Sensations are the ghost in the machine when it comes to physical training. What I mean by this is when we are performing any exercise we will experience some type of Sensation.
We can be more or less attuned to what Sensations are proposing to us.
One of the most common occurrences in face-to-face training, I ask a person what they feel while doing an exercise or a stretch and their response back is “I feel nothing.”
“Nothing? Nothing at all? Are you dead?” is generally my first response to this.
Not experiencing Sensation at any point in our lives is to essentially be a corpse. Now this is a humorous response but it does lead us to an interesting question.
What should you feel when stretching?
While we can generally say this stretch targets this muscle, for many people it’s not the case. A common example is someone who feels a “hamstring” stretch in their calves, like in a forward fold. Or they feel tightness in their forearms during a pec stretch. Even when they feel a Sensation in the “right” muscle, the feeling might vary. It could be show up as a “knot” in the muscle belly, a hot sensation near the joint, a numbing pressure running along the whole length of the stretch, or a thin tingly band cutting through a muscle strand. Assuming the person is doing the exercise correctly at an appropriate intensity, it is fine to continue the exercise, and merely note where the Sensation is felt.
This is because an interesting trait of these Sensations is sometimes they’re not actually there; they are a projection made by our mind in response to a stimulus. This is actually something you can test out yourself using the dissolution breathing we teach in our courses.
If you’d like to give it a try now, set up in a stretch that you find comfortable to hold for two to three minutes. A seated pancake is a good option, but this can be applied to any stretched position.
Now you’re gonna ask yourself the most important question: “What am I feeling, exactly?” You will scan your body with your mind, finding the strongest Sensation you are feeling. Be as precise as possible with your attention towards this Sensation. It is not just “I feel my hamstrings”, but more “I feel this particular pea-sized spot in my hamstrings” or “I feel this thin band of tension running through the inner ⅓ of my left hamstring.
Once you’ve identified and focused in on this specific Sensation, hold it in your attention.
Stay in the exact position you found it, without fidgeting, and observe the sensation, without expectation.
Focus your breath into that particular sensation.
You may discover the initial Sensation changes in some interesting ways throughout the duration of the rest of that 2-3 minute stretch.
– Emmet