Awareness Through Movement #411

Lifting and pressing on the floor - PRESSING

Vita, and Asanga I think you’ll love this one. It’s a lovely, gentle exploration with weight, pressing, lengthening with the assistance of an imaginary practitioner.

Although it could seem easy, Grok says the benefits are numerous:

• Quality Over Quantity:

  • The lesson’s focus on small, precise movements aligns with Feldenkrais’s principle of refining movement through awareness, not force. By prioritizing placement and lengthening, the body learns to move efficiently using its strongest components.

• Imagination as a Tool:

  • Imaginary practitioners (imagining someone lifting a limb) taps into Feldenkrais’s use of mental rehearsal to bypass habitual tension. This engages the nervous system to optimize muscle recruitment, favouring larger movers like the spinal extensors over smaller stabilizers.

• Skeletal Support and Connectivity:

  • Pressing into the floor uses the skeleton as a lever system, supported by major muscle groups. This mirrors Feldenkrais’s idea that bones transmit force while muscles guide, fostering a sense of the body as an interconnected structure.

• Rest and Integration:

  • Frequent rests allow the nervous system to process new movement patterns, a key Feldenkrais strategy. This reinforces learning, letting the body adapt to using larger muscles and bones habitually.

  This lesson, through its segmental exploration and whole-body integration, embodies Feldenkrais’s philosophy of effortless, intelligent movement. By leveraging the largest muscles, gluteals, latissimus dorsi and bones, femur, spine, it minimizes strain and maximizes efficiency. Ontologically, it invites a redefinition of the self as a dynamic, interconnected system, where intention and awareness shape physical potential. The body flattens and lengthens by the end, reflecting a newfound ease born from skeletal clarity and muscular harmony.

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  the human body is a work of art!