Importance of Somatic Exercises

Somatic exercises provide an invaluable benefit for therapeutic purposes, and as such, you can perform them when you are either on a trauma healing journey or desire to increase the rate of communication between your body and brain. Anyone can perform these exercises, which require only a safe space and some mindfulness practice to become successful.

You can start by lying on your back; raise awareness about your muscles around your lower back and hip to see if there’s tension. You there gently arch your back as you bend your head down toward the ground. Stretch

Stretching

Somatic movement techniques include stretching exercises that allow the tight muscles to release gently and are mainly geared toward improving balance, range of movement, and ease of motion. This is very different from most conventional exercise systems, in which stretching and strength exercises are done to the point of great excess, far beyond the actual range, both mentally and physically.

Somatic exercises are slow, carefully directed, and begin with an engagement of both the iliopsoas muscle group and the abdominals, then gradually stretch out your full body into an elongation, supporting each muscle with deep breaths that help the muscles release tension safely.

As you do so, notice how the muscle changes and what sensations arise as tightness fades away. This process, known as working for sensation, is the bedrock of somatic movement. It retrains your brain to actually feel your body’s sensations instead of drowning in sensory feedback from calisthenics or intense exercises like aerobics or running. Working for sensation will help retrain your muscles while forming new pathways between you and your body in an enjoyable, productive fashion.

Somatic movements are a powerful way to teach the body how to relax. This is so vital because somatic exercises are targeted toward relaxation for healing—enabling the body to rebalance by ridding the body of chronically constricted muscles and tight ligaments caused by stress.

These movements are best done on a rug or mat. It’s not about breaking a sweat and contorting yourself in ways that could injure you. At Somatic Stretch in Ojai, Calif., students don’t even get that far. Meredith Sands Keator has them simply lie on the floor for every class. “It helps the brain slow down,” she says, and more readily learn sensations within the muscles and joints.

Somatic exercise uses movement similar to those made by the muscles during natural flexing throughout the day, so no need to dress in restrictive athletic clothing during the sessions.

Breathing

Breathwork is a significant part of somatic exercises and a great way to relax both mind and body. For this practice, just sit with a comfortable posture, close your eyes, and notice how the breath makes your ribcage rise and fall, and air flows all through your body with each inhale and exhale. To put it in a point, breathwork is important to an individual’s cardiovascular health and health in general through increasing oxygen intake. Conceptionally, it will calm nervous systems—very helpful when managing chronic stress or anxiety.

One can do breathing exercises any time of the day, though yoga classes and other meditation are said to start with some breathing exercises in order to align their body and their relationship with one another. While these exercises may physically condition the body, they can also create internal dialogues, connecting one to a deeper level of self and other aspects of nature.

Mindful breathing exercises greatly lift mood and the opportunity to cope more easily with problems. This form of mindfulness is a stimulation to the parasympathetic nervous system, through counteraction of the fight-or-flight response. It causes the body to decompress. This is a very precious way of lowering the levels of stress and probably even reversing some brain changes that come along with years of chronic stress.

Although some somatic movements have been well documented, their precise effects on the nervous system cannot be fully known. However, many feel that these methods can help in recovery from PTSD and other traumas.

If one is interested in implementing somatic exercises into their life, one could speak with their doctor or therapist as they can provide contact information for yoga and dance instructors who specialize in somatic movements.

Here are some online directories to find educated somatics practitioners to lead you through exercises properly and effectively. Make sure that he or she has gone through a thorough training program because he is supposed to also take care of your medical and physical difficulties, too—that is, if you are starting with somatics or having experienced any trauma-related issues that need help and attention.

Super Slow Strength Training

Incorporating somatic exercises into your workout routine will do wonders in changing how you feel, be it pain relief, increased flexibility and energy, a reduction in anxiety, or trauma healing. One of the best things about somatic exercises is that they don’t require any special equipment and can be easily fit into schedules.

Most people picture strength training being about hoisting heavy weights, multiple reps and sets, in order to build muscle. But somatic exercise, on the other hand, moves your body very slowly: up to 10 seconds per repetition before repeating itself.

Slow movements are important in somatic exercises among the regular daily exercises so that the brain can be trained to realize which muscles are at work and their location, and when they work or stop working. This way, muscles find it much easy to relax after their job gets done.

Either way, if you move slowly, it can help build control over muscles better, which may help a person feeling chronic pain. Important to note, too, there’s more that can be done with slow movement than just relief from discomfort: slow movements like this one can improve range of motion and balance, potentially making it easier to do things like reaching up high or bending down low.

One should never try to force against the tightness of the muscles in these movements because it will only result in further tightening of those areas. Rather, one should focus on savoring each movement and the sensations created; forcing it is almost like trying to untie a knot that has tightened by accident—you may tighten it more!

One other absolutely vital part of somatic exercise is diaphragmatic breathing. Cleveland Clinic determined that this deep and full type of breather can curb anxiety while simultaneously reducing blood pressure autologously. Diaphragmatic breathing is the one that can be done on its own or incorporated into any movement activity.

Somatic exercise may seem like one of the health buzzes of our time, but the roots of it go well back into ancient practices such as yoga and tai chi. They recognized that the way mind and body interacted together was valuable in support of physical and psychological well-being. According to studies, they found to involve simple somatic exercises like this one.

Relaxation

Somatic exercises are gentle exercises designed to relax the body. Somatic exercises work by stimulating groups of muscles and not forcing them. This functions to let out the tightness within the muscles on its own, without enforcement, which is of great benefit to people with chronic pain or traumas, anxiety, or PTSD. Somatic exercises also make great additions for kids and teens who may be dealing with stress; studies indicate that children who practice relaxation techniques have increased focus and can learn faster than their peers who don’t use these relaxation techniques.

Thomas Hanna pioneered the development of somatic movement therapy and coined the term “soma” to mean how mind influences muscles and nervous systems. According to the theory of Hanna, retraining of the brain to control nerves and muscles could help alleviate problems like chronic pain, backaches, and stress-induced depression.

Schauster defines somatic movement as any movement which requires both mind and body involvement to be done effectively, thus including yoga, qigong, and tai chi as practices which share in the characteristic of somatic exercise. These practices make bodies more flexible, while it encourages deep breathing which works to calm the nervous system.  Somatic exercise, when it is of a slow nature is particularly useful since too much effort or strain will flood the brain with sensory information, which delays the learning of control over muscles and nerves 2.

Somatic exercises can also be a valuable asset to help make moving easier by lengthening taut muscles and building up weak ones. This will improve your balance, suppleness, your ability to flex, twist, bend, and lift things without pain. Beyond that, continual somatic exercise will reduce stiffness so you do not have the problem of sprawling due to creaky hinges!

Somatic exercises can be taken on a rug, mat, or even a bed, all depending on your comfort and levels of mobility. Put on something comfortable and loose, as you will not break into a sweat. Just lie back onto your reposing back, arms and legs stretched out. There might be differences when you distribute the weight on any part of your body. Stretch by doing some arching of the back, while arches can appear to flatten again for release of tension. Now perform some tension release exercises, for example: Note the differences—more or less on parts—do some arching of the back, that is, arches can seem to flatten again before flattening out, and relax when necessary.

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