movement training #3

Lesson 3: USING YOUR ABDOMEN TO RELEASE YOUR BACK

• Intention: To gain greater flexibility and maximum length in your back. Before you start, do the State of the Body Scan and feel your contact with the floor. Notice the curves in your spine, the parts of your body that touch the floor, and the parts that don’t. Remember this feeling because it might change significantly after this lesson. When we do abdominal exercises like sit-ups, only the strongest part of our abdominal muscle fibers gets stronger, while the weaker parts become relatively weaker. This lesson strives to engage all parts of the abdomen.

• Starting Position: Lie on your back with your arms down at your sides, both knees bent and both feet standing on the floor. Feel that your legs can be independently balanced so that your ankles and knees are as wide apart as your hips.

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1. Gently lift your head to look toward your feet. Notice the amount of effort it takes to perform this movement. Don’t strain by holding the position. Put your head down again. Lift your head another time or two, only to notice how much effort is involved and how high your head can go without struggling.

2. Completely interlace the fingers of your hands and place them behind your head. Feel that you are supporting your head and part of your neck. Lift your head while aiming your elbows toward your knees. Do this gently and easily without straining your abdominal muscles. Then set your head back down and let your elbows return to the floor. This movement is not like a sit-up or an abdominal crunch.

StartFragment Tip: If you find that your neck is strained from pulling on your head too hard, move your hands farther down toward your neck so that the neck itself is supported throughout the movement.EndFragment

StartFragment3. Keeping your fingers interlaced and your elbows away from the floor, again lift your head several times and look at your knees as you use your arms and head together. Feel what happens to your back and pelvis. Do they move? Feel your abdominal muscles contracting, very softly. Can you feel your back rocking on the floor?EndFragment

StartFragmentRest with your arms and legs long.EndFragment

StartFragment4. Return your feet to the standing position and again interlace your fingers behind your head with your elbows apart. Push with your feet into the floor so that you can slowly and easily lift your pelvis from the floor. Do this several times, somewhere between five and ten times, but don’t get caught up in counting off repetitions. As always, the most important thing is to feel, to be aware of your body.

There is no need to lift the pelvis as high as you possibly can; the idea is to lift your pelvis as high as it takes to feel weight on your upper back. Can you feel the muscles of your buttocks working?

Pause with your pelvis resting on the floor.

StartFragment5. Now lift your head again to point your elbows to your knees and simultaneously lift your pelvis in the air. Eventually, if you lift your pelvis high enough, you will feel your head needing to lower to the floor. At that point, lift your head until you feel your pelvis needing to lower to the floor. It becomes a seesawlike movement. Practice this movement several times.

As you do this movement, maintain a constant distance between your pelvis and your head. When your head rises a bit, your pelvis naturally lowers a bit, and vice versa. Don’t lower your pelvis until you feel you have to, and don’t lower your head until you feel you have to. You will be rocking along the entire length of your spine, and every section of your abdominal muscles will have a chance to wake up.

Rest for a while on your back with your arms and legs long. Take time to feel the contact between your back and the floor.

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Body Intelligence Reminder for Advanced Variation on Lesson 3: You may find some of the variations and some of the lessons difficult because you haven’t yet learned the body awareness to perform them well. Practice these lessons slowly, making sure you don’t force yourself to achieve something for which you haven’t established a feeling or a felt sense. Don’t compete with yourself.

Perform these movements only a few times. There is no advantage to doing many repetitions of the same movements. Many people find that they can feel more

after four or five repetitions of a movement. If you do the same movement too much and for too long, however, your attention is likely to wander and your awareness will go out the window.

By practicing some of the lessons you find more difficult, you will increase your body awareness and these lessons will become easy.

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Advanced Variation on Lesson 3: USING YOUR ABDOMEN TO RELEASE YOUR BACK

• Intention: To create maximum strength in your core abdominal muscles and release the back from any habitual stiffness.

• Starting Position: Lie on your back, leaving your pelvis on the floor. Bring your knees above yourself. Interlace your fingers and put them behind your neck.

1. Slowly draw your elbows and knees toward each other. Some people are able to touch their elbows to their knees. If you’re touching, remain with your elbows touching your knees. If you’re very flexible, you might be able to grasp the outside of your knees with your elbows.

Otherwise, and for most people, find a comfortable relationship between your elbows and knees and then imagine that you are supporting a stick between each elbow and knee.

2. Without changing the configuration you’re in, can you very slowly roll a small distance from side to side? Go as long as you want, but make sure you can still breathe easily!

3. Rest on your back with your arms and legs long. Feel how your body contacts the floor now compared to the beginning of the lesson.

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