Mein Name ist Constantin Pätzold, Sportwissenschaftler, Personaltrainer und Medizinstudent mit über sieben Jahren Erfahrung in der Welt des Personaltrainings. Im Laufe meiner beruflichen Reise habe ich zahlreiche Menschen auf ihrem Weg zu physischer Fitness begleitet. In den letzten Jahren verspürte ich jedoch den Drang, meine Kenntnisse und Arbeitsweise grundlegend zu überdenken und zu aktualisieren.

In der Welt des Trainings heißt es oft, dass man nach fünf Jahren auf seine alten Trainingspläne zurückblicken und sich dabei unwohl fühlen sollte, als Zeichen der eigenen Weiterentwicklung. Es war nun an der Zeit für mich, genau diesen Moment des Unbehagens zu erleben, was dann nicht mehr so lange dauerte.

Vor etwa zwei bis drei Jahren lernte ich Sebastian im Schönbornpark während der Pandemie kennen. Zu dieser Zeit übte ich Handstände und arbeitete an meinem einarmigen Klimmzug, was im Park mit ein paar Ringen sehr gut funktioniert. Die Pandemie brachte zusätzlichen Stress mit sich, da sie sich in meinen ohnehin vollen Alltag aus Studium und Arbeit einschlich. Die Batterien wurden schnell leer, und ich entschied mich, mein Medizinstudium für ein Jahr zu pausieren, um mich selbst zu reflektieren, zu lernen und mich neu auszurichten.

Sebastians Dienstleistung ist ganzheitlich und das Hauptprinzip der körperlichen Aspekte kann in etwa so beschrieben werden: Beim body consulting geht es darum, das eigene Verständnis des Körpers mit einer Bewegungsintention, mit der tatsächlich produzierten Antwort des Körpers in Deckungsgleichheit zu bringen. In einfachen Worten ausgedrückt bedeutet dies: Ich möchte meinen Bizeps anspannen, also spanne ich meinen Bizeps an und es spannt sich mein Bizeps an. Jeder, der schon mal Curls gemacht hat und dabei nur Unterarme gespürt hat, wird verstehen, wieso das überhaupt von Bedeutung ist. Es ist eben dieser Prozess des permanenten Hinterfragens: „Was mache ich? Was passiert?“ Dieser ist völlig kontextunabhängig und ähnelt eher dem Ausfüllen einer weißen mentalen Karte deines Körpers mit Tinte als dem Erlernen einer speziellen Technik.

Die wichtigsten Lektionen, die ich aus meiner Zeit mit Sebastian gelernt habe, sind die folgenden:

1. Präzise Beobachtung:
   Dank Sebastian habe ich meine Fähigkeit, noch genauer hinzuschauen, erheblich verbessert. Wenn der Bizeps wenig arbeitet und stattdessen der Unterarm beansprucht wird, kann ich das jetzt leichter und schneller erkennen und präzise kommunizieren. Dieses Prinzip lässt sich auf alle Bewegungen des Körpers übertragen. Dank seines tiefen anatomischen Wissens verlief unser Austausch äußerst effizient. Diese professionelle Detailtiefe schätze ich sehr an Sebastian.
2. Wertungsfreie Kommunikation:
   Kommunizieren, ohne zu urteilen oder zu verurteilen, ist ein Prinzip, das ich zwar schon oft auf Seminaren gehört habe, doch Sebastian lebt es. In unseren Trainingseinheiten gab es Momente, in denen mir sehr deutlich bewusst wurde, dass mir simple Dinge nicht aufgefallen waren und ich mir die Frage stellte, wieso ich dies nicht bereits früher gelernt hatte. Ein persönliches Beispiel für mich war die Ansteuerung des oberen Rückens. Ein Bereich, der für mich eine Blackbox war. Dank Sebastians Anleitung konnte ich eben nicht nur mein faktisches Wissen vertiefen, sondern auch die Kontrolle und Wahrnehmung über und das Gefühl für diese Muskelstruktur erlangen. Dieser Prozess der Bewußtwerdung war für mich äußerst befriedigend, da es sich anfühlte, als ob man einen neuen Teil des eigenen Körpers „freigeschalten“ hat. Sebastians wertungsfreie Art schaffte den Raum, dass dieser Reflexionsprozess überhaupt möglich war.
3. Ganzheitliche Betrachtung:
   Ich erkannte bald, dass es in unseren Sitzungen nicht nur um den Körper ging, sondern um unsere gesamte Existenz. Die Gespräche mit Sebastian halfen mir, meine Identität, meine Rollen und meine Vorstellungen über das Leben, die Gesellschaft, Familie, Freunde und vieles mehr zu hinterfragen. Vieles, was ich früher als belastend empfand, bewältige ich heute gelassener und effektiver.

