One definition of insanity is repeating the same 'definition of insanity' quote over and over again and expecting that everyone will think you're clever for it.  --Confucious

Today I was talking to Stacy Barrows--a physical therapist and practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method (I wrote about her here)--who gave me story after amazing story on the healing and performance-enhancement effects of Feldenkrais:  one man sought Feldenkrais treatment for an ACL he'd completely blown doing karate; some time later a doctor tested the knee and couldn't even tell his ACL wasn't fully intact; a woman with an injured wrist made progress that astounded her doctors by having treatments that didn't even affect her wrist directly; an amateur golfer discovered newfound power moments after an effortless session with a practitioner.  

I'm convinced that Feldenkrais work is part of the wave of the future of fitness:  it empowers the patient (or client), it's noninvasive, it's relatively inexpensive, and, perhaps most importantly--it's painless and pleasant.  Unlike many types of medical treatment or therapy, my experience with Feldenkrais is that I feel like a million bucks afterwards:  calm, centered, relaxed, yet somehow alert and poised at the same time.  It's a bit like I imagine animals feel all the time.   For a couple of hours, there's a sense that my body is feeling and moving as it should feel and move.

So why isn't everyone doing this work?   What's with the resistance to a system whose benefits are so evident and accessible?

Here's my theory:  in a word, it's too easy.

Feldenkrais work is based on cultivating awareness of one's movements.  Developing that awareness often involves either moving one's body, or being moved by a practitioner, in small, subtle ways while remaining in a state of near-complete physical relaxation.  You're often close to asleep.  It's almost the exact opposite of Tae Bo.

The fact is that sweat-pouring, heart-pounding and burn-feeling is how we've come to define the pursuit of fitness.  That's all well and good--I certainly give hardcore methodologies my share of air time.  But working above the red line isn't the only way to increased performance, strength, injury prevention, and, ultimately, even greater leanness and muscle mass.  Feldenkrais work shows us that, ironically, working about as slowly and minutely as possible can have tremendous benefits as well.

But it's not going to catch fire until people let go of the divide-and-conquer model of fitness.  Most people think that getting fit means bashing one body part after another until the whole body is utterly wrung out--as Kevin Spacey says in American Beauty, "I'm going to whale on my pecs and then I'm going to do my back."  Feldenkrais work shows us that working the body as a whole and simply cultivating greater awareness through simple exercises--a yin to the hardcore-fitness-world's yang--can accomplish as much or more, often in less time and certainly with far less effort.

More on this to come.