A strong back

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The mission here is to strengthen the back by distributing the work along the entire spine instead of overworking part of it. The brain is strengthened with awareness of what’s possible. If you want a real challenge, ask more questions about how you move instead of applying more effort just to do the movement.

For more lessons tilting the legs, see:
317 Tilt legs to come to sit from belly
326 Slow tilting of legs
9 Tilting legs on stomach to locate your center

(Moshe Basic Series, ATM book #7)

One of my favorite lessons of all time. I got my dinner party guests in New York City to get on the floor and I’d say, “Look at this cool thing you can do with your hips!” I got my office mates to do it at work. I’m surprised I didn’t get total strangers to do it. It’s so cool what you can do with your hips and spine. Who knew!

For similar lessons, and to help clarify this pattern, see:
Amphibian lesson #5 in longer series from trainings
210 arms, shoulders, pelvis turning

A martial arts-type of lesson about leveraging the floor and rolling your bones to shift your weight. It feels like work at first because we use all our muscular habits, then the variations elicit a whole-self movement. I love lessons that come together like this.

Excellent for upright posture and easy walking.

For more tilting leg lessons, see:
78 Low back strength, tilting legs on stomach
326 Slow tilting of legs
9 Tilting legs on stomach to locate your center

This lesson makes a hoop of the arms overhead, and of the legs with the soles of the feet together. Then, you move in many ways on the back and front to activate the big muscles of the trunk. The whole back feels powerful and light at the same time.

Useful if you have a tense back. It activates large muscles in the trunk from the get-go. Any restrictions you thought you had can shift a lot in this lesson! Even though we’re using big muscles, the idea is to engage them with appropriate work instead of effort.

For similar lessons, see:
58 Arms in a hoop to free the neck and shoulders
49 Hoop arms

Another big lesson to educate the large muscles of the back. The more coordinated we can be, the easier it becomes. Coordinated means we can direct ourselves through space to where we want to go, not just flailing about. Creating a more skillful and precise use of the larger trunk muscles is a continual theme.

(AY114)

I get to say I love this lesson (too!) mainly because it has a lot of imagining. I didn’t like diagonal lessons at first because I found them personally difficult, but this lesson is so clarifying it becomes easy. Linking thought and action is a profound sensorimotor skill.

(Mia Segal/Gaby Yaron 1977-78 evening classes #2)

Dr. Feldenkrais says that as long as we don’t have great emotional disturbances, our movements conform to the mechanical requirements of the surrounding world. If only! I don't know anyone free of “disturbances.” However, it is possible to restore organic flow and balance to the back muscles with nonjudgmental delight. Drumming the knees helps you do that with its novel relationship to gravity, focusing on the “down” instead of the “up.”

(Moshe SF evening classes, drumming the knees)