Sotai

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The four factors that invluence our health

Sotai or Sotai-ho (操体法) 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, bone setting (Sekkotsu), Seitai Jutsu ) in concert with his knowledge of modern medicine.

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A top-down view of a skeletal muscle

Sotai is said to be a method for neuromuscular reeducation, untwisting muscular holding patterns. According to their practitioners this balances the nervous and muscular systems . Its central point is the backward movement or reverse motion treatment. The idea is that 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 (post-isometric relaxation) normalises the strained condition .

Philosophy

Sotai practitioners claim that stiff structures should be regarded as a sort of stop light: if a movement hurts you should stop it. They claim that Sotai(ho) helps to determine where the movement is going wrong .

Like the acupuncture meridians in traditional eastern medicine, there are also muscular "meridians" along the body . Landsberger and Hoepke (1936) invented the term of muscular chains ("Muskelketten") . Sotai claims that it detects the "strains" within these chains. According to its philosophy these "strains" arise through habituated movements.

Moshe Feldenkrais said that a free person is able to do one action within one plot. Probably Hashimoto translated this thought into neurophysiological terms: He said that if one puts his centre of gravity adequately over his feet the body will raise naturally. Hashimoto claims that people often shift their weight more to the outside of the foot instead of shifting it towards the bale of the big toe. He said that our body is not centred then, which means that the natural set reactions (Statomotorik) will not occur properly. Additional muscular work is needed to keep the body straight. To speak in Feldenkrais words, body energy is not focused on the act but is spent in keeping the trunk raised.

The construction of the body

Dr. Hashimoto claimed that the organism always moves as a unity and formulated from it "the law of the reciprocal effect" ("Doji-sokan-sohosei").

According to Hashimoto 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.

The law of the reciprocal effect (Doji-sokan-sohosei)

a) Four factors
Dr. Hashimoto's opinion was that there are in fact four factors which contribute to our inside balance.

Respiration: A slow, quiet and deep respiration is important for optimization of body processes. (moving the diaphragm in consonance with respiration the circulation will be improved, particularly the fast buffer system's effects will improve, which contributes cell metabolism by exchanging carbon dioxide with oxygen)
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.

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.

To repeat hir vision, 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 (Philosophy). According to this vision one could regard a prolapsed disc as an appearance at those places within the chain which are not permeable, where the forces are held, leading to a collapse.

Within the Sotai system it is also 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. Hashimoto claims that 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 . It is said that it belongs to an extensive therapy to train an affected person in self-exercises.

Practitioners claim that 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.

Meridian tendons

In the traditional eastern medicine (TEAM) one knows about muscular leading roads which are very similar to the course of the associated meridians. They are named 'meridian tendons'.

For didactic reasons the 'tendon' of the gall-bladder meridian is chosen: This meridian tendon runs down the outside side of the body and connects the temples with the outer area of the foot. In between there are several interfaces: · on height of the fibula's head · at the level of the sacrum · on height of the waist-line · in the shoulder · in the area of the temple

Practitioners frequently have to work on problems within this tendon. They claim that many loins complaints stand in connection with a disturbance of this chain.

According to Dr. Masunaga (founder of Zen Shiatsu), who has assigned psychological functions to the Functional Circles, the gall-bladder meridian stands on behalf for the function of short-time decisions: do I go to the right or to the left?

" It is not the life event but the daily hazzles that kill a man! " wrote the American author Charles Bukowski once. If one extends the bioenergetic attempt Dr. Hashimotos with the one of Dr. Masunaga, all kind of (movement) habits could be reflected within the meridian tendons: Everybody knows the situation in which one couldn't make a proper decision, to do something somehow and, nevertheless, also again not. The appropriate movement is a kind of twist, an unclear movement which leads to one side, but also to the other side. Such samples are found within pathological conditions in the gall-blader's meridian tendon.

At microscopic level one could state a change of the muscle proteins, called "strain". Via neuronal feedback mechanisms the vegetative nervous system is affected, which has an influence on the metabolism of the internal organs. It is possible that through this way disturbances in the organ system could be caused.

To speak to Manakas words, a correction in the software - in this case the muscle apparatus - could cause changes in the somato-emotional condition.

GAGs

GAGs (Collagen III) belong to the buffer systems of the connective tissue. According to latest scientific research there could be a structural channel system on the level of the extracellular matrix spread over the hole human organism. This channel system is very similar to the meridian-system. It is possible that this system links the energetical with the structural system.

References

• Guimberteau, J. C. (2008). "Die Gleitfähigkeit subkutaner Strukturen beim Menschen". Osteopathische Medizin, 08-01, Urban & Fischer. Retrieved 2009-01-26. 
• Hayashi, Kenji (2009). "Sotaiho Bewegungsübungen für die Körperbalance". Self publishing. Retrieved 2009-08-02. 
• Hoepke, Hermann; Kantner, Max (1971). Das Muskelspiel des Menschen. G. Fischer Verlag. ISBN 3437100815. 

External links

• sotai.eu/
• Schule für Atmung und Bewegung, Hannoverja:操体法

Graph according to Dr. Hashimototos point of view, taken from http://sotai.eu

Hashimoto (1983) about the reverse motion treatment, developed by Michio Takahashi in the 1920s (founder of Seitai Jutsu: http://www.traditional-japanese-acupuncture.com/acupuncture_styles/therapy3.html)

Hashimoto & Kawakami, 1983

According to neurophysiological knowledge one knows that a contracted Myofibril (a kind of muscleprotein) will lose its holding pattern during the postisometric phase.

Hashimoto & Kawakami, 1983

Myers, 2004, described anatomical trains which are very similar to the meridian tendons in TEAM (traditional eastern medicine)

Landsberger, Hoepke, 1936

Hashimoto, 1981

Hashimoto, 1981

see Tempu Nakamura and his point of view about neurophysiological effects in consonance with life attitude

Hashimoto, 1981

Hayashi in his Reader, 2nd ed., pg. 27, 2003

Hashimoto & Kawakami, 1983

Selye, 1936 - Hans Selye

Hayashi in his Reader, 2nd ed., pg. 4, 2003

Hayashi in his Reader, 2nd ed., pg. 30, 2003

Hayashi, 2006

Meridian tendons

see Manakas book: Chasing the dragon's tail

Kawakami claims that orthosympathical dystension is generated via muscular hypertonus (Hashimoto & Kawakami, pg. 182, German edition of Balance and health through natural movements, ch. "Die tägliche Gesundheitspflege" (daily health hygiene) )

Guimberteau, 2004

Heine, 2007