How Somatic Exercises Self-Relieve Lower Back Pain

Somatic exercises
are synergistic action patterns . . . . .
movement patterns
composed of simpler movement elements
that combine together
into larger, integrated movement patterns

movement patterns . . . . .
that naturally coordinate together
. . . . . that wake up and organize your brain in a certain way
. . . . . that relax muscles beyond what you can get by stretching.

As you come out of the grip of musclebound back muscles
and elongate into a more relaxed state,
you learn to control the tight places first
by tightening
where you are already tight,
then by slowly relaxing
more completely than you could, before . . . . .

Tension and release,
control in both directions,
getting tighter and letting looser,
deeper into relaxation than before, deeper.

You get a grip and then let go,
You assert control and then relax --
and that develops comfortable freedom
and free control of movement.

By repeatedly practicing each movement pattern
you awaken it,
put it together,
refine it,
and finish with a deeper,
more balanced
more comfortable
equilibrium.

You get a feeling for what
"well-organized" and "well put-together"
feel like.

You gain freedom of movement so natural
that you soon start
to take it for granted.

Naturally well-coordinated, well-balanced and easy-moving,
such are the lasting improvements of this approach
. . . which begin immediately
... and become more and more ...
the more you do it.

You develop good unity of movement and balance
without danger of cramp or spasm

. . . you get free of the grip
more reliably, more durably, more completely
than by being manipulated
or "worked-on" by somebody else.

Because you are controlling it from within
rather than being done to
you can own it,
keep it and refresh it.

The 'proof' of the 'pudding' is in the 'eating'.

We clinical somatic educators teach somatic exercises to our clients to stabilize and increase the results of clinical sessions (in which we work with not on clients) -- they also work for people who can't have sessions of clinical somatic education with a practitioner.

I speak from experience -- (since 1990) I have consistently facilitated my clients out of sometimes incapacitating back pain and cleared up two rather intense episodes of that in myself. (I am at present, fully strong and well-balanced for all lifting, moving and bending. "Come over here and I'll lift you up.")