Movement basics in a chair: Ten short lessons

This series covers all aspects of human movement, similar to the Human Movement Starter Kit, but in a chair. These are also very gentle and slow.

Tip for your chair: Ideally, choose a hard, flat chair, but you can also sit at the edge of whatever chair you have available. Cushions are not ideal, but if it’s unavoidable, just sit at the very edge. As long as you can feel the chair underneath the upholstery, you should be okay. Too much squishiness blurs your ability to sense feedback.

(This is my version of Relaxercise, developed in the eighties by Feldenkrais trainers® Mark Reese and David Zemach-Bersin after extensive study with Moshe Feldenkrais. However, the cues, language, style, anecdotes, and meta themes are my own.)

If you have neck pain, this lesson will help. Most of us just use the head and neck to turn, forgetting the rest of the skeleton. Whatever compensatory habits you’ve developed, this lesson will guide you to re-learn turning with ease. You rotate with variations of the head, eyes, and chest while leaving the pelvis fixed.

Finally, you get to include the pelvis and see how everything has changed.

• For more like this, see the twisting section.

• For a wonderful basic twisting lesson, see 10 Rotation.

This lesson unravels aches and pains in the low back. As you go through the variations of rounding the back in many shapes, first on one side and then on the diagonal, the long-term rigidity from holding the back so still begins to subside. Your spine become supple and flexible, your breathing improves, and the spine straightens.

Tip: Make slow, small movements. This is not a crunch. Do not, under any circumstances, try to touch your knee and elbow. A huge muscular effort just strains your belly, pulls on your back, and repeats the unconscious habit of bending in just one part of your spine. Instead, make delicate explorations to see how many of your twenty-four vertebrae are bending in turn. You do not have to make a big movement, just a big sensing.

This is a seated version of the classic flexion lessons that lengthen and soften the back. For more lessons like this, see the basic flexion section.

Another lesson that invites rounding and arching through each and every vertebrae. As you go through the variations, you clarify how to bring your whole self into multiple planes of movement. This lesson differentiates the eyes and neck as they unhook their co-dependent relationship as well. Feel long, tall, and free in the spine and neck at the end.

For more with bending the spine, see 340 Folding forwards and backwards.

As advertised, you slide the shoulders and make small shifts in the neck. As the shoulders move up, down, and around, with awareness the quality improves, diminishing the jumpy, staccato movements. As you go through this lesson, you become aware of how you use the ribs, shoulders, neck, and spine. Your shoulders float by the end.

For help with neck tension, see 220 Twisting with head fixed.

Expand the breathing container as you play with the movements of the diaphragm in relation to the abdomen and chest. It’s possible to release that pernicious background tension we all hang onto! Use this lesson to unwind stress and tension, creating space for meeting the next thing life throws at you without compulsive stress-related contractions.

For more breathing lessons, see the breathe and calm section.
Another good breathing series is Help for anxiety with four-part breathing.
Also see:
278 Full mobility of the diaphragm, introduction to seesaw breathing
273 Seesaw breathing

Learn how to shift your weight by using each vertebrae to bend. This increases your spine’s ability to carry the head and neck and helps you feel movement in the ribs, a place where we all hold and brace well below the threshold of consciousness.

The constraints in this lesson create a clear invitation to the ribs in ways that might surprise you. Once the ribs are free, feel how the easy swing of your trunk informs your walking.

For more like this, see 351 Drop sit bone and tilt head (in a chair).
Also see the side bending section for variations on side bending lying down.

Use this lesson to improve focal distance and let go of excess holding in the neck. As you challenge the eyes to track left and right and up and down by altering movements in the head and neck, the muscles let go. With so many variations to de-habituate your eye strain, whatever habit you have will subside and new freedom will emerge.

(Note that this is two lessons in one recording.)

Working with the eyes helps balance, posture, breathing, digestion, and especially improving response times to external stimulus.

For more lessons to liberate the eyes and neck muscles, see eye and neck lessons.

Because the human system is not designed to stay still, we need ways to stay mobile, even while sitting at a desk or after a long car drive. This lesson helps your pelvis locate all the possible directions you can move. It’s like oiling the joints. It doesn’t just improve easy sitting, it also helps walking as you connect through the hips and pelvis to access the power of the trunk.

For more lessons like this, see unlock your pelvis and pelvis rolling.

A soft, gentle lesson to let go of tension in the jaw and face. The neck and face adjust to new movements as you play with the variations. The movements are so delicate, it’s like they sneak in under the radar of your pernicious habits.

Feel how the jaw can slide easily and the head can rest more comfortably on top of the spine.

For a whole section on freeing the jaw, see release the jaw, neck, and face.

This lesson helps you find all the planes of the foot: tilting side to side, flexing and extending, and circling. Believe it or not, the movements of the foot and ankle affect the low back. Plus, creating ease and adaptability in the foot relieves other joints of trying to help you balance when that’s not their job. Try this lesson and then see how you roll over the foot and ankle as you walk.

For more like this, see:
148 Equalizing the ankles, knees, and toes
149, Orienting the feet

I love the feet and ankle lessons. They lower the overall tension in the system and help with calming.