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How the Three Wise Men Heal the Biotensegrity Tower

After the Biotensegrity Interest Group IX meeting had come to an end Leonid Blyum raised his proverbial pointer finger towards the ceiling and said:

“Diane, tomorrow morning we shall ask Steve whether we can try to “heal” his Biotensegrity Tower with the ABR wraps!”

Whether this got Leonid out of bed earlier than usual is not sure, but in any case we were filming the short interviews with Steve and Graham by around 10:30.

Afterwards we filmed the video below where one can clearly see how the mechanically weakened Biotensegrity Tower obtains a much improved tensional uniformity when an ABR Wrap is added in a clever manner.

We hope you enjoy seeing this demonstration that illustrates how an ABR Biotensegrity Applied Wrap can help to reinstate tensional uniformity in children and adults whose structures have weakened, are sinking, folding or buckling – just as Steve’s Model made by Bruce Hamilton does when one loosens the tension slightly.

This improved tensional uniformity then leads to improvements at the level of the body to which it is applied as well as having a global effect.  We will write more about this in another post!

In addition the video gives a small taste of the coming Christmas Holiday!

 

 

 

 

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ABR is an Applied Biotensegrity Therapeutic Intervention

ABR is an  Applied Biotensegrity Therapeutic Intervention

As I wrote this week in my last post: There Is So Much to Tell About! The Autumn and pre-Winter seasons have been amazingly full for our Denmark Team. We have been working, learning and finding new persons to be inspired by! Then again – the children and families themselves are a source of constant inspiration to whom we are most grateful for their devotion and diligence with the ABR work. Without ABR parents who do ABR at home most every day, there would be no ABR and no ABR development at all! It is your “home work” that shows us how to go further, how to change how to improve.

But now to the titled post theme: “Biotensegrity”. What is Biotensegrity and how does it relate to you as a parent of a child with developmental difficulties or to any person with a handicap himself?

Biotensegrity is a word first coined by Dr. Steve Levin. Steve Levin was an orthopaedic surgeon, who became inspired by Buckminster Fullers ideas of tensegrity and who then realized that one could apply the concepts and thoughts developed by Fuller to living organisms. Thus the term: Bio-tensegrity.

Those who have been following my blog will have read the chapter written for Dr. rer. nat., Dipl. phys. Danièle-Claude Martin’s book called “Living Bio-tensegrity”. (https://abr-denmark.blog/2017/01/03/bio-tensegrity/) This book illustrates the many concepts inherent to Biotensegrity. Daniele could see that these concepts and ides that she strives to describe in her book were being applied in practice in the ABR work. When writing her book she asked for a chapter about ABR so that the readers could see how Biotensegrity can look in practical application.

Dr. Steve Levin and Dr. Danièle Martin initiated a Biotensegrity Interest Group already nine years ago. This group met again for the IX BIG meeting in October and the members shared and discussed concepts related to Biotensegrity and how they relate to the new and emerging science about fascia and connective tissues. This is a very exciting meeting to take part in and this year again Leonid Blyum made a presentation about larger questions having to do with the Biotensegrity model. I took the opportunity to present our practical work in the field with ABR.

A day before the actual conference started however I could meet with Steve Levin and Graham Scarr. Graham is also extremely active in the field and has a book out about Biotensegrity as well. They were looking at a Tensegrity Mast that Steve had with him and as soon as I saw it I became very excited because I could see that the model would illustrate exactly to the point what we see in children and adults with cerebral palsy and related handicaps!

I did my best to hold a short interview with Steve Levin about how he sees ABR and how he could see the Biotensegrity Mast showing us something about our children. Here is a short clip from the interview:

The lecture I held at the BIG IX conference about ABR is called:

ABR Efforts – Addressing Buckling, Folding, Bulging, Sinking Volumes And Slabs

An Applied Biotensegrity Model For Children With Special Needs

In this sense the presentation fit perfectly with the illustration that one could get from Steve’s new Mast Model. If one loosens one strut, the entire model is weakened. If one tightens up one strut, the entire model re-gains its tensional uniformity.

It is this uniformity and tensional integrity that children with special needs are lacking. Their bodies react with sinking, bulging, folding and buckling under. These severely effected individuals perfectly illustrate the biotensegrity concepts in their structure, their attempts to move and even in their “behavior”! When the structure is architecturally unsound and reacts with buckling, sinking and folding – then no amount of brain or of muscle training can rectify this. The muscles and the brain are rather forced to try to find ways of working within the constraints of a seriously weakened structure.

