Final Days............

Thanksgiving in Brazil

Unfortunately I was unable to get quality photo's of Thanksgiving. But, my class and myself went over to Carrin's house in Camburie. Carrin is an American woman originally from California. We met her by dining at her restaurant for a soccer benefit (picture and story at bottom of blog). 

We had all of the Thanksgiving fixens. Cranberry sauce was brought to Brazil by Marty's (a class mate) wife Elena all the way from San Francisco! Carin and her house governess made all of the food while we were in class. 

Speaking of house governesses, I have one and I love it. I'm seriously going to consider hiring one back in Cali............. 

Movement session 4. 

Do you remember how I said earlier that it's all about breathing and walking? Well here is a session that pertains to breathing! Oops I mean walking. Well it's truly about contralateral movement. Breathing and Walking.

There are no simple/good definitions in any dictionaries about contralateral movement so I'll have to take on the task here.  Your comments are greatly appreciated! 

Contra lateral is opposite side opposite corner. How it pertains to movement is for example: during walking, as the left leg swings forward the right arm swings forward simultaneously.  Vise-versa with the right leg/left arm. This transition of movement migrates all the way to the spine. Some say it originates in the spine. That's a later discussion. How does this pertain to normal people?  Restrictions..... I find where contralateral movement is restricted and fee it so a body can function and thrive. 

Propriopreception

After learning how to find the Sacrum and label it's parts hidden beneath skin, muscle, ligament and fascial enwrapping we marked each other's parts with a dry erase marker. 

This is the location of the sacrum, it's a triangle shaped bone below the spine and in between the hip bones. The tail bone is attached to the bottom of the sacrum. 

Well somebody had to clean up the mess. That's where Katy came to the rescue. I of course was there to document scientific findings. 

This man is amazing! He is middle age. He teaches surfing and skateboarding. He is receiving his first ten series and three movement sessions. 

The addition of the three movement sessions is place in amongst the regular series. This helps the nervous system and brain catch up and integrate with the changes in the fascia.  

Also the goal of each session is not only structurally based but movement based. So the questions are how does this body move inside of gravity and how can I effect change into structure to effect function. 

Notice "No hands" not support from anyone else. 

And up we go! 

Propriopreception. I know big word... the definition of which is. Perception of space and where your body is inside of gravity. Propriopreception is what tells you how it feels to you to move through space and gravity. Its how you "know where you are" 

This man had a highly tuned sense of propriopreception. And while he is on the ball he was swinging his arms around. Click on the pisca web link to see more!

Agua de Coco

A couple of weekends ago I travled to Sao Paulo to attend the annual Rolfer's meeting of the ABR. Myself and some classmates were offered a beautiful place to stay. Our host ambulated us to the nearby fresh market where she be-friended many of the local merchants. 

I have a new appriceation for the line "it's not what you know but who you know." We tested various forms of cheese, fresh fruits and drink. Our host shops at the fresh market daily and therefore we were served with royal treatment. 

The human body is designed for walking long distances. I've read up to 8 miles a day. When a person is in ideal allignment with gravity, meaning that their joints are alligned in three demensional space, gravity flows through the body instead of pulling it into the terrain. 

This allignment makes walking effortless and quite enjoyable. Because of our current lifestyles and patterns we have misplaced some our orientation in space.  

The old dicipline of walking with a Bible or Dictionary has been replaced by bags of sugar. Not only does this help a person find the up direction, it helps to bring adaptability to your body and fluidity to your movement.  

Learning how to breathe and walk

Oh the beautiful beach. It is quite difficult at times to remain focused on school. But.... I am committed to bettering my education diligently pull my mind away from the beach and back to the class

I have the best instructors in the world, they give us two hour lunches so that we may enjoy paradise. 

Who remembers session 4? If you've forgotten please refer to image to the left! 

This brings new meaning to the phrase "you sleep when you die...."

This lazy skeleton is not learning how to breathe and walk but he is teaching us how to breathe and walk. And I know for sure this plastic set of bones is a man because of the shape of his pelvis. 

The best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. That is what is going on here. Some of my classmates have set this arrangement up in order to emphasize aspects of session 4. 

Serious faces mean learning how to breathe and walk is not easy. Who thought that adults would need to learn how to breathe and walk? I sure didn't did you? 

In our lifestyle today we use our bodies in completely different ways that it was designed. For example we sit for hours at a time, we walk on perfectly even surfaces, we cover our feet with stiff tight shoes. 

Bringing back the innate ability to breathe and walk resolves many of the accumulitive problems we face today. 

The purpose is to lift the bamboo without efforting. In learning how to breathe and walk we take one movement at a time and play with perception and coordination. This session lasted a little over an hour. We raised the bamboo (not the silly dog) above our heads then brought it back to our lap. 

Reaching or pushing. Some of us are more inclined to reach and others push. Either way if you change the perception and coordination of the movement you change the movement quality. 

Most of the repetitive stress injuries can be resolved by changing perception and coordination. 

To fully understand the dynamic meaning of perception and coordination it is recommended to receive a movement session. 

Second week in Brazil

Fascia, a thin fiberous matrix encasing muscles, bones, organs, and the entire body. 

Cornelia Rossi is holding a pice  of beef teaching us about the different layers of fascia during anatomy class. The first week of school is solid anatomy. We dive deeper into the ideas and scientific research available today. 

                                                               Raining Ropes, 

For the first five days of my arrival it rained non stop. 

This photo was shot at 7 am. I was awaiting Rich on my porch  for our morning yoga. Rich had to walk up the hill in this rain to practice yoga.

First week in Brazil

Hi Everyone, 

   I hope you all are doing well. After many attempts at finding an efficient way to share my wonderful experiences with you I have come up with this 

simple solution.... Creating a Blog...

  I am living in 

a small village called Barra Do Sahy. It is located 135 km from Sao Paulo. The village has about 300

 people living here full time.  

   The Rain Forest lines the deck of my small house. It is very humid. For the first five days of my arrival it rained. It was difficult keeping an optomistic outlook.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    In my neighborhood there is a dog that protects the properties, his name is Bamboo pronounced Bombo. I've taught him to sit. He join's me for yoga in the morning. I love this dog! I've tried to speak to Bamboo in Portugise I wanted to tell him to exit the house, instead I told him to hit the highway. This sent my roommate Regina into a laughing frenzy and now it's the local joke.                                                          

                                                                                         I have one on Regina. She tried to describe lifting weights by using the made up word "musculation" in her Brazilian accent after we had a few glasses of wine at a soccer benefit dinner. I'm going to add Musculation to Wikipedia soon.