AY13 - LiftTHYbutt - with recording

The largest muscles of our bodes are the glutes, and the largest bones are what we call a ‘pelvis’. From the Feldenkrais way of moving… these two largest pieces of your body are designed to do the heavy work, that’s what they’re built for! It’s one of the distinctions of this Method that you might hear during the lessons, although it’s rarely put in writing.

If you think about it, this way of moving makes sense, in some industries it’s called the ‘tail effect’, the torso wags the tail rather than the tail wagging the torso. For instance, the big body of the peacock carries, or drags, a long tail and shakes it out using the chest, legs and spine. The feathers are smaller, narrower finer toward the end, and this shaking from the bulk allows the decorative, fine frilly bits to do their job - garner attention.

The same is true of us.

buttocks, muscles, bones, pelvis, sitting

Our fingers and toes are primarily sensory tools, yet we keep our feet blocked off with shoes, in a clump, and our hands do an enormous amount of work preparing food, eating, lifting, carrying, typing, communicating. We’re out of balance. Our legs serve to shuffle us around moving backward and forward, rarely now do they move sideways.

Us humans have many things reversed, finance, food, lifestyles, politics, economics, technology… many systems are upside down, topsy-turvy and the way we use our bodies is amongst that list. Somehow the most common way people move replicates that of a cardboard cutout, rectangular torso’s with lines drawn on us to start and end different sections and separate parts, little sticks called arms and legs dangling from four holes. Those little sticks do all the work, leaving the torso stiff and stuck.

If you’ve ever seen how DNA moves, spiralling rounded, curvy, flowing.. have you ever thought that perhaps, maybe, what if… that’s the way we’re meant to move??

fractals, movement, dna, universe

You may have already experienced what happens during these lessons when your attention shifts to involve more of the self…. how the weight is distributed to assist the parts that are understandably aching. Well, in tonight’s lesson we hand the glutes back their job and explore from all the angles how they can influence the rest of the body.

You could think of this one like you are doing a jigsaw puzzle exploring the ways to bring those big pieces together, the hip region being the biggest.

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Nick came to the lesson after a hard days physical work and set the pace for this buttock-y marathon - you’ll notice it’s longer than the other lessons we’ve done so far. Yeah, that box of chocolates, some take longer to digest.

IF you’re time poor, then plan on doing half the lesson now and half at another time. IF you’re complaining of having a flat butt from sitting on it most of the day (me!), be cheeky and reorganise your time to fit this lesson in. Take a photo before and after - think of it as a 42 minute and nine second butt lift!