Written by: Heidi Hadley, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In my previous article (Click here to read it). I discussed how Clinical Somatics gets to the root cause of pain and limited mobility with the process of Pandiculation. Many years ago, I taught stretching to release muscle tension. However, once I learned the science behind Pandiculation and saw the results clinically, I have never used stretching as an approach to muscle and joint health care since. Stretching doesn’t change muscle memory or create changes at the brain level. Stretching is referred to as passive lengthening. Pandiculation is referred to as active lengthening.
Stretching has been shown to affect the integrity of Sarcomeres (the functional units of muscle fibres) and reduce peak power and force output in stretched muscles. This is referred to as ‘acute stretched-induced strength loss.’ This means that after stretching, your muscles are not able to produce as much force/power/strength compared to before stretching. Over the years, I have seen in my clinical practice the results of acute stretched-induced strength loss. It creates an increase in soft tissue injuries. Many also feel ‘achey’ after stretching, this is not a good sign. Unfortunately, it is a sign they have over-stretched and triggered the stretch reflex. The stretch reflex is designed to protect the muscle from over-stretching or tearing. When they trigger the stretch reflex, their muscles become tighter than when they first started. This creates pressure and tension on the tendons and ligaments.
Pandiculation doesn’t place pressure on the sarcomeres and improves the power output of the muscles because, after the process, you have more of the muscle under your conscious or voluntary control. The entire process requires you to notice the feedback from your body, a true embodiment process. As we learned from my previous article, all vertebrae animals pandiculate. Have you ever noticed a cat or dog pushing that little bit further or breathing heavily through their movement?! No. They are fully embodied in the process, moving with the natural mechanism.
Pandiculation was a game changer for me personally and professionally. In this article, I am going to delve into the power of pandiculation, the 3-step process used to release chronically tight muscles and improve movement.
Pandiculation is a powerful yet gentle way to ease muscle tension, improve muscle memory and posture. It resets the relationship between the motor and sensory nerves. Let’s consider a common experience for many globally.
Have you ever noticed how when you wake in the morning and stand up, your muscles are stiff and it takes them a few minutes to get moving, often with the help of a hot shower? The reason for this comes down to the relationship between the sensory and motor nerves and how they control your muscles.
Overnight the sensory system is still recording the level of tension in the muscle from the day before, for instance, 20%. When you wake up, your motor system has reset to 0% because overnight they switch off, whereas the sensory system stays switched on. It is hypervigilant to movement as the sensory system, always wants to protect the muscle fibres. When you begin to move, the sensory system is always keen to imitate the motor system and be told what to do by it. So, the sensory system genuinely thinks it is also starting at 0%. However, it is starting with 20% subcortically contracted muscles.
Over time the brain starts to gain an incorrect view of what the muscles can do. Thinking that they have full movement and range within the muscles, when in fact, a portion of it is subcortically or subconsciously contracted due to injury, stress, or poor habits such as slumping over a computer. It is only when they start moving that their mind/brain starts thinking, “What’s going on? Why do I feel so tight? I am normal, right?”
The sensory and motor systems get out of sync and are unable to coordinate effectively, creating pain or discomfort with movement. This is when we experience Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA).
Sensory Motor Amnesia is a term used in Clinical Somatics. It is a condition in which the sensory-motor neurons of the voluntary cortex have lost some portion of their ability to control all or some of the muscles of the body. It occurs as a functional deficit, whereby the ability to control a muscle group has been surrendered to subcortical or subconscious reflexes or habits. These reflexes will chronically contract muscles at a programmed rate. It could be 5%, 10%, 20%, 50% or whatever the subconscious portion of the brain wants to hold. At this point the voluntary cortex or conscious part of the brain is powerless to relax these contracted muscles below that programmed rate. The sensory-motor portion of the brain, which is the conscious part of the brain has lost control and developed a form of ‘amnesia’ because this area has forgotten the ability to coordinate these muscles efficiently.
As a result of muscles being held chronically tight in partial contraction, it causes soreness and pain. They become weak due to constant exertion; they create clumsiness due to the inability to coordinate synergistically with overall body movements. Plus, chronically tight muscles create a constant energy drain on the body, postural distortions, and poor weight distribution that will cause secondary pain typically mistaken for arthritis, bursitis, herniated discs, and so on.
There has been a trend within certain areas of health and wellness claiming back pain and lower back issues are due to a ‘weak core.’ So, the client is advised to tighten already tense muscles through their core, hips, lumbar spine, and intercostals, thereby intensifying their pain and amplifying the level of muscle contraction further. As important as strength training is, Clinical Somatics is the missing link many health professionals have found helps to get their clients back on the road to recovery. Before you strengthen and tighten muscles, you must teach the sensory-motor centre how to coordinate and work efficiently. Until you release, for instance, the 40% subcortically or subconsciously contracted muscles, you will only have 60% available power in your muscles.
