Lift your head, look around, and see what your legs do. And find out what they don’t need to do.
This is more or less Moshe’s SF Evening Classes, lesson 2, for those keeping track at home.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Tilting pelvis sitting: another recording
As we start the last 6-week series before my sabbatical, I am in the mood for coming back to the basics–with the fresh eyes I’ve developed and you’ve all developed from doing more Feldenkrais. And from living.
The title of this lesson talks about tilting the pelvis. There’s never one answer to the question “what is this movement?” but there’s a lot to be said for this as an exploration of the idea of how your back relates to your knees. And the surprising places that can take you.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Supporting the head (continuation)
Aka watching the butterflies flutter by. Enjoy this bonus lesson!
It’s AY 534, a continuation of AY 533. The idea that continues through the two lessons is finding the connection between turning your head (and your neck just so) so that everything follows…to your pelvis, to your knees, your feet.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On the stomach, training the back (part 1)
If this face-down lesson doesn’t add an inch or so to your height (subjectively, if not objectively), I’d be surprised.
For those keeping track at home, this is a slow build-up, more or less half of AY473, with some loose interpretation.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Getting to know the hip joints
Hmmm…thought I’d long ago recorded and posted this one. No! Somewhere between the low back and the knees, the hip joints play a major role in action. Here’s a powerful flashlight you can use to clarify this area in your self-image.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Face down, lift head with free spine
Lying face down, can your head wave from side to side like a reed in the wind? Where is your stable point connecting to the floor?
For those keeping track at home, this started out as AY 549, which for some reason has the title “lifting the pubic bone,” and then wandered considerably based on what was happening in the room. I’ll write something about that when I get a chance!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Extensors with a twist
Probably the most neglected function in modern life is extension–lifting the head to look up, reaching up to touch something overhead. We live in an environment carefully designed to obviate the need ever to do this. And every day we forget more and more what geniuses we were to be able to use our spines to lift a huge head with a tiny weak body.
This is a snow-day lesson posted slightly out of order! It’s based on Esalen 2: http://feldynotebook.com/lifting-head-legs-arms
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Slow lifting on stomach
Feldenkrais had a general idea about “efficient action”–that you would use all the musculature proportionately to its mass/size. More work in the large, central (proximal) muscles, light refinement from the distal muscles. This lesson explores that fundamental idea.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Looking over shoulder
I do apologize for the crackling. You can skip this if sound quality matters to you at all! If you persist and do it, you just may find yourself with a lengthened neck.
The previous lesson referred to is From clarifying the hips to turning and lifting the head. And I’ll investigate whether it was my turtleneck sweater interacting with the mic that caused this sound!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
From clarifying the hips to turning and lifting the head
This lesson continues from the previous week (for which the recording unfortunately failed–you can find an outline at this page on Feldy Notebook).
We’re clarifying the hip joints and finding the magic path of the head in space for a effortless turning, extension and lifting of the head, somewhere in between side-lying and face down, and somewhere in between side-lying and face up.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download