Buttocks Organizing the Spine (Patrons)

Mostly front-lying. Exploring and integrating contractions of the buttocks with different movements and configurations of the axis (pelvis, spine, and head).

58m

Before you begin read this for practical tips and your responsibilities, and check out Comfort & Configuration below.

Recorded live in a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) class, this lesson is copyright Nick Strauss-Klein, for personal use only.

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Tip – Complete the Movement

Study tip: Complete one movement before beginning the next. You’ll improve faster if there’s enough time between movements that you feel fully at rest.

Tip – LESSS is more

LESSS is more: Light, Easy, Small, Slow, & Smooth movements will ease pains and improve your underlying neuromuscular habits faster than any other kind of movement, no matter who you are or what your training is!

Tip – Rewinding

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Tip 5 – Discomfort

Study tip: If a configuration or movement causes any increase in discomfort, or you feel you just don’t want to do it, don’t! Make it smaller and slower, adapt it, or rest and imagine.

Tip 3 – Head Support

Study tip: It helps to have a large bath towel nearby when you start a lesson. You can fold it differently for comfortable head support in any configuration.

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Tip – skip a lesson

Study tip: If you can’t find a comfortable way to do the initial movements or configuration of a lesson, it’s ok to skip it for now and go on to another lesson.

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  • Comfort & Configuration
  • Context
  • Related Lessons
  • Source

If it helps for your comfort while lying on your front, please have a towel and/or small pillows available for support under a shoulder, or under your chest, your lower abdomen and hips, etc.

This lesson is found in Patrons Monthly, our collection of lessons exclusively for Feldenkrais Project Patron-level donors, with one or more new lessons added every month.

It can also be found in our Deep Dives called Free While Constrained and Supple Feet, Powerful Legs.

Members and Patrons. Learn more or login:

Members and Patrons. Learn more or login:

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4 Comments

  1. Judy on October 9, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    Thankyou for this and your other class on the buttocks which has made me feel stronger in walking. When lying on my stomach my heels naturally turn away from each other and the top of my feet and toes turn inwards. I find that clenching the buttocks seems to engage the arches of my feet which are inclined to cramp. Could you please suggest a class or another way of reducing the cramping of the feet?

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on October 11, 2020 at 5:38 pm

      The buttocks and the arches are definitely closely related. In the Related Lessons tab above you’ll find that Activating the Arches is a good lesson to explore this. Also try out Supple Ankles, Shifting Pelvis (32 minutes, Patrons). See the Related Lessons tabs in those lessons for more threads to follow. Length without Effort in our Getting Oriented collection may also be useful.

      Reply
  2. Judy on October 11, 2020 at 9:39 pm

    Thankyou so much Nick. Feldenkrais is truly miraculous and your teaching is wonderfully clear, kind and playful. I encourage everyone I know to explore the Feldenkrais Project.

    Reply
  3. Pam Merten on February 1, 2021 at 1:45 pm

    This lesson and all the lessons on the pelvic clock/navigational pelvis have helped me to manage Level 1 Spondylolisthesis. I am grateful for your work, Nick.

    Reply

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