Participant Communications Log — Spring 2026 Study Group Montreal

Created 2026-03-19

Status active

Tags participant-communicationsspring-2026study-groupmontreal

Participant Communications Log

Spring 2026 Study Group Montreal

Cohort-specific participant exchanges. Each entry has its own frontmatter block capturing channel, direction, language, and status. For policy and tone reference, see Communications Guide.

Cohort Emails

All cohort-wide emails are in a single file: Cohort Emails — Spring 2026

#	Email	Send by	Status
1	Welcome and First Assignment	April 2	sent — final copy / `HTML`
2	Reminder Before Session 2	Wed, April 8	sent
3	Reminder Before Session 3	Wed, April 15	draft
4	Reminder Before Session 4	Wed, April 22	draft
5	Reminder Before Session 5	Wed, April 29	draft
6	Reminder Before Session 6	Wed, May 6	draft
7	Before Final Session	Wed, May 13	draft

2026-04-02 — Group Post: Session Schedule and Preparation Guide

date: 2026-04-02
channel: group-activity-feed
direction: outbound
language_out: en
status: posted
topics:
  - session-schedule
  - studio-numbers
  - preparation-guide
cohort: spring-2026

Group activity feed post with full session schedule (dates, times, studio numbers) and link to the preparation guide page. Posted immediately after Email 01. Full copy in Cohort Emails — Spring 2026.

2026-04-04 — Group Post: Waiver and Questionnaire Reminder

date: 2026-04-04
channel: group-activity-feed
direction: outbound
language_out: en
status: posted
topics:
  - participation-waiver
  - participation-questionnaire
  - session-1-reminder
cohort: spring-2026

Morning-of reminder before Session 1. Follow-up to Email 01, asking participants to complete the participation waiver (required) and questionnaire (encouraged) before arriving. Full copy in Cohort Emails — Spring 2026.

2026-03-31 — James Murray — Session 2 Timing Confirmation & Primer Start

date: 2026-03-31
participant: James Murray
channel: email
direction: inbound
language_in: en
language_out: en
status: responded
topics:
  - session-2-logistics
  - primer-start
  - proto-studio
cohort: spring-2026

Pre-enrollment context: James came in via the contact form on 2026-03-30. Full inquiry thread, fit assessment, pricing exchange, and registration documented in James Murray — Contact Inquiry.

Fit assessment summary: Strong fit across all dimensions. Actor/writer, multi-sport background, cross-country skiing 3x/week, weekly 60-min mobility/flexibility work, biweekly somatic therapy. Registered 2026-03-31 at full price ($205 USD).

Session 2 (April 11) logistics: James works remotely and will be working from Proto Studio’s common area that day. He’ll arrive ~11:15 AM, work around the session, attend 1:10–~2:40 PM (leaving 5–10 min early to be online by 2:45), and depart ~3:15 PM. Wifi availability at Proto Studio to be confirmed.

Original message (2026-03-31):

Thanks Patrick,

I have time this week so should be able to start tomorrow.

The timing for the 11th has worked out pretty well. The safest thing for me to do would be to arrive at the studio around 11:15 as I have to be online at 11:30 til about noon and then again from 12:30 to 1. I will be able to join the class on time and will have to leave about 5 or 10 minutes before the end as I have to be back online at 2:45. At 3:15, I will probably pack up and go as I have 45 minute to get home before the next one.

James

Response sent (2026-03-31):

Hi James,

That timing works well. Being there for the full session minus a few minutes at the end is no issue at all. As mentioned, we post a detailed session summary to the cohort forum after each session, so anything you miss will be covered there.

Good to hear you’re starting the Primer tomorrow. See you Saturday.

Patrick

2026-04-08 — James Murray — Proto Studio Workspace Incident

date: 2026-04-08
participant: James Murray
channel: email
direction: inbound
language_in: en
language_out: en
status: draft
topics:
  - proto-studio
  - venue-relationship
  - boundary-setting
  - session-2-logistics
cohort: spring-2026

James emailed Proto Studio directly (proto@protostudio.ca, CC events@baseworks.com) asking to use the space from 9 AM to nearly 5 PM as a dedicated workspace on April 11, claiming Patrick had been “asking for a quiet space” for him. This misrepresents what was communicated. Patrick never contacted Proto Studio on James’s behalf — the only outreach was to confirm wifi availability. Patrick had consistently offered staying home as the better option given James’s work commitments.

