Try "Constructive Rest" to Switch Off Those Grippy Muscles

It’s funny when you’re the physio or Pilates instructor, people assume you’re pain free and actually show genuine surprise when you say you get back or neck pain! All of us crew at Connect would say we’re all human and have our own little niggles that need constant maintenance!

In saying that, I myself do get a bit frustrated sometimes when my back pain pops up occasionally. I spend my days trying to help people be pain free so why can’t I do it for myself? This question has taken me down a journey of self-enquiry and exploring other modalities. 

Don’t get me wrong, regular Pilates practice keeps me reeeallly good most of the time! But in moments of stress I notice it creep into my neck or back. 

You’ve probably heard us talking about gripping patterns…butt grippers, tummy grippers, back grippers, lat grippers, neck grippers, trap grippers! It’s simply referring to the body part that likes to over work and ends up staying braced or “on” most of the time. In Pilates we tailor your programme to encourage those muscles to switch off a little, and encourage the muscles around that area to do their jobs so the gripping one doesn’t have to do all the work!

Why does this happen though!? There can be any number of reasons, but stress and trauma are big players, which is why working on the physical body, although great, may not be enough to fully fix the issue.

Somatic work is an incredible tool, but what is it? Not nearly enough people even know what it is, and it’s definitely not readily available, however it’s time is now and I’m confident it will become more commonplace pretty quickly. It’s a nervous system based approach to dealing with stress/anxiety/trauma whereby we learn to regulate our nervous system and understand how to move our bodies out of their fight/flight/freeze response, which we can be in without even consciously being aware of it. The past few years have had an immense effect on peoples stress levels which is why this kind of work will be so important moving forward so that we can heal collectively.

A simple example in a Pilates situation is taking a moment to lie on the reformer, and before doing anything just do some deep breathing and get a sense of the reformer really holding your body, on every exhale allow the full weight of your body to simply be held. This is a much better place to start exercising from than getting on there and ripping straight in with tension in your shoulders, core being switched into beast mode, etc.

A somatic therapist I recently visited sent me to an article to help me with my Psoas muscle. This is a muscle in your core/hip flexor area which attaches to your leg and spine. I was telling her how frustrating it is that I have physio readily available to me, we needle my psoas, and I do specific exercises to keep everything happy, yet it always finds its way back to being tight, pulling me out of alignment and triggering the back and neck pain. She said the psoas is a deeply emotional muscle and a messenger for your central nervous system. In some spiritual philosophies it is seen as the residing place of your gut intuition, and is the “guardian of your soul”. Tension in this muscle is a massive contributor to a lot of back pain, leg pain, digestive problems, reproductive issues, and even breathing issues given it’s closeness to the diaphragm.

One way to help release this muscle (and relax your entire body) is called constructive rest – which I’ve posted the link to the video below. You need 15 whole, uninterrupted minutes to do this (hard I know – but so worth it!!). Here’s a photo of my reluctant model (thanks Paddy) giving it a crack!

In simple terms, you lie on the floor with your knees bent, a pillow between your knees and a soft scarf or tie around your knees to hold them together so you don’t have to. You can choose to have your head on the ground or raised with a book or two depending on the shape of your neck/shoulders. You then lay there with your eyes closed and do nothing. Not even look at the telly or have a conversation as that will use muscles. It would be a good time to meditate or just rest and completely let go.

If you’re interested in my experience, I loved it and am totally going to try and do this once a week! I thought 15 minutes would be really hard but it actually went really fast. I lay on the floor behind a sunny window, and went in and out of consciousness. One interesting thing that came up was an urge to move my left leg, or feel like I had to hold it up, it was restless, and I had to fight with myself to just leave the leg alone which was really hard. I then went into a bit of semi consciousness and when I came to again I felt like my legs were completely weightless, almost like they weren’t there! It was a strange but really amazing feeling. I also felt a real letting go sensation in the right side of my tummy and my right shoulder which are the places I hold tension, and my pelvis felt more evenly weighted on the floor.

So go on try it – if nothing else it’s a good excuse to lock yourself away for 15 uninterrupted minutes of me time which with partners, kids, dogs, jobs, is a luxury in its own right!!

The more years we complete around the sun, the more experiences we have - both good and bad. Our bodies store information in our nervous systems based on these experiences and learned beliefs. This is why it’s so important to just allow yourself some TLC; rest and recovery is just as important as movement. Much like a beautiful classic car, it needs to be driven to stay functional but the WoF’s and services become much more frequent! But don’t they just get better and better with age!