Softening the Ribs
Lying on the back and sides, with some rolling transfers between, hands often on the lower ribs, learning to sense and soften the ribs, spine, and shoulder blades and integrate their movement with the pelvis and legs.
59m
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Excellent lesson and so clearly able to sense parts of myself better!
please Nick- add more lessons
thank u.
it was great ! very clear
Thank you very much. It was very clear and great.
Really great lesson – thank you so much Nick – so much more freedom in my shoulders and ribs.
Great lesson, Nick! I am struggling with shoulder pain, due to an injury from throwing a softball. This lesson helped release most of the tension surrounding the injury and better isolate the problem spot. It was really helpful! (Plus, as always, I just feel better overall after doing one of your lessons). Thanks!
Thanks so much Nick!! I enjoyed this and really appreciate your sharing and the site.
another great lesson to explore parts of our body that we easily forget about!
just done this close together with the Periscope after quite a few months.
really tremendous how many more layers and depths I found (having probably come across new ways elsewhere along the way.)
it is quite humbling somehow!!
thank you for conveying your teaching and insights with such care that one keeps discovering new connections…new ways.
The widening I feel in the back as I lift the elbows is such a a different way of moving for me.Very positive. My only issue when lifting both elbows, while I do feel the lower ribs making more contact, I find my chin lifting and neck arching which likely is not desirable as I want to feel length at back of neck. Suggestions? Thanks as always for these beautiful lessons.
It’s a very sophisticated movement, and (as always) not “wrong” to feel whatever you feel. That said, I personally resonate with that challenge in this lesson, and I recommend doing the movement with your elbows but attending primarily to the feeling in your neck, only going as far with the elbows (even if it’s not actually lifting them, but just lightening them) as you can enjoy witnessing the experience in your neck. I believe you will find more satisfaction and change that way. Next time you explore the lesson, try it that small, or smaller, and let me know how it goes!
This discussion was so interesting to me. I find both movements of my neck and chin i.e. arching or lengthening the back of my neck, while lifting my elbows fairly natural. So I spent some time exploring what I do that is different. Parts of my upper back have been, and sometimes still are fairly opaque to me and this lesson, and subsequent explorations made me much more aware of that part of my body and its potential for movement. So thank you Nick and Ursula for your thoughts.
Update: This issue is explored in-depth in our recent Deep Dive called Jaw, Neck, and Shoulders.
I’ve done MM5 [“The Master Moves”, lesson 5; it’s a book by Moshe Feldenkrais. -NSK] before, it’s still unclear to me if I should in rolling to the side, turn the wrists and then straighten both arms.
Regardless, thank you for these lessons. It either adds another layer of clarity or makes me rediscover the clarity that had slipped away from me.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, my intention is as you roll, over time, to see if you can learn to softly, safely turn the wrists and straighten your arms.
Thanks Nick! First time I’ve commented… I’ve really been enjoying your lessons. I am a practitioner and often cram by listening to a lesson of yours, take notes and teach it the following morning. With this one, I actually only did the first 37 minutes (sort of a lesson that stands on it’s own as you mention) and kind of worked on it for quite a while on my floor in the wee hours of the night, with a 5 year old finally asleep after a nightmare, and my husband out of town for a while. I made an “ending” to the lesson out of rolling to lie on the back from both the hand on the forehead and hand on the ribs, letting attendants choose the one they felt most clear about first, and then they did the other one, and then we checked the ease of the back lying lifting elbows. It worked out so well! Really beautiful lesson and enrichment. My class is all seniors with various injuries/limitations, so it was perfect to take an hour to do the first 36 minutes of your lesson. I added an extra check of back lying lifting elbows in there somewhere, too… Wow, now I feel like I’m commenting on a recipe I read online – “The recipe was fantastic! I didn’t have molasses so I used honey and added some walnuts since my husband likes them, and it turned out great!” Thank you for your wonderful teaching!
Ha! My wife and I always joke about online recipes that way, but the metaphor is great: you’re making what you need out of the material that’s presented! In someways this is a “big” lesson and it makes a lot of sense to me to do less of it more thoroughly. I love exploring and teaching lessons that are “small” in terms of what’s done, but rich in terms of “flavor” (continuing our metaphor…). Enjoy!
Thanks. That was rib-a-licious. I did feel changes in my intercostals. Beautiful.
Super lesson, beautifully taught. Thank you Nick. This is the 3rd time I´ve had a go at this one within two days. The lesson makes me feel more calm, secure, awake and definitely more aware of the fact that the ribs go all around and are shaped way differently than I had imagined. When I look at anatomical drawings of ribs, they often look almost horizontal, whereas I felt mine much more going downward from back to front. A confusing discovery. I think I have a long learned habit of holding my rib-basket flat …even on the inhale, and not allowing the ribs the freedom to expand as much as they could. Just for the sake of experimentation, I will keep doing this lesson for a few more days now and see what there is to discover:) I loved how at some point I started using my voice instinctively along with the movement. It happened by itself. Really pleasant.
Thank you. When I stood up at the end, I felt I was carrying my upper self more lightly, yet clearly, and the front of my chest, my neck, and my head felt more comfortably placed above the lower half of me. Also, when lying down, when I moved both elbows out while also lifting my head, I had a happy feeling of energy flowing through both arms and legs down into my fingertips and toes. It was a pleasant suprise. 7/2022