Two responses drafted: (1) text to Nicholas (Proto Studio co-founder) clarifying the situation, (2) direct email to James setting a boundary.

Full thread, context, and drafted responses: James Murray — Contact Inquiry (Follow-Up 5)

2026-04-19 — Noémie Normandin — Assignment Progress Check-in

date: 2026-04-19
participant: Noémie Normandin
channel: platform-dm
direction: outbound
language_in: fr
language_out: fr
status: sent
response_sent: 2026-04-19 ~23:15 ET
topics:
  - assignment-progress
  - primer-completion
  - in-person-vs-online-balance
  - session-3-contribution
cohort: spring-2026

Context: Patrick-initiated follow-up. Extends existing DM thread Noémie DM thread (5 messages, 2026-03-14 to 2026-04-09). The new message appreciates Noémie’s Session 3 contribution (pain dissolving / sensory calibration), notes she’s currently about three lessons into Segment 3 with the rest of Session 3’s assignment still open, observes she’s been working more from intuition than from Primer content, and flags that the Session 4 assignment is the largest of the program. Offers scheduling tips as done for Caitlin.

Attendance context (see Noémie’s profile): attended Sessions 1, 2, and 3. Session 2 attendance was ad-hoc — she made it work despite an Apr 8 DM saying she might miss it.

English source version (reference only — French version below is what was sent):

Hi Noémie,

Just wanted to follow up after Saturday. It was good to have you in the room. Your observation about arriving from a physically demanding work week, and finding that what first felt like discomfort settled into something you could work with once you engaged the pattern work, opened up one of the richer discussions of the session. Asia’s framing of it as sensory calibration landed directly because you brought that experience in. Your curiosity throughout the session was clear too, and those kinds of contributions add real value to the group.

We’ve also noticed that the assignments haven’t been completed on time for the sessions so far. From what we can see, you’re currently about three lessons into Segment 3, which means the rest of the Session 3 assignment is still open.

It was also noticeable in your practice on Saturday that you were working more from your own intuitive sense of what the material might be asking for, rather than from the specific content we’ve been going through in the Primer. That makes sense given your movement background. With Feldenkrais, contact, martial arts, and so on, there’s a natural pull to meet new forms through what you already know. That’s a real strength in many contexts, but this program is designed a bit differently. A lot of thought has gone into the way the Primer content and the in-person sessions feed each other, so that everyone in the room arrives with the same fundamental backdrop and we can build from there as a group. When that shared ground isn’t in place, the in-person work can’t quite land the way it’s meant to, for you personally and for the group as a whole.

If what you’re really looking for is primarily in-person practice with direct feedback and adjustments, that’s a valid preference, and there are other ways we could work together around that. Within the structure of this program specifically, though, the online assignments aren’t optional. They’re what allows the in-person sessions to do what they’re designed to do.

The assignment for next Saturday (Segment 4) is the longest of the program, at about 87 minutes of new material. Combined with the lessons still open from Segment 3, that’s a real amount to get through in a week. Giving yourself some time each day to work through it should make it manageable.

It would also really help to read through the session summaries we’ve been posting to the forum in full. Each one covers what we practiced and discussed, the forms introduced, the foci, and the specific questions that came up. They fill in a lot of what the Primer content sets up.

If fitting the assignments into your schedule is the main challenge and you’d like some practical tips on how to approach it, just let us know. We’re happy to share what’s worked for others. The deeper the material lands, the more each session can give you, so we want to support you in getting there.

Looking forward to Saturday.

Patrick

French version (sent via platform DM, 2026-04-19 ~23:15 ET; will sync on next cron):

Bonsoir Noémie,

Un petit suivi après samedi. C’était bien de vous avoir avec nous. Votre observation sur le fait d’arriver après une semaine de travail physiquement exigeante et de constater que ce qui semblait d’abord de l’inconfort s’est transformé en quelque chose avec lequel vous pouviez travailler, une fois engagée dans le travail des patterns, a ouvert l’une des discussions les plus riches de la session. La façon dont Asia a cadré cela autour de la calibration sensorielle a résonné directement parce que vous avez apporté cette expérience. Votre curiosité tout au long de la session était également bien présente, et ce type de contributions ajoute une réelle valeur au groupe.

