Source
- Alexander Yanai Vol 3 #140
- Reel 10, Track 3, Lesson 2
Synopsis
This “coordinating flexors and extensors” lesson includes variations of seesaw breathing, tilting the arm triangle with one leg long and one bent, lifting the head, and using the weight of the hands to hold the head while tilting the knees in the opposite direction.
Lesson Outline
- Cross knees, tilt toward floor. Stay there and see-saw breathe. Repeat moves on other side.
- Left leg long, right leg standing, arms in triangle, tilt arms to left. Stay there, lenghthen right leg, do see-saw breathing. Repeat on other side
- Cross right knee over left, tilt right. Turn face to left, right hand behind left ear, elbow to ceiling, lift head toward feet – feel twist and bend in spine. Repeat other side.
- Cross right knee over left, turn face to left, back of hand on cheek, back of other hand on first hand, push elbows toward floor near head. Tilt legs to right. Leave them right and do see-saw breathing. Repeat on other side.
- Cross right knee over left. Arms in triangle. Legs go right arms go left – in one fluid movement. Repeat on other side.
- Cross right knee over left, tilt right, interlace hands behind head and lift. Repeat other side.
Focus of Moshe’s Teaching
- Focus is on the twist and bend of spine, the “glueing” of the body parts to floor after each iteration, and the feeling of one bone pulling on the next – where this does and doesn’t feel fluid.
Related ATMs
Resources
Share Your Insights (ideas, principles, strategies, experiences, …)
- In this lesson, Moshe emphasizes how the movement pulls on the head and, in his words, “straightens the spine through the chest.” Two things about the impact through the head.
- Remember in a previous AY lesson Moshe may have been reacting to the loss of cervical lordosis in Alexander prax. I found it kinder and more informative to my whole back to preserve that curve at the back of the neck, even when the movement is pulling the head downward – don’t overemphasize chin to chest.
- Remember when David Bersin taught pecking to our AY study group, and one of us asked a question about upper thoracic and cervical issues. David recommended twisting lessons. This might be a good one for that: Use this and pecking in conjunction. Focus on atlas-axis and cervical spine.
- The other point in connection with straightening the spine through the chest is, at one point Moshe suggests inhibiting the arch of the chest forward and the lower back away from the floor. He says, about the chest: “Pay attention if all that . . . truly needs to lift . . . whether it is necessary, or whether it is possible to leave some parts on the floor.”
- He says this only occasionally throughout the lesson, but I found it helpful to carry it through the whole lesson. Before, I had interpreted the lesson as emphasizing an arch forward with the chest – but that may just have been my habit of thrusting my chest forward in a “military posture.” Instead, if I focused on distributing the pull through the spine in this “flattened” way, the pull worked more evenly and powerfully through my whole skeleton. –Anita Schnee
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