First of all, I need to explain what happens during each step. The thigh bone which is called the femur bears all the weight of the body as we shift weight from leg to leg. It is as if we fall with each step; it’s only the other leg that catches us. The femur is the pillar for stability and balance between the moments of ultimate instability that falling from leg to leg is.

The structure of the femur is an “L” shape bone. When we move, the bone floats in three dimensions and depending on its freedom, it adjusts properly to provide the support for the rest of the body through each step. More often than not, the femur is held by groups of muscles and is prevented from a full glide through the soft tissue around it. These adhesions are what ultimately changes the gait through the whole body.

Walking on a treadmill changes our natural gait even further. Because it moves underneath us and has a certain limited length, it doesn’t give us the opportunity to follow through all the stages of the movement. The final push-off with our toes gets limited. We don’t get the full benefit of turning of the femur at that stage of the step which results in stretching through the hip flexor muscles (particulary the quadriceps). Because of the treadmill’s barrier in the front, we also don’t get the full stride of reaching with the leg forward which would give us a stretch of the hamstring (back) side of the leg.

If the choice is to walk on a treadmill or not walk at all, I recommend the treadmill. If the choice is walking on a treadmill and walking outside in cold or on ice, I recommend the treadmill again. But, if the choice is walking outside and walking on a treadmill while having our New Mexico turquioise sky with the golden sunshine, I’d choose to walk outside everytime.

Next week, I will talk about the 10 things to improve awareness that one can think about while walking.

FlyLady (flylady.net) is a system that helped me feel “hugged” the moment I step over the threshold. It is a method to keep my home easily and consistently clean and organized. I am in love with having my space make sense to me. All of the sudden, I have the energy, creativity and courage to finish projects that have been waiting for their turn.

There are many layers to working with FlyLady but the way it made sense to me was to sign up for her emails. At first, I thought it would be overwhelming to get 7 emails a day from her but now I can’t wait to read the suggestions and testimonials about what has helped others. It’s amazingly motivating!

I find that my clients are also very good at being able to grasp the images and create them in their bodies as I work with their tissues. My favorite metaphor in the recent months has been the feeling I get when hiking or snowshoeing. It feels as if my legs ‘hang’ off my pelvis. It is as if they aren’t connected at all and I can walk like a marionette, legs hanging on thin strings. The legs can move in any and all directions. It feels really good.

When I work with clients who need some work on their quadriceps muscles, I use the marionette metaphor to help them release the leg from unconscious tension. What happens is at first a burning sensation which is the fascia differentiating. When more of the layers around the femur differentiate, a sense of lengthening of the whole leg follows. It feels just like a marionette’s leg would feel.

Most clients report they have never felt such a sensation before. There is a reason for that. All of our activities involve tightening of particular muscles to give us the movement we want. Even while relaxing, the proximity of the bones in the joints stays constant. The only activity when we challenge the distance between the bones is during stretching. And even there, we have a programmed mechanism to only stretch a certain amount and not go beyond to protect us from potentially injuring ourselves.

Rolfing is a unique method to let the deeper layers give in while it feels good. The deep connective tissue can lengthen and release to give us the range of motion in the joints that’s possible and a sense of lightness of the legs follow. How would you like to feel like a marionette?

http://howshereallydoesit.com/podcast/2010/11/elyse-resch-intuitive-eating/

‘Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.’ p.49

‘Tact is the language of strength.’ p.48

‘Tact is the opposite of thoughtlessness.’ p.48

‘What you have to give you offer least of all through what you say; in greater part through what you do; but in greatest part through who you are.’ p.83

‘Life leaves a mark. None of us passes through the experience of our days unblemished or pristine. We all suffer tragedies and disappointments, struggles and failures. Losses great and small, and every one of them hurts. We can try to cover it up, although if we do, we just tend to grow bitter on the inside. Or, we can embrace who we are-that is, who we are in the process of becoming. Embrace the hurt and it deepens you, makes you a richer person. Deny, reject, hold it at bay, fight it off, and it simply hardens you. Either way, it engraves itself onto your soul.’ p.84

‘Character is what happens when life scratches itself onto your soul.’ p. 86

As I am making things in the middle of the night, I often think of other things. Last week, when cutting out a piece of fabric out of an old curtain, I was matching grainline on the pattern to the grain of the fabric. Every pattern piece has an arrow drawn on it to find the matching grain. Grain is the strongest and least stretchable direction of a fabric. The reason why it is important to cut the fabric on the grain is so that the garment hangs properly on the body (otherwise it twists and doesn’t feel ‘right’).

I found a metaphor in the grainline idea with my Rolfing practice. When I work with a client’s connective tissue, it is often shifted and pulled out of the grain direction. I apply pressure to help lenghten the soft tissues along the bones to create space and optimal movement. After that, it ‘hangs’ differently. Often, clients perceive the lenghtening and the relief that’s associated with releasing the ‘stuck’ place and internal tension.

Who would have thought there is a connection between sewing and Rolfing!

For the first half of my journey, I wore my Five Finger Vibram shoes. They feel as great as if I am walking barefooted. I took them off when there started to be more rocks and my little toes were getting bumped on them. I got a few compliments on them from my fellow hikers.

The beautiful Winsor Trail tells me it is autumn. I counted 20 people hiking with me on the trail yesterday. What a gorgeous fall day!

Today, unlike our ancestors, we may choose not to move. In modern life, moving appears to be optional. Thus, what we do to work and play no longer fully engages our major musculoskeletal functions. The biomechanical paradigm is reversed: The less we move, the less we are capable of moving.”   Pete Egoscue, Pain Free