Rolling with graduated flexion

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Introduction

If you've never done these before, do the previous section first, “prep to roll.” Your back will thank you for it.

I love the weight-shift lessons, but I didn't used to. My back was so stiff I always tried to muscle through instead of allow myself to yield into a roll. Mostly I just fell over in a heap or got stuck. Over time I realized that it's only by softening that we get stronger.

It sounds odd, but it's true. When the back muscles stop straining, they're available to move. It’s obvious that you can't access a contracted muscle because it's already maximally shortened, which is what we do with our back every day: we contract an already contracted muscle.

• Imagine a square block rolling along the floor. To start rolling, the block has to lift up an entire side to perch on an edge. Then it goes ker-chunk, ker-chunk along its sharp angles.

• Now imagine a ball rolling. The surface area is in continuous contact with the floor, and it requires much less energy to shift off its center.

Yet we often treat our back like a square and muscle through everything. Try these lessons to lengthen the back and start to yield to the ground. Life will feel easier.

Tip: All these lessons will be helpful for what feel like tight hamstrings.

Sometimes we do big movements in Feldenkrais, but they’re big movements with appropriate work. Using the abdominal muscles in a precise, directed way, you’ll guide the limbs on a diagonal line by pressing the back—a lot. You might be surprised by the unraveling of your chronic contraction along the spine. 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!

This is a lovely sequence that highlights how precise we can be using the big muscles of the trunk. The more coordinated we are, the easier it becomes. “Coordinated” means we can direct ourselves through space to where we want to go, not just flail about.

Yes, it's a lot of abdominal muscle, but again, it's used in an appropriate way. You are contracting as needed, not like a thousand-ton freight train but a nimble, high-performance sports car swooping around the curves.

(AY114)

A similar lesson using the idea of pressing the back backwards. As you lengthen the arms, the chest folds and softens. Finally, you roll up to sit!

Spreading your mass across a larger surface area is important for leveraging the floor. Think of yielding into the floor as you find more directions to bend and fold.

For more like this, see:
554 Rolling to sit over the leg (power for your legs)
500, 501 Lifting heels, sliding hands (hamstrings and touching the toes)

Discover graduated flexion: the muscles are slowly contracting, not quickly like a sit-up. Focus on the qualitative use of the slow-twitch muscles of the abdomen as you shift your mass over and then off your base.

Once you play with it, you’ll find the weight shift becomes easy, light, and pleasurable. Only do what you can at this moment. It will change as you go along.

Tip: If you get stuck, think of the back going backwards like you did in the previous three lessons. Do not muscle through. Think of yielding the spine to the floor.

For more like this, see:
554 Rolling to sit over the leg (power for your legs)

(AY104)

Second part of graduated flexion.

Now we start a bit of rolling across a rounded back. Using all the skills of the previous lessons, you round the back and roll up the spine using the legs as a lever.

It’s wonderful to feel these new skills creep up on you. I taught this at a workshop recently where no one thought they could do it at first. By the end, everyone was doing the movement in a way that felt safe for them. Test it out, see what you think!

This is about rounding in many ways. You use the back to move the legs, something we forget about as adults. It’s like “washing your face with your feet,” as Moshe says. Think of little kids bringing their feet to their mouths. It can happen as you move the legs with the long back muscles instead of fighting with a contracted back.

When you move the legs against the back muscles, you feel tight hamstrings. It’s actually a sensation of tightness because the back muscles are not coordinated with the legs. The movement gets easier as you sense the logic of how to use yourself. That’s how you improve: by sensing, over and over again, how to organize most efficiently.

(SF evening class and Perfecting the Self-Image from ATM book)

This lesson has some big movements. You start small, of course, by rolling up the spine, then spend many minutes clarifying how to round the back. At the end you are invited to roll over the spine almost, but not quite, into a shoulder stand.

Try the movements and see what happens. Especially if they feel tricky at this moment: the learning happens when we feel a little confused. As you go through the lesson, something you didn’t even know was possible starts to emerge. Just do the lesson literally, as it is given. It will change the tone of the back as you go along.

Tip: At one point the lesson asks you to hold your feet. You can always use a piece of fabric or a small towel to wrap around the feet if you can't reach them. It's best to have a connection to the feet here and not just hold the calf, which is suitable for most modifications, just not this one. You need to feel the feet through the arms.

(AY9)