ
229
SUMMARY 2A(c)
Ø
Þ
NO EFFORT
230
SUMMARY 2B
Set tension.
Hand switches.
Ö × 5
Õ
Ö
Ø
Hand switches.
Set tension.
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
231
SUMMARY 2C
1. AT REST
Ø
Ø Ü
ARCH
2. SHOULDER DOWN
5. PELVIS FLATTENED
Ø
3. OTHER SHOULDER DOWN,
4. ARM AND FOOT LIFTED FOOT TURNED IN
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
232
SUMMARY 3A(a)
1. HEAD AND SHOULDER Û

Ü
4. NO EFFORT
2. ARCH BACK
3. EQUALIZE
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
233
SUMMARY 3A(b)
Û
CONTRACT BUTTOCK
NO EFFORT
NO EFFORT
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
234
SUMMARY 3A(c)
Ø Ø
235
SUMMARY 3B
8. 1.
7.
2.
6.
3.
5.
4. Ø
236
SUMMARY 3C
ARCH
1.
6.

2.
5.

3.
Ø 4. CAVE

237
PICTORIAL SUMMARIES
238
Appendix A
Some Comments on Typical Terms

Applied to Back Pain
239
240
Some Comments on Typical Terms Applied to Back Pain
Degenerative Disc Disease

Refers to breakdown of the intervertebral discs -- the fibrocartilage spacers
between vertebrae.
The discs consist of two layers: a tough, fibrous outer ring (annulus
fibrosus) and a gummy core (nucleus pulposus) -- something like a Tootsie Roll
Pop.
Disc breakdown may range from mild disc bulge, to more severe disc bulge
(herniation), to rupture of the disc with extrusion of disc material, to conversion
of the disc into bone (fusion). This phenomenon may occur anywhere in the spine,
including the neck.
While defined as a disease, Degenerative Disc Disease is no more a disease

than a blowout of an overloaded tire is a disease of the tire. The breakdown
comes from mechanical causes -- overcompression.
Tight muscles of the back (the spinal extensors) pull neighboring vertebrae
closer together, compressing the discs in between. Over time, the combination of
overcompression and movement cause discs to break down, leading to the range
of breakdown described above.
The breakdown process can be stopped by restoring normal pliancy to the

spinal muscles and normal space between the vertebrae. Then, the healing
process can restore disc integrity.
Added note: chronic dehydration due to insufficient water intake affects

the discs adversely. As discs lose water, they lose plumpness and lose their
ability to maintain space between neighboring vertebrae. Nerve entrapment,
such as sciatica or tingling and numbness in the hands (including carpal tunnel
syndrome), may result.2
2. Hanna, Thomas L. Ph.D. Somatics -- Reawakening the Mind’s Control of Movement, Flexibility, and
Health. 1988: Perseus Books, pages 81-82.
241
Spinal Subluxations
The term, originating in Chiropractic, refers to misalignments of
neighboring vertebrae. Such misalignments adversely affect posture, movement,
and organ function by affecting nerve signal transmission.
Bones go where muscles pull them. Abnormal (habituated) tensions in the

spinal muscles pull vertebrae out of alignment. As muscular functioning
normalizes, spinal alignment often normalizes spontaneously.
Without normalization of muscular functioning, spinal misalignments tend

to return; with normalization of muscular functioning, chiropractic adjustments,
if needed, tend to be long-lasting and are needed less often, if ever.
Injury vs. Spasm

People commonly confuse spinal injuries with muscle spasms.
Spinal injuries involve changes in bone structure or soft-tissue consistency:

fractured vertebrae, degenerating discs, nerve damage. Spinal injuries require
substantial healing time -- or may never heal.
Muscle spasms -- painful muscular contractions -- though painful, do not

constitute an injury. Though symptoms of nerve impingement (tingling, burning,
numbness, loss of muscular control) may accompany muscle spasms, these
symptoms often disappear nearly instantly, once muscle spasms relax. Muscle
spasms can often be induced to relax through somatic methods relatively quickly.
Muscle spasms often follow traumatic accidents, such as falls or motor

vehicle mishaps, shocks to the nervous system that prompt the muscular system
to tighten up. For that reason, muscle spasms may be confused with spinal (not
“spinal cord”) injuries. In persons with chronic muscular tension, muscle spasms
may also occur when lifting heavy loads or even when bending forward, leading
persons to speculate that they have injured their back.
242
Referred Pain
This term, familiar to physical therapists, has to do with pinched nerves
(nerve impingement). It refers to pain at a location other than at the location
where the nerve pinch exists.
Sensory nerves end at brain connections corresponding to the body part

they sense. A nerve that reports on the state of the foot ends in a brain
connection that corresponds to the foot. That nerve “refers” to the foot.
If the nerve to the foot gets pinched, the brain interprets the nerve signal
that results as a sensation of the foot.
Sciatica is an example of referred pain. The sciatic nerve branches down

the back of the leg to the foot. A pinch or entrapment of the sciatic nerve at the
waist or buttock (often caused by muscular tension) creates a signal that the
brain interprets as trouble in the back of the leg or in the foot.
Facet Joint Syndrome

