The
FeldenkraisFix
Athletes and people with injuries are (finally) discovering the Feldenkrais Method: a gentle
rehabilitation system that teaches the body to move as it should.
By ANDREW HEFFERNAN, CSCS
In 1999, John Dumas, a 52-year-old writer and
karate enthusiast from Los Angeles, sat in a doctor’s office
and heard four words no active person ever wants to hear:
“You’ve blown your ACL.”
The scalpel-shy Dumas wanted to avoid surgery, so
the doctor referred him to Stacy Barrows, PT, GCFT, CPI,
a physical therapist, Pilates instructor and practitioner of
the Feldenkrais Method, a gentle, simple system of teaching and reinforcing healthy, efficient movement patterns.
After working with Dumas for three months, Barrows
cleared him to return to karate.
A few years later, Dumas found himself in the hospital with an injury to his opposite knee. For comparison’s
sake, the doctor performed a “drawer” test — which
checks the integrity of the ACL — on Dumas’s previously
rehabbed knee. “See, this is how a healthy knee should
respond to this test,” the doctor told him, unaware of the
prior injury. “There’s no give in your ACL.”
“But I don’t have an ACL on that knee,” Dumas protested.
Skeptical, the doctor repeated the test and got the
same result. Only when he saw Dumas’s prior injury on
an MRI was he willing to believe that the knee — which
seemed to function perfectly — was missing its ACL.
Dumas’s ligament hadn’t magically regrown. Rather,
through a combination of physical therapy and Feldenkrais
lessons, his body had relearned how to move. His remaining muscles and ligaments were taking up the slack for
the missing ACL so effectively that he fooled the doctor’s
test. Twice.
Felden-WHAT?
Moshé Feldenkrais was a Ukrainian-born physicist and
mechanical and electrical engineer who initially devised
his system to rehabilitate a recurring knee injury aggravated by years spent practicing judo and playing soccer.
Over time, he found that certain precise, effortless movements performed with focus and awareness could have
profound effects on healing, on movement efficiency and
on health in general.
Feldenkrais is considered a form of somatic education, or a way of learning through and with the body,
rather than a passive form of treatment. “The primary
focus in Feldenkrais is the brain and its capacity to
learn,” says Staffan Elgelid, PhD, PT, GCFT, who practices
in Pittsford, N.Y. “You’re constantly learning about your
habits and finding other options.”
Feldenkrais movement has been shown to enhance
the plasticity of the neuromuscular system, forging new
neural pathways throughout the brain, spinal column and
muscles. Essentially, the brain and body learn to communicate better, resulting in smoother, more coordinated
movements, better posture and, oftentimes, a greater
sense of well-being.
“It’s like doing crossword puzzles for the body,” says
Barrows, the Los Angeles practitioner who treated Dumas.
Just as working the Sunday crossword increases your language fluency by exposing you to new words and subtle
shadings of meaning, Barrows suggests, doing Feldenkrais
improves your physical functioning and athleticism by
introducing the body to nuanced ways of moving.
