Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

Dr. Feldenkrais (1904-84) was an ingenious physicist, engineer and martial artist. He was originally from Russia and immigrated to Israel around the age of 13. He studied at the Sorbonne in France and later worked in the physics lab of Nobel Prizewinner Joilet-Curie. He also founded the first Judo club in France. Feldenkrais suffered repeated knee injuries from soccer and judo, which became so bad that he couldn't walk without crippling pain.  

His doctors prescribed surgery, but with only a 50% chance of full recovery.
Feldenkrais declined surgery, and instead dedicated himself to the task of recovering his lost function. He applied his knowledge of mechanics and human movement to teach himself how to walk again without pain. He knew that all of his muscles and joints worked together as a connected system. He experimented with gently manipulating his joints, then studying the effects in walking. Eventually he learned how to improve his whole body coordination to ease the strain on his knees. Most importantly, Dr. Feldenkrais realized that becoming aware of what he was doing was the groundwork for being able to do what he wanted - walk comfortably. Feldenkrais spent the rest of his life developing his new method of movement education, and helped thousands of people with a wide variety of challenges. His work is carried on today by practitioners who have completed a four-year Feldenkrais Professional Training Program.