Moshe Feldenkrais: The Life Behind the Feldenkrais® Method

The Feldenkrais Method® carries one man's name, and his life explains a great deal about why the lessons feel the way they do. Moshe Feldenkrais was a physicist who taught judo, an engineer who turned down knee surgery, and a teacher who spent his last thirty years working out how people learn to move. I have taught his method for years, and I still find that a short, accurate account of who he was helps people make sense of what they are doing on the floor.

This page is that account. It sticks to what the public record and the International Feldenkrais Federation's own short biography support, and it leaves out the legends.

Who was Moshe Feldenkrais? The short version

Moshe Feldenkrais was born on 6 May 1904 in Slavuta, a small town then in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine. In 1918, aged fourteen, he emigrated to Palestine, then under British rule. He worked as a labourer, studied at night, and finished his high school diploma in 1925.

From there he went to Paris. He earned an engineering degree, then a doctorate in physics at the University of Paris, the Sorbonne, where Marie Curie was one of his teachers. He worked as a research assistant to Frédéric Joliot-Curie, the nuclear chemist and Nobel laureate, at the Radium Institute. The two men also met on the mat. Joliot-Curie and his wife Irène took judo lessons from Feldenkrais during their years at the institute.

Judo ran alongside the physics the whole way. In 1933 he met Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, in Paris. He earned his black belt in 1936, one of the first Europeans to do so, and his second degree in 1938. He was one of the founding members of the Ju-Jitsu Club de France, which still exists, and he wrote books on judo before he wrote anything about his own method.

The knee that changed everything

The story of the method starts with an injury. Feldenkrais hurt his knee playing football in 1929. It troubled him for years and flared badly again during the war. The surgeons could not promise much, and he declined an operation. Instead he did what a physicist and a judo teacher might be expected to do. He watched himself. He studied how he walked, how he stood, and how the rest of him organised itself around a knee that could not be trusted.

By then he was in Britain. He had fled France in 1940 as the German army advanced, and until 1946 he worked as a science officer for the Admiralty on anti submarine weaponry in Scotland. Alongside that work he kept returning to the knee, and to the bigger question behind it: how does a person learn a new way of moving when the old way hurts? His first book on the subject, Body and Mature Behavior, was published in 1949.

Tel Aviv, two kinds of lesson, and the teachers he trained

Feldenkrais returned to Israel in 1951. He directed the army's electronics department for a few years, then in 1954 settled in Tel Aviv and began teaching his method full time. He kept doing so for the rest of his life.

Two formats took shape in those Tel Aviv years. In Awareness Through Movement® lessons, he spoke to a group, guiding them through slow, small movements while they paid attention to what they felt. In Functional Integration® lessons, he worked with one person at a time, using his hands to guide movement rather than words. Our explainers on what Awareness Through Movement is and what Functional Integration is describe each format in plain language.

He trained his first group of thirteen teachers in Tel Aviv between 1969 and 1971. Over four summers, from 1975 to 1978, he trained sixty five more in San Francisco. In 1980, 235 students began his summer training at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He fell ill in the autumn of 1981, after teaching two of the planned four summers, and stopped teaching in public. He died in Tel Aviv on 1 July 1984, aged eighty.

Moshe Feldenkrais books, and where to start

He wrote more than most people realise. The ones you are most likely to find today:

• Body and Mature Behavior (1949). His first book on the method. Dense and theoretical, written with a scientific reader in mind.
• Awareness Through Movement (1972). The one most people start with, and the clearest statement of his ideas for a general reader.
• The Case of Nora (1977).
• The Elusive Obvious (1981). Published late in his life.
• The Potent Self (1985). Published the year after his death.

Alongside these he kept writing about judo, including a book simply titled Judo in 1944 and a volume on judo groundwork in 1952.

If you want to read one, read Awareness Through Movement. But hold it lightly. He taught by voice, in a room, with people lying on the floor and trying things. A book can carry the ideas. It cannot quite carry the lesson.

Why his ideas still matter at home

Here is what I see in my own work. Most people arrive thinking that moving better means trying harder: a stronger core, a straighter back, a deeper bend. Feldenkrais took the opposite view, and his life explains why. He was a judo teacher, and judo rewards the person who uses the least effort. He was a physicist, and he noticed that you can only sense a small change when the background effort is low. So his lessons ask for less. Smaller movements, done slowly, with attention on what you feel rather than on how far you get.

That approach suits a living room. There is no equipment, no mirror, no pose to copy. Because he taught by speaking, a recorded voice can lead the same kind of lesson today. If you have never tried one, our somatic exercises for beginners page is a short, guided way to find out what his ideas feel like in your own body.

