Free your hips and low back
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Here you lie on the floor and waggle your knees as you rock your pelvis. This is similar to “waggling the knees" in easy, upright sitting, except your low back, pelvis, and feet get feedback from the floor.
As you alternate pressing and lifting the low back with tilting the knees in and out, your hip flexors and extensor muscles along the spine begin to free up.
Use this move when you want a quick, efficient reset of the tone along your low back and hips, especially if you are stiff from working at a computer.
This is a modified version of the pelvic clock, making smooth, easy circles around the clock dial. It’s a wonderful check-in for before you take a walk or go for a run. It’s also good to do after you’ve been sitting for a while at a computer, in the car, or on a plane.
For the full pelvic clock lesson, see: 100 Basic pelvic clock
For the eight-lesson series, see Pelvic clock
For more on the pelvis, see Unlock your pelvis
This short movement asks your pelvis to articulate around your hip socket in a new way. It’s a simple, effective reset of the musculature around the low back and hip. This helps with upright sitting and using the hips and back to sitting cross-legged more efficiently.
For a longer lesson on sitting cross-legged, see 35 A study in how to sit cross-legged
For the seven-lesson series on sitting cross-legged, see Pretzel legs.
A gentle, soothing movement to do when you feel stiff, clunky, and uncoordinated. The tone of the low back stops over-contracting and returns to neutral as you slowly rock up and down.
For more like this, see:
217 Roll chest, point elbows, lengthen spine
459 Easy rocking to soften spine, jaw, breath
This movement also lets go of excess tone in the low back. With the long leg in the air, you circle the leg in the hip socket. But it's not jut the hip that moves. It's the pelvis, low back, ribs, and spine. This movement requires a strong use of the abdomen. It's not that we never use muscles in Feldenkrais, it's that we use them appropriately. See if you can use the abdomen without clenching your jaw or holding your breath.
Once the back and leg learn to work together. the tone around the hips and low back will change. When you lower the leg, feel how long it is. That means your low back is not contracting so hard, along with the hip flexor getting pulled closed. Such a relief!
For the longer lesson, see 302 Folding diagonals, circling across back
This sequence is a lovely “massage” for your low back. It starts with a swivel in the hip joints to remind you how to bring the feet to stand without straining the back. Then, slowly lift the pelvis and roll up the spine a couple times. Slide your right arm under the back and lower the pelvis so your arm is underneath at the waist.
The variations continue with some rolling across the arm with the right leg bent. As you soften more and more in the back, the ribs become supple, the spine flexible, and the low back softer.
For the complete lesson, see 68, 69 Arm behind, rocking over pelvis
I give this little experiment to everyone who has “tight” hips, balance issues, or stiffness when they walk. It's a safe, easy way to connect to the brain's sense of downward force. When you are on your back, it's safer to drop the leg and you get a nice reverberation through the bones.
Note: You do need a little hand towel or some piece of fabric to wrap behind your thigh and hold the edges with your hands.
For a longer lesson on dropping the feet, see: 36 Approaching spinal flexibility for a head stand (which has something called “carping," a much, much bigger dropping of the feet!)
This short sequence is a neat trick for helping you touch your toes. It helps you organize the hips and the low back in many different variations so that the hips learn to truly bend no matter what your back muscles are doing. In the end, you are less co-dependent and trapped in one choice. The hips can do what they need to do regardless of the position of the back.
A complementary hip joint lesson is 35 Getting to know the hip joints.
This is another good move to release tension in the low back. Lean your elbows on your knees in standing and turn to look over one shoulder, then the other. Let your shoulders and pelvis swivel. Don't be rigid. The rotation along the spine helps the low back stop over-contracting. With a long low back, test sliding your hands toward your toes. Has it improved?
For more on releasing the low back to touch the toes, see: 498 Touching toes, sliding heels.