The facet joints are bony projections on vertebrae. Generally, these bony
projections on neighboring vertebrae don’t touch each other, but muscular
contractions along the spine pull neighboring vertebrae together and may cause
those facet joints to meet with undue pressure and friction.
Another type of face joint exists where ribs meet vertebrae. Excessive
tension of the muscles that control rib movement may also cause a kind of facet
joint syndrome.
The pain and inflammation that result are sometimes called “facet joint
syndrome” and sometimes, “spinal arthritis.”
Radiculopathy
This is another term familiar to physical therapists. It refers to tingling
and numbness in the extremities that result from nerve impingement (a pinched
nerve). The term implies damage to a nerve root where it exits the spinal
column.
243
Sometimes, no damage exists; a nerve impingement of muscular origin
exists. The symptoms of radiculopathy often disappears as soon as tensions of
the spinal musculature normalize.
244
Appendix B
AN EXPERIMENT IN PERCEPTION
245
246
An Experiment in Perception
The following images show the typical posture of people with the pattern of
muscular tension described earlier -- the muscular tension of typical back trouble.
The two side-by-side images are designed to give you a three-dimensional view.
While it is not necessary for your success in this program to get a three-
dimensional view from these images, it might be fun to try. The benefit of getting
a 3-D view is that it awakens and harmonizes both sides of the brain -- helpful for
developing body-awareness, as we are doing in this program.
Here’s how to get that three-dimensional view, using these images.
In normal seeing, depth perception (binocular vision) comes from your

brain’s merging the slightly different images seen by your two eyes into one
image. The images shown here are slightly different from each other.
+ +
As you gaze at these images, relax your eyes. If both your eyes are “awake”, you
will notice how the images drift apart, and instead of seeing two images, you see
four.
247
Now, cross your eyes gently and see the images drift toward each other.
Add a bit of effort to crossing your eyes, and you will see the innermost images
overlay each other. Get them to merge, and you have a three-dimensional image.
The image below shows a more normal posture characteristic of a person without
back trouble.
+ +
Now, it’s an interesting thing, but the first set of images corresponds more
to the ideal of a masculine man -- muscular, powerful -- and under strain. The
second set of images corresponds to another kind of man -- not so muscular
looking, not so powerful looking -- and relaxed. The interesting thing is that the
only difference between the two images is their posture -- the state of tension
they portray. Exactly the same figures were used for both sets of images, with no
changes of muscular build.
This observation may reveal something about why back trouble is so

prevalent in our culture.
248
Appendix C
WE BECOME HOW WE LIVE.
249
250
An Expanded View of The Three Reflexes of Stress
“We become how we live.”
In his book, Somatics1 , Thomas Hanna described three

neuromuscular reflexes of stress: the Landau Reaction2, the Startle
Reflex3, and the Trauma Reflex4. He described his view of how, when
repeatedly triggered, these reflexes lead to the formation of tension habits
that create the pains and stiffness commonly attributed to aging.
This information might be of interest to you if you’re wondering what’s
going on with you, particularly if you have chronic conditions that don’t respond
well to the usual therapeutic options.
Thomas Hanna also described the role of expectation in the aging process −
how the expectation that aging leads to decrepitude leads to people limiting their
lives so that they become unfit for life; their expectation becomes a reality. In
popular parlance, “Use it or lose it.”
My own practice has substantiated his views. I have also seen that there
are various attitudes and ways of operating in life that lead to a poor life
experience and to formation of tension habits that lead to poor aging. In general,
these ways of operating have to do with how we handle beginnings, middles, and
endings of the events in our lives.
The Enigma
Most people respond well and decisively to Hanna Somatic Education as a
way of eliminating chronic muscular or musculo-skeletal pain resulting from
aging, injury, or stress. But from time to time, I encounter people whose
improvement is temporary, and for whom their initial complaint reappears − or
who just don’t respond as expected to the work.
1. Hanna, Thomas, Ph.D. Somatics. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1988

2. ibid, page 61
3. ibid, page 49
4. ibid, page 79
251
For some of these, the explanation is simple: they have returned to the
same activities that provoked the problem to begin with, without adding to their
lives the regimen of somatic coordination patterns that dispels the effects of those
activities.
There have been others, however, for whom the return of the initial
complaint, or its failure to resolve, was enigmatic.
The Insight
Expanded insight into the psycho-physical workings of human beings
(ourselves) seems to provide an explanation that intuitively resounds with a
striking ring of truth. The ways we accept, reject, and participate in experience
(or the ways in which we handle beginnings, middles, and endings in our lives)
lead to the accumulation or release of tension.
Let’s begin with a premise and see if it is intuitively acceptable.
Every act of attention or any intention to act
involves a rise of muscular tension.
What this means is that paying attention and getting ready to act involve
moving from a state of rest to a state of heightened muscular activity. Moving
from a state of “not ready” (at rest) to a state of “readiness” (getting set) and into
action all involve rising tension. (“Ready, get set, go!”)
You might experience such a state of heightened tension as you work to

understand what I’m getting at in this paper. The effort of understanding is both
an act of attention (to these words) and an intention to make sense (of these
words). Effort is tension. That’s just an immediate example, perhaps the hardest
one you will encounter in this paper.
252
For those who are unfamiliar with the reflexes of stress named above, I
begin with a brief description. Then, I touch on attitudes and ways of operating
so that you may consider them in your own case and, as a somatic explorer in
your own right, determine for yourself whether those connections between
behavior and tension hold good in your own case. I frame each of those ways of
operating in terms of “beginnings, middles (or continuations), and endings (or
interruptions)” to help you tap into the type of intention that can change them for
the better.
The Neuromuscular Reflexes of Stress
There is a general opinion among physical therapists and developmental

physiologists that two of the reflex patterns described below, the Landau reaction
and Startle Reflex, are outgrown after a certain stage of infancy. However, the
muscular patterns of contraction described here fit the descriptions of those
muscular tension patterns and persist throughout a lifetime. Perhaps this
difference of opinion is only a matter of what we call these patterns of
contraction, but whatever name we use, they are common among human beings
and last throughout a lifetime. That said, let’s continue.
THE LANDAU REACTION

