Video transcript:
Violaine: Good morning everyone and welcome to this recorded interview today my guest is Byron Eddy, a 20year core movement integration practitioner. Byron also holds 40 years of experience as a massage therapist. The purpose of today's interview is to better and the stand the benefit of Core Movement Integration as it relates to stability balance and alignment to improve daily functional activities. Byron thank you for doing this interview with me and to start, please can you introduce yourself including your background your specialty and your hobbies?
Byron: Thank you, good morning. Thank you Violaine. Yes my name is Byron Eddy, I am a long time massage therapist. I began that practice or began going to school in 1982 in Connecticut USA when there was no nobody doing that. Kind of work and there the school was brand new I was in the second graduating class from that school way back when.
At the same time I was also had begun a practice in the martial arts and yoga and my practice in the martial arts is what actually led me to massage. We used to do at the end of class what often do some shiatsu massage type moves with each other and then a therapist opened a studio above the school and I went to him for the first time and decided oh this is what I want to do. There was no place, I would have to travel to either New York City or Boston but then suddenly a school opened in Connecticut and I I went there and that began my my practice by 1984 that's pretty much what I was doing full-time and only that's what I've done my whole life.
About 15 years into the practice, I was kind of breaking down in my body. It's hard work if you do it the way I was doing it,my back was hurting my knees my shoulders everything was... it was getting difficult. And I saw an advertisement for a weekend Workshop in the Feldenkrais method with a man named Dr Joseph Dellagrotte and so I went for this weekend and the weekend basically changed my pathway, changed my life. Simple ideas like doing less can sometimes have more achievement. And so I began to study with him in Boston. I still check in with him occasionally but for a good three or four years I was traveling pretty regularly to Boston to study with him and a group and to learn his method.
Violaine: So you are a Core Movement Integration practiciner, can we call it CMI? Is that the typical way to refer to it or?
Byron: Yes, let's call it CMI it's a much shorter term. It went through a couple, it was called Core Integration at first but then it became Core Movement Integration. There are, if you go on the internet, you will see other things around integration and core strengthening and sometimes those are exercise related, where this is more of a lifestyle.
Violaine But Core Movement Integration is the real deal right, this is the legitimate school or teachings that we are referring to?
Byron: Yes absolutely.
Violaine: And you are so certified in this practice?
Byron: Yes after about five or six years of training with Joseph, I got certified as a Core Movement Integration therapist which entitles me to or enables me to run classes in, you know, group classes and then also to work individuals through verbal teaching and direction and also by hands-on so, it added to my massage therapy work in it made me last longer, I'm still going strong and it also gave me a way to help people who were struggling with various issues.
Violaine: I was going to ask you where you trained but from what you said I gathered that you were training in Boston and you still are doing, I guess what we can call continuous training with him is that correct?
Byron: Not so much anymore. Joseph is now, he's you know he was 20 years older than me back then, and now he's in his 80s and doing very well. He teaches a lot in Italy, he spends time in Italy so I have not yet to been there, but he has quite a following in Italy and then coming back to Boston. He also lives here in Florida but he doesn't teach so much anymore. Now I'm, you know, I can go to him but I can also refer to him as he has there are lots of DVDs and lots of online stuff the other students that I can check in with also.
Violaine: Can you define Core Movement Integration in your own words and what is the purpose of Core Movement Integration?
Byron: Okay well, Core Movement Integration is a synthesis of the work of Moshe Feldenkrais and martial arts and yoga and general somatic body therapies.
In my own words, it is learning how to move in a way that's much more efficient and much more core related and all movements that you make are going to move through the core of your body and so learning these strategies or these movements. There are basic movements, six directions of movement in our body; I can run through the six: they are extension, flexion, rotation, and then lateral bending or side bending. Learning these movements and then in the context of whatever activity that you're doing whether it could be like I'm doing right now which is sitting or standing.
I used to teach classes in walking and sitting when I was back in Connecticut not doing that so much in Florida, but I would like to to get that going again.
For me it's been a way of learning how to use my body more efficiently, with less strain and stress on my body. I used to have bad knee problems, that were more of a structural problem, that after a few years of studying with Joseph, pretty much resolved. I don't have the the injuries that I used to get with my knees, fairly regularly. The lower back pain I used to have always, today, I never have lower back pain anymore and it's all all because of just the simple movements.
Violaine: Right it was what I was going to ask you, did you see in yourself the results from adopting those techniques but it sounds like you did, like your knee your knee pain gone and your back pain is gone just by adopting those techniques.
Byron: Yes.
Violaine: When you refer to those six movements principles, I think you said, and based on my research on this subject I saw that they refer as the six Pathways of sequential movement. Is that the same thing that you were referring to?
