Connecting Arms and Legs

Recorded live in a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) class, the lesson below is copyright Nick Strauss-Klein, for personal use only. This and all our audio lessons are 100% donor-supported. Before you begin, read this first for practical tips and your responsibilities, and check out Comfort & Configuration below. Click the other lesson note tabs if you’re curious.

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Side-lying, integrating movements of the arms, shoulders, head, and torso as you learn to sense and hinge bodyweight in relation to the ground, and between the knees and feet. A great place to start if you can't lie on your back comfortably.

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Study tip: Directions are always relative to your body. For example, if you’re lying on your back “up” is toward your head, and “forward” is toward the ceiling.

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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.

Study tip: Interrupted or don’t have enough time? You can return to the lesson later today or tomorrow. Read how best to continue your learning on our FAQ page.

Study tip: If you’re really enjoying a movement and want to explore longer, or you just need a break for a while, pause the recording!

Study tip: Many instructions are repeated. If you get a little lost, rest and listen. You’ll often find your way. If you need it, use the 10 seconds back button.

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Study tip: Comfort first! Carpeted floors usually work well, but it’s great to have an extra mat or blanket nearby in case you need a softer surface in some configurations.

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.

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.

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.

Study tip: Wear loose, comfortable clothes that are warm enough for quiet movement. Remove or avoid anything restrictive like belts or glasses.

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Comfort & Configuration
Curiosities
Context
Download
Source
Related Lessons

This lesson begins in standing.
For all lessons, especially side-lying ones, it’s helpful to have a large bath towel nearby to fold as desired for head support. Not everyone needs it, but most people do.
Take the time you need as you get into each new configuration to make the folded towel height an amount that’s comfortable in that position. Usually your back-lying head support will be less than what you want for side-lying.
Also for side-lying, make sure the surface you’re lying on is soft enough for your hips and shoulders to be comfortable as you shift and roll your body forward and backward.

Later in this lesson we begin using a strategy of leveraging the body against the floor, “moving” parts that can’t move because they’re on the floor, in order to propel the rest of ourselves. This fascinating concept comes out of Moshe Feldenkrais’s martial arts background, where he trained to be tremendously efficient using his body in combination with the support surface, in order to nearly effortlessly throw his Judo opponents. He later discovered that we can use the same concept in the quiet, ordinary movements of everyday life and reduce effort and strain.

This lesson is found in the Standing, Walking, and Running lesson collection.

Like most of our lessons, this one can be studied out of context, but you may find additional learning value by approaching it in the order of the collection it’s in.

The lesson referenced “last week” was Activating the Arches.

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to download this lesson’s MP3 file.

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to view Nick’s comments about sources he used while developing this lesson.

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to view related lesson titles and links.

Comfort & Configuration

This lesson begins in standing.
For all lessons, especially side-lying ones, it’s helpful to have a large bath towel nearby to fold as desired for head support. Not everyone needs it, but most people do.
Take the time you need as you get into each new configuration to make the folded towel height an amount that’s comfortable in that position. Usually your back-lying head support will be less than what you want for side-lying.
Also for side-lying, make sure the surface you’re lying on is soft enough for your hips and shoulders to be comfortable as you shift and roll your body forward and backward.

Curiosities

Context

This lesson is found in the Standing, Walking, and Running lesson collection.

Like most of our lessons, this one can be studied out of context, but you may find additional learning value by approaching it in the order of the collection it’s in.

The lesson referenced “last week” was Activating the Arches.

Download

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to download this lesson’s MP3 file.

Source

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to view Nick’s comments about sources he used while developing this lesson.

Related Lessons

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to view related lesson titles and links.

We all thrive when more people are doing more Feldenkrais. Please share this resource!

4 Comments. Leave new

Mike
April 25, 2018 6:24 am

Just wanted to say thanks again and keep up the wonderful work. I was just working on the ‘integrating the legs’ session, and the recording, like so many others of yours, is so in tune with the struggles and sensations one has in doing the exercises, that even without being visually or actually present, it’s like being in a real ATM class! And the benefits have been outstanding. Much appreciated.

Reply
- Nick Strauss-Klein
  April 25, 2018 9:19 am
  
  This is music to my ears — great reassurance that I’m doing what I intend to do! So glad you’re finding value, and thanks also for the donation!
  
  Reply
Shan
November 2, 2019 3:06 am

I really reiterate what Mike said, above. I love your work, Nick! I appreciate the depth of understanding you have of the Fkrs method, and your guidance in the ATMs. I’ve been doing lessons with various (good!) people, for over 30 years, and i am finding LOTS new in my body from your lessons. (I am 69, have had 2 hip replacements, and basically function pretty well for my age. I ride my horse at a professional level 5 times a week.) Some bits of me want to stiffen up, but these lessons are helping me improve my function, even at my advanced age. I know i’m improving, because “my horse is my mirror” (to use a phrase that has been used before!), and the better i sit and differentiate my body, the smoother and more “beautifully” my mare moves!

Reply
- Nick Strauss-Klein
  November 4, 2019 9:51 am
  
  This is all so lovely to hear – thanks for sharing your experience! “My horse is my mirror” is somehow a line I haven’t picked up yet from all the equestrians I’ve had the privilege of working with, but I love it. It really summarizes the beautiful sensitivity I’ve experienced with them. Thanks for listening and please spread the word!
  
  Reply