The Landau Reaction is the movement into beginnings and the
mood of continuing or sustained action.
The posture of the Landau Reaction, though evident in people everywhere, goes
largely unrecognized. It is the swayback and tight shoulders of people under stress. Its
beginnings start in infancy.
At about three months of age, most infants start lifting their head to look around.
They are developing a heightened state of alertness and awareness of their environment.
This development is the key distinction of the Landau reaction, which involves both
heightened alertness and activation of the erector muscles of the spine, the muscles that
gather independent vertebrae into a functional unit that is recognizable as a spine − and
makes lifting the head, sitting up, crawling, creeping, standing, walking, etc., possible.
253
When an infant turns upon his or her belly, he or she is preparing to crawl. The
act of crawling, itself, activates the gluteal muscles of the buttocks and the hamstrings
(for leg movements) and the muscles that surround the shoulder blades (for arm
movements).
So we have two distinctions for the Landau Reaction:
• coming to a heightened state of alertness (sensory awareness)
• activation of certain nerve pathways that control certain muscle groups in the
back side of the body
THE STARTLE REFLEX

The Startle Reflex is the movement of withdrawal from total
experience; it is the withdrawal of attention from experiencing via
the cringing response.
The movements of the cringing response are familiar to all of us. We see it when
we hear a sudden noise (e.g., a door slams or someone yells, “Duck!”) and we pull into a
ducking position, or when something moves quickly toward our face and we shut our eyes
and contract our face. We may possibly have read about people curling into fetal position
when under emotional stress. The Startle Reflex is the reflex of fear.
The reflex involves a cascade of responses in which the individual closes

themselves off from the environment, starting with the face, then the neck and chest,
then the arms and shoulders, abdomen, and at last, the legs, as the knees are brought
together and pulled toward the chest in a movement into collapse.
Where the Landau Reaction is the impulse to explore and participate in our
environment, the Startle Reflex is a drawing away and withdrawal from our
environment.
Where the Landau Reaction involves activation of the muscles of the back of the
body, the Startle Reflex involves activation of the muscles of the front of the body.
So we have two distinctions for the Startle Reflex:
• withdrawal from sensory awareness of the environment
254
• activation of certain nerve pathways that control certain muscle groups in the
frontal aspect of the body
THE TRAUMA REFLEX

The Trauma Reflex is the limiting of movement (or participation in
experience) in order to maintain safety while participating in
experience.
There is a universal response to pain or injury: we contract away from the
perceived source of the sensation.
The trauma reflex is another kind of “movement-away”. Unlike the Startle

Reflex, which is wholesale withdrawal from contact with the individual’s environment,
the trauma reflex is a selective withdrawal from an external event or stimulus. It is an
act of self-preservation, while still staying in participatory contact with our environment.
Unlike the Startle Reflex, which has a consistent movement pattern, the trauma
reflex involves patterns of movement unique to the situation. In general, injuries come
from a single direction, usually from one side of the individual or the other; rarely do
they come from a straight-forward direction. So the effects of trauma reflex show up as
asymmetrical postural distortions.
So we have two distinctions for the Trauma Reflex:
• withdrawal of sensory awareness from a painful or shocking sensation
• activation of certain nerve pathways that control muscle groups involved in

physical withdrawal from the direction from which pain or shock seems to
come
Summary of the Neuromuscular Reflexes of Stress

These descriptions show that there is a correlation of the emotional, cognitive,
and sensory-motor realms. They all involve a simultaneous involvement of the senses
and of movement.
Each has its proper moment. Problems occur when they persist beyond the
moment as chronic, fixated, or habituated responses.
255
Somatic education, in general, and Hanna Somatic Education, in specific, is a way
to get free of these responses when they have become habituated and chronic, to return
to a free state of functioning appropriately responsive to the moment.
256
How Our Way of Operating in Life Triggers
the Neuromuscular Reflexes of Stress
PROCRASTINATION AND URGENCY

a disorder of beginning and a beginning of disorder
Have you ever procrastinated? Have you noticed that resisting doing
something you felt needed doing only added to your tension in life? That once you
did it, you felt relieved?
Have you ever procrastinated for so long that now the matter you had put
off constituted an emergency about which you felt some urgency? Would you say
that urgency involves a state of heightened tension? That’s the Landau Reaction.
Consider the cumulative effects of habitual procrastination. What must

the tension level be like in a person who habitually procrastinates? Always
behind, always hurrying.
LATENESS AND HURRYING

a disorder of beginning and a beginning of disorder
What about a person who is habitually late for appointments? Same thing,
isn’t it? Now that they’re late, they’re driven to be on time. Would such a person
be tense? Another instance of the Landau Reaction.
BROKEN COMMITMENTS AND OVERLOAD