Nous avons également remarqué que les assignments n’ont pas été complétés à temps pour les sessions jusqu’à maintenant. D’après ce que nous voyons, vous avez complété environ trois leçons du Segment 3, ce qui veut dire que le reste de l’assignment pour la Session 3 est toujours à faire.

Nous avons aussi remarqué dans votre pratique samedi que vous travailliez davantage à partir de votre propre sens intuitif de ce que la matière pourrait demander, plutôt qu’à partir du contenu spécifique que nous avons couvert dans le Primer. Cela se comprend très bien étant donné votre parcours de mouvement. Avec Feldenkrais, le contact, les arts martiaux, etc., il y a une tendance naturelle à aborder les nouvelles formes à travers ce que vous connaissez déjà. C’est une réelle force dans bien des contextes, mais ce programme est conçu un peu différemment. Beaucoup de réflexion est allée dans la façon dont le contenu du Primer et les sessions en personne s’alimentent mutuellement, pour que tout le monde arrive dans la salle avec le même socle fondamental et que nous puissions construire à partir de là en tant que groupe. Quand ce terrain commun n’est pas en place, le travail en personne n’arrive pas à prendre de la même façon, autant pour vous personnellement que pour la dynamique de groupe.

Si ce que vous recherchez avant tout est de la pratique en personne avec du feedback direct et des ajustements, c’est une préférence tout à fait valable, et il y a d’autres façons dont nous pourrions travailler ensemble dans cette optique. Cela dit, dans le cadre de ce programme spécifiquement, les assignments en ligne ne sont pas optionnels. Ils sont ce qui permet aux sessions en personne de faire ce pour quoi elles ont été conçues.

L’assignment pour samedi prochain (Segment 4) est le plus long du programme, à environ 87 minutes de nouveau contenu. Combiné avec les leçons encore à faire du Segment 3, cela représente une bonne quantité de matière à passer en une semaine. Vous donner un peu de temps chaque jour pour travailler le contenu devrait rendre la chose gérable.

Il serait aussi vraiment utile de lire en entier les résumés des sessions que nous publions sur le forum. Chacun couvre ce que nous avons pratiqué et discuté, les formes introduites, les foci, et les questions spécifiques qui ont été soulevées. Ils complètent beaucoup de ce que le contenu du Primer met en place.

Si intégrer les assignments dans votre horaire est le principal défi et que vous aimeriez quelques conseils pratiques sur la façon de l’aborder, faites-nous signe. Nous serions heureux de partager ce qui a fonctionné pour d’autres. Plus la matière s’ancre profondément, plus chaque session pourra vous apporter, alors nous voulons vous soutenir pour y arriver.

Au plaisir de vous voir samedi.

Patrick

2026-04-26 — Noémie Normandin — Session 4 Summary written with her in mind

date: 2026-04-26
participant: Noémie Normandin
channel: session-summary
direction: outbound
language_in: fr
language_out: en, fr
status: drafted
topics:
  - session-summary
  - assignment-engagement
  - pace-of-cohort
  - intensity-modification
cohort: spring-2026

Context: The Session 4 summary’s Q&A entry on Noémie’s pain-after-practice question was deliberately reworked so that the response addresses her situation while staying generalized and supportive enough to apply to anyone in the cohort facing similar constraints. Patrick will translate the summary into French specifically so Noémie can read the framing in her first language.

Background. Noémie raised a question in Session 4 about whether the forms could “wake up” pain after practice (her neck blocked up on the Sunday after a previous session). In the same session she also reported that the in-room experience felt liberating. The combination of the two reports, against the backdrop of the 2026-04-19 progress check-in, surfaced a recurring pattern: the in-session experience and the post-session experience are both being read through her existing movement vocabulary (Feldenkrais, contact, martial arts, handstand and dynamic-fitness work) rather than through the Primer’s framing, because the in-between assignment work isn’t getting done.

Captions clarification. During Session 4 Patrick walked Noémie through where the closed-caption toggle is on the video player, in response to a question she’d raised in the cohort Q&A. After the session she acknowledged that she already knew the captions were there and that the actual barrier to study isn’t access but availability: she’s not awake enough to take in new content in the morning, and is too tired in the evening. The captions answer in the original Q&A draft was therefore removed from the published summary, and the supportive framing was rewritten to acknowledge schedule and energy as the real constraint rather than language access.