Alles in allem war und ist die Zeit mit Sebastian äußerst bereichernd. Als Personaltrainer gehört es für mich zu meiner Professionalität, einen externen Blick auf meine Arbeit werfen zu lassen und Feedback für meine Prozesse einzuholen. Die Arbeit mit meinen Kunden hat sich durch seine Supervision in ihrer Qualität deutlich verbessert. Darüber hinaus hat seine Supervision mich darin unterstützt, mich im Ganzen zu hinterfragen und mich als Mensch neu zu definieren. Durch die Zusammenarbeit mit Sebastian hat sich meine Haltung zu Coaching und Beratung so erweitert, dass ich nun auch in anderen Lebensbereichen wie Finanzen, Unternehmensentwicklung und Psychologie Sparringspartner für den Gedankenaustausch und die Umsetzung konsultiere. Dafür und für deine Unterstützung danke ich dir.

Constantin Pätzold
Wien 25.09.23

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Life changing.

I was walking around in chronic pain on and off from old injuries for years not being able to perform basic movements. I had tried many different methods and had seen physiotherapists but nothing seemed to have worked. After fatefully crossing paths with Sebastian I’m now able to move and practice pain free again. His joint articulation methods are fantastic and very simple to understand, but most importantly, effective with long term changes.

I can’t thank him enough for his help.

Being able to move, practice and run ‘gently’ again pain free is truly liberating. I also forgot to mention the brilliant protocols I received for hitting athletic goals like muscle ups on the gymnastic rings! His methods work. They are outstanding.

highland-strength.co.uk

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Photo taken by Christine Miess.

My name is Cat Jimenez, I am a choreographer and artistic director and had the pleasure of having Sebastian as a body consultant for the cast in our dance production “losing face”.

Sebastian, in particular, had the challenge of dealing with three completely different people, one after the other, during our rehearsal period. A liberated dancer is a paragon of creativity and contagious energy. Dancers are usually left alone when it comes to physical and mental problems, while they are expected to perform at an athletic level “with a lot of meaning behind it” – which our dancers can do without question, but it leaves people who eventually burn out physically and mentally.

Experiencing the very caring and undogmatic approach of Sebastian, who is also a great listener, was a great relief to me in this process. His work goes far beyond tools and exercises, rather it is about recalibrating our perception of our body and thus our approach to it, taking into account all the other aspects “in a person’s life” that lead to feeling seen. Et Voilà, a liberated dancer appears, one by one … and yes, this is probably a very simplified translation of the magic he performs 🙂

In addition to working with the dancers, Sebastian and I regularly shared ideas about how to curate the space and navigate through the process – which helped me to amplify my creativity and ultimately be carried by the work we were all molding together. This was evident in the deep trust within the team and the good vibes that even extended to the entire theater team and spilled over to the audience.

Sebastian was definitely a key figure in creating the culture within our production. His ability to observe and understand the needs of a process, situation, person or project leaves me in no doubt that he and his way of working are a great asset to anyone who wants to engage with their body at the next level. You will see for yourself.

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This process should regularly or situationally be engaged with. Make it a point to dedicate time to pick a particular area or structure of your body and investigate what and how you can use it. Sometimes you will find that you stumble upon some grey areas of your own structure while you train or play. Whether your learn about unknown territory accidentally or through conscious exploration does not matter. What matters is that you at first acknowledge and accept that there are unknown parts. Once discovered make sure to thoroughly investigate them.

After investigating we then have to learn how to apply the newly discovered. So we should integrate it into our training. And this step closes the ever self-feeding circle of training-play-exploration.

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This is the process of physically engaging in situations where a certain objective forms an overarching goal. The rules of conduct are laid out and usually certain behaviours and patterns are forbidden. Since behaviours and patterns are not strictly defined, in play we encounter multiple unpredictable variables.

Process: Allowing subconscious abilities to surface through subjecting ourselves to chaotic circumstances in which we drop or are forced to drop our “prior knowledge” about our bodies. The chaos needs to be moderate! Too much chaos doesn’t allow for reacquiring subconscious abilities.

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This is the process of learning and improving any chosen quality. The more precisely we can describe, formulate and define what it is that we want to work on the better we can estimate and judge progress. Training and practice always has to be the most controlled and most precise process. Another way to think of it is that one exposes oneself to a stressor where almost all external none controllable variables have been removed.

Note that by exposing oneself only to such circumstances can one develop a certain amount of physical qualities.

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Structural understanding points to something subtle yet substantial. It is more than knowing your physical body and more than experiencing it, it rather is both of them unified. All the techniques used in Body Consulting aim to improve and shape Structural Understanding.

