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Index
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: A New Approach to the Study of Movement
Part One: The Science
Chapter 1. The Postural Neuromuscular Reflex (PNR) System and How It Works
The Architecture: How Muscles Work in the Context of the Skeletal Framework
Stretch Reflexes and the Musculoskeletal Framework: How Stretch Reflexes Convert the Musculoskeletal System into a Spring-like Framework
The Organizing Principle of Head and Trunk: How the Relation of the Head to the Trunk Organizes Movement in Space
Neck Reflexes: How the Neck Reflexes Play a Central Role in Organizing Muscle Tone Throughout the Body
Chapter 2. Muscles and the Role of Awareness
Chronic Tension: How Muscles Contract and Must Let Go into Length in Order to Function Properly
Awareness, Thinking, and Muscle Length: How to Lengthen Muscles by Being Kinesthetically Aware and Sending Messages via Motor Units in the Context of Length
Direction: Thinking and Intention
Coordinating the Whole: How the Different Body Parts Must Be Supported in Order for the System to Let Go into Length and to Coordinate as a Whole, Which Elicits the Reflex Response of the PNR System
The Gamma System: How Harmfully Performed Voluntary Actions Are Controlled by the “Old” Brain, and How to Restore This System Through Thinking and Stopping
Chapter 3. Awareness and Conscious Control
Ideomotor Action: How Action Is Part of a Pathway of Activity That Begins with an Idea and Ends in a Motor Act, and Why It Is Necessary to Address This Pathway in Order to Restore the Proper Working of the PNR System
The Autonomic Nervous System and the Field of Consciousness: Why Stress Is Associated with an Imbalanced Working of the Ideomotor System and How the PNR System Acts as an Integrative Control over the Autonomic Nervous System
The Means-Whereby Principle: How Our Subconscious Actions Are Oriented Towards “Ends,” and How to Perform Actions Consciously by Focusing on the “Means”
Conscious Control: How Our Actions Take Place Subconsciously, and How to Achieve a Conscious Level of Control of Action by Superseding Subconscious with Conscious Direction
Part Two: The Art
Chapter 4. “Directing” and the PNR system
The Organization of Awareness
The Principle of Non-Doing
The Semi-Supine Position
The Primary Directions
Kinesthetic Thinking: The Key to Directing
Wishing, Attending, and Non-Doing
The Concreteness of Thinking
Directing and Antagonistic Action
Integration of the Whole
Chapter 5. The PNR System and How It Works
Forward and Up
The PNR system and the Sacrospinalis Sheet
Flexors and Front Length
Antagonistic Action of Muscles
Lengthening in Stature
Lengthening in Stature Continued
Widening the Shoulders
Knees Forward and Away
The PNR System and the Suboccipital Muscles
Chapter 6. The Means-Whereby Principle: Attention to the Process
The Conceptual Factor
The Gamma System
What It Means to Stop
Thinking in Activity
The Purpose of the Means-Whereby Principle
Applying the Means-Whereby Principle to Real-Life Activities
Chapter 7. The Means-Whereby Principle in Practice
Positions of Mechanical Advantage
Stand-to-Sit, or Sitting from the Standing Position
Sit-to-Stand, or Getting Out of a Chair
The Use of the Arms
Chapter 8. The Art of Conscious Control
Examining Our Actions
The PNR System as the Basis of Looking at Yourself
Opening a Window
Inhibition and Directing
The Problem of Subconscious Action
Detachment in Action
Inhibition and How to Do It
A New Stage in Action
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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