Source

• Amherst Year 2
• Duration of the recording:
  • am: 19 min.
  • pm: 31 min.

Synopsis

• Lying face up and face down, fingers interlaced: twisting the forearms, while moving the hands up and down, and in a circle around the head. Using the distal to address the proximal.

Lesson Outline

• Lying face up, hands interlaced, lift elbows and roll hands (only as far as without strain)
  • In front of face, more or less–notice which direction more.
  • Then higher, and notice which more.
  • Then lower, and notice which more.
  • Then back to the middle: notice that it is improved in both directions.
• Rest: feel shoulderblades resting.
• Same position, but fix R elbow, at 90 from the body. Roll hands.
  • Then move elbow down and do the same.
  • Move elbow up and do the same.
  • Back to hands in front of face, feeling the quality of the rolling.
  • Then do the other side (L elbow on floor).
• Rest: feel shoulderblades and neck.
• Interlace the hands in the less familiar way. Turn the hands, move them up, until the inside of the L arm touches the L cheek.
  • Continue and shift so the inside of the R arm touches the R cheek.
  • Go back and forth and feel how different (arm touches side of face very differently on each side).
  • Take R elbow to floor and notice you can do whatever you want with the elbow by the side, touching the chest, and over the head.
  • Now you can probably do a circle around the head, going anywhere you want, still turning the hands. With some restrictions still.
  • Then take your hands down–how far down and still turning?
  • Then over belly and a little L, a little R.
• The upper thoracic/lower cervical spine–you do something with it your whole life that you don’t need to. It’s an idea about how you should stand and hold yourself. Long discussion of how you are addressing the neck via the “relative conjugate” (not his term).

Afternoon:

• Start by refreshing memory of how arm touches side of face differently on each side.
  • Then compare with legs long and standing, and see what’s different.
  • You can accentuate this by turning hands away overhead, as far as is comfortable, and then straightening and bending legs to feel the difference.
  • With legs long, use heels to rock the body, with moving the hands away.
• Rest.
• Face down, with legs long, and join the fingers to turn the arms overhead, “helping with the small movement that we did.” [Planting toes and pushing?] This is not so easy.
  • You have to roll a bit to be able to do it: roll L to lengthen R arm and turn out R hand and vice versa.
  • Or see how lifting your head helps.
• Sit, with palms joined. See that the inability to do what we were just doing is in the wrist, not the shoulder.
  • Lift the R elbow and see how that pushes the hands off the midline, because the wrist does not bend back. It felt like it was the shoulder, but it’s the wrist. How can we improve the wrist?
  • Lift the elbow and the fingers backwards (including thumb) at just the same moment: tiny movement without effort.
  • See how that changes it.
• Other side.
  • Raise arms, palm together, over head and bring down to waist, and see how much more you get.
• Then lie face up, hands interlaced.
  • Turn hands out and take overhead. Now some can touch both sides of their faces at once. If not, see how far you have to move them to touch your head, or how far you have to move your head to touch them.
• Then sit, palms touching behind back (fingers pointing down).
  • Lift R elbow. Hands will move to R.
• Other side.
  • Take head back, look up, and touch whole palm.
  • Hands down towards floor.
  • Turn fingers out, in and around to have fingers pointing up. Those who can do it make space by arching their backs.
• If you stand on your knees and do it you see how it is easier because you go forwards without even realizing it.

Focus of Moshe’s Teaching

• What Yochanan Rywerant calls the idea of “relative conjugate” movement. We are talking to the head and upper part of the spine: we use the arms to do this. Muscles (almost) always attach at two places, and the movement created by their contraction depends on the relative weight (mass, gravity) of these two parts.
• Pain and movement: pain is connected to the image of the action, so if we change the image, we can address “the same muscles” or “the same part” without the pain.

Related ATMs

• Theme Shoulders
• Tag Thoracic-spine
• Tag Fingers-interlaced-inverted-overhead
• Tag Shoulders
• Tag Demonstration
• Tag Wrists

Rolling interlaced hands continuously:

• Amherst 2 – Week 1 – 06/11/81 AM2 Swimming crawl / Bell hand, think toes (continued)
• New York Quest – DAY1 – PM3 – Rolling interlaced hands continued: coming to stand
• New York Quest – DAY1 – PM2 – Finding lightness and ease in the arms and in yourself: Rolling with interlaced hands on the back
• New York Quest – DAY3 – PM2 – Lengthening through the arms to roll from the back to the side

Proximal/Distal principle:

• Amherst 1 – Week 6 – 07/16/80 AM1 Integrating arms – crossing the arms
• Amherst 1 – Week 9 – 08/05/80 AM2 Differentiation of arms – lying (part 1)
• Amherst 2 – Week 7 – 07/23/81 AM2 Prone-Raising and Moving Pelvis and Heels / Pelvis Orbits Around Foot (Included—Prone-Rocking the Body on the Stomach / Arc on Stomach)
• AY019.5 Unidentified and Partial
• AY076 Slow lifting; on the stomach
• MM07 The Movement of the Eyes Organizes the Movement of the Body
• SF3 – Day 34 – 10 August 1977: Tilting legs on back, knees crossed, fingers interlaced above head continued. Returning to and moving away from easy limits improves those limits.

Fingers interlaced overhead:

• AY220 Hands behind
• AY265 Knees crossed sliding the foot side
• SF2 – Week 06 – 22 July 1976: Lengthening the Arms Overhead with Fingers Interlaced continued
• SF3 – Day 32 – 8 August 1977: Supine, tilting legs to side, arms overhead, connecting arm movements with legs and back. Same with soles of feet together.
• SF3 – Day 33 – 9 August 1977: [No name]
• SF3 – Day 34 – 10 August 1977: Tilting legs on back, knees crossed, fingers interlaced above head continued. Returning to and moving away from easy limits improves those limits.
• SF3 – Day 35 – 11 August 1977: Continuation of August 10 ATM. Variations of the soles facing position. Soft flexion movements. Hands stretche over head interlaced or palm down under lumbar spine.

Stretching:

• Amherst 2 – Week 7 – 07/22/81 AM2 Holding the ankle and Straightening the leg (cont.)
• Amherst 2 – Week 7 – 07/23/81 AM1 How to see movement
• Amherst 2 – Week 7 – 07/23/81 AM2 Prone-Raising and Moving Pelvis and Heels / Pelvis Orbits Around Foot (Included—Prone-Rocking the Body on the Stomach / Arc on Stomach)

Tonus:

• Amherst 2 – Week 5 – 07/07/81 Bridging on Back and Walking on Shoulders
• Amherst 2 – Week 9 – 08/03/81 PM3 Improving eyesight
• Berkeley 1973 – 3. Extension 6/19 AM

Namaste behind the back:

• Amherst 1 – Week 9 – 08/05/80 AM1 Differentiation of arms – sitting
• AY541 Inverting hands including more
• AY546 Inverting hands in clapping
• SF2 – Week 02 – 22 June 1976: Fingers Interlaced, Inverting Hands continued

Resources

• Recording at kinesophics

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