The research base is still young, and it is fair to say so. A systematic review in 2015 gathered 20 randomized controlled trials of the method and judged the evidence promising for functions such as balance, with no adverse events reported, while also rating the risk of bias across those trials as high (Hillier & Worley, 2015). That is encouraging rather than conclusive, and it matches what the method claims to be: a way of learning, not a cure.

Feldy, the online movement program I built, carries his lessons in the form he taught them: spoken, slow, and small. You can see how it works for body awareness and try it free for 7 days.

What this page does not claim

Feldenkrais was a scientist, and he would have wanted the limits stated. His method is a way of learning about your own movement. It is not medical care and it does not replace it. Physiotherapy, medicine and other clinical care sit alongside a lesson, never behind it. Other movement methods take their own roads: the Alexander Technique, yoga, Pilates and tai chi each rest on a different mechanism, with strengths of their own. Our Feldypedia entry on the Feldenkrais Method sets out what the method is, what the research does and does not show, and who it tends to suit. For a plain list of what people report from the lessons, see our page on the benefits of Feldenkrais.

Find where to start

Feldenkrais is one of several gentle movement methods, and the best one for you depends on how you like to learn. Some people want a teacher's hands, some want a flowing sequence, and some want a quiet voice and the floor.

Not sure which movement method fits you? Take the 60 second Movement Match quiz. It asks a few short questions, then suggests the method that suits the way you learn best.

Common Questions about Moshe Feldenkrais (FAQ)

Who was Moshe Feldenkrais?

Moshe Feldenkrais was a physicist, engineer and judo black belt, born in 1904 in what is now Ukraine. He died in Tel Aviv in 1984. After a knee injury he began studying how he moved, and over thirty years in Tel Aviv he turned that study into the Feldenkrais Method, taught through spoken group lessons and hands on individual lessons.

What did Moshe Feldenkrais do before he created his method?

He worked as a labourer in Palestine as a teenager, then studied engineering and physics in Paris, earning a doctorate at the University of Paris. He was a research assistant to Frédéric Joliot-Curie at the Radium Institute. At the same time he taught judo, earned his black belt in 1936 as one of the first Europeans to do so, and helped found the Ju-Jitsu Club de France.

How did a knee injury lead to the Feldenkrais Method?

He injured his knee playing football in 1929, and it flared again during the war years. Surgery offered uncertain results, so he declined it and studied his own walking and standing instead. The questions that raised, about how a person learns to move differently, became his life's work and his first book on the subject in 1949.

What are the best Moshe Feldenkrais books to start with?

Awareness Through Movement, published in 1972, is the usual first book, because it sets out his ideas for a general reader. Body and Mature Behavior from 1949 is his first and most theoretical. The Elusive Obvious came in 1981 and The Potent Self in 1985, the year after he died. Reading helps, but a spoken lesson is still the simplest way in.

Is the Feldenkrais Method safe, and who should check with a doctor first?

Lessons use small, slow movements within an easy range, so most people can do them. If you have a recent injury, recent surgery, osteoporosis, a heart condition, or pain that is new or getting worse, talk with your doctor first and tell them what the lessons involve. Stop any movement that sharpens pain. The method is a form of education that sits alongside medical care, never instead of it.

How often should I do Feldenkrais lessons at home?

Little and often tends to work better than long sessions now and then. Many people settle on a short lesson most days, or three or four a week, with rests inside each lesson. The lessons work through repetition and curiosity rather than effort, so a tired body is a reason to go slower, not a reason to skip.

How long until I notice something from Feldenkrais lessons?

Many people feel a difference in how they lie or stand right after a first lesson, such as one side resting more fully on the floor. Lasting changes in how you move day to day usually build over weeks of regular lessons. Nobody can promise a particular result, and the research base is still developing.

How is the Feldenkrais Method different from the Alexander Technique?

Both grew from one person's study of his own movement, and both value attention over force. The Alexander Technique usually works through a teacher's hands and verbal cues during everyday actions such as sitting and standing. Feldenkrais lessons more often happen lying on the floor, led by voice, with many small variations of a movement. They take different roads, and each has its own strengths.

What should I avoid when starting Feldenkrais lessons at home?

Avoid pushing a movement to its end range or holding it there, which is the opposite of what the lessons ask. Avoid treating a lesson as a workout to get through. Avoid a lesson on a day when something hurts sharply or is newly injured; rest and seek advice instead. And avoid comparing your range with anyone else's, since the lesson is about what you can sense, not how far you can go.

Is Feldenkrais a medical treatment?

No. The method is taught as a form of learning, not treatment. It is not a treatment for any disease and it does not replace a doctor, physiotherapist or other clinician. See a professional for pain that is new, severe, or getting worse, and bring lessons in alongside that care.

He was eighty when he died, and he had spent the second half of his life on a single question: how do we learn to move with less effort and more sense of ourselves? The lessons are his answer. They are still waiting on the floor for anyone who wants to try them.