Skillful Scapulas Make Graceful Arms and Hands (Patrons)

In this mostly back-lying lesson you'll discover lighter, more graceful arms and hands as you learn to support and counter-balance their movements by skillfully engaging your scapulas. Later you'll integrate your pelvis and legs. This lesson has surprising benefits for posture and confidence, and improves everyday activities like cooking, typing, and playing an instrument.

Most Accessible  back-lying  standing 

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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 – 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 – 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 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 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 – 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!

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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 – 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!

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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.

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Tip 1 – Interrupted?

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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

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  • Comfort & Configuration
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  • Context
  • Related Lessons
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Once lying on your back, as you learn to lift and press your scapulas, keep your neck as relaxed as possible. Your head is free to shift if it wants to.

Explore these small movements gently and gradually enough to allow your breathing to be continuous, easy, and full.

After standing up at the end of the lesson, in addition to tracking the activity of your scapulas, you might play more games:

  • Does your sternum rise or fall as you lift your arm toward the horizon. Try both. What difference does it make?
  • Does your sternum turn a little toward or away from the arm that is rising? Sense the difference.
  • What happens if you think of sinking your weight down into your feet heavily, then lift your arm? What’s the difference if you have a lighter, lifted sense in your feet, heels, and legs as you lift your arm? (If you’ve done our Lifting Up and Through lessons you might play with the difference when you purposely integrate, and then don’t include, that sense.)

When you first come to familiar activities after this lesson, like holding your phone, typing on a computer, cooking, driving, a musical instrument, etc., lower your arms and lift them again a few times to the place where you will use them. Track the sensations and movements in your scapulas, back, sternum, pelvis, and feet. Even as you lower them, can you sense the engagement, if you don’t let them fall?

What sense or use of your shoulder blades might offer a little more grace and ease in your arms and hands? How often can you attend to these details as you go through your day?

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

This lesson was recorded in The FP Weekly Zoom class on March 12, 2024 then edited to improve flow, clarity, and sound quality in this permanent audio version.

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1 Comments

  1. Gabriele on September 17, 2024 at 1:26 am

    This lesson was just what I needed.
    I have been having discomfort in my thoracic back and ribcage when working at the kitchen bench. I knew it was something to do with the way I stood and used my arms, and I’ve been playing around trying to change my stance. After doing this lesson I did some cooking and found that I was so so much aware how my shoulder girdle and indeed my feet supported my arms in the forward position. I focussed on trying to keep this integration going and felt so much more at ease after my kitchen session. I will need to put this lesson on constant repeat until my nervous system understands what it needs to do to keep my body at ease. Cooking (which I love doing) never used to be a problem, but I feel that as I’ve aged my body has become less fluid and doesn’t “dance” as much with its movements.

    Reply

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