Skillful Scapulas Make Graceful Arms and Hands (Patrons)

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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.

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  • Comfort & Configuration
  • Curiosities
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  • 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 Patron Treasures, 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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5 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
  2. Rebecca Rogot on December 4, 2024 at 10:03 am

    Hi,
    I was having acute issues with my neck on the left side but chronic left shoulder strain (mostly in the deltoid) . I wanted to see if this lesson would help. I can’t wait to see how it develops through the day (and possibly longer) but immediately I feel a calmness to the pain. So thank you!
    I will say though the last ten minutes was quite confusing and I felt a little rushed after standing. I’m not sure I did this lesson very well.

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on December 4, 2024 at 1:34 pm

      It’s ok to be confused, it’s a necessary part of learning! Someone wiser than I am once said “confusion is when we fuse the old with the new.” Perhaps explore the lesson again sometime later (after at least a day or two), and if you get confused, pause the recording and play a bit more on your own with the current ATM ingredients.

      Reply
  3. Sara on May 28, 2025 at 2:36 am

    I noticed how more effective use of my scapulae takes a lot of effort away from my neck vertebrae and musculature. So fascinating to explore movement this deeply.

    Reply
  4. Simon Wacker on September 14, 2025 at 9:06 am

    Today I couldn’t sense the connection between feet and scapulae. Both organizations seemed equally okay. This sparks my curiosity. I wonder how it was last time. I’m looking forward to return again — hopefully with more inner quiet and sensitivity.

    Reply

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