Much has been said about pain, from how to deal with it to the extensive pharmacological list, meditation, alternative medicine, energy work, etc. I am pretty sure that at some point in life we have all tried desperately to find a solution, not just to temporarily alleviate this interfering sensation.
When it comes to injuries, stroke, even Fibromyalgia, I have noticed a huge, fast improvement in focusing on how the brain has processed that information.
While the body's wisdom starts flagging that path as painful, other muscles and nerves around it start compensating this inflicted asymmetry. Not treated properly, and specifically I mean some PT techniques and approaches that focuses in the area specifically, creating more irritation and inflammation in the suffering area. of course this reinforces the pain path, to the degree that the individual will start developing "anticipated fear" even before starting an exercise already proven to be painful, alerting the brain again, producing a contraction in the area to protect itself from another irritation session. There is no solution here.
Using the holistic approach in seeing the body and mind as a system, so when you modify one part, the others will too, i decided to implement this technique in clients with childhood injuries, recovering from a stroke, and a mother and a daughter suffering from the incapacitating burden of Fibromyalgia. In this entry I am going to focus on them. Their chiropractor and sport medicine doctor recommended 21st Century Pilates and the tri-dimensional approach including emotional counseling and changing dramatically their eating habits.
We started with classes three times a week. Testing their tolerance more than fitness level, i noticed from the start where those pain patterns where held. Instead of pushing through the pain creating more frustration and anxiety, we would stop at the first sign of irritation, lowering down the level, and with a thought-repatterning technique from Cognitive therapy, we started seeing vast improvement in a matter of a week. I also identified what was the clients preferences and passion, dance being one of them, a dream from her teenager years, so I restructured the class in giving her what she wanted. As the first legs rise without pain and recovering the flexibility by 60%, tears poured out with joy. It is so easy to adapt and respect the person infront of you, and meet her where that person is, instead of pushing, almost shoving a theory or technique.
Her daughter advanced faster, ex soccer player and loving dance, her motivation was to be able to join a regular dance class. Being very picky in the class for her, as careful as it could be in order not to reignite the pain pattern, our goal was to make awareness of the first sign of irritation, stop and breathe, not to push through, soothe anxiety and adapt exercises. In this matter controlling frustration was the critical emotional factor in the flare up of Fibromyalgia. They were "given permission" to respect where they were, how simple this is and how hard it is to practice if you are not aware, they had to stop without feeling bad or comparing themselves to the rest of the class. "I hope you are practicing this for yourself." That was their part of the deal, and I would pass them to a group class.
Once we identified the emotional factors and pain triggers, we just avoided them, fooling the brain and working around the area so it would relax instead of contract defensively, and slowly moving forward to the area with no pain. Of course pain produces many asymmetries, so correcting the posture is fundamental for the execution of the exercise and progressing into another level. If this is not in place, the client will never progress.
I am happy to report that in less than 2 weeks, 6 classes, the daughter was joining a dance class. With the mother, we evolved into working diagonally in the body, left and right side coordination, in a progression including all levels of the brain. First looking and copying, then tracing the body part, to help the brain remap the area, then including the verbal description of the exercise while performing. This approach exceeded all my expectations. Within another two weeks (six classes), the results were beyond words.
Of course we don't only owe it to 21st century pilates, we did a complete and strict turn around with Food Combining respecting their food sensitivities and intolerance. They not only lost weight, but started eating less with reduced anxiety eating, and became more nourished in a 2 month lapse.
Emotional counseling was the other key factor; and the studio community offered them a friendly, not competitive environment to be accepted and welcomed.
We worked intensively for 3 months with stable results over time. A follow up helps us stay connected and keeps the energy active and flowing.
I love them dearly, as my community still does. I will be always thankful to them for trusting me with their bodies, their minds and most of all, their hearts.
No comments:
Post a Comment