I spent half term in my role as a teacher on the Professional Feldenkrais training programme in London. It’s a four year course to qualify as a teacher, in an experiential learning environment.
I get to teach, but also learn from other more experienced practitioners. One of whom as she worked asked the student if he’d had a leg in a cast. It turned out that he had!
Many of us have broken or sprained something and had it put into a cast or splint to heal. If it’s a leg, we learn to move around and use both legs in a different way to usual.
All normal stuff. But, the interesting thing happens when the plaster comes off. As a child I spent some time with my legs in plaster, and there was one time when the plaster was taken off in the summer. I remember because one leg was suntanned and and the hair had bleached, and when the other leg was jimmied out of the cast it was so white it was nearly blue, and the hair was so dark in comparison. And it was spindly. I felt like I had a spider’s leg on one side.
But I’d had 6-8 weeks of this heavy plaster on my leg. So when I lifted it, it shot into the air. It still makes me laugh thinking about it. It took me a while to adjust the power setting. Often we don’t fully reset our adaptive behaviour once the cast (or strapping) comes off. Some echo or vestige of the way we moved with the cast on remains once it’s off.
Resetting back to a simpler, more ergonomic and efficient way of moving is what we learn in a Feldenkrais lesson. This month we’ll be revisiting developmental patterns to see if they can help us improve our mobility and movement.
the Feldenkrais Method with Emma Alter 