Sure, dancing is a great form of exercise to lose weight, but can it help you shed stress? Perhaps the answer is yes, to an extent, but if you really want to relax at the end of each day, like you would on a massage table, then you need somatic stretching.
Now dancing is great, as outlined in this post, but At FitEngine, we advocate movement and good health. The more ambitious, the better. But we also appreciate that while a fitness insanity workout has its benefits, there’s also a place on your wellness journey for the gentler stuff.
What is Somatic Movement?
Somatic practices are a category of alternative wellness practices. Anything that relies on using the relationship between your body and mind to push both further while remaining attentive to what each of them tells you, could be considered somatic. This would include being constantly aware of your sensory experience but simply observing it instead of trying to control or prevent it.
Doing it right can help you understand how you hold on to certain emotions in your body. If that’s confusing, do a quick scan of your body. Are you tense? Relaxed? Then think about how you feel after a full day of work. Do parts of your body feel sore, even though you haven’t been particularly active?
That’s probably because the stress you experience causes you to tense certain muscles, and when you finally relax, you feel the ache. The somatic praxis is to be aware of these things as they happen so that you understand how your body, in particular, holds on to certain things.
Some believe learning this about oneself can promote healing and good physical health.
So Isn’t All Yoga “Somatic”?
Does that sound an awful lot like yoga? It’s an apt question. Many people confuse the two since they both spotlight the mind-body connection. The fact is that they’re not the same, but they’re not mutually exclusive either. Chances are, your yoga workout has somatic elements, and somatic practices will resemble a stretching yoga class.
However, the world of somatics has its practices and thinking. It’s even given way to psychotherapy. A mental health treatment addresses emotional trauma and anxiety from the physical side, more so than any New York Pilates academy could. Somatic therapy aims to make you aware of your body’s responses to certain feelings.
What’s It Good For?
There isn’t a lot of research to support the claims of somatic therapy and stretching, but still, so many swear by it. Since it’s fairly new, the research into it is still in progress, and what is complete focuses on specific symptoms.
Many dedicated practitioners stand by this approach as a way to work through suppressed feelings caused by traumatic experiences, even if they’re long in the past. According to a 2017 report, becoming more aware of posture can help you make small changes in how you move that can reduce the physical effects of negative emotions.
Evidence has also suggested that somatic awareness could help people recover lasting symptoms of PTSD even if they’ve been experiencing them since childhood.
Tuning in actively to the parts of your body that experience discomfort regularly, and doing mild somatic exercises targeting the area can relieve the tension and show you what you need to change to prevent it from building up.
Is There A Downside?
The only downside of this exercise is that it might not work as you’d hoped. All bodies are different, and things that involve the mind aren’t always easy to tune into. However, the worst-case scenario is that you’ll waste some time, but any stretching is good for your body, so we certainly wouldn’t call that a waste.
Where Should I Start?
Where you should start will depend largely on what you hope to get out of your stretches. If you’re a hardcore yogi, then know that this is different from a flexibility and mobility workout. Unlike fitness classes, the goal here will not be to make any changes or improvements to your body.
Your instincts from workout yoga might tell you to push your body past the discomfort, but it’s much more important to take heed of it. Make note of where it starts and where it ends, and if it changes with certain thoughts.
Try these stretches:
1. Standing Awareness
This is a great starting point if you’re shifting from the world of yoga classes to somatic stretching. You’ll have to unlearn quite a bit of what you know. So stand straight, and let your consciousness move through your body. Start at the top of your head and gradually shift downward, making yourself aware of all the muscles in your face.
End at your feet and the tips of your toes. Tense and relax your body, and see which muscles are naturally tense or naturally relaxed. You can’t properly engage somatically with your body if you’re not in tune with your muscles and their levels of reactivity. Let this serve as an exploration of your internal workings. Inhale and exhale and scan your body to see which muscles you engage. Which of them are engaged naturally, and which of them do you move on your own?
Do this for twenty minutes daily to build a better relationship with your body.
2. Hang Your Head
Again, start standing up straight, and then drop your head down. Keep the rest of your body upright, but try to let go of your head as if you were a ragdoll from the shoulders up.
Now pay attention to the muscles in your neck and your shoulders. Are they pulled taut? Or were they kept tense even when you intended to relax them? We often hold on to stress in our shoulders by lifting them to our necks. If you can identify the roots of the problem areas, don’t stretch them more, as you would in a Pilates class. But instead, do a check-in with yourself every couple of hours to see how you hold those parts of your body.
Make sure you give each muscle enough downtime.
3. Arch and Flatten
This one is for everyone who deals with an achy back daily. Back pain is so common that most people write it off as a side effect of having a desk job, but we’re here to show you that that’s not true. There’s plenty you can, and should, do about a sore spine. Just think of how integral your spine is!
Here’s how to show it some TLC. With your feet hip-width apart, lie flat on your back on a yoga mat. Bend your knees, but keep your feet planted flat. Now breathe deeply and pay attention to your lower back. Then continue to do the breath and check as you slowly arch your back, bringing your belly upward, almost as if you were entering the bridge pose.
However, unlike when you do Pilates and yoga, you won’t push your hips upward. Instead, you’ll simply be making observations.
This is perhaps the most frustrating part of somatics for seasoned yogis. Your yoga roots will tell you to stretch out the problem, but this physical healing practice is like an attitude change for your body. Think of it as physical mindfulness.
Once you’ve mastered, or at least gotten the hang of, somatic movement, you can entwine it into your stretching yoga or social dance classes. If you’re looking for the right class to enroll in, let FitEngine help you narrow it down! Our teams of experts make it their business to keep tabs on every New York Pilates academy, making us an asset to yogis and non-yogi athletes everywhere.
If you don’t end up signing up for a regular class, we would be highly encouraged to adapt your movements to the somatic way of doing things. The payoff for just thirty minutes daily is so great that we don’t see how you could turn it down.
Still, we’re here for you no matter what. If you need a way to lose weight fast with exercise, affordable fitness classes, or if you’re ready to pull the trigger on a fitness insanity workout, we’ll find you one!
Our blog also highlights the pros and cons of different types of yoga and Pilates. Get a comprehensive comparison between the benefits of each, and figure out which you need. If you’re nervous already, don’t worry!
You’re not alone. In fact, our “fitness funnies” were made just for you.
We love hearing from New Yorkers looking to work some flexibility workouts into their routines. Drop us a line at info@fitengine.com, and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible!
