Difficulty: Average Challenge
65m
Walking with Your Sternum (Patrons)
Back-lying, often knees bent. Learn how preparatory movements for taking a step involve the whole self. Sense and explore movements of the sternum, both as a reference and a challenge to expand the self-image of walking. Arms lengthening and sweeping in many directions encourages suppleness of the chest and awareness of the sternum, and helps integrate the arms with movements of the pelvis, hips, and walking.
61m
Nodding into Lengthening the Heels (Patrons)
Back-lying, often one or both knees bent, exploring relationships of "nodding" parts of ourselves in the sagittal (up/down) plane, including head, pelvis, one foot, and two feet, to better organize the full unfolding of the legs and send our heels into the world, a function essential for clear skeletal support while standing or walking.
62m
Connecting the Legs and Chest (Patrons)
Mostly side-lying, exploring relationships of the head, spine, chest, and pelvis with a riddle: how do we actually lengthen a leg? Designed to bring awareness and improvement to an action we need for every step we take in the world, this lesson uses breath, foundation forces, and "hinging" at the feet and knees to connect our image of leg lengthening with our whole self, especially the chest.
59m
Basic Arching and Folding (Patrons)
Front-lying, improving the organization of the extensor muscles of the back and distributing their efforts. Learning to lift the head and one arm – and later, one leg – away from the ground together. Integrating the eyes with these arching movements. Alternates with back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, basic folding (flexion) movements, as the brain is always coordinating the major flexors and extensors of the body with each other.
57m
Folding, Arching, and Rolling (Patrons)
Mostly side-lying. Refining our awareness and skill for the many ways we can gather the front of the body together (folding) and also lengthen it (arching), including very fine work with the spine, sternum (breastbone), and shoulders. Integration of breathing with these ideas. Experiments at the end of the lesson turn these primary functions into rolling.
62m
Simple Twisting
Back-lying, often both knees bent. Tipping crossed legs and eventually "triangle arms" to gently twist, turn, and roll the body, in order to learn more awareness, control, and coordination of the major flexor and extensor muscles of the torso.
63m
Fundamentals of a Healthy Back (workshop lesson)
Back-lying, often knees bent, sometimes legs crossed, tilting. Clarifying our image of the "five curves" of the axial skeleton in action: the traditional three (lumbar, thoracic, and cervical spine), plus the sacrum/tailbone and the skull. Learning to sense functions and efforts through all five curves, including breathing. See the Context tab if you wish to go on to the next lesson in the workshop.
59m
Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Floor Practice
Mostly back-lying. Begins and ends in floor-seated. With explorations and benefits for all sitting situations, this lesson uses imagery of being in the driver's seat to promote lively, dynamic sitting and turning while negotiating the challenge of a typical "bucket" car seat. Postural expressions of rounding and arching are clarified, then used to improve the range, comfort, and awareness of whole body turning movements.
60m
The Hip Joints: Moving Proximal Around Distal
Back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, often one leg resting out to the side on a pillow. Learning to move the whole self (proximal) in relationship to a quietly resting limb (distal), often using pelvic clock movements. This reversal of the typical image we have of moving a limb creates a novel learning environment within the self, with benefits for the legs, hips, back, and our overall organization. Sitting on the floor at the beginning and end of the lesson is used to help identify some of the changes that take place.
62m
Rolling to Sitting, and Beyond
How do we get off the floor? This lesson explores the path from lying on your back to sitting up, and getting back down again, organizing the torso and limbs towards a smoother, simpler, more pleasurable transition. These movements are also powerful organizers for improving upright posture.