Centering for strength

Introduction

This section is about how to use your strength and power.

Power is an integrated functioning of all the parts. We are looking for precision in how we relate to the ground. Normally we remedy instability with willfulness and tension instead of competence and skill. We push and struggle, exerting lots of effort, as if more is better.

Effort is just wasted movement caused by conflicting impulses arriving at voluntary muscles. Well-coordinated movement feels like an absence of effort.

Balance and organization do not come from muscle strength, but from the ability to be elastic, which cannot happen with contracted muscles. Feldenkrais trainer® Jeff Haller comments that, “If the skeleton is imprecise, it requires extra muscular effort to find support from the ground.”

True power is elegant, smooth, effective, and clear.

This lesson makes a hoop of the arms overhead, and 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.

I love this lesson: It is a slow, expanding understanding of how power is distributed from the big muscles of the pelvis up through the upper trunk.

You grow the movement down the spine until you realize you didn’t have to work so hard to move the shoulders after all. Awareness of how to use the big muscles of the trunk is beneficial for all of us, particularly athletes who want to move more efficiently, with less wasted energy.

From Esalen, “Centering For Strength In Pelvis & Intelligence In Extremities”
Also see: 118 Mobilize pelvis to carry the legs

Here you lengthen the arms and legs in many directions, distributing the power throughout the whole self. Get a sense of easy swinging and walking from the very center of the back and the force moves outward toward the extremities.

TIP: If you make delicate, gentle explorations the reorganization will be profound. The moment you strain, you won’t want to do the lesson any more.

AY477

Sometimes we do big movements in Feldenkrais, but they’re big movements with appropriate work. You might be surprised by the unraveling of your chronic contraction along the spine.

You are contracting as needed, not like a thousand-ton freight train, but a nimble, high-performance sports car swooping around the curves. After this, you’ll get better and better at using the trunk for walking, sitting, standing, anything that asks you to move the back, which is everything.

Do what you can and rest often. The brain will do everything else!

(AY114)

A genius lesson on propelling force through the bones without relying on unnecessary contractions. It’s a bit of a puzzle so keep asking questions as your skeleton becomes more and more willing to receive movement.

This lesson invites more of the waist area to generate the power of the long limbs. As you learn more about the use of the trunk, you will feel a wonderful ease in walking, running, skiing, and swimming.

AY434

A 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.

This lesson is amazing for your hips, low back, and pelvic floor. Then, you learn how the whole spine and ribs participate in moving the hips and legs. This lesson has a lot of rounding the back and shifting your weight. Feel how easily you walk after this!

For more on centering through the pelvic floor, see 524 Optimal lifting of knees, flattening back.  

AY63