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Class 6 Theory

Click on the Scientist to move on the Class 6 Lab

  Welcome to Class 6 theory! Today we begin a process that will take us much deeper into the body. Up until now, we have been working on the more superficial levels of connective tissue and musculature. We have been working to teach you how to let go of this musculature and live with a greater level of physical freedom. Today in our studies and applications, we will travel deeper into the core of our body and begin the grand release that will lead you closer and closer to a pain free life! For our purposes, we will be dividing the core into three sections (lower, middle, and upper). This class is on the lower core, but first let's talk a little about the core as a whole.

The core begins at the knee as our inner thighs, comes up to our pelvic floor (the space between vagina or scrotal sack and the anus), follows up the front of our spine like a cylinder piercing our diaphragm, becoming our wind pipe and ending when it reaches the skull. Please understand that the core is not separate from the superficial. They work together. We really only separate them for the sake of better understanding.

This core is what is called a fascial (connective tissue) plane. It is like a three dimensional tube running up the center of your body comprising itself of muscles and the connective tissue that covers the muscles as well as each individual muscle fiber. Now that we know the location of the core, let's talk about what affects it.

     It is sort of difficult to really talk about the core of the body without discussing how the mind ties in to it. Remember that your body and your mind are not separate in any way, shape, or form. The body is a reflection of the mind and the mind a reflection of the body. One of the first places a person will hold emotional tension in their body is the core. When we are feeling angry, or overwhelmed or any expression of fear, we will notice that we are holding tight in our core. We tighten it as a kind of shield against that which we do not want to deal with. We use it to give ourselves the false feeling of being less vulnerable. We tighten the core to shut off from the environment around us to some extent. When a person is relaxed and comfortable, their core is relaxed and comfortable.

This fear feeling that people get is similar to the "fight or flight" response that I'm sure many of you have heard about. It is an instinctual physical response in the body to the environment around it. When an animal or a human fears an attack, they get ready to either defend themselves or run away on a moments notice. Their core muscles tighten and they are ready to move. When this happens to animals, it is because they have experienced a signal in the environment that, in that moment,  leads them to the anticipation of an attack. This serves them very well in that way. When the threat of danger has passed, so has their fight or flight response. Now the human brain operates a little differently. The human mind is capable of both amazing feats and, if it is not self controlled, amazing pitfalls. See, the human mind is capable of such daydreaming, that it can and usually does carry fears that have nothing at all to do with the present moment. Therefore, our anticipation of attack can come not only from a signal in the environment, but also from any horrible circumstance we can dream up in our heads! Is it any wonder why most people carry great tension deep within their abdomen?! Since we are responding to all of this in our physical life, I would like to take this one step further and suggest that any moment in life is comprised not just of what is right in front of us, but also of what we are carrying in our minds in that moment. I say this because what we are carrying in our minds at that moment will govern how we respond to what is right in front of us! In that way, what we carry in our mind is actually building our physical life. It is even sending signals, like the "fight or flight" signal and others to tell our physical body how to comprise itself in tension, nutrient absorption, circulation, elimination…. Can you see how important this is? Your mind and your body are one! Not metaphorically but literally!

So the core is really about how you respond to life. If you can keep yourself feeling relaxed and open in any situation, the core will begin to really let go and you will experience a feeling of physical Freedom you have maybe never seen before. This can sometimes be difficult because the mind is so used to giving you cues to be on the look out for every horrible thing that could ever possibly happen to you. Therefore, we become afraid to feel open and vulnerable to life. In that way we never really get to experience life to its fullest. This is what we must move beyond in order to really begin letting go of the core.

How do we do that?

The secret formula for letting go of anything is Trust. You need to make a deal with yourself. 

The Deal

"I will allow myself to be completely open and free in any situation. If that situation is putting me in danger or is abrasive to my mental or physical health, I will simply leave." 