The more refined our Structural Understanding becomes the more we begin to enjoy the experience of our physicality. In practice we test and explore Structural Understanding by „asking“ physical question? Where is power generated from? How is that power being translate and what are the pathways available, and how suitable are they for a given context etc.

Structural Understanding not only looks at our physical structure isolated but questions and investigates how we engage ourselves with outside tasks structures and objects. Querying different scenarios highlights our processing and therefore helps us comprehend our current level of structural understanding.

Confused yet even more interested?
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Force Transmission much like Force Flow is continuously happening to our physical structure. Our skeleton is constantly transmitting force. We hone in on joints as particular junction points where force has to be negotiated from one bone to another.

In practice we explore the anatomy, the geometry and the trajectories of the junction point in question. We investigate the experience of a given joint in motion and then reshape it such that the articulation becomes more coherent and smooth. We not only understand how the joints travel according to their structure but we also experience how that changes the quality of any motion.

The power of becoming conscious and sharpening your joint images can relief pain immediately, increase muscular activity and lead to a more enjoyable physical experience in general.

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On Earth our bodies are constantly being accelerated and we are subject to an ever present flow of force. Our skeleton is the primary structure of force transmission and we not only need to be aware of that fact, but we also want to recognize this flow through our bones.

In practice we investigate and learn how the force has to flow through our bones. In any given posture one or multiple parts of our body are directly or indirectly in contact with the ground and the force flow always has to arrive at the ground. Properly recognizing how force is traveling from one bone to another is a foundation that will enable us to use our muscular system more effectively.

The skeleton and the flow of force take centre stage in the Body Consulting process because it directly engages the physical reality our bodies are operating in.

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Perceiving our physical structure and decoding our perceptions is one of the keys to improving not just our relationship to the body but also how we deploy it. Deciphering the sensations within adequately empowers us to make instantaneous changes and allows us to directly create a new physical experience.

In practice we inquire what you perceive. Everyone I ever worked with will confirm that the question „how does it feel?“ is ever present. We zoom into your sensations and try to formulate them as precisely as possible. The more resonant our formulations become the better we can then interact with and transform our perceptions.

Internal perception is not something we speak into existence it is already there we only have to bring it to the forefront. In the Body Consulting process we consider it to be a fundamental piece to unlocking our bodies potential.

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Visualization refers to the ability to envision your body, its parts, and their relation to each other whilst moving and posturing. The more accurately we can envision our physical structure the smoother we can deploy it and enjoy our physical experience.

In practice, we explore the geometry of the body, rotational axis, points of rotation and joint trajectories and depth points. All the aforementioned terms are powerful abstractions that will allow your body to unfold more coherently when wielded properly.

Honing and refining the skill of visualization requires us to engage our imagination and concentration but also invites us test and practice how our physical experience changes as we apply different images to our intentions of mobilizing and posturing the body.

The value of intertwining the body’s geometry with our ability of imagining and playing with it in our mind’s is incredibly potent in altering and improving our physical experience.

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What is the theory and the concept behind the body map and how do we apply it practically?

The body map is a crucial component in posturing and mobilizing the body. It refers to the virtual representation of your own individual physical structure in your mind. Whenever we want to mobilize or posture our body our intention has to take form through our body map in order to translated and executed in our physical reality.

In practice, we first investigate which parts, more specifically which joints and bones of your body map are not accurately depicted. Be it their location, dimensionality, or both. We address those grey areas in many different ways in such a way that we establish sensory awareness in the region first.

It is central to the mapping process to create an experiential understanding of your individual physical structure – „experiential“ being the keyword here. Knowing how the skeleton looks, in general, does not help in refining and completing the body map. We have to individualize the general structure of the skeleton experientially in such a way that you begin to appreciate its central role in deploying the body.

The skeleton its points of rotation and the geometry of joint trajectories is the foundational layer we dive into first before adding other layers. The more precise our body map becomes the more frictionless and enjoyable our physical experience becomes.

Curious to learn more?
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As a training partner and student, being a trainer myself, I am really thankful for the constant exchange with Sebastian.

My own training and my personal understanding of the functioning of my own body has fundamentally changed since we started working together.

The depth of his anatomical knowledge, especially in application and his ability to translate it in such a way that it becomes experienceable is outstanding.

Even though his approach is unconventional it has undeniably been thoroughly thought through from beginning to end and presents a coherent logic.

My personal consulting experience was centered on the squat and it is perhaps the best way to explain the uniqueness of Sebastian’s approach.

His inputs and queues about breathing, tension, joint positions, focal points and movement initiation directly translate into the actual physical experience.

Since Sebastian’s way of working with the body is foundational and undogmatic, I am certain he can help everyone – from top level athletes to inexperienced elders.

www.mehrspielraum.net

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