a disorder of continuation
How about the person who is late but doesn’t care? Is it true that they
really don’t care, or are they just resisting caring? Their promise to be on time
was a commitment they made (for whatever reason); now, they are denying their
original commitment. So now they are opposing the thing with which they were
at first sympathetic. Isn’t this confusing?
Confusion costs us peace. It’s a kind of disoriented state of heightened

tension; we can’t (or won’t ) choose one side or the other. It’s a way of being stuck
and wanting to get free.
257
What makes it more complicated is that another person is involved who
stands for the thing with which we were originally sympathetic, but now oppose.
So they seem to be our opponent − for asking us to do that for which we prepared
(at least partially) to do by making a commitment.
To make a commitment is to enter a state of readiness to act. It’s a

heightened state of tension. It triggers the Landau reaction until the
commitment is fulfilled.
Consider the person who habitually makes and fails to keep commitments
− or makes too many commitments. What amount of tension must they be
accumulating? How must their attention be split among the various directions of
their unfulfilled commitments? Might they feel overloaded and tense?
... on the receiving end of Broken Commitments and Overload:

UNFULFILLED EXPECTATION AND ANGER
a disorder of continuation
Suppose you’re the person disappointed by someone who’s made a
commitment to you. You’re in a state of readiness to fulfill what you both agreed
to, in a state of suspense, even, and now it isn’t happening. You’re waiting for it
to happen. More readiness, more Landau Reaction, more tension.
What of the person who habitually enters into agreements with a person
who habitually breaks them? Might that not contribute to a persons stress level?
Might they not go nuts, at times?
SLOPPINESS
a disorder of endings or completions
“A Clean Desk is a Sign of a Sick Mind” − perhaps you have seen this saying on
a coffee mug in some office. This saying is a sign of a sick mind! Why?
Like procrastination, sloppiness leads to a sense of urgency − a sense of

“overwhelm” − chronic fatigue. The mess seems too much to clean up and so only
gets worse with time. Sporadic attempts at clean-up lead to getting bogged down
258
in details. Eventually, one wishes for a dump truck − but among the detritus
are usually things one wants!
So the mass preys upon ones attention.
Sloppy people have trouble ending things with a completion. Their

attention goes off the situation before it is over. They put things down and forget
where they put them. They make promises and forget they made them. The
rooms they occupy become shrines to disorder and backlog, every square inch of
surface area occupied with stuff. They live under the Sword of Damocles, too
many things pending, and the consequences of their actions impending. They
may be paralyzed by feelings of impending doom.
Because so much is pending, they exist in a state of chronic arousal, the

tension of the Landau Reaction; because consequences are impending, they exist
in a state of chronic anxiety, the tension of the Startle Reflex. Like the rooms
they occupy, their minds are congested with clutter.
Ever worked in an office occupied by such a person? How do you feel,

there? It’s something like a kind of mental constipation, isn’t it?
A sloppy desk is a sign of a sick mind. The cure? End things with a
completion.
SELF-DENIAL: UNMET NEEDS AND RESENTMENT

a disorder of beginning
Desire is the impulse to take action to get what we want or need − e.g., to
go and talk to someone, to go get something − some physical action.
Consider the “polite” person who doesn’t ask for what they need or accept it
when it is offered because (in their mind) it would inconvenience someone else or
be impolite. They have dual motivations: to get what they need (beginning/
Landau) and to avoid a “situation” (interrupting/Startle).
Might they be a little tense? Might they be a bit prone to angry

resentment at those who do ask for (and get) what they need? (“If I shouldn’t ask
259
for it, neither should they.”) Might they be feeling both needy and angry − and
isn’t that a good definition of resentment?
And consider the person who acts that way as a matter of principle. Might
they not accumulate the dual tensions of desiring to act to get what they want
and opposing their desire? (... which is “the fault of others,” of course.)
CHRONIC DISTRACTION: BEING DIVERTED (DIVERTING ONESELF) FROM

ONES PRIORITIES
a disorder of endings (or completions)
A priority is a decided-upon intention. As a state of readiness-to-act, it
involves heightened tension; complete relaxation is unreadiness to act.
Some people have a tendency to distraction. When we get distracted, our

first priority remains as a frustrated (or delayed) impulse. The sense of
frustration is a combination of arousal or readiness to act coupled with restraint
(the sense of being delayed) as we involve ourselves with something else. In
effect, we have three “programs” or intentions to act going on at once: readiness,
delay, and the “off-purpose” action. Consider how wound up people get when
delayed in traffic.
Since our priorities often involve other persons, consider, in addition, the
tension involved in handling the reactions of others affected by our distraction.
In effect, they remind us of our own state of readiness to act on our first priority;
when we resist that reminder, we call it “nagging”, but it is our own heightened
tension, our own readiness to act (Landau) on our first priority, that we are
feeling and resisting.
People who commonly follow distractions get accustomed to heightened

states of tension.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE: REGRET AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

disorder of failed beginnings, ended before they began
How many times have we agonized about missed opportunities − moments
when we had the desire to act, but suppressed it?
260
The desire to act stands as a state of readiness; the suppression of action
substitutes for relaxing and relinquishing the initial desire, which continues.
The memory of the situation re-triggers the desire and intensifies the state of
readiness to act (to begin: Landau) at a time when action is now impossible (so we
believe).
It is a desire to begin meeting a belief in a premature end.
VIOLATING TABOOS OR ONES OWN SENSE OF INTEGRITY

