Restore the side bend for a healthy back  

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The side bend is often forgotten about, yet we use it hundreds of times each day. This lesson shines a light on how well you use your ribs. If your ribs are bracing, it makes each movement that much more of a struggle.

This is an uncomplicated, slow lesson, but the sensing is where it matters.

For more side bending, see Side bending under Fundamentals.

More gentle, detailed side-bending, exploring the other side.

This lesson asks you to slide your upper trunk to one side and move the pelvis in different ways. It helps the ribs to turn while you are bent to the side. Feel your ability to side bend almost magically improve by many degrees.

(I love the lessons that creep along almost imperceptibly until all of a sudden you’re making a much bigger movement. This kind of “slow creep” is what got me hooked on the method.)

Expanding the breath into the ribs is such a relief! This lesson moves the hip and shoulder towards and away to flow with the breath. The movements soften tension in your chest without even knowing you’re doing it.

For some reason, my jaw really lets go in this lesson, too.

A study in side bending from every section of the ribs. This lesson uses the idea of an imaginary hand resting on top of your ribs. You lift the ribs to press into the hand, and lower them to pull away from the hand. It's a useful reference to know where you are in space.

This lesson is also a study in how to track what’s moving so you know something about where you are in space, not just making random movements but carrying out your intentions.

These explorations provide wonderful information for swimming, skiing, and walking as you remind your nervous system to bend in all directions.

This lesson asks the ribs to get out of the way as you slide the arm around and under. If your ribs are immobile or stiff, you'll sense the limitation. The constraint is tricky on purpose, which means you strategize to wake up possibilities in the ribs you do not normally use. Don't worry, the lesson will show you how.

I love this lesson for how it feels clunky and awkward at first, then smooths out into a fluid, graceful whole as you increase flexibility in the spine and create more space between the ribs. You start to feel a bit like an inchworm wiggling around!

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The second half of sliding the arm. I love this lesson, as long as my ribs are wiggly. When they aren’t, I don’t like it much as I feel clunky. The movement feels very martial art-y to me because of leveraging the ground and puzzling through to make it easier and easier.