The principles of the agonist and antagonist muscles are involved here. The principle is that ‘when one side of the body contracts, the other side lengthens to allow movement to happen.’ For instance, to contract your biceps, the triceps must lengthen to make movement happen. This principle applies throughout the body.
When a person is tight and in pain, the coordination and rhythm between the agonist and antagonist have been lost. As a result, if a person wants to bend down to pick their bag up, they adapt and squat down awkwardly with a straight back, in fear they may ‘twinge’ their back. The reason for their robotic behaviour is that they have developed “co-contraction” whereby the front, back and sides of the body have simply tightened and the brain has gone into ‘autopilot.’ SMA is so subtle because it happens subconsciously over time.
The process of pandiculation
To get both parties, the sensory and motor systems to speak the same language, a coactivation process must occur. When this occurs, the motor and sensory portions of the muscles work in harmony and allow there to be a release of subconscious muscle contraction, allowing people to move freely with reduced pain and improved posture.
To create voluntary movement, these two systems need to work as a team, to create muscular contraction and movement. This is where we start considering the importance of deliberate, mindful movement in the form of pandiculation to reverse Sensory Motor Amnesia.
When we pandiculate, we do it with a three-step process
Step 1 - Voluntary Contraction: When we shorten the muscle fibres, both the sensory and motor systems must work together to create 100% voluntary muscle contraction. At this point, both parties are travelling in sync with the contraction. It needs to be slow and mindful to create the sensory feedback stimulation to the cortex, which at this point is lacking. It is lacking because the sensors, up until this point, have not been feeling and sensing what is actually happening in the muscle. Many sensations and the range of movement are lacking within the muscles that have created SMA, due to habitual movements, postures, and actions.
Step 2 - Slow Release: During this release stage, we are keeping the sensory and motor systems in sync with each other, so they start measuring the same levels of relaxation, plus sense and feel the lengthening and release within the muscles at the same time. They are staying in coordination because they are mindfully aware that a slow release will keep these two parties working together to create relaxation within the muscles. This part is especially important because the sensory arousal of the motor neurons is just that, when the muscles are released to the point of their original contracted state, the sensory and motor systems continue to release below that rate all the way back to 0%. This part of the pandiculation must be performed slowly to also allow the motor cortex and cerebellum to remember the sequencing to create a slow release.
Step 3 - Integration: This is where we completely relax and rest. We allow the sensory and motor systems ‘to get to know each other again’ and find that they do have common ground, they just needed a mediator, in this instance, the contraction and release to make it happen for them! When we fully rest we are training ourselves to slow down and allow the Central Nervous System to maintain “rest and digest” which is the recuperation phase of the autonomic nervous system. Our brain and body may forget what it feels like to allow muscles to completely relax.Plus, when did you last feel complete relaxation within your body and muscles? The integration phase allows the brain to absorb these new sensations and link them with neural or synaptic connections. When we activate certain areas of our brain with pandiculation, there are areas associated with pleasure, recollection, and reward. Allowing memories, sensations and then linking them to certain somatic movements, helps deeply impress our personal practice.
Within my clinical practice, I focus on the process of pandiculation, differentiation of movement, speed, and sequence. It allows the brain to focus and change thought patterns and processes to help break habitual patterns and behaviours. Using differentiation encourages my client to embody their practice, noticing the subtle feedback from their body. This takes them out of their default patterns and behaviours of being cortical, mechanical, or habitual.
Within Total Somatics Education, I teach them how to trust the innate process of Pandiculation. This education, empowers a client because they learn that they can move their muscles safely, intelligently, effectively, and gently, to release chronically tight muscles. Start today, by working smarter, not harder with your intelligent mind and body by releasing muscle tension and easing pain with
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Heidi Hadley, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Heidi Hadley is a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator & Somatic Movement teacher. She started her career in mainstream medicine in the field of Neurophysiology. In 2001, Heidi started her private clinical practice in health, wellbeing & movement. She is the founder & creator of Total Somatics International®, an online membership designed to reduce pain, improve posture, increase mobility, develop mindfulness and allow you to resume or continue with the activities you love to do. She is the presenter of the podcast, Somatic Movement & Mindset. Delving into the fields of neuroscience, pain, mindset, mindfulness, habits and how to use your brain and body to create lasting healthy changes.
References:
Small, et al. (2008). A systematic review into the efficacy of static stretching as part of a warm-up for the prevention of exercise-related injury. Research in Sports Medicine, 16(3), 213-231.
McHugh & Cosgrave, (2010). To stretch or not to stretch: the role of stretching in injury prevention and performance. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20(2), 169-181.
Morgan D.L & Allen D.G. (1999). Early events in stretch-induced muscle damage. Journal of Applied Physiology. American Physiology Society.
Limitations with stretching: https://betterhumans.pub/does-stretching-reduce-strength-and-power-7cdf5d2aa884
When Muscles are overstretched & affect sarcomeres: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2278966/
