Rib Basket, Shoulder Cloak (Patrons)

Framed by brief standing explorations of breathing and walking, this mostly back-lying lesson is designed to improve differentiation of the ribs and shoulders, and to improve their integration with functional movements of the arms, legs, hips, spine, and head. Uses a fascinating constraint of precisely relating the scapulas to the plane of the floor.

Average Challenge   back-lying 

57m
Save
Favorite
What's this?
Share

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.

Tip – what to wear

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

Browser/device size and audio player

Tech tip: On mobile or tablet? Once you start playing the audio, your device’s native playback controls should work well.

Tip – Rewinding

Study tip: Many instructions are repeated. If you get a little lost, rest and listen. You’ll often find your way. Or use the rewind button on the page or your mobile device.

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.

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

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!

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.

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 – Directions are Relative

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.

Tip – What’s New

Community tip: See what Nick and other Felden-fans are interested in right now. Check out What’s New at the bottom of our homepage for recent blog posts and listener comments.

Tip – Lesson names

What’s in a lesson title? Lessons are about an hour unless a shorter duration is shown in the title. Thanks to our donors they’re freely offered unless marked “Patrons” – those are how we thank our Patron-level donors.

Tip 2 – Social Sharing

Project tip: Try the social buttons below. Please help us to achieve our vision: spreading the life-changing benefits of Feldenkrais study as widely as possible!

Tip 4 – Padding

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.

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 – Technical Difficulties

Tech tip: If you have any trouble with the audio player, reboot your browser. That solves most issues. If not, try another browser or contact us.

Tip – Join!

Join the Project! Members and Patrons see streamlined lesson pages, and can access My Journey (the and above), and the Related Lessons tab below.

Tip – Comments

Project tip: Leave a lesson comment below! It’s a great way to give feedback or ask a question, and it helps google find us so we can achieve The Feldenkrais Project’s vision!

We offer over 50 free lessons, but this one's just for our Patron-level donors. You can learn about it in the free lesson notes and comments below, but to access the audio you’ll need to join The FP as a Patron. Learn more

If you are a Patron, please log in:

  • Comfort & Configuration
  • Context
  • Related Lessons
  • Source

This lesson benefits from a lower friction mat, so please avoid using a sticky yoga mat (for example). Throw a smooth blanket over it if that’s all you have.

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

It’s one of our only lessons that appears in three Deep Dive courses, because it benefits a lot of different functional contexts and learning contexts. They are: Shoulder Cloak, Rib Basket, Sliding Sternum and The Illusion of Isolation and Better Balance.

Audio was captured during a live Zoom class on June 30, 2020, then edited for flow and clarity.

Members and Patrons. Learn more or login:

Members and Patrons. Learn more or login:

Got a question for Nick, or a thought about this lesson?

Use the comments section below! Public comments build our community and help search engines find us.

horizontal-squiggle

6 Comments

  1. jean kirk on April 3, 2021 at 7:33 pm

    This is a great lesson. I learned more about being upright than I have from any other lesson. Jean Kirk

    Reply
  2. Joan Oliver Goldsmith on April 5, 2021 at 4:56 pm

    For me, sensing the weight of the elbows was really important in keeping the shoulder blade on the floor. Also, when lifting the left hip, the left lumbar region really wanted to tighten and protect. I wasn’t often successful in keeping it soft even though that felt much more pleasant.

    Reply
  3. Sara on January 14, 2024 at 12:02 pm

    I noticed I was using my entire rib cage to breath in the upright check-in at the end – a sense of three-dimensional expansion being possible. I plan to return to this and see if I can progress in keeping the shoulder blades truly in the up/down plane. Great session – thank you.

    Reply
  4. Frederik Theuwis on January 6, 2025 at 6:34 am

    This is my second time doing this lesson. I really like it as it frees my chest and upper back into a almost fluid vessel for breath and movement. Also, it deepens my interest in the clavicula-scapula region. Having had many shoulder injuries, it is an area of both interest and avoidance for me.
    What I see in doing this lesson again, is that there are really a lot of ways of moving the shoulder blades throughout this lesson itself. There appear more and more options of how they stay on the ground and how they move according to the suggestions, and where the initiative comes from. It quite surprised me how more diverse my second experience was than the first time. Still I see that I uncomfortably strain the sides of my torso, serratus anterior. It seems that they go from 30% contraction to 100% and may have to learn the subtle gradualness in between.

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on January 6, 2025 at 9:46 am

      Those are lovely details you caught the second time through. Thanks for describing for other users how the process of re-exploring lessons tends to go. It is always a new experience!

      I believe your 30-100% observation will indeed be very helpful to explore. Very small, slow, light movements, where you sense that you don’t have to go to 100%, will help you find more sensitivity and control.

      Reply
  5. Julie Turner on January 17, 2025 at 5:44 am

    There is something so beautiful and internally aesthetically pleasing about finding the space between the ribs and the shoulder blades. Every time I do this lesson I learn to feel that space more. Today I truly felt that the ribs and scapulas were in a dance together each responding in its unique way rather like the violins and cellos in an orchestra – in harmony but each with their own line of music. I finally have a shoulder cloak!
    Thanks Nick – I love this lesson

    Reply

Leave a Comment