More Tales of Obscure Body-Work

It was my birthday last week (thanks so much for all the good wishes, gifts of protein-powder tubs and workout attire), and my wife, aware of my fascination with the latest and sometimes weirdest fitness trends, signed me up for a session with Rachel Putter, a practitioner of something called The Grinberg Method (named for its founder, Avi Grinberg).  

Like a number of body-work methods I've discussed these last months--Feldenkrais, Alexander, and Z-Health, Grinberg works with small movements rather than gross muscle motion; it addresses the nervous system-based 'mind-body' link; and it proports to have profound health benefits that are not accessible through standard strength training, massage, or metabolic conditioning.  

I'm a sucker for anything like this, and expected an hoped that my session would consist mostly of the instructor cooing over how physically adept and 'in tune' I was, and then insisting that I not be charged because she rarely sees my level of physical mastery, and finds it inspiring, and that just watching me walk was payment enough.

That's...not how it went down.

In the event, Rachel looked at the bottoms of my bare feet for a few moments, gently bending my toes this way and that, checking the pliability of my ankles.  I expected her to then talk about my gait or past injuries or something equally concrete, but instead, she proceeded to tick off the three or four major personal issues in my life right now, one by one.  

I actually found it hard to breathe after that (which she noticed; there's a lot about breath in this work), because she'd more or less nailed me with each one.

Following that, I lay down and Rachel gave me some very concentrated bodywork, poking into the four or five spots where I hold tension and getting them to relax, one by one.  She squeezed my legs together and had me push outwards to 'turn on' my legs, which she felt were 'split off' from the rest of my body.

Afterwards, unsurprisingly, I felt great:  relaxed, aligned, present--though a little stunned at having been so precisely dissected and physically rebooted.

She asked if I had questions; having already started to mentally compose this blog entry by that point, I asked about the connection between the 'life-issue' portion of the session and the 'physical-issue' portion:  did my emotional issues feed into my physical issues, and vice-versa?  Was the intention of the session to interrupt this symbiotic cycle, giving my body--and thus, presumably my psycho-emotional life--other options beyond old patterns?

In a word, the answer was yes, although Grinberg sees no distinction between physical issues and life issues:  the one is the other.

I do feel great, even now, though the treatment was on Friday morning.  I don't know if my life issues have disappeared (in fact...no, yes, there they still are.  Every...single...one), but a friend of mine who was in a fairly major life-crisis credits her emergence out the other side to a recent immersion in Grinberg, and personally, I've never seen her looking so good or just--seeming so good. 

I don't know if that, and my own good feelings since Friday fully sell me--or should sell you--on Grinberg, but it certainly makes me wonder.  

(ed.s note:  An international study is currently under way about the effects of Grinberg on chronic pain, and if you live in LA, are over 18, and have had noticable and intense chronic pain for more than three months, you very well might be elegible for some free sessions.  Rachel is currently looking for a dozen participants.  It will fill up soon, so if you're interested, get in touch with her via the link above.)

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Alwyn Cosgrove features a very cool training video today from Robert Dos Remedios' facility at the College of the Canyons.  Scroll down to "Cougar Strength and Chaos Speed."