Amazingly free hips

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These hip joint lessons swivel the pelvis and help you integrate the power of your legs with the power of your trunk. As you become aware how the hips, pelvis, spine, and ribs work together, the legs move with greater ease and efficiency. It can feel as if your legs become “stronger,” but in fact you are accessing more of your whole self in each action.

This series uses some large muscles so take frequent rests. (One of my older clients did these lessons in class, then went in for a physical. Her doctor asked, “What have you been doing with your hips?!” because they were so mobile!)

Tip: Much of this lesson has the arms overhead. If this is difficult, put a blanket under your arms to support them.

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Different movements, same theme. I could call these lessons, “How to kick.” You’re training in how to connect the power of the back into the leg and pivot.

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This lesson is a puzzle at the end. It unravels the spine as you lengthen and turn.

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Here is another way for the leg to connect into the back. I often talk about the hips as a “junction box” through which movement travels. Think about it: we walk from the torso, not the hips. Try walking from the hips without moving your torso…you see what I mean. The hips meet the movement of the torso.

This lesson also includes the toes in an interesting way, which supports walking and swinging the leg.

As with many lessons in Feldenkrais, this is a sliding lesson. If your blanket surface is rough, adjust your position so you can slide with less friction.

TIP: When your knee is out to the side, do not let the leg hang in the hip socket. Lift the opposite hip to allow it to rest on the floor, hold it up a bit, or support the leg on a blanket.

View whole pretzel legs series.

(Pretzel legs #1 San Francisco Training, June 21, 1976)

A sneaky lesson starting on the back and sliding the hands down the legs. I love doing this lesson because it starts out innocently enough, then ends in an amazing turn. Plus, I feel so relaxed folding my ribs that much.

TIP: Folding the ribs has something to do with straightening the leg.

For more like this, see:
Squatting and touching your toes: Everything about the hamstrings
500, 501, 502 Lifting heels, sliding hands

Another lesson that sneaks up on lengthening the leg. These lessons invite you to integrate the hip joints with the appropriate use of the back muscles. If your hip flexors are contracted, your back is also contracted and short.

To lengthen the back, you must be delicate and easy with yourself, looking for new places that can yield. If you pull on yourself, you will not like it later.

Practice multiple trajectories in the ribs, different weight shifts for the pelvis, and lightness in the arm. Learn to leverage your center of gravity at the same time. Again, folding the ribs helps you lengthen the leg.

For the full series, see Hooking the toe under longer series from trainings.

This is an amazing lesson. It’s not intuitive, but because of that it shakes up the places where we hold. It utilizes one of Moshe Feldenkrais’s genius moves of flipping proximal and distal in a way that lights up new connections in the brain. You will walk differently after this, as long as you go slow.

Again, we look at lengthening the leg and coordinating the hip muscles with the low back so they're not fighting each other. Observe how the ribs soften to allow the leg to lengthen a little more. Notice I do not say “straighten” the leg, as each person will be working within their range of comfort and some people will need to go through this whole series many times before the leg starts to “straighten.”

TIP: Do NOT stretch in this lesson. Only do what's easy for you in this moment, even if that means the leg is still quite bent.

For more lessons that lengthen the back to straighten the legs, see:

283 Basic flexion #3 Lengthen legs without stretching
119 part 1 Twirling legs, part 2: More flexible than a child
20 Folding the spine, head between the knees
25 Bringing the foot to the head and rolling perfectly
8 Twirling the right hip (version 2, from Esalen, Moshe taught many versions of this)
11 Lengthen the leg with an integrated hamstring
303 Lengthen spine, caress legs, swivel to sit
304, 305 Soften back to prep for rolling, move knee away from chest
554 Lengthen leg, roll to sit

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