Graceful posture: Coordinating front and back

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Introduction

In this first workshop, we'll look at coordinating the muscles in front with the muscles in back for better balance, easier responses, and more upright posture in both sitting and standing. We will do some flexion and extension lessons and lessons integrating the legs into the trunk. I'll talk about sensorimotor development as well as the pedagogical strategies used in the lessons and why we're doing them.

In the workshop, we did lessons 1-4 on the first day and lessons 5-8 on the second. I recommend doing them in order to get the most benefit and build on the counterbalance idea.

This lesson is an exploration in balance. You learn to sense when the limbs shift over the mid-line. By testing many times, you find the optimal speed and timing in the movement of the limbs relative to the trunk. As you home in on the most efficient pattern of action, the movements become fluid and coordinated. The center generates the evenly distributed power for the limbs.

For more like this, see the counterbalance section.

This lesson refines your perception of weight shift and highlights the use of your trunk. Most of the time, we over-contract the trunk muscles to make up for a lack of skill in sensing balance. As Moshe Feldenkrais used to say, “Willpower is no substitute for skill.”

Develop your skill in sensing movement: the limbs relative to the trunk and how fast, in what direction, and how far they need to move to allow a smooth transition of your center of mass.

This lesson removes barriers to the movement of the diaphragm. Moshe Feldenkrais said that the best martial artists breathed equally in all directions. Many of us are over-contracted in the front or back and the diaphragm is contorted as a result. Use this lesson to balance front and back.

Rolling is a wonderful way to notice where you are not well-organized. As I mention below, these lessons hold a mirror up for where we are not compassionate toward ourselves. Use this lesson to go slow and avoid pushing through. Get better at sensing, not struggling.

It feels wonderful when your brain senses the counterbalance and the limbs move relative to the trunk. The weight shift slides effortlessly from front to back.

Another lesson to expand the diaphragm in all directions, letting go of tension in front and in back. This one is slow and easy, with variations to soften the low back and smooth out the ragged edges of the breath.

This lesson is unusual in that it is in standing. Usually, we’re out of gravity in these lessons to let the system calibrate in a new way, but some lessons, like this one, offer different input. This one is about finding the center point, with many variations to challenge your sensations.

I love this lesson. It’s a gentle exploration of folding and arching, ever so slowly and carefully. You start to appreciate the ability of each vertebra to do its part as the whole spine starts to wake up. As you go from one direction to the other and the movement grows, the skeleton and the muscles rediscover the midpoint, or “neutral,” where they are neither over-shortened nor over-lengthened.

This is a variation of a flexion lesson to soften the back and let go of tension in the belly. After doing all eight of these lessons with a degree of comfort and ease you’ve never given yourself before, you’ll feel longer, taller, and more upright. The input into the brain will help you find your center, again and again.

Note on compassion and comfort

The major function of the nervous system is to learn: about ourselves, and about our world. Organic, remarkable outcomes are achieved by focusing, through movement, on the brain’s ability to change, learn, and grow.

Dr. Feldenkrais saw this process as becoming more mature as a human being. There are many ways to do this: sports, meditation, martial arts, writing. Using movement is unusual. It brings about different responses in sensation, but also in thinking and feeling.

These lessons are based in compassion. How do we become more compassionate to ourselves? Part of what can happen is that these lessons hold up a mirror for when we are not compassionate to ourselves.

What is comfort?

It is when you are feeling good versus feeling disturbed, with movement and emotions. We experience them the same way. In these movements, stay within your range of comfort and ease.

How can you bring more comfort into your life? What does this mean for you? Can you even tolerate more comfort?

Try this:

• Make movements that have a pleasing quality.

• Soften your attitude when you struggle.

• Change the threshold of what you think comfort is. 

• If you are uncomfortable, make it smaller, make it slower. If you have pain, stop.

In learning, we want to increase our sensitivity so we have more information to take into our lives.

This work uses the capacity of the human brain to form new connections. This creates the potential for change. It includes not only movement through space of the skeleton and muscles, but also the movement of thinking, sensing, and feeling. This is how you learn and grow.

Because the focus is on improving the functioning of the brain rather than on specific muscles or specific actions, a wide range of outcomes becomes possible, such as improvement in motor skills, language, behavior, social engagement, and cognition.