The video clip below gives a description of an extremely creative child with microcephaly.  His “small head” has been given the cause of his difficulties in walking.  But one can see how creative he is.  He manages to walk in spite of:

  • knees that buckle under and give way
  • A stiff spine
  • A weak trunk

His interesting usage of his hands for stability to be able to manage the weaknesses is very inventive and creative indeed.

ABR Techniques are all about restoring structural soundess and uniform reactions for individuals who have lost this or who have never had it. The Biotensegrity models are firing and inspiring our technique development and have been doing so for years.

ABR Biotensegrity Wrap Demonstration below:

Below are some slides from the presentation of our children and their progress.  First some younger children.

Now an older guy – a GMFCS Level V young man (although he is moving up in his GMFM scores)  – who is now 20.  He is much older and far beyond  an age or GMFCS Level where any improvement would be expected at all – only further deterioration.  It is great to see how this young man is improving day by day!

Our next post will be about Leonid Blyum and how he “heals” Steve Levin’s tensegrity tower with ABR wraps .  And also how ABR wraps get a new name!

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The Last ABR Assessment in 2017 – So much to tell!

 

The last months have been extremely full for our team, and there is so much to write about, but before I start to add all the half written posts that are waiting to be published, our last story of the season must be told.

This evening when we were ready to hold the last ABR Assessment for 2017 the Team was very tired after many weeks of holding courses back to back – and in no case were we ready for such an amazing surprise. A 25 year old young man from Austria named Christian  and who started with ABR in March 2017 drove his wheel chair through the door to our seminar room in Reichenau a. d. Rax.

We knew Christian as a generally very fused and stiff young man with only minimal independent movements and bodily mobility. He can drive his own wheel chair by employing a joystick and can talk, but it was very difficult to understand him. He is however a very engaged young person and works in an organisation that promotes the interests of handicapped people in Austria.

When he entered the room, it was clear that an enormous development had occurred. One could see that his face was much more relaxed and his eyes sparkled with excitement.

Before we could even sit down together, he and his parents began to tell about all the changes he had made in the last few months since we last met in June 2017. The list was long – we took an hour to gather all of it and they were not finished telling the story. But a good portion of it is below:

– Hand usage – he now stretches ou this arm and grasps the hand when he “shakes” hands – not only offering a stiff unmoveable hand at a close range to his body.
– He now easily drinks out of a big glass and does not spill anything
– He opens bottles alone and can drink from a bottle.
– Independent eating.
– There is a very difficult clasp that he has learnt how to open.
– At work, he sets the table.
– At his workplace, they often give him more complex tasks to do on his own.
– They now send him shopping at work, and he goes alone and seeks independence
– He can use the ATM machine for getting cash on his own.
– He is extremely motivated and now wants to do everything himself. Refuses help even when it takes much longer to do things his way!
– Takes off his jacket and can put it on.  More independence when dressing.
– Has learned to open and close zippers.
– Shaves, washes and brushes his teeth alone.
– He figured out himself how to propel his wheel chair alone manually – not using the joystick. Then he figured out how to use his upper body and not only the arms alone so that each push propels him much further along.
– He can now walk with his walker without assistance – slowly albeit but never the less!
– It is much easier for him to read.
– His speech is not only much clearer and easy to understand, but he uses more words and composes more complex sentences.
– His facial mimics expression has expanded and blossomed.
– He can now lie relaxed on his front – it was not possible for him to be on his front before due to stiffness.
– Put all fingers together in front of his body.
– Fold the hands together easily.
– He can sit on his own without support.
– He can play with a ball and do other activities when sitting freely.

And a big hug with Johannes was also possible!

At the Assessment we could also observe that his body was beginning to become much softer and less stiff. In addition one could see:

– Waist divisions appearing allowing for waist mobility
– Hip releases allowing for leg movement in the pelvis
– Divisions within his thorax allowing for a huge improvement in the respiration.
– General relaxation
– Improved shoulder and finger mobility
– Improved toe, feet and leg relaxation
– Neck relaxation allowing for improved head mobility

The parents commented that before they started with ABR, he had not improved in any function in years and that it is also the expectation for severe young people with cerebral palsy like himself, that he would simply get worse with age and time. They are also very surprised how much he has changed.

This does not mean that there is not a great deal that can still be achieved or needs to be worked on with ABR Applications, but it is wonderful to see that a 25 year old young man with a level IV Cerebral Palsy can make such fantastic improvements in the ABR program in such a short time span.

Thank you Christian for letting us share your story!