As we all know, both athletes young and old face emotions such as stress, anxiety and anger. When these emotions are stirred up, certain muscles stiffen in the shoulders, chest and elsewhere which can interfere with comfortable breathing and lead to performance declines.
Today we have a guest post from movement specialist, Ed Barrera who will share with you some information and tips to help you change your bodies response to stress and anxiety.
We can use our internal biofeedback system using mind body training exercises of our own sensory motor system to improve breathing, mental sharpness and lead us to easy and relaxed mobility.
Our negative thoughts and less than optimal breathing does not allow us to reach our performance potential.
Thoughts are things and our muscles get involved as we think. As we react, our muscles speedily contract even to the point of a poignant and painful muscle spasms.
When tension levels build in the shoulders and chest area, our breathing is compromised. These high tension levels slow athletes down since weʼre dealing with high contraction levels rather than relaxed ones, which allows for easier agility.
Our body responds to injuries by protecting itself. It draws inwards. We may begin to worry as we think we are not living up to the expectations of coaches or parents. We might even fear the idea of failing. These circumstances can lead to restricted breathing as our mind gets busy with thoughts which leads to more muscles working.
Being able to feel and fine tune our sensory motor system, we develop our natural ability to be comfortable in our skin. Our thoughts no longer control us. We can breathe easier and feel more relaxed.
At times, we paralyze our self when we over think things about our performance. Too narrow of a focus closes our self inwards rather than being able to shift in and out easily.
Over 300 years ago we learned from the founder of clinical medicine, Herman Boerhaave, that the strange sounding word called a pandiculation brings muscles to rest.
When our pet cats and dogs stretch in the morning, they are actually contracting along a series of muscles which allows them to reset the resting tension levels. This is what is known as the pandicular process.
When we see a cat round itʼs back, weʼve often looked at the stretching of the back rather than the pulling in of the belly where the contraction takes place.
Fortunately this has been systematized in somatics exercises, where you learn to use our mindʼs natural ability of fine tuning our sensory motor system back to states where we regain our mobility and return to natural flexibility.
Somatics exercises are very subtle and gentle since they are working with our nervous system. You can try them yourself and feel how your body can change very quickly otherwise you can pull in your belly like a cat and pay close attention to the muscles your are using.
Then like a cat, slowly let them go and notice how well you can let go of the tension level you created. Were you holding your breath or breathing with the movement? Did you notice how your chest pulled down as you contracted the belly? Could you feel your shoulders drawing inwards?
As we learn to reset our nervous system with somatics exercises our breathing pump kicks in as tension levels decrease from areas where there is stored tension or high contraction levels. Essentially we relieve ourself and we feel renewed.
Our movement system is set up to relieve, recover and renew itself merely by tuning into our own feedback loop as we engage our brainʼs motor cortex. As we become more relaxed and our muscles return to optimal function, our thoughts get lost in the exquisite return to comfort.
Initially I was shocked when I worked with teenagers who could not touch their toes. At 51, one would think, any teenager oughta be flexible yet modern day living comes with the same pressures, emotions and circumstances our body takes on. Being able to comfortably touch my toes doesnʼt come from trying. This ability happens as we are able to let go… of our thoughts and body as we play with our sense of voluntary movement and the feedback our system provides.
We are neurologically wired to reset those high tension levels in the shoulder. chest and elsewhere so comfortable breathing and performance returns.
Ed Barrera is a Hanna Somatic Educator, founder of Gravity Werks and the creator of Move Like An Animal. He lived with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition he endured for nearly 20 years. Now he helps people overcome physical pain, reduce muscular stress & tension and increase performance.
He recently added a third silver medal at the US Veterans National Soccer Championships to compliment the gold he won at the Washington State Senior Games. His secret training method is to naturally reset both the mind & body with the gentle system of somatics exercises.