K.A.T.

T (Kinesthetic Approach to Teacher Training)

Day 8: MOVEMENT AND PHYSIOLOGY – Miracles of Muscles

This topic encompasses the miracles that the muscles in our body can play. The left and right
brain / upper and lower body split are understood and practiced in this session. It will give you
a deep understanding of how every movement of human body can affect the physiology of the
body and how it enhances the functioning of the brain.

Physiological movements or normal movements are the natural movements that occur in
human joints. They are also known as orthokinetic movements. Our entire body is made up of
muscles and it is because of this we can perform several tasks easily without much
intervention. Our muscles play a vital role in enhancing our ability to perceive and do things
and thus it in turn causes an effect on our physiology too. Knowing that you can do something
and doing it are in real two different aspects and it is the brain that plays a vital role in
processing this information and getting you to do the task. This session will be entirely based
on throwing light upon the different movements of the body and how it affects our brain
functioning.

Bodily movement and human health generally fall into two categories that reinforce each other:
exercise studies and sitting studies. In general, exercise studies prove that exercise is good;
sitting studies prove that sitting is bad. Movement in general and exercise in specific, primes
brain cells with work-enabling oxygen, it is also evident that exercise actually catalyzes the
growth of new brain cells (called neurogenesis) as well as the production of factors that aid in
the creation of new synapses (called synaptic plasticity).

All in all, the movements that our muscles make, help in enhancing the capacity of our brain
and helps in better functioning of the neurons. In general, it is known that brain cells that "fire
together-wire together". There it morphs into a neurotransmitter that leaps across the gap
between one neuron’s axon and another’s receiving dendrite. These synapses represent
something learned that may be remembered. In simple words, anything humans learn exists
as what is called a kinetic image. It does not exist as a physical structure, it exists only in the
movement it enables, regardless of whether that movement results in a thought, an emotion,
or an action.

Understanding this enables you to understand the importance of movement in learning,

retaining, memorizing and reproducing when required. Understanding movement and
physiology would help you use movements to teach the concepts to your students in a brand-
new way, which would help them retain the concepts for longer and better. Do not tell them
how to do it. Show them how to do it and not say a word. If you tell them, they will watch your
lips move. If you show them, they will see you move and would want to do it themselves.
Education is not just learning the facts but training the mind to think and do things differently.

Thanking you.
Team Shaping India