Awareness Through Movement #116

Widen the legs and erect the back – DISTRIBUTE THE WORK

This one is a doozy. Asanga and Vita, I recommend you give it a go, do what you can and the rest in your imagination because this lesson could answer questions.

Simply being able to sit with legs wide.

it could feel like your feet are doing this!

Moshe calls on us to really engage the back muscles with this one, to assist us sitting upright, or erect as he says.

The thorocolumbar fascia which connects the waist to our upper and lower bodies is what will lengthen and stretch during this lesson. When Moshe says to contract the back muscles, imagine yourself pulling this area toward the centre to assist you sit upright.

And really appreciate the rests in between.

Something else you might like to consider is the quadrant, something I learned from Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen… she mentions it often and bringing attention to this area has made a big difference in the way I sit.

We have four bones at the base of the torso, the two sit bones left and right, the pubic bone to the front and the tailbone at the back. The greater the distance between these four points, the more stable we sit.. or connect with the earth. And it feels really rude, well for me anyway.

The image above also shows a quadrant, let’s see what happens when we give these areas some attention.