Release Your Back With Antigym®
by Ginette Séguin-Swartz

What is Antigym?

Antigym is a holistic bodywork method created in the mid-1970s by French physiotherapist Thérèse Bertherat, author of The Body Has Its Reasons (Healing Arts Press, Rochester, USA). This groundbreaking work started a revolution in the way we think about the body.

Antigym bodywork features sequences of small, slow, and very precise movements that are designed to make the back musculature regain its natural length. This ensures harmonious body alignment, youthful posture, flexibility, balance, and pain-free, effortless movement.

A Simple Back Release Sequence

Do you suffer from a stiff, tight back? Let’s try this simple sequence to release it. It will take about 10 minutes. First, remove your shoes and socks. Then loosen your tie or your belt if you are wearing one. Have a rolled towel about 10–15 cm in diameter (4–5 inches) at hand. Now, you are ready to start.

Lie down on your back on a carpet or an exercise mat. Observe the contact of your head, your shoulders, your back, your waist, your hips, your legs, and your heels with the floor. Does one shoulder blade feel more in contact with the floor than the other one? How much of your spine can you feel on the floor? Is your waist on the floor? The back of your knees?

Now, bend one leg, keeping the heel on the floor and then bend the other leg, keeping the heel on the floor. Your feet are now flat on the floor. Your feet are hip-width apart and your heels are aligned directly below your knees or as close as possible. Your arms rest comfortably on the floor, and your palms are turned toward the ceiling, fingers relaxed.

Now, press your feet on the floor, and lift your hips just enough to slide the rolled towel under your hips. Rest your hips on the rolled towel and wait, allowing your body to adapt to this new position. Your waist will not likely touch the floor. Now, open your mouth. Your lips are soft, your jaws relaxed.

Inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your open mouth, observe how your rib cage moves. Does your belly move? Now, place one hand on your breastbone, just below your collarbones. Try to keep your shoulder relaxed. Do you feel your breastbone move under your hand when you inhale and exhale? Yes? No? The upper chest is designed to move with the breath. Continue to inhale and exhale quietly for about 10 breaths, sensing the movement under your hand, or if you feel no movement, when you inhale, try to direct your breath in the upper portion of your lungs, directly below your hand. Now, place your hand on one side, at the bottom edge of your rib cage and place the other hand on the opposite side. Your elbows rest comfortably on the floor. Do you feel your rib cage moving under your hands when you inhale and exhale?

Continue to inhale and exhale quietly for about 10 breaths, sensing the movement under your hands, or if you feel no movement, when you inhale, try to direct your breath in the lower portion of your lungs. Now, place your hands on your abdomen. Do you feel your abdomen moving when you inhale and exhale? Continue to inhale and exhale quietly for about 10 breaths. Then release your hands to the floor, one at the time.

Now, when you are ready to inhale, can you make the top of your breastbone near your collarbones rise, then your rib cage expand and then your abdomen expand? And, when you exhale, try to let the top of your breastbone release down, then the edge of your rib cage, and then your abdomen. Continue to inhale and exhale quietly in this manner for about 10 breaths.

Then, pressing your feet in the floor, lift your hips up just enough to remove the rolled towel from under your hips. Let your hips and back rest on the floor. Observe the contact of your back, your waist, and your hips on the floor. Is your body more relaxed than at the beginning? Rest a couple minutes in this position. Then, dragging one heel on the floor, extend one leg out, and then, dragging the heel on the floor, extend the other leg. Let your feet relax. Rest on your back for a few minutes, breathing peacefully. Then softly roll over to one side and slowly get up. Feel how you stand. How is your posture? How is your breathing?

This is just one example of a simple, yet effective, movement sequence offered by Antigym. To learn more or to participate in a free class during the 2nd Annual Antigym Awareness Week (September 7–13, 2014), contact Ginette at 306-249-1073 or agtb221@sasktel.net. Also, drop by our booth (No. 762) at the 1st Annual Saskatoon Anti-aging and Wellness Expo, Prairieland Exhibition Park, September 13 and 14, 2014 (antiagingwellnessexpo.com). For general information on Antigym, please visit www.antigymnastique.com.

Ginette Séguin-Swartz was trained by Thérèse Bertherat in Paris, France, and has been teaching Antigym in Saskatoon since 2004. She has been a certified Antigym trainer for Canada and the USA since 2008. Certified Antigym practitioner training will start in Saskatoon in the fall of 2014. Contact Ginette for details (see paragraph above). Also, see the Calendar of Events ad on page 5 of the 20.2 July/August issue of the WHOLifE Journal.