Hello mind-body students! We have just completed our series on finding a qualified mind-body teacher, and now we are moving on to a series about freeing the skeleton from being a prisoner of the soft tissue, which will probably carry us through the rest of 2017!
The 12 Body Markers are a system that I have used for years to help teach my students both online and in my classes. They are designed to measure a person's range of motion through all of their joints, using a scale of 1 (least flexible) to 10 (most flexible). In western health an wellness traditions, everyone seems to be able to measure strength, but very few people have a good grasp of flexibility. Even professional athletes often don't know what the proper range of motion for each of their joints are. Many people are even unsure about what their personal level of flexibility is: usually under or over estimating it until they test it out.
To help address these issues, my wife (Ilana Rosenberg) and I are putting a book together that will feature an extensive guide to the 12 Body Markers to help everyone from average Joe to professional athletes avoid injury, recover from injury more effectively, and recuperate from training faster.
We've covered some of these Body Markers in the past on varies blog posts and our mini Office Exercise series. For this blog series, we will be focusing on the 9 Body Markers that measure a person's flexibility, starting this week from the ground and moving up!
Body Marker #1: Ankles
How to stretch your ankle joint, and what angle your foot should (eventually) achieve:
Body Marker #2: Quads
How to stretch your quads, which I show if two ways. First is the Heron stretch that you do standing up and one leg at a time. Second is 'seiza,' which you do sitting down.
Body Marker #3: Hamstring
How to stretch your hamstrings. Or more specifically, how to do the proper Vitamin H stretch, if that is the one you will be using.
Remember that the goal here is to free the skeleton from being a prisoner of the soft tissue. Our sedentary lifestyles, western styles of strength training, and the natural process of aging all cause our soft tissues such as muscle, ligaments, and fascia to shrink and tighten over time. This causes extra tension in our joints and restricts our range of motion, which reduces our performance and overall health.
By working on the Body Markers, particularly the 9 flexibility Markers, you can create a balance that will contribute to greater holistic health. When you are both strong and flexible, you become powerful, and that is what the Body Markers, and mind-body health practice, are all about!
Happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!