No pain, no gain: no brain
Movement educator Elke Dunlop (centre) helps people get their balance back. Her Feldenkrais Method classes teach people how to crawl properly and stand on their heads.
People are looking to get fit and beat the winter blues, but movement educator Elke Dunlop says many conceptions of how to “stay in shape” are based on faulty logic.
“Actions and movements that leave the body exhausted are not good for the body,” says Dunlop. “You see a skier going like a god down the mountain; they have this ability to look effortless. It’s because they have removed the superfluous actions that tire them out.”
She says good skiers have “the timing right” but many people are doing a disservice to their body in how they move around.
Dunlop has worked in the field of movement education for over 20 years as a qualified Feldenkrais practitioner, and has trained people in Wellington, including Toi Whakaari and Wellington School of Music students, for the past 13 years.
The method is popular in Wellington, and 13 locals gained Feldenkrais practitioner certification last week.
The Feldenkrais Method looks at how the body has developed since birth, and in extreme cases crawling is used to help find balance.
Dunlop says with our active lifestyles and rugby injuries, there is a large market for tuning, and “fixing up” bodies in New Zealand, and Feldenkrais encourages people to find the underlying causes of their discomfort, and be active in addressing them.
A recent success story is a 21 year-old violinist.
“It was interesting, because I have never seen someone so disabled, so young,” says Dunlop.
The violinist had terrible back and arm pain, which Dunlop says came from years of standing in a bad position playing the violin.
“Stage fright made her tense up even more. But you should see her now, it’s just delightful how free and content she is.”
Dunlop says her method is not a “quick fix” to discomfort, but a lifelong learning.
The technique was developed 60 years ago by Moshe Feldenkrais, a trained engineer, judo expert and physicist. After suffering a knee injury, he spent a lifetime devising a method of efficiency of movement based on the principals of physics, neurology, learning theory and human behaviour.
Other techniques, such as pilates, have borrowed from Feldenkrais, but Dunlop warns, “You don’t want to put someone into a position they are not comfortable in, the outcome often exaggerates your own pattern of discomfort.”
The Feldenkrais method is “do less and gain more,” she says.
Feldenkrais classes are held at the Buddhist Centre on Cambridge Terrace.
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