The Lamprey Lesson: Your Primordial Spine (Patrons)

Lampreys are jawless prehistoric fish that have existed largely unchanged for 360 million years. These "living fossils" show us how the simplest vertebrates function. Discover how side-to-side, fish-like spinal actions propel our extremities, and how this dimension of spinal awareness and integration benefits balance, walking...and everything else we do. Special attention is given to the integration of the pelvis, shoulders, and cervical arch (neck spine).

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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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!

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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.

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Tip 4 – Padding

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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 – Pause the recording

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We offer over 50 free lessons, but this one's just for Patrons. You can learn about it in the free lesson notes and comments below. To access the audio, join The FP at the Patron level. Learn more

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This lesson benefits from a low friction environment. You’ll frequently slide parts of yourself on the ground. Consider your mat/socks/clothing accordingly.

It also benefits from using the minimum comfortable head support you require. If you do need something under your head be sure it is smooth and level, so your head can easily slide on it.

The physical challenge gets a little greater at the end of this lesson. As always, explore small, slow, gentle movements, with the emphasis on sensing, not doing. It’s an important lesson that will be very beneficial if you remember it’s not about how big the movements are, or how many you do.

Don’t rush. Feel free to pause the recording any time to play with any variations you’re curious about, or to rest.

On a second listening you might place even more focus on acting from your spine, from the beginning. You could also reverse rights and lefts for the first half or so of the lesson, in order to distribute the emphases and images a little differently.

See the Source tab for info about how I developed this lesson. There’s one major element I usually add to Lamprey teachings which this intricate version didn’t allow time for: explorations of your primary spinal bias. For all vertebrates, the two sides of our spine gather into action with a different facility. This difference is intrinsic to all motor organization.

You’ll notice this as you explore. Don’t expect or force symmetry, just do what you can on each side in pleasure, while breathing easily.

A primary spinal bias investigation can be found together with a very abbreviated version of this lesson in Your Primary Spinal Bias + Short Lamprey Lesson (32m, Patrons). It can be studied before or after this lesson.

On another note, one student commented after class that she was surprised to find her spinal rotation had improved in this almost 100% side-bending lesson. Why? Improving any function enables others. Many Feldenkrais lessons focus on rotation (turning and twisting), or flexion and extension. This lesson zeroes in on the “hidden” third dimension of spinal function: side-bending. It is often highly inhibited by our modern lives, so improving it yields benefits and freedoms that are wide-ranging and surprising.

This lesson is found in Patron Treasures, our collection of lessons exclusively for Feldenkrais Project Patron-level donors.

It was recorded in The FP Weekly Pay-What-You-Can Class on August 26, 2025, then edited to improve flow, clarity, and audio quality.

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1 Comment

  1. Brigitte Flick on February 22, 2026 at 11:15 am

    What a wonderful lesson. I feel like a standing lamprey – so flexible and feeling free. Thank you

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