It is pretty much that simple.  Trust yourself to take care of whatever comes up in the moment. That way you can enjoy the best they have to offer and you will be flexible enough to dodge the worst of what some people have to offer. If you begin experimenting with this you will begin to learn how to let go of your body and you will have more fun in life. You can be completely trusting because you completely trust yourself. Trust is a feeling that sends signals through the body, telling the muscles to relax, telling everything to function at peak performance. This will take your stretching to another level. You will really be able to let go.

As you walk through life, pay attention to how your body is feeling. If it is feeling stress, tell it that you are taking good care of it and that if anything comes up that would endanger it, you will leave. Watch the feeling that this produces in your body and you will begin to learn how to control your body feelings. This is an actual physiological change that occurs. It is a scientific fact that every thought you have creates a change in the body. Pay attention to how you feel in every moment and do everything you can to feel calm, trusting and complete.

Today we will be working on the lower third of the core. This is comprised of your adductor muscles (inner thigh) all the way up to your pelvic floor.

Let's take a good look at the adductor muscles. These muscles attach up on the pelvis and run down the inner thigh of the leg attaching below the knee. Together as a group, they work primarily to squeeze the legs together and to stabilize the pelvis. They also help rotate your leg at the hip. When these muscles are overly tightened, they have a tendency of pulling the pelvis down in the front into an anterior tilt. As you can see, these muscles cross the knee joint on the inside. Therefore dysfunctions in these muscles would create dysfunctions in the knee and therefore the ankle.

Why do these adductor muscles hold?

There can be many reasons. They may just be balancing out structural deformities in the upper body, but let's look at another possibility. We live in a society of people who are usually very uncomfortable in their bodies. A word like sex was only said aloud in a whisper for decades. Times have changed nowadays. They've actually changed to the opposite extreme. People still have issues with physical contact, just on the other end of the stick. There has not been much of a balance. To rebel against an issue, the issue must first be a part of your life. And I think in some cases, this shows up in the adductors as a sort of chastity belt tightening. A discomfort with your own physical body and it's expression in life. Let there be no misunderstandings, I am not saying to go release this through sex. All I am saying is maybe it's time to drop some of our imbalances and just relax down there. Begin exploring healthy physical intimacy with others. Take sex out of it. Don't push towards it or away from it. Don't make it an issue at all. Just an idea. Anyways, onto the pelvic floor!

The pelvic floor is an area that lies between the vagina and the anus on a woman or between the scrotum and the anus of a man. Take a look at the pictures of the musculature of this area. The muscles generally attach on the very bottom bone of the sacrum (called the coccyx) ,and all along the pubis. The fiber direction generally runs from the front of the body to the back of the body. A lot of people hold these muscles very tight. It can even start in early childhood. Often it begins with potty training. It is very important that potty training never be a stressful experience for a child. When potty training becomes stressful, the child tightens his pelvic floor and pushes to induce defecation . This creates horrible holding patterns that would now have to be unlearned. Defecation is a process that should never be pushed, but simply allowed. The pressure that comes from pushing down there can contribute greatly to the formation of hemorrhoids and constipation. Holding in the pelvic floor can often be responsible for impotence in the adult male due to the circulatory problems that any holding patterns introduces.

Learn to let go of your pelvic floor. Learn to move with it released throughout the day. If your pelvic floor and adductors are released, your hips will have a natural swing to them. This swing is very important to the functioning of your musculature and organs. Have you ever watched a healthy cat walking. In any one step that the cat takes, its entire body in engaged! Walking for any healthy animal is a full body experience! Every step feels good to them because it created a movement and release in every part of their body. Their organs, their spinal nerves, their sacrum, their neck, everything gets a nice massaging movement. They revel and enjoy in their physicality and they stretch all the time. A cat never gets up from sleeping without stretching first. All this is essential to a healthy physical life and humans are not exempt. Explore your physicality! Really enjoy your body. You won't have it forever! Your trust and your openness will show in your movement and, as vulnerable as it may feel to you in the beginning, it will always come across as strength! Onto Class 6 Lab.