a disorder of desiring to end what we are beginning
A taboo is an injunction to refrain from certain types of actions. When we
knowingly violate taboos, we feel a combination of fear of the consequences and
desire to do it anyway. This combination of feelings triggers, at the same time,
the Landau Reaction (readiness to act, involving the muscles of the back of the
body) and the Startle Reflex (withdrawal from action, involving the muscles of
the front of the body).
The same reflexes are triggered any time we engage in actions that we feel
are wrong or for which we feel unprepared.
PERPETRATIONS
actions that we wish we had never begun
A perpetration is any action about which we feel guilt, shame, regret,
remorse, or any similar emotion. It is an action we wish we had not done, or an
act of omission, for which we have not yet handled the consequences. Lies and
secrets are included in this category.
Perpetrations involve both a memory of the action (maintained as a

heightened state of tension in the musculature − a memory is a heightened
readiness to experience something) and a desire to counteract the action (another
heightened state of tension in the musculature − readiness to do the opposite
action).
261
Since these states of readiness do not cancel or neutralize each other (since
the emotion is persisting), they add to each other. One word for this state is
torment. Tormented people are not relaxed, you may have noticed.
STUBBORNNESS AND FRUSTRATION

a disorder of prevented beginnings
Frustration is no stranger to us; it has been described as “the universal
disease”.
The opposite of procrastination, frustration involves a state of readiness

that conflicts with our previous state of readiness to be some other way - or with
conditions we have yet to handle. It may involve (and be intensified by) a chronic
desire for a beginning coupled with a refusal to end what has come before. When
a great change is desired, rather than one intention dissolving into the next, it
persists and conflicts with it. The “disowned” desire (for what has gone before) is
then assumed to come from the environment or others, setting the stage for
fruitless conflict and tension.
SELF-DECEPTION: RESISTED ROLES

disorders of denied beginnings and failed endings
A role is a set of behaviors and feelings. Consider actors in the theater;
what we respond to is not they, themselves, but the role they are playing.
Our system of morals, social mores, and taboos seeks to confine feelings
and behaviors within a certain accepted range. Greed, cruelty, stupidity,
selfishness, and ignorance are (most of the time) taboo, except when the end
“justifies” the means (see “Violating Taboos” above). I’m sure you can think of
other attributes, as well.
Consequently, when we have impulses (or habits) that embody those

forbidden attributes, we are likely to go into conflict with ourselves. This pattern
is similar to that of perpetrations, except for the addition of one more feature:
denial.
262
We tend to deny that we embody those forbidden attributes and suffer
torment at the idea that we do embody them. We also tend to want to torment
others who embody those attributes! Such is the origin of much righteous anger.
People who resist playing a certain role also tend to emphasize its opposite,
giving power to their denial that they are that way. Another state of “readiness”,
held as a desire not to experience being the way we really want to be. It is a
combination of Landau and Startle. More tension.
Summary
These are but a few examples of how people operate that lead to the
heightened tensions of the three reflexes of stress. They show how the way we
live triggers the neuromuscular reflexes of stress. A moment’s consideration
reveals how they also set the stage for injury. (Think of haste, inattention, and
disordered environments.)
While clinical somatic education can do much to alleviate the effects of

injury and stress, the effects of self-conflicted ways of living return as long as we
continue to live as we have. No-contraction, no-problem is the natural condition
of rest, and it is available only when we conduct our lives in such a way that our
attention can move appropriately into beginnings and come to rest in appropriate
endings. We must change our lives or suffer our own reactions.
© 2000 Lawrence Gold. Reprinted from Somatics -- the Magazine-Journal of the Mind-Body Arts and
Sciences, summer/fall 2000, Vol. XII, no. 4, pg. 12
263
264
Appendix D
A FUNCTIONAL LOOK AT BACK PAIN

AND TREATMENT METHODS
265
266
A Functional Look at Back Pain
and Treatment Methods
Lawrence Gold, Certified Hanna Somatic Educator
REPRINTED FROM THE TOWNSEND LETTER
FOR DOCTORS AND PATIENTS,
November, 1994, #136, pg. 1186, revised 4/5/02
Two primary sources of chronic back pain are muscular hypertonicity

(resulting in joint compression and possible nerve impingement) and lactic acid
buildup in hypertonic muscles (creating nociceptor irritation). Improper or
insufficient movement and/or postural habits lead to (and result from) chronic
muscular hypertonicity and soreness.
This essay presents a radical departure from the conventional viewpoint of

clinical therapeutics. It states that to resolve back pain often requires neither
strengthening nor stretching, neither mechanical skeletal adjustment nor
application of electrical stimulation, heat or cold, neither muscle relaxants nor
surgery. In many cases, to resolve back pain requires nothing more than
improving the link between kinesthetic awareness and motor control, the benefits
of which, in some cases, might be augmented by soft-tissue manipulation. Both
traditional and newer treatment methods are discussed.
INTRODUCTION
The conventional understanding of muscular back pain is that it results from
traumatic injury, poor posture, genetic (mis)endowment, old age, or from
"insidious causes". Pain is often attributed to strain, sprain, or facet joint
damage.
In cases of traumatic injury, such as whiplash or a lifting injury, a strain,

sprain, or joint damage may in fact have occurred. In many cases, however, pain
reflects chronic muscular hypertonicity following injury or subsequent to long-
term stress.
Lactic acid buildup and tissue irritation follow- this apart from any tissue
damage that may exist.
267
Two basic conditions contribute to lactic acid build-up in muscle and thus, to
back pain:
• chronic muscular hypertonicity
• disorganization of the fascial network (connective tissue)
Chronic Muscular Hypertonicity

