Episode 17: Contractile Fields, Archetypal Postures and Floor Life with Phillip Beach
“The body is designed to rest in full flexion, but with the traction that a full squat gives you”
Phillip Beach is an Osteopath and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) researcher. He runs a private practice in Wellington, New Zealand. Phillip is interested in developing models of human movement that are congruent with embryology and evolutionary biology. Phillip is the author of ‘Muscles and Meridians: The Manipulation of Shape’
He lived in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Nigeria as a child and left Sydney to study in London
Phillip has an interest in Thai Massage, Tui Na and works primarily on the floor rather than a treatment table. He uses his feet a lot in his work
Evolutionary biology: we are apes and have a 30 million year history, so it makes sense to study this background
He originally taught what he was taught and then developed his own ideas about contractile fields. These were originally similar to Tom Myers’ work on muscle chains
Looking at embryology and evolutionary biology
He developed his work further by looking at whole fields of movement, not just how one muscle joins another muscle
Exploring field theory. Each field goes from the facial region down to the pelvic floor
Fields: forwards and backwards, left and right
The model has been developed following years of exploration and discovery
Phillip teaches osteopaths, pilates teachers and other bodyworkers or therapists that work with the ease and dis-ease of human movement
Archetypal postures - the necessity of retiring to the floor to rest: cross-legged, squatting and Japanese posture (sitting on the heels) http://phillipbeach.com/archetypal-postures/
The relationship between work (movement) and rest
Sitting cross-legged on the floor helps the venous drainage of the legs
Squatting fully with the heels flat allows a traction and flexion of the lumbar spine
For the human physique, the full squat and sitting cross-legged are the ‘middle C’ of our biomechanical resting lives
To practice squatting, stand in a door-frame and drop down as far as you can, with the knees wide. Lift the heels if needed. As the achilles elongate, the full squat becomes easier. To squat well, a full range of dorsiflexion of the ankle is needed.
Premature babies tend to walk on tiptoes as they haven’t had full dorsi-flexion in utero
To improve sitting cross-legged, use a meditation pillow, keep the legs wide.
Some people that can sit easily in the cross-legged position don’t like to squat and vice versa
The feet in the shoes are ‘sensory deprivation chambers’
The fine tuning from using the feet properly is essential for walking and running
Phillip turned his kitchen floor into a ‘rock garden’ with different shaped rock surfaces to bring the outside inside and changed the body system
Your physique wants movement, and access to the floor
Limber - floor to sitting to standing desk in New Zealand: https://limber.nz/
Micro-movements keep you alive.
Make your office ‘unergonomic’. Keep your phone and water away from you. Don’t have wheels on your chair. Don’t make your chair too comfortable. Make your life a little more difficult so that you have to move
Place a value on floor life
Hip and knee replacements are becoming so expensive. Floor life for appropriate rest is needed
If you want to age well, spend more time on the floor
The floor is the passive aspect. The active side is standing up from the floor
Standing up started the cascade of us becoming the dominant species on the planet
Style, power and poise to stand from the floor - ‘erectorcises’
Children need to be barefoot as much as possible on rough ground, spending as much time on the floor
Sleeping on the ground is important so the first thing you do is stand from the floor
‘Soft bodies need hard beds and hard bodies need soft beds’
Brachiation - swinging and hanging in apes
The human pelvic floor is thicker than other mammals for the upright position
It’s possible to carry 40% of your body-weight on your head
Resources:
Website for information about Phillip’s courses and workshops
Book: Muscles and Meridians: The Manipulation of Shape by Phillip Beach
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