By Jacci Gruninger, MS, C-IAYT
High Mountain Wellbeing
Los Alamos

Are you struggling to pick things up from the floor or reach the top shelf to get something? Can you easily turn your head to back up your car? Are you noticing new aches and pains in the body or are you injuring yourself more frequently?

Just living, especially a stress-filled life, can cause tension and tightness in our muscles and set us up for unexpected strain and injury. Habitual ways of moving can also contribute to our muscles and connective tissue not moving through their full range of motion. Constricted or strained muscles keep us from moving freely and feeling good in our bodies.

There is a solution – gentle somatic movement. Specifically pandiculation.

Pandiculation helps to strengthen and reprogram the brain-to-muscle connection, reset neural pathways and bring muscle groups back to their optimal resting position. Pandiculation is a process of engaging (loading) and then relaxing (unloading) the muscle.

You might actually do pandiculation without knowing it when you wake up in the morning. If you stretch a bit and then relax, that is a pandiculation. Animals do this regularly.

There are three main forms of pandiculation: the simple use of body weight and gravity; using one’s own touch for additional resistance or being assisted by a facilitator.

All three forms of pandiculation allow us to reset the tension in our muscles by re-establishing a connection between our muscles and our brain. After practice, most individuals will feel their pain and stiffness diminish. Over time and with practice, habitual patterns of movement will be erased.

“Thomas Hanna once lectured about the unique experience of those practicing Somatic Education and Movement. He said that Somatic Education is much more than absorbing new information in the traditional sense. You are asking yourself to become aware of yourself for the purpose of being able to become masterful at controlling yourself from within – literally changing and improving your physical state.” –Essential Somatics

Try this experiment for reaching a little higher without strain or pain:

Have on hand two pieces of tape. Mark 1 and 2 on each piece respectively.
Stand facing a wall and without going up on your toes, reach up with one arm and place tape 1 on the wall to where you can reach.
Do the same with the other arm and tape 2.

Now try the following movements:

Arch & Flatten:

Starting Position: Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and arms lying by your sides. Notice your body resting on the floor.
Arching movement: Inhale into your lower belly and gently roll your pelvis forward, arching your lower back and sticking out your belly. Your tailbone remains on the floor. Feel your lower back muscles gently contracting.
Flattening movement: Exhale and flatten your entire back down into the floor using your abdominal muscles.
Repeat this 4-6x

Hip Hikes:

Continue on your back with your knees bent.
Keep the back gently pressed into the floor.
Inhale and glide your right hip up toward your lowest rib creating a “c” curve.
Exhale and return to neutral.
Repeat 4-6x then repeat on the opposite side

Wash Cloth:

Starting Position: Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and arms stretched out to the sides like the letter T.
Exhale and roll your right shoulder toward the floor, pressing your scapula toward your lower back (your hand/lower arm might move slightly upward) this is external rotation. Your head might move toward the shoulder as well.

Inhale to neutral

Inhale and roll your shoulder toward your chest/feet (away from the floor) this is internal rotation.
Do each of these movements a few times then follow the directions below.
All at the same time, roll your right shoulder down toward your feet (floor behind you) and your left arm up toward your head (or sky); let your head roll to the right. Then, slowly and gently roll everything back to center.
Then do the movement to the other side: roll your left arm down toward your feet and your right arm up toward your head; Move slowly and lazily.
Repeat this 4-6x

Now release your legs and reach your arms overhead. Do a lazy stretch like you are yawning with your arms overhead. Return to your wall and reach up again with one arm and then the other. Can you reach a little higher? Yes? Congratulations you have just elongated and released the muscles helpful for reaching upward.

Jacci Gruninger is a Certified Yoga Therapist, Thai Yoga Massage Therapist, Focusing Coach and Facilitated Stretch Practitioner. She regularly helps clients manage the ups and downs of life with yoga, meditation, breathwork, focusing, stretching and bodywork. Her Wellness Center is at 190 Central Park Square #212. For her in person and online teaching schedule and information on other services, visit her website at www.highmountainwellbeing.com.