Chronic muscular hypertonicity may result from long-term performance of
repetitive movement (e.g., at work); from long-term emotional distress (i.e.,
heightened tension), or from trauma (reflexive retraction from pain upon injury
that persists through healing). In all cases, muscular tension begins as a
momentary response and becomes chronic/automatic through habituation. It
often persists even during sleep.
Whether muscular hypertonicity results from pain (i.e., from guarding against
pain) or produces it, the results are the same: reduced movement, decreased
circulation, and accumulation of lactic acid in the involved muscle tissue.
Habituated contraction can accumulate in "layers" (with multiple episodes of

heightened tension), often to crisis proportions, as often happens with back pain.
Habitually tight muscles interfere with movement and interfere with their
muscular antagonists; fatigue, stiffness, and soreness result.
Chronic co-contraction of extensors and flexors is one mechanism by which

unresolved muscular tension persists. When the extensors and flexors of the
trunk co-contract, they shorten the spine and compress the intervertebral discs;
this is a common origin of disc degeneration and radiculopathy.
Whether muscular hypertonicity arises from physical or emotional origin, the

result is the same: lactic acid build-up and joint compression.
Disorganization of the Fascia

The fascia is the fibrous matrix that gives shape and tensile strength to tissue;
in muscle, fascia is called, "myofascia". In soft tissue, fascia grows or shrinks
268
according to functional demand. This logic of growth-by-demand creates a pattern
of organization visible as the physical person; it also imprints stress and trauma
upon the fascial system, present as patterns of disorganization -- contraction and
restricted movement. The fascia is thus an organ of memory, whether of healthy
function or of dysfunction, as well as of tissue integrity.
The consequences of trauma -- heightened muscular tension, pain, and fatigue

-- may thus persist due to disorganization of the fascia. Long-term consequences
may include crises of spasm and long-term joint degeneration.
Summary of Introduction
Two basic conditions, muscular hypertonicity and fascial disorganization, can
account for many or most cases of chronic back pain.
METHODS OF TREATMENT
We discuss four basic areas of praxis for the treatment of back pain:
• physical therapy modalities
• chiropractic manipulation
• somatic education
• myofascial release techniques
In physical therapy, therapeutic exercise, heat, electrical stimulation, and

massage are the usual modalities used to treat back pain.
In chiropractic manipulation, adjustments of vertebral placement shift

patterns of compression communicated through the skeletal system.
In somatic education, accelerated sensory-motor learning retrains the central

nervous system (CNS) to alleviate muscular hypertonicity.
In myofascial release techniques, soft-tissue manipulation frees adhesions and

restriction in the myofascial system.
269
Physical Therapy Modalities
Therapeutic Exercise, Heat, Ice, Electrical Stimulation, and Massage
Therapeutic exercises may, if properly taught, supervised, and practiced by the

patient, improve sensory awareness and voluntary control over muscular tension.
Although the rationale behind therapeutic exercises is usually to strengthen
muscles, a more precise understanding is that it improves coordination and
control of muscles, upon which strength depends. Such exercises, performed
ballistically, produce little benefit and may increase pain and spasticity. To
produce the most benefit, they must be performed slowly, smoothly, and with due
respect for the patient's comfort level (to avoid guarding against pain by
tightening further).
Moist heat, applied to the affected area, increases circulation and induces
relaxation. Application of ice can numb pain and, through a rebound of
circulation to restore warmth to an area, result in removal of lactic acid.
These three approaches are therefore effective ways to flush lactic acid from
the soft tissues, and that is the primary benefit.
These modalities are therefore palliative; hypertonicity tends to return.
Electrical stimulation may produce temporary relaxation and mask pain; by

inducing increased awareness of the hypertonic muscles, it may also indirectly
improve voluntary control over muscular tension.
Muscular activity and massage move fluids from the soft tissues into the
bloodstream and lymphatic system, through pumping action.
Chiropractic Manipulation
Bone movement and position reflect muscular pulls and the lines of stress
communicated through the fascial system.
Sense receptors in joints communicate bone movement to the Central Nervous

System (CNS), which in turn controls muscular tensions associated with posture.
270
Thus, movement and sensation form a feedback loop for the maintenance of
postural alignment.
For bone displacement maintained by muscular tensions of recent (i.e., non-

habituated) status, skeletal adjustments can be sufficient to interrupt postural
reactions to injury and bring relief.
Muscular tensions of long duration (i.e., habituated status), may reassert

themselves after skeletal adjustments. In such cases, relief is brief, as muscular
hypertonicity returns, with attendant exacerbation of symptoms. The same
limitation applies to traction techniques.
Somatic Education
Somatic education addresses the sensory-motor aspect of the CNS to reduce
muscular hypertonicity. It is indicated where residual tension persists after
injured tissue has healed or where hypertonicity returns after treatment by
conventional methods.
Four forms of somatic education will be discussed, here:
• conventional postural training
• movement training
• assisted pandiculation
Conventional Postural Training

