More extension for a strong and flexible back

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Lying on the stomach, your hands tucked under the head, you lift the head in various ways, detecting where in the back you are working. Bringing one knee out to the side helps you feel what part of the ribs and abdomen press into the floor.

This is another good “hoisting vs. levering” lesson. Yes, you are using big muscles of the back and torso, but in an appropriate way. Notice if you grit your teeth or pull hard in the shoulder. What’s necessary work and what’s wasted effort?

Second part of the lifting lesson.

I love all the “powerful back” lessons for the effortless sitting they create. My ribs find out where to hang without me having to think about it. The back muscles engage with intelligence, not forced contraction.

This is similar, but not the same, as the first lesson. On your front with the hands stacked, lift head, arm, and long leg in many variations. Test breathing, feel mobilization, do quick movements while breathing, then fix arm and leg and seesaw across torso.

The seesaw movements across the torso always seem like a lot of work, but I find them remarkably effective for effortless posture and cleansing the back from all its confused reactions.

(Esalen, Lying on stomach and lifting head)

This is a fascinating lesson from my training called, “prep for creeping,” capitalizing on how babies use the back muscles to mobilize the limbs. You lift the head on the belly, slide the shoulder and perch on the elbow. It’s hard to explain, test and feel your way into it.

A Feldenkrais trainer in Germany, Roger Russell, researched hundreds of babies in developmental stages of crawling and found that this in-between phase of spiraling was pivotal for effective creeping and crawling. You start to feel the logic of the whole system to support the head. So useful for organizing the trunk and swinging the limbs in walking, running, and more. 

For more like this, see the amphibian series.

Now we engage the back muscles to do a neat counterbalance move. By swiveling the legs behind and following in a circle with the trunk, the weight pivots across the hip to come up to sit. It’s one of the many, many ways to come to sit taught in the Feldenkrais Method, reminding us that the method truly comes from the elegance of weight shift in judo.

I love the feeling of the diagonal fold across the back as you lift the head and look over the shoulder, very much like the other lessons in this series. Plus, it’s a good party trick for its effortless pivot.

Once you sense the pivot of the head in front and the legs behind, your nervous system will thank you for the improved ease and balance in your system.

Feel the connection from the toes to the head. It’s only when we use muscular interference to stop this connection that the system creates effort. As you explore the big muscles of the back by flexing and extending the ankles, you stand on the toes and then push through them up to the head. Then, there are many variations, such as with both feet, with one foot, with one arm long, with the other arm long, and with the head left and right. Finally, you do it on the diagonal. As you can imagine, this lesson helps you soften the ribs and take a giant breath.

Tip: Even if you feel you’re not doing it “right" (there is no right, anyway), simply asking your nervous system the question and listening to the answer will have an enormous influence on your organization in standing. As I tell my clients, don’t listen to me, test it out for yourself.

(Esalen, Exploring the extensors of the back)

Learn to lift the head while standing on the hands and knees. Find out how the eyes affect the use of the back muscles. Make a slow study of the influences along the spine. Learn to discriminate effort along the neck and how the spine can support the head and neck.

Sometimes the lessons we find challenging are our best teachers. Do this lesson slow and with great delicacy. That way you will identify new details in how you move along your spine.

(AY57)