Run, walk, hike: Integrate the legs

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Every person has unique patterns and characteristics. These lessons help integrate the legs into the trunk for more power. For help with a specific issue, sign up for a coaching session and get immediate feedback as well as a personalized curriculum.

Dr. Feldenkrais says that as long as we don’t have great emotional disturbances, our movements conform to the mechanical requirements of the surrounding world. If only! I don't know anyone free of “disturbances.” However, it is possible to restore organic flow and balance to the back muscles with nonjudgmental delight. Drumming the knees helps you do that with its novel relationship to gravity, focusing on the “down” instead of the “up.”

A wonderful complement to this lesson is: 220 Twisting with head fixed, also with lots of rolling the pelvis around the legs.

A martial arts-type of lesson about leveraging the floor and shifting your weight. It feels like work at first because we use all our muscular habits, then the variations elicit a simpler, easier, more efficient whole-self movement. I love lessons that come together like this.

Once you activate the back muscles appropriately, you can feel how the legs move from the center of your trunk, NOT from your hips. No one has power from the hips, rather the power moves through the hips to the legs. I tell all my clients the hips are a junction-box for the transfer of power. No one walks from the hips with an immobile torso. Try only moving in your hips and you'll see what I mean.

For more like this, see A strong back.

A classic lesson of coordinating the upper and lower trunk while lying on the side. This movement links the diagonal pattern for walking and running starting with a deceptively simple movement that becomes more complex. I love this lesson because my whole system drops down when the movement all smooths out.

Note this lesson is done lying on the right side moving the left arm and leg. If you are more comfortable on the left, or wish to play with the right side, switch the instructions.

For more counter-rotation lessons, see 120 Hip and shoulder circles.

This lesson is truly amazing for swiveling the hips in walking and running. If you don’t ever want to walk better, don’t ever do this lesson. Yes, it’s on the hands and knees, but you move around a lot while you’re there. And, as a bonus, there is a cool move at the end that makes it all worthwhile.

The more important aspect, however, is the integration of the shape of your spine with your strategy for articulating the hips. You must locate, sense, and explore movement in your spine to elicit the swivel in the pelvis. It is this exploring that accomplishes the overall coordination of the locomotive joints. Once you know what you’re doing, you can come back to the swivel again and again.

For a similar lesson on connecting the hips and spine, see 115 Foot and hip discrimination.

I love this lesson. I give it to everyone who has fatigue in the legs and hips. We forget to use our torso as we age, we narrow our options and try to power through with our legs—until we can't. The next two lessons help you understand how the movement of the leg is unmistakably, vitally connected to the spine. When you integrate the legs, you find lightness and  strength, which is really just letting go of unnecessary work. Amazing!

The power of the pelvis is highlighted again and again, using a clever construction of adding constraints and then releasing them .You will lie on the left side and lift the right leg to test its weight, then slowly work with the organization of the leg as it relates to the hip, pelvis, and spine. First the heel lifts, then the whole foot, then you practice rolling forward and back, lifting once the knee and once the foot with variations in the upper trunk to wake up the spine and ribs. In the end, the leg is much, much more alive to the movement of the trunk. Take it for a walk and test it yourself.

Note: You are lying on your left side and moving the right leg in this lesson. Yes, it’s asymmetrical for a reason. However, if the left side is not comfortable, or if you prefer to work with the left leg instead, please reverse the instructions. But do the whole lesson as taught on one side.

This is the follow-on lesson, continuing the same movements with additions. You will hold the knee and slide it down toward the foot and up toward the ceiling, eventually rolling a bit forward and backward. As you become aware that the chest and shoulder have something to say, more and more possibilities emerge for coordinating the trunk.

The end of this lesson has a lovely roll back and forth that wraps up all the careful details into a tidy package.

Tip: If you find yourself stuck on your side, notice what you are doing with your chest. Is it rigid or allowed to fold? Is it turned toward the floor or the wall? Don’t stay with your chest facing the wall. Many people do that, and they think they can’t move, but it's an orientation issue, not a movement issue. Think about it: if created a board in the chest instead of a ball, it's very hard to roll anywhere. Keep your top leg bent, roll toward the floor and ask, am I a board or a ball?

Similar rolling and counterbalance lessons:
309 Rolling up to sit, 35 min
435 Spiral to stand tilting knees and spiraling arm, 40 min
436 Spiral to stand with rotating hoop arms, 34 min
437 Spiral to stand with reaching and leaning on elbow, 36 min
319 Initiation in rolling, 30 min
320 Roll to sit holding foot, 42 min
321 Advanced rolling to sit, 39 min

This is a yummy lesson that softens the back and allows the ribs to differentiate from the pelvis. It invites easy swinging of the legs and fluid movement of the trunk. Lovely to do at the end of the day after computer work, as well as before a run so you are not bracing in the ribs.

Any time you brace in the ribs, the low back will overwork. Feel how these two parts work together for maximum power.

I often give this to my clients who feel tight across the back or fatigued just going for a short walk. It’s something you can return to again and again for a flat, supple back.

Circling the pelvis around the hip socket helps smooth out the rough edges of your walking. It also highlights where you might be holding in the ribs, jaw, belly, and neck.

This lesson invites a smooth connection from the pelvis through the ribs to the head, which makes walking so much easier with a nice swing in the ribs and hips.

This lesson is also wonderful for low back pain.

Tip: Think of allowing the ribs to be influenced by the pelvis. The more supple you can be, the less muscular resistance you will have to fight against in even the smallest of movements.

For another rocking lesson to free the low back, see 459 Easy rocking to soften your spine, jaw, and breath.

(Mia Segal/Gaby Yaron, 1977-78, #8)