Byron: Yes, there are basically six pathways of movement in the body and Joseph's first book is called lessons from within (correction: Instructions from within) and so you're learning how to embody those movements. We become separated from these movements through too much sitting or improper exercise patterns or movement patterns that sort of thing.
Violaine: Yes, I keep thinking, you've told me before, just for the walking. I think we all have a tendency to throw our leg forward to move instead of moving our hip to start the walking movement. I think you showed me in the past that the walking starts in the hip and not just by throwing our legs like that.
Byron: Right, like simple things like that. Can I talk about walking?
Violaine: Yeah, please talk about walking! Everybody's walking so I think it's of interest of everybody.
Byron: The classes that I run are called: Walking with Ease and Power.
So that sounds kind of opposite of each other, but how it works out is that if you go somewhere where you can watch a lot of people walk, you will see so many different patterns of walking.
In general, I often see people dropping into one side of their hip—there's kind of a clunk, clunk kind of walk, bum bum bum bum, rather than a smooth transition of weight from the left hip to the right hip, from the left foot to the right foot. There ought to be a smooth movement, and then that movement travels through the body.
It's the reason that there’s such a chronic problem with knees and hips—the way people are moving and not aware of how they could improve it.
For instance, in walking classes, people would come in and say, "I know how to walk"... I mean, that’s silly. But everyone can always improve, and why not? Sure, you've been walking since you were little, but a lot of times those patterns you develop are from observing your caregivers, and often their movements are dysfunctional, so you embody that.
The first thing somebody needs is to be curious about movement and about being able to change that. Curiosity is important because, for a lot of people, it's not a big deal, they'll just go exercise or continue on their way, but when you begin to find that you can improve, and if you have problems, like I did myself, then you become curious because you’re like, "Okay, I don’t want to go through life with these knee problems." The knee problem, I had.. I've met people that had the same condition and they don't do anything. They just sit and are in total fear of this problem. For me, it was about finding a way out.
One of the famous Moshe Feldenkrais sayings is, "If you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want." For walking, for instance, nobody really knows what they’re doing when they’re walking.
Maybe people don’t understand that if you want to take a step forward with your left foot, you can either thrust the foot forward or move the right hip slightly back, which brings the left side forward, like I’m doing right now.
Violaine: Yes, I see you. I don't really think i walk properly either. I have a proper posture but I don't engage the walking like you are showing.
Byron: It’s simple but takes some practice. Once you get it, the rest of the body follows, the head follows, and it can be a great experience. And, you can go faster without necessarily going farther.
I hear people all the time say, they used to walk five or six miles a day, and I think that’s a awful long way to be walking. It would be better to do a mile or two with Core Movement Integration and go quicker and faster.
There have been studies done (Sweedish study) that have shown that the speed of your walk can determine longevity more than other factors. I see people walking and dragging along and not getting much out of it except being outdoors and maybe taking some deep breaths.
Violaine: If I can say, I know it's popular these days to get your 10,000 steps in, or orther little records to keep you active..., but, yes, if you don’t do it correctly, it might not really bring the benefits you’re looking for and could potentially even cause more damage when not engading properly.
I wanted to mention, when you ask, you can observe people walking, I ee people walking, but what catch even more my eyes are people running—often hunched forward or dragging. I can't even descibe it.
Byron: They are often grimacing in their face. Often look like they’re in pain rather than enjoying themselves. It’s rare to see someone running with a smile on their face.
Violaine: I’m not a runner, I cannot really talk too much about it, but I can say or see when the posture is not quite there. There is the effort but something is off.
Byron: If we take running for instance, in Core Movement Integration, humans are unique because we can line up on one side of the body. We can line up on one leg and turn to the left or we can turn to the right. Other species can't do that. By learning how to do that, that's how people have gotten good at barefoot running - that became popular a few years back - becaue the transition of weight is so instantenous, light and so fluid and smooth with no pounding on the joints. The same applies to walking. When I walk, I walk fast but I don't take big steps, I take short steps. They are just quick and efficient. They travel through the boday and one leds the other. You can’t move forward without moving back—that’s how it works.
Violaine: The way I describe it is very clear and simple, while it’s not easy to grasp at first. It requires practice and curiosity, like you mentioned, to get the hang of it.
Byron: There are a lot of ATM - Awareness Through Movement lessons. In Core Movement Integration there are a lot of lessons also. I can have you stand up and say do this or that, but you are not going to embody it unless you go through the steps. A lot of the work and a lot of the classes begin with you lying on the floor and your back. That's where it begins and sometimes just with breathing and becoming aware of where your hips are and how they move. You may lie on the ground.
One position is called: the standing position where you're lying on your back with your feet flat, with your knees up. You have all the ground force reation that you would have when standing up. So if you push through your right foot, it's going to move through your body.
From that position, without having gravity to deal with, you can start to understand where and how these movements move through your body.
Violaine: It starts to bring the awareness, as you have the floor supporting you to see, how everything moves together. Or at least it's how I visualize it.
Byron: And also when you break it f=down, when lying on the floor, lying on your back or on your front you begin to discover where you are efforting too much. Or efforting where you don't need to effort.
In massage therapy, I often tell people to let go "here" a little more, and they’re often surprised to realize they were tensing unnecessarily.
When I first studied Core Movement Integration, what I loved so much were all the "aha" moments—discovering "oh" when I do this wih my hip, it goes all the way through. I can effort, struggle and strain or not. You don't have to work so hard at stuff. Doing less can be more.
Violaine: It makes total sense for you as a massage therapist to not have to put so much effort when you can do more with less.
Byron: In my early days of massage therapist, wiht my wrists, I used to sweat! I don't swat anymore, I can work more efficiently, with less effort. To me, that's what life can be about as one ages and should be about. As you grow older, you have to learn to be more efficient, or else you're going to have things that are going to break down, hip replacement, knee replacement, shoulder replacement, we're hearing about.
Violaine: We covered a lot so far, as far as what CMI does and it application to everyone that is walking or even breathing.
To really cover everything, I had in my questions, what are the primary benefits of CMI for overall physicall health and wellbeing?
Byron, There is walking but there is also sitting. There are article that came out a few years ago about "sitting is the new smoking". Dangerous for our health, and people do it too much. But you can sit and if you were in my call called "sit fit" or "active sitting", you can learn to sit and move through the core and everthing exercice. It is a benefit of this method, to exercice while sitting. I can be exercising my core as I am talking to you.
Violaine: I know for many people and particulery woen, we cross our legs while sitting, I know it's not good but it's automatic.
Byron: I lot of times what people do is to put there feet back, under the chair, and right there, hip mobility is gone. I encourage people to place their feet under their knees, flat. Do lean back into your chair. The proper posture is called free sitting.
Violaine: It sounds like all the primary benefits of CMI apply to anybody walking, sitting, or any daily activities, also possibly sports and atheletes, can you expand on that?
Byron: As mentioned earlier, one of the primary requirement for CMI is to be curious about how you do what you do.
For athletes or atheletics, if I’m working with a dancer having ankle problems, as a massage therapist I might focus on cross fiber, maybe some mild fascia release on that area and that all can be really helpful.
But to get to the core of that movement you're going to go to the hip because it’s the driver of lower and upper body movements. Also all movement for the legs are driven by the hips and hips movement including the knee and the ankle. By slowing down and focusing on smaller movements, athletes can gain more power and accuracy.
Violaine: It cascades down and cascade up?
Byron: Yes, and mostly, you can trace things to the core of the body, the spine, or somewhere in the pelvic area. That includes movements of the shoulders and head—they're all tied to the pelvic floor and hips. So, for an athlete, they perform macro movements, but if you slowly break it down into smaller movements, you can begin to feel the chain of movement and become more efficient. This efficiency will give you more power and accuracy in that movement.
When I'm working with someone, we may do a movement lesson where I don't really demonstrate anything; I just talk them through it. Whether they’re lying on their back, side, standing up, or sitting, I can direct them from there. But then I can also step in and do some hands-on work, just to show them the connection. For example, "Can you feel that when you press into your right foot, your right hip goes back? And can you feel under the ribs here that this is moving up and that the shoulder is connected?" Then I can put my hands on and take the ribs a little bit further to help establish that connection. For athletes, this can be very helpful. I’m excited to work with this golfer, so hopefully, we can improve things for her.
Violaine: For me, I know you showed it to me, and it’s true that feeling it would be the most helpful. We can start trying it ourselves, but I think really getting the hang of it, or really getting––
Byron: Embodying it.
Violaine: That’s right because it’s simple, but it’s not easy to get it right at the start, or at least for me.
Byron: I had one fellow some years back; he was a fellow Aikido practitioner who had a lot of foot and ankle problems that were really preventing him from continuing. Even with his work, he was having a lot of trouble. So I had him lie on his back with his knees up. It was a simple movement of moving the knee forward but directing it from the hip. The general tendency for most people is to engage the muscles of the lower abdomen and thrust the hip forward when it could be a very simple movement of just turning. This fellow—it changed his whole way of moving. He actually started crying on the table because he couldn’t believe that for all these years, he’d been moving in a way that caused him problems, and this simple little thing changed it for him. He came to see me a lot after that because there’s so much more to it. There’s always more. It’s kind of fun!
Violaine: So I guess really, Core Movement Integration is for everybody who has the curiosity to improve their body movement, daily activity movement, and for anyone involved in sports.
Byron: Yes, for anybody who has a body!