Have you ever wondered what a Movement Lesson session feels like? Want to know what improvements are noticeable in the body? What your body going through in a session?
Below is an account provided by a client with Cerebral Palsy. She has undertaken weekly Movement Lesson sessions. Throughout, she provides an open and honest account of what she felt during Movement Lesson sessions. Consequently, providing a clear explanation of how improvements in movement can help someone’s life.
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Improvements in movement lead to improved performance at the gym. Media from ML UK and Gym Sessions.
Initial Thoughts
“I started having Movement Lesson sessions regularly at Blue Skies Neuro* due to being recommended them following complaints of an increase in level & continuity of hip pain, tightness seemingly starting in my lower back, and tingling in my legs. This was also causing me to toe walk even more severely. Therefore, at the onset of sessions work was on my lower body, where my Spastic Diplegia CP affects.
My first thought was: shock at how gentle it was! Quite honestly, I questioned how much it could be doing. Afterwards, I also felt tingling in these areas, but this time it felt different – better. There was a warmth like when an area has been treated or activated! The next day, I couldn’t believe the difference already! I almost felt like I was floating because I was walking so much more easily than I had the previous couple of weeks. Movements were less strenuous & I was also weight bearing better. This maintained for days afterwards, (though I kept expecting it not to, to be honest)!
The Improvements Continued
Following sessions were to keep this up. Furthermore, Scott would explain how work from the bottom, (e.g. the feet), would start to be felt higher and higher up in the body. Essentially the messages are being ‘communicated better’. Looking ahead, Scott had discussed wanting to work more on my spine, which I welcomed. We had had a couple of weeks of working higher up my body, working from feet & legs up to spine & hips in a session.
Then, one day, I came to Scott complaining of tightness in my shoulders & upper back and tingling in my arms. So we decided to focus attention there for this session. Again, remarkable.
To gauge my level of current movement, Scott asked me to do a few moves independently, like turning my head left and right whilst stretching diagonally across my body with the opposite arm. At the start, I had much less balance, I would throw the majority of my weight over to my left hip and I could not stretch very far before I had to twist other areas of my body to compensate. At the end of the session, Scott asked me to do the same…and already the changes! I was sitting more level, therefore transferring my weight more equally between my hips, my spine was straighter and I was able to reach further before the rest of my body began to follow, trying to balance. Before even leaving the room this time, the difference was almost unbelievable!
Improvements in Daily Life
Around the time I began Movement Lesson sessions, I had also started weekly personal training sessions at the gym. In each session, I would discuss what I was doing in the other, and in each of these – and elsewhere – I would get comments from people about improvements they could see within my movements, ability & my overall neurological condition. I was often asked what I thought was responsible for these positive changes? I consistently said I think it’s a combination; that one helps the other and each is responsible for contributing to the rate at which these improvements have occurred.
As I have been experiencing both regularly side by side, I believe that the gym and Movement Lesson work in tandem/are complementary to one another. Although their approaches may vary, the overall goal is generally the same/very similar. That is to activate more muscles – so that the correct ones are used for their intended movements – and to improve the transmission of messages between the brain & body.”
*For more information about alternative therapies at Blue Skies Neuro visit here