What was added to the Session 4 summary. A two-paragraph addition to Noémie’s Q&A entry, generalized to “anyone whose schedule and energy levels through the week are making the in-between work hard to keep up with”:

A report about how the body felt after a session is interpretable in proportion to the engagement that surrounds it. The Smart Revisits, the assignment work, and the forum threads between sessions are where the IM framing actually gets applied and where each participant develops a reflective relationship with the material on their own terms.
For somebody whose physical background sits in dynamic-fitness modalities, handstand work, weightlifting, or other practices oriented around free physical expression, that prior vocabulary is loud, and it tends to map itself onto post-session sensation by default.
The new vocabulary the Primer is loading is what eventually gives the experience something specific to be measured against. Until that work has been done, neither the participant nor the cohort has a shared frame of reference for the question.
The forum is the surface built for that reflective layer; the in-session Q&A doesn’t have time for it.
The flip side: when schedule and energy across a week don’t allow for the in-between work, the in-session experience and the participant’s own perception of it inevitably reflect what hasn’t been loaded ahead. Even a small amount of work each day, sized to what the week actually allows rather than to an ideal version of it, brings the in-room experience into focus against the framing it’s designed to be received through.

Tone. Supportive rather than corrective. Names the dynamic-fitness/handstand/free-expression background pattern directly without singling Noémie out. Frames the time/energy constraint as a fact about the week rather than a personal shortfall. The intent is that Noémie can read the summary, recognize herself in it, and have something concrete to relate her own experience back to.

Next step. French translation of the full session summary will be produced after the English version is approved by Asia. The French version is what Noémie is most likely to read end-to-end. Asia’s review may add or adjust framing in this section.

2026-04-19 — Caitlin Bartlett — Session 3 Absence (Travel)

date: 2026-04-19
participant: Caitlin Bartlett
channel: email
direction: inbound
language_in: en
language_out: en
status: responded
response_sent: 2026-04-19 22:45 ET
topics:
  - session-3-absence
  - assignment-catchup
  - travel
cohort: spring-2026

Context: Response to Email 03 (sent 2026-04-16, reminder before Session 3). Caitlin let Asia know she wouldn’t make Session 3 (2026-04-18) — a trip out of Montreal ran longer than planned. She had also not completed Assignment 3 (Segment 3.9–3.14, ~43 min). Assignment 4 (Segment 4, ~87 min) is the largest of the program.

Original message (2026-04-19, to Asia):

Hi Asia,

I’m actually going to be away this Saturday - a trip out of Montreal is now a bit longer than I’d initially planned, my original plan was to be back in time for the session.

I’ll do my best to catch-up with everyone next week!

Caitlin

Response from Asia (sent 2026-04-19 22:45 ET):

Hi Caitlin,

Thanks for the heads-up, and no worries at all.

We did notice that you haven’t had a chance to complete the Session 3 assignment yet (the rest of Segment 3, around 43 minutes). We’d recommend taking the time to go through it, and to read through the Session 3 summary we just posted to the forum before moving on to Session 4. The summary covers what we went over yesterday: Torsion, the V-Sit, Fixing-Separating-Isolating in the Lunge Extension, the Square Cross Inflection, and the Structure focus. That’ll help bridge what you missed.

https://practice.baseworks.com/groups/montreal-study-group-spring-2026-cohort/forum/discussion/session-3-summary-torsion-v-sit-and-square-cross-inflection/#post-22217

The Session 4 assignment is the longest of the program, at about 87 minutes of new material. Together with the Session 3 catch-up, that’s roughly two hours in total. Since it now falls into a single week rather than two, we know it may put a bit of strain on your schedule. Giving yourself some time each day to work through the material should make it manageable.

If it’d help, we’re happy to share some practical tips for fitting the assignments around a busy schedule. Just let us know. Staying current with the material really does shape the experience, both for you individually and for the rhythm of the group, so we want to support that however’s useful.

Looking forward to seeing you next Saturday.

Asia

2026-03-19 — Noémie — Session Schedule & Travel Planning

date: 2026-03-19
participant: Noémie
channel: platform-dm
direction: inbound
language_in: fr
language_out: en
status: responded
topics:
  - schedule
  - logistics
  - pre-program
cohort: spring-2026

Original message:

Bonjour Patrick Merci beaucoup pour votre message. Je