Source
- Alexander Yanai Vol 5
- Reel 17, Track 2, Lesson 4
Synopsis
- on back, knees bent, moving the pelvis with the legs and without, also moving the pelvis in the non-habitual
Lesson Outline
- Sit, legs spread. Form an arch in the back. Knees on floor? Same thing, legs attached.
- Face up, feet standing. Arch back. Take R knee with hands interlaced below kneecap, and do the same: notice knee moving away. Then take knee in opposite direction as you strain the back. Then let it follow back again. Repeat first action in 1 as reference, and see if knee lies flatter on R side.
- Other side, hands interlaced non-habitually, but skip the undifferentiated option, and also take a break and…
- Refine this second (L) side some more, starting with undifferentiated. Simultaneity, small movement. Don’t return to 1. reference.
- Same side, but with R leg long instead of standing–undifferentiated, isolated, and then differentiated.
- Return to 1. reference–does the back arch and knees lie flat better?
- Face up, feet standing, R ankle above L knee and R knee open. Both hands on leg, approx shoulder-width apart. Protrude belly. Then take leg towards you as you protrude the belly (the goal is not to do the work with the arms). Reference is now 2: taking bent knee held in both hands towards self while arching back.
- Return to 1. reference.
- Other side. Refine, with mistakes–timing, both sides of back lift, both knee and ankle approach.
- Sit, legs spread and long. Lift arms long in front and arch back. Distinguish taking arms back and lifting them forwards and up. Take fabric of R leg with R hand and somehow lift leg & lengthen heel a tiny bit while arching back. Other side.
- Stay in sitting and feel that as your reference. End of lesson.
Focus of Moshe’s Teaching
- Indicate focus or key principles that are made explicit in the teaching
Related ATMs
Pushing the heel, sitting:
Resources
- Recording by Lynette Reid at kinesophics.ca http://kinesophics.ca/getting-to-know-the-hip-joints/
- Somehow I forgot lifting the leg in 10…
- Recording by Sharon Starika at: http://sharonstarika.com/workshops/online-workshops/weekly-classes/lower-back-pelvis-hips/
Share Your Insights (ideas, principles, strategies, experiences, …)
- I learned this under the principle that creating instability is one way in FI to get at actions you can readily introduce in ATM (as in 241). With the other leg standing it’s a much less challenging (threatening?) position and you get to have a conversation with the other hip qua standing. Which is useful. Or maybe even extremely useful or the hidden point. – Lynette Reid (c/p from facebook)
- Jeremy Krauss taught this in an advanced training. I believe we did AY 241 and then to recreate the ATM as an FI he demonstrated the roller under the pelvis with one leg standing and holding the other leg similar to in the photo, but more perpendicular to the pelvis. David Zemach Bersin in his spine advanced training would put a roller under the pelvis with both legs standing. Then the practitioner could roll the pelvis from the upper spine. Hard to explain but very cool to experience both as a practitioner and lying on the table. – Heidi Gucinski Menocal (c/p from facebook)
- I tend to focus in teaching this (as you can hear) on how the precision of timing in the movement leads you to the exact location of the hip joint. Partly I went that direction because of my own history with the lesson (at some point I had myself convinced it was some strange convoluted relative movement of the pelvis and sacrum the lesson went after–that’s how hidden my hip joints were to me, I guess!). Recently I’m thinking about how it takes a reflex at the beginning (when you arch your back in sitting with legs long, you may add to the “straining of your back muscles” a pull forward with your iliopsoas. This will cause your knees to lift from the floor, which he notes in the beginning of the lesson. Face up, pulling your leg towards yourself while you arch your back, you make that strong habit into a weird addition to an action where you actually want not to engage the iliopsoas. Doing that, you find you want to take your knee out, not just towards yourself; okay, so the next variation requires you to keep your knee out and not pull it in while you arch your back. … ? – Lynette
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