Sotai
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Sotai(ho) is a Japanese form of muscular or movement therapy which was invented by Keizo Hashimoto, a Japanese Medical Doctor (1897 - 1993). He developed a model of treatment that was based on returning natural body alignment by working with the breath and moving toward comfort rather than adjusting toward pain. He developed his system from traditional oriental medicine (acupuncture, manual medicine, Seitai) in concert with his knowledge of modern medicine (neurophysiology).
Sotai is a method for neuromuscular reeducation, untwisting muscular holding patterns. This balances the nervous and muscular systems. Its central point is the backward movement or reverse motion treatment. The wrong point of the frame could be returned by moving the body in the comfortable direction. Using the effects of an isometric contraction followed by a sudden relaxation normalises the strained condition.
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[edit] Philosophy
One could regard stiff structures as a sort stoplight: we should stop doing unsuitable movements. Sotai(ho) helps us to determine where the movement is going wrong.
Like the acupuncture channels, there are muscular "meridians" along the body. Landsberger and Hoepke (1936) called them muscular chains (Muskelketten). Along these routes or chains there is something going wrong. Sometimes it is obvious, where the problem is located. But often it is hard to determine the root.
Sotai helps you to determine the habit within the movement chain. Moshe Feldenkrais said that a free person is able to do one action within one plot. Perhaps Sotai is not that cognitive, but in fact, Sotai is consonant with that vision. The goal is the determination of the kind of movement(s) that will be healthy and easy for the organism, to find a pure movement, without habituated emotions.
To do so, Sotai can be practised with a therapist, in which case it's called Sotaiho, or within a group as Self Sotai.
[edit] The construction of the body
Dr. Hashimoto recognized that the organism always moves as a unity and formulated from it "the law of the reciprocal effect" ("Doji-sokan-sohosei").
The construction of the human body resembles in the principle that of a house. Four supporting piers correspond to our arms and legs, the ridge corresponds to the spinal column. If the balance one of these pillars is disturbed sensitively, this will become apparent as a malfunction in the backbone.
[edit] Doji-sokan-sohosei
a) Four factors
Dr. Hashimoto has found out that there are in fact four factors which contribute to our inside balance.
Respiration: A slow, quiet respiration is important for optimization of body processes; long breath leads to long life.
Nutrition: Regular, balanced nutrition is a presupposition for the development of healthy organs ("You are what you eat!")
Movement: One should always do those movements which are good for our body, which fit to us.
Thinking: Gratitude is the key to moderate thinking and positive life attitude.
In the ideal case balance rules in all four points. But this is rather rarely the case. So a person who moves normally can affect his health by bad nutrition negatively. On the other hand is a balanced point, for example respiration in state to equalize a neglected area, for example the nutrition.
As long as within this system balance rules, one says, the person is healthy. Only if at least one of these pillars collapses, disease appears.
Environment: Also the environment affects the body balance, for example, by stress factors like noise or frantic.
Our organism is a kind of a microcosm. Communication with the environment, including the connection between our inside and the exterior world, will only function without any kind of friction if at least balance rules within our own system.
One could imagine for our society that the exterior condition is a mirror of the inside. Perhaps a harmonious society develops itself only if an individual can rest in himself, so he will step then harmoniously in connection with the environment.
b) The movement chain
The law of the reciprocal effect has not only validity within the model of the four health factors: it refers in every kind of movement. A movement never (!) takes place in one segment only. It is not detached from the remaining body! It spreads out as a kind of a chain starting from one link going to the adjoining and finally over the whole body.
The whole organism is always involved in performance. So the birth of a local hardening is the result of a process which works in the whole organism. E.g. a prolapsed disc appears at those places within the chain which are not permeable, where the forces are held, leading to a collaps.
So it is well conceivable, for example, going out from the model of the movement chain, that also toothaches and jaw joint syndromes find their origin in a false load of the lumbar vertebral column!
Doshin Selfdetection
Sotaiho is no curation treatment in the usual sense. Sotaiho requires the co-operation of the affected person. This is meant as a sort "listening to yourself" during the treatment. Therapists, doctors and medicaments cannot heal. This can only be done by nature! So it is an essential part of the therapy to hunt up independently false positions of the several joints and to understand them as a cause of the problem.
While Dr. Hashimotos work has concentrated in essence upon the partner's work, it was Dr. Sato who has strongly developed the Self-Sotai. By my opinion it belongs to an extensive therapy to train an affected person in self-exercises.
If the affected person has understood the Sotai idea once, he can extend it to all areas. This understanding also includes the idea that there is an optimal degree of the pleasant. Too much of it is again harmfully: e.g., a piece of cakes may be probably tasty, however, a whole cake causes certainly stomachaches.
[edit] Glucosaminoglycan
GAGs (Collagen III) belong to the buffer systems of the connective tissue. According to latest scientific research (Guimberteau, 2004) there is a structural channel system on the level of the interstitial space spread over the hole human organism. This channel system is very similar, maybe identic to the meridian system. From my point of view, muscular dystension will be the source of an interruption of the energy flow within this system. So postural dysbalances will have a direct influence of the Qi flow within the Channel (Chinese medicine) system. On the other side, functional improvement of the movement organ will help to balance the energy system either.
[edit] Bibliography
Sotai Natural Exercise; Keizo Hashimoto; George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation; Oroville; 1981
Sotai: Balance and Health Through Natural Movement; Kawakami & Hashimoto; Japan Publications; Tokyo; 1983
Das Muskelspiel des Menschen; Hoepke, Landsberger; 7., neubearb. Aufl.; Fischer; Stuttgart; 1979
Die Gleitfähigkeit subkutaner Strukturen beim Menschen (The glide ability of subcutaneous structures with human beings); J. C. Guimberteau; Osteopathische Medizin; issue 01/08; pg. 4 - 16; Urban & Fischer; München; 2008
