Prep to roll

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Just like the pelvic clock series, do these in order the first time through.

These lessons are the best things going for back pain. They will save you from throwing your back out as well as help you walk, sit, run, and enjoy life. Intelligent use of the back and belly muscles is crucial to everything we do as humans.

(All of these are from Amherst Week 5, 1980, July 7-9)

As a complement to prep to roll, do: 304, 305, 306, Soften back to prep to roll and Use legs as a long lever.

I love these lessons. I do them all the time, repeating the process to learn where I am in this moment, and to let go of tension in the back over and over again. Afterwards, I stand up taller, walk easier, and feel less strain in sitting. Find out what’s true for you.

Once you detect the unnecessary efforting you’re doing throughout your musculoskeletal system, the spine moves freely, easily, with joy. Upright never felt so good!

I love this lesson. Yes, I love all of them but this one has a really cool move at the end that just melts your back. This whole process is a slow, careful awakening of how you use your back. Babies are really wiggly, they can move their ribs relative to their spines in all kinds of ways. We can all do that, too!

Bring the elbows to the knees, knees to elbows as you fold the ribs many ways. This lesson starts to roll up the spine. Amazing shifts happen as you feel what it means to let go and truly rest on the floor.

The variations are different than in the previous lessons—it’s worth doing them all.

This lesson asks you to press the back into the floor from many angles, similar to others in this series, but starting to engage more precision across the back.

Revisit some basic flexion, which means LENGTHENING the back muscles. You’ll feel flatter, wider, and take a breath of relief as both the back and front let go of chronic holding.

One of the first activities we do as babies is flex and begin to organize the trunk to move the limbs. The older we get, the more the trunk stiffens and we get good at directing our limbs. As a flexible spine is crucial to rolling, you want to create some flexibility here.

My back always feels flatter, wider, and relieved after this clear, simple lesson.

Here we are, starting to roll back just a tiny bit.

The reason Feldenkrais worked for me when I first started was that it was so gradual. The movements were so subtle and slow that I could actually do them. If I had launched into rolling, or something I was unprepared to do, I’d feel I failed.

This process helped me feel confident, capable, and amazed at my own ability if I just took the time to refine my sensing, creating not perfection, but options.

You might say Feldenkrais is about doubting the default and looking for a better way, over and over again.

Rolling backwards with hands and arms in many positions. This lesson grows into more dynamic movement by the end. Use this lesson to feel more precision in balancing the spine and legs.

TIP: If you feel the abdomen working hard, round your shoulders and move them toward your legs. It’s the r-o-u-n-d-i-n-g shape that helps you counterbalance, not the “umphing” of the muscles.

More variations on angles for rounding. This lesson adds some new constraints, like the elbow between the knees. Just go through the movements without “trying” to improve, and your back will improve anyway!

I just did this lesson myself, and the reference movement of coming up to sit was so much easier, although I didn’t know I was getting better at it!