Somatic Movement 101
- Elise
- Apr 30
- 2 min read
Next to mindfulness and nervous system regulation, somatics must just be the buzzword of the year.
And it’s everything it’s cracked up to be.
I was first introduced to a particular branch of somatics called Hanna somatics as I started my schooling in Yoga Therapy. Not to be confused with somatic experiencing, a practice centered in psychotherapy, hanna somatics has incredible implications for chronic stress. I was playing around with the word somatic recently to make an acrostic out of it. I laughed when i realized how perfectly it fits what it’s all about.
The fact of the matter is felt tension/tightness is a musculoskeletal manifestation of chronic stress.
So how does somatic movement work?
First, it’s important to know a bit of neuromuscular physiology. When we first learn any pattern, muscular or otherwise, it begins in the pre-frontal cortex. With repetition, it becomes more automatic. We commonly use’ muscle memory’ to explain this phenomenon, but it’s actually a misnomer. Muscles themselves don’t have memory centers, but the nervous system sure does! It’s the communication between that forms the long-term motor memory.
Why does this mean anything to you? Because we are essentially a series of long-term motor memories. The way we sit and stand, the way we’ve morphed into a knot of tension after an injury or trauma. The saying rings true: the issues are in our tissues.
Without going into more detail that only a physiologist would find interesting, I’ll sum it up: the repeated muscle contractions from our habitual ways results in something called Sensory-Motor Amnesia and allows an ever-increasing level of muscle tension at rest that often manifests in ‘chronic pain’. Chronic pain can also result from a non-Sensory-Motor Amnesia cause.
And as you may very well know, tight muscles are sore and painful. Plain and simple.
The goal of somatics, then, is to restore voluntary control of the appropriate muscles to eliminate pain. And it happens to be quite effective in a short amount of time.
The method? A specific pairing of contraction and rest in succession for each muscle/muscle group affected.
The anecdotal evidence has consistently shown how quick the results are, and sustainable. An important study was released in 2022 that looked at those experiencing spinal pain in the neck or back. The study method included 2-6, 45-60min weekly sessions of clinical somatic education/movement. The result? The number of patients using pain medication decreased by 74.5% and the mean number of doctor visits by 58% in the 6 months after the HSE sessions (Huang, Q., Babgi, A. & Ali, 2022). That, my, friends, is what we call statistically significant.
This study didn’t include practice of the movements in between sessions. Just imagine if it had. When I work with somatics in Yoga Therapeutics, I help establish a short routine to be done in between sessions to maximize results, so that by the end of our work, you have an at-home routine to keep chronic pain at bay and yourself in tip-top shape.
Maybe somatics will be your word of the year, too, as we step into 2025.
More resources on somatics:
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