Contrary to traditional gymnastics which sculpts the body for aesthetic purposes or performance concerns, these gymnastics are said to be corrective because they aim to get rid of our bad gestural and postural habits, which limit our potential and lead to pain and tension. They aim to encourage us to move differently, to make better use of our body.
But make no mistake: the practitioner, whatever his school, will not directly correct the student, it is on the contrary to engage him in a process of discovery. “These practices are based on proprioceptivity, that is to say the inner feeling, awareness,” explains Catherine Casini, physiotherapist. The student will become aware of his bad postures to find by itself the right placement. The practitioner also prefers the terms “experiences and discoveries” to that of “correction”. “Unlike the physiotherapist who will work on the tendon, or on the muscle, our practices improve functioning from a neuronal point of view, that is to say by changing the person’s perception of movement”, analysis for his part Vladimir Latocha, Feldenkrais practitioner. For Marie Bertherat, head of the Antigymnastic network, far from being corrective, these approaches are on the contrary “liberating”: they allow people to know themselves.
When to go for these methods?
When you have the feeling that you are not making the best use of your body, when you feel a general feeling of unease, that you feel hampered in your actions.
When one is subject to pain (back pain in particular), tension, joint stiffness which does not have an organic cause.
When you want to engage in a process to get to know yourself better.
As an artist (actor, singer, musician) or sportsman, when you are looking for a tool to understand your body differently and live in it better.
How to choose corrective gymnastics?
For Catherine Casini, “it’s a question of sensitivity, of personal correspondence. “Same story with Vladimir Latocha:” It has to be the right method, the right person, at the right time. We choose not only a practice, but also a practitioner; therefore the meeting is important. The best advice is therefore to test several to find “your” corrective gymnastics.
How do these techniques deal with back pain, for example?
All share this view that over time we adopt bad positions, bad movements. As the central axis of our skeleton, our back concentrates a lot of tension resulting from inappropriate use of our body. By a global work on it, the back will therefore be relieved of its tensions. Of course, each approach will do this job with its specificities.
Are all these techniques not the same, after all?
It is true that at first glance these approaches can be similar. And for good reason, they have many points in common: a holistic vision of the body; this observation that we are not using it to the best of our ability; the need, for our well-being and our health, to find a better functioning; the importance of awareness and feeling in this readjustment process. But on this common basis, each creator relied on his training (physiotherapist for Lily Ehrenfried, physicist for Feldenkrais …) and followed his own path, marked by various influences (judo, energy, fasciatherapy …) to develop his method. Thus, each practice has its specificities. For example, the contact between the practitioner and the student is at the heart of the Alexander Technique; the Ehrenfreid approach is framed, while in Feldenkrais play and exploration have an important place.
