Source
- ATM Book Lesson #5
Synopsis
Tilting crossed knees to the side and returning legs to standing: This coordinating flexors and extensors lesson includes variations both with tilting the arm triangle and with rolling the shoulder girdle while hugging yourself; you also lift your head with interlaced hands while your crossed knees rest to the side.
Lesson Outline
- Tilt crossed knees (R over L) R;
- With feet standing and arms forming triangle, tilt arm triangle L.
- Then return to first movement.
- Other side.
- Stay with knees tilted to the side and lift head; do it with both habitual and non-habitual interlacings of the hands.
- Knees bent, feet standing; cross arms over chest (one arm lies on top of the other) and rock trunk. Differentiate head.
He talks through the progression of the lesson and the reason for its effects very clearly.
Related ATMs
- See other similar lessons via the Theme Coordinating Flexors and Extensors page.
Resources
- Lesson outline in tabular format: atm5_coordinating_flex_ext
Share Your Insights
Key Ideas, Principles, and Strategies
- This is a twist done with the pelvis: tilting crossed legs to the side. The twist is initiated from the pelvis. The crossed legs remove mobility from the hip joints and lets the pelvis and legs rotate as one piece (the “rotation” happens in the spine). This crossing of the legs is a constraint.
The same twist can be done with the shoulder girdle: tilting touching palms (as in clapping) and straight elbows to the opposite side. The twist is initiated from the shoulder girdle.This way the twist is done in the same direction, but initiated from to different origins. Each one makes the other one more clear and easier to do. Done a couple of times alternatively, this idea becomes more clear, and the whole body feels like one body, connected from top to bottom.”As Above, So Below” is an abridgement of the longer expression, “That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.” The Corpus Hermeticum of Hermes Trismegistus began with these words. – travelsheep - One of the riddles to give to students is how the crossed legs “drop” to the side. The most obvious strategy is to place the standing foot more to the side, so that really the weight and gravity helps. But this is due to the fact that most people are visual and know that big things drop when tilted … the riddle is solved with the standing foot in the middle, and lateral tilting of the pelvis (making one side of the torso long, one side short). This way the legs – almost magically – drop to the side on their own. Big revelation. – travelsheep
- If the standing leg is left in place (not moved to the middle), the created movement has more extension and flexion, whereas if the standing leg is moved to the middle, the movement is more of a roll. I prefer teaching the ATM with the focus on the extension and flexion, and hence have the students glue their foot to the ground before placing the other foot to the top. Interestingly, often students will glue the foot and then unconsciously move their torso so that the overall effect is that the standing leg is in the middle. – yedwab Jul 11, 2011
Typical Results
- Feeling of standing more upright, more grounded
Advice for Teaching or Turning into an FI
- Can mix with Lesson 5 “Cleaning up Crunches” from “My Feldenkrais Book” by Alfons Grabher to clarify how to lift the head, and make the overall effect of the lesson stronger and more impressive.
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