Antigym® is based on sound therapeutical principles and the biomechanics of the body as developed by physical therapist Françoise Mézières and her holistic understanding of the organism.
Thérèse Bertherat became a Françoise Mézières physiotherapist and developed the technique further, calling it Antigymnastique®, incorporating different holistic practices creating a method that is self-healing.
As we move along in our daily lives, since babyhood, all we experience is stored in the muscles. Releasing the body’s innate intelligence has profound impacts on the physical, allowing the proper functioning of the organism, bringing balance. By increasing the back’s length, you shatter the idea that “the back is weak”, while learning to listen to the body.
The back is always contracting. In Antigym®, we refer to it as the Back Muscle Chain (BMC) or “The Tiger” due to its hyper vigilant state at all times. It is an all intricate, complex chain of muscles, interconnected from head to toes, with direct impact on the neural network and blood pathways.
Antigym® allows you to be present, listening, releasing the body while freeing the breath in a calming and soothing environment. Classes are taken in small groups. Feet are bare. Advisable attire is comfortable clothing made with natural materials.
From the book The Body Has Its Reasons:
“This method is confirmed by a profound knowledge of anatomy, of articular mechanism and of neurology. It shows the uselessness of segmentary work that treats the body as though it were an industrial object composed of detached parts because eliminating the curvature in one segment of the spinal column, you displace it to another segment. When you correct the curvature of the lumbar vertebrae, you make the neck arch backward and vice versa. With the exception of fractures and some congenital deformities, it is the muscles that are responsible for the deformities of the bones and joints.
It’s absolutely necessary to regard the body as a totality and to treat it as such, while taking into account not a multitude of symptoms, but the unique cause of its deformities: the shortening of the entire posterior musculature, which is the inevitable effect of the body’s daily movements.
The body is not made up only of muscles, but only the muscles determine the form of the body.
The essence of Antigym® is to sculpt live bodies.”
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