The Mitzvah Technique is a body alignment technique which has three main components: Mitzvah exercises, daily maintenance tips on changing postural habits, and a gentle, non-intrusive tablework technique. With the aid of these methods, permanent positive structural changes can be brought to the body.

A student of the Mitzvah Technique may begin with the group exercise classes or with an individual table session. Often a student will utilize both, over time, for a more complete understanding of their postural needs.

The Mitzvah exercises are a new form of self-care and fitness. They are practical and simple and are based in the knowledge of the body's innate ability to realign the skeletal system. They activate a natural mechanism of the body which allows the rebalancing of the neuromuscular system to occur without interference. They are domestically friendly with various exercises being done at the kitchen sink and down the stairs and hallways of your home.

These exercises are as essential as sitting, standing and walking. Why?

The Mitzvah Technique is the analysis of the body in motion. This study has closely looked into the harmful outcome of postural misuse. It identifies how postural misalignment becomes dysfunctional movement and of how this progression can lead to pain and loss of mobility. It also provides an understanding of how to correct these problems.

The Mitzvah Exercises bring ongoing corrective changes to the body. Students learn that by applying these gentle exercises daily, they can release tension and pressure from their own bodies—tension and pressure which accumulate daily and over long periods of time. The Mitzvah table sessions provide these structural changes at a more accelerated rate, allowing clients to move through difficult periods more quickly.

Unlike other forms of exercise, the Mitzvah Technique works not with the strength and stretch principle of the muscles, but with the system that creates the release in contracted muscles and muscle fibres on a cellular level. This allows for a rebalancing to take place throughout the neuromuscular system of the body. When the alignment network of the body is engaged, restrictions and compressions throughout the joints and spine can release and change. This leads to a more open and responsive body, the reduction of pain and an increase in mobility.

Who does the Mitzvah exercises?

Students of the Mitzvah Technique are of all ages and all walks of life and levels of physical abilities. The exercises are gentle and individual attention is given in the classes. They are safe and effective even for people with chronic pain problems and conditions, as well as, for those who find regular exercising too strenuous and tiring. Students learn various series of exercises, often in a weekly class, and develop them into a daily maintenance routine.

While these routines are extremely effective for those with pain and mobility problems, they are also learnt and used by student and professional athletes, dancers, musicians and actors, to enhance performance and reduce injury. The knowledge of how the parts of the body affect the mobility of the whole provides important body awareness. Others who practice the Mitzvah Technique are massage therapists, dental hygienists, Para-Olympic athletes, computer programmers, nurses, and hair stylists, whose posture and body use on the job can lead to pain problems and even loss of work. There are also upcoming classes with musicians, golfers and persons with Post-Polio Syndrome.

The benefits described by students are many. One student explained how prior to her sessions and her exercise routine even bending to tie her shoes and getting things out of the bottom drawers of the refrigerator were painful. Her discomfort was constant. Now, three months later, she has virtually none of the pain problems with which she came to the Mitzvah Technique.

Another student talked about how integrating the maintenance tips in the Technique throughout her day allowed the body to change before it got into a fatigued and then, painful state. As she practiced the exercises and maintenance tips, she became aware of how much she could prevent her body from locking and compressing, and that she could undo the tension accumulated throughout the day.

The exercises taught in the Mitzvah Technique were developed by two internationally renowned dancers and bodywork teachers, Nehemia Cohen and Amelia Itcush. Cohen is the founder of the Mitzvah Technique. He developed the key exercise of the technique, among others. The Mitzvah Exercise is a series of sitting, standing and walking, which allow for the realignment of the skeletal system and rebalancing of the neuromuscular system. It also re-educates the student in the better use of the postural dynamics of the body.

Itcush was Cohen's first certified student and came to the Mitzvah Technique from a successful career as one of Canada's first modern dancers. She is now one of the country's foremost movement analysts. Itcush has designed exercise series which further engage the alignment network of the body.

The Mitzvah Technique is a gentle non-invasive method—both the table session treatments and the exercise programs. It is a gentle and effective method for decreasing stress, reducing structural pain problems, providing greater mobility and learning better body use.

Carla-marie Powers is a certified teacher of the Mitzvah Technique with a private practice in Saskatoon. She offers classes and individual sessions. She is also an instructor at McKay School of Massage and Hydrotherapy in Saskatoon. She can be reached at (306) 652-6415 or email: cmpowers@home.com.