One’s individual movement guides the choice of exercise. This means individualized exercise is what counts. If I have a weak neck, playing golf for five hours will not help if I walk off the course and continue to hold my head down. But Head Lifts will help to strengthen the neck. If my walk is flat and out of balance, working out for two hours on an exercise machine will not help if […]
The algorithm for this is simple. One, make an observation about one’s own movement that is not optimal or off. Or, have another person observe one’s moment and find the same. It could be how you sit, or stand, or cut the grass. For example, let us say the shoulders are too high or too far forward. Two, then pick an exercise that will help correct this issue. For example, pick an exercise […]
One, try to make an inventory of the various aspects off one’s movement that is not optimal are off. In this case it is most probable that one would need someone else to make the observations. It is difficult to see oneself. Two, try to identify which of these irregularities is likely to have an effect on the pain that one is experiencing. For example, a neck pain may be caused by holding […]
There is a point about “pain” versus discomfort that deserves to be made. If you sit on the floor in a straddle and try to do a Forward Bend, You will experience (a perhaps uncomfortable) pull somewhere. If you hop on your foot, you can hop on it until you really feel uncomfortable. This is a kind of discomfort that disappears as soon as you finish the exercise. This is not pain. Pain […]
Any weakness brings up a difficult point: How to strengthen a weak area without putting it under stress. If your knee hurts when you walk or run, it is hard to imagine exercising it. If you have neck pain, you might be afraid to use the neck at all. Before I met Bernie Falk I often tried to do some exercise to relieve my pain only to find that the exercise itself led […]
So now, what about fears? Will an exercise hurt? Is it dangerous? What if an exercise is done the “wrong” way? For a person in pain, these questions are paramount. For the first few months of working with Bernie Falk I was full of misgivings. I questioned every exercise. I hardly believed that more of any exercise was better. If I did 100 Forward Bends without hurting, I was relieved, but certainly not […]
Bernie Falk’s approach is one of prescribing exercise. The best exercises are those tailored to one’s movement, at one’s personal level of physical skill and condition. This issue leaves open the question of what can one do to get some idea of what Bernie Falk’s approach is all about. The exercises presented in this website are a sampler of exercises that Bernie used. A given exercise will not necessarily get at a specific […]