Conventional postural training teaches patients to establish a neutral spine
position in movement and to maintain it in all activity. Patients thus limit their
movement and tend to maintain protective holding patterns in the musculature
("guarding").
Guarding leads to conditioning into chronic patterns of tension, and patients

tend to remain fearful about their injury. An alternative to this choice is to
maintain "normal spinal curves". The fallacy of this approach is that there exist
"normal spinal curves"; the spine is inherently a flexible structure whose curves
271
change according to load, position, and emotional tension. This fallacy extends to
the use of "lumbar supports".
Movement Training
Movement education seeks to develop balanced agonist/antagonist muscular
coordination throughout the body. Where agonist overpowers antagonist (where
reciprocal inhibition is interfered with by chronic hypertonicity), postural
aberrations result.
For example, in individuals who typically stand with knees locked and feet and
legs splayed apart, abductors and the external rotators of the thighs have
overpowered the adductors and internal rotators. The pelvis is thrust forward, as
a result, the rib cage falls back, and the head, forward. Such a position
accentuates the spinal curves and adds strain to the musculature of the neck and
thoracic spine.
Movement training optimally uses balanced movements that "reprogram"

control of agonist/antagonist muscle pairs. The patterns of movement thus
cultivated permit release of more habituated tensions, including those of injury-
guarding and emotional distress. As better-balanced movement patterns develop,
compensatory muscular responses are less necessary; muscular tensions
redistribute themselves and abate. Lactic acid concentration and pain decrease.
Examples of somatic education include Proprioceptive Neuromuscular

Facilitation (PNF), The Alexander Technique, The Trager Approach, Feldenkrais
Somatic Integration, Rolfing Movement, Hanna Somatic Education, and others.
All of these methods use the client/patient's capacity for learning to develop new
patterns of sensory-motor integration (coordination). Success depends upon
restoring or improving voluntary control of previously involuntarily muscular
contractions. Otherwise, states of involuntary contraction interfere with the
possibility of establishing new coordination patterns.
272
Assisted Pandiculation
Pandiculation is an instinctual behavior found among all vertebrates that
purges residual tension from the neuromuscular system. Assisted pandiculation
systematically triggers the effects of pandiculation through a kind of "eccentric,
active- resistive range of motion" maneuver; this maneuver produces sufficient
sensory awareness of the involved areas to induce rapid sensory-motor learning.
Assisted pandiculation produces a nearlytantaneous, stable reduction of habitual
hypertonicity that can, if necessary, be maintained with a few minutes of
patterned movement a day. It may be the fastest method known for bringing
involuntary (habituated) muscular hypertonicity under voluntary control.
As of this writing, there is only one system of movement education known

which uses assisted pandiculation: Hanna Somatic Education.
To be most effective, somatic education must include the whole body (since the
neuro-musculo-skeletal system operates as a whole to maintain balance in the
gravitational field). All of the methods named above cultivate relaxed or easy
balance (grace) in movement and at rest, though some work more quickly than
others.
Myofascial Release Techniques

Myofascial release techniques free restrictions of the fascial network that have
developed through injury or through growth under chronic muscular tension.
Certain varieties concentrate on symptomatic relief and direct their processes

accordingly. The technique developed by Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D. ("Structural
Integration") addresses the body as a whole via a systematic, 10-session system
that concentrates on improving overall physiological functioning, apart from
consideration of symptoms. (Advanced work beyond the basic 10-session series is
also done.)
Structural Integration works by guiding the fascia into a pattern of

distribution that more nearly approximates their anatomical ideals, as indicated
by bony landmarks, joint structure, and the requirements for balance-in-
movement, as dictated by the demands of the gravity field.
273
This process balances the agonist/antagonist pairs, distributes tensional forces
in the myofascia, and so allows the core of the body to relax and open. Structural
Integration differs from myofascial release, per se, by its systematic approach to
postural alignment and balance in movement, and in its recognition of the
functional relationship of hard and soft tissues in relation to the gravitational
field.
In cases of chronic "poor posture," problems can usually be found in the

myofascial system, e.g., twists, thickening, displacement from normal position,
etc. Fascia in this state may be very tight and restrictive of movement.
Consequently, agonist/antagonist muscle pulls are imprecisely matched and
impaired, leading to irregularities of movement, impaired coordination, muscle
weakness, and poor postural support. As stated above, chronic fatigue, pain, and
postural breakdown accompany myofascial distortions. Neuromuscular
compensations, including decreased mobility and unbalanced alignment, ensue.
For example, the shoulder and hip joints are related. In walking, they move
contralaterally; at rest, they counterbalance each other: As one hip moves
forward, the shoulder above it tends to move backward as a postural reflex. The
torso connects the two girdles, hip and shoulder. Compensatory shifts of these
girdles twist or distort the spine and rib cage. The combination of a twist, shear
forces, and muscle tension adds stress to the whole torso.
For that reason, when treating back problems, the establishment of a

dynamically balanced and freely functional neutral spine position requires free
movement and reciprocal coordination of the shoulder the hip girdles. The
technique of Structural Integration involves (1), placing the displaced part near
its position of optimal relationship with its neighboring parts, (2) manually
restraining the local myofascia, where disordered, and simultaneously, (3) having
the patient/client move the part in a way approximating normal movement. The
combination of movement and tissue-restraint repositions the myofascia to a
better approximation of the norm.
274
SUMMARY
Though varying in etiology and degree of severity, back pain has a common
feature: build-up of lactic acid in muscle tissue and resulting irritation. Muscular
hypertonicity and postural distortions create pain, facet joint irritation, and
radiculopathy.
Disorganization of the fascial network restricts movement and triggers

postural responses to overcome those restrictions. Hypertonicity may result from
injury (trauma reflex), persistent emotional responses, repetitive movements,
habitual poor posture, and/or prolonged immobilization.
Treatment modalities addressing those mechanisms -- through the disciplines

of physical therapy, chiropractic, somatic education, and myofascial release --
have been discussed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I pay my respect to the late Thomas Hanna, Ph.D., whose writings and
personal instruction provided a structure for my personal somatic explorations
and for my work with others.
REFERENCE
Hanna, Thomas L. Somatics: Re-Awakening the Mind's Control of Movement,

Flexibility, and Health. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1988
275
MORE SOMATICS
available at Somatics on the Web (somatics.com)
Biokinetics/Hanna Somatics
Developmental Movement Education with Carol Welch,
certified Hanna somatic educator
video programs available in VHS, PAL, and on DVD
Reflexes 101w
The movement patterns worked with in this video address muscular contractions
held involuntarily and unconsciously. They create a better condition for
breathing, walking, and functioning in a more comfortable and efficient body.
Practice along with Carol. 76 minutes running time, many hours in fruitful
practice time.
Spine and Joints 102w
This program is based on movement patterns for the well-being of the spine, the
long muscles of the back, and the small muscles joining the vertebrae.
Included are cyclic motions that serve to integrate the sense of weight,
balance, intention, and direction of movement.
I liked this video very much. It was well organized and aesthetically pleasing. Clear and
simple to follow, the video had an excellent pace which allowed the viewer to participate
simultaneously with the producers.
Consequently, I would recommend this video . . . It is accessible, applicable and appropriate

for any audience: practitioners, students, or novices.
Judith Aston (Aston Patterning)
The New Seated Refreshment Exercises

by Lawrence Gold, certified Hanna somatic educator
audio compact disc
Working too hard? Chained to your desk? Here's a system of

movements to refresh physical comfort and flexibility for
those with limited mobility or who must stay seated for long
periods -- air travelers, desk jockeys, customer service team
members, the elderly, etc.
Calm & Energize: Somatic Breathing Training to Reduce Stress

by Lawrence Gold, certified Hanna somatic educator
276

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nine weeks or fewer

Hanna Somatics Gold

Brief portions of this volume

Done properly, these movements relax and coordinate the

Since the author cannot be present to supervise you, you

This is a book to help you work smarter

rather than harder,

to reclaim your body

from the tyranny of pain and stiffness.

The instruction comes from outside.

The learning comes from within.

How Is This Program Different from Other Programs?

They involve a new approach to back trouble. Instead of strengthening and

Instead of merely strengthening your back muscles, these movements

Instead of stretching your muscles, these movements restore your muscles

Instead of confining you to a “neutral spine position,” these movements

This book teaches a progressive program of brain-muscle reconditioning,

Each movement addresses a different aspect of the muscular system. All of

Instead of a symptomatic approach that involves working on painful areas,

when you lifted something? After an accident?

Here’s the simple premise of this approach: Muscular tension is controlled

I am a certified somatic educator who, by using the methods of somatic

Your days of guarding a bad back can be over.

INTRODUCING THE METHOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

UNDERSTANDING THE SOMATIC COORDINATION PATTERNS

CHECKLIST A: Learning the Coordination Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

CHECKLIST B: Integrated Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

MODULE 1A: Spine Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

MODULE 1B: Lazy “8”s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

MODULE 1C: The Folding Seesaw and The Kite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

MODULE 2A: The Wiggling Jig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

MODULE 2B: The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

MODULE 2C: The Twist that Untwists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

MODULE 3A: In-Bed Stretches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

Module 3B: The Rising Sphinx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189

Module 3C: The Mortar & Pestle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211

SUMMARY 2A(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228

SUMMARY 3A(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234

Appendix A: Some Comments on Typical Terms Applied to Back Pain

Appendix B: An Experiment in Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245

Appendix C: We Become How We Live: An Expanded View of The Three

Appendix D: A Functional Look at Back Pain and Treatment Methods . . . .265

Still, if I am going to make a claim, I owe it to you to back it up with an

Let me present a premise:

“A large percentage of chronic pain can be traced to tight muscles.”

Consider for a moment: What happens to muscles that stay tightly

What might that be? What causes muscles to contract?

Answer: your nervous system.

Your muscles don’t decide to contract, or to stay contracted, on their own.

This explanation has so far been a bit of an oversimplification, so let’s go

Thomas Hanna, a pioneer researcher in the field of somatic education,

The brain is the master-control organ of the muscular system. As an organ

The question is how to activate that power.

Words like that may still seem too incredible to be believed -- an

Why do people think so?

Perhaps it’s due to the history of conventional treatment methods. Based

The results of conventional therapeutic measures are often temporary and

Medical doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, osteopaths, and

Let’s think about strengthening and stretching, for a moment. When

What evidence do we have for this assertion?

The Significance of the Obvious

muscles. That’s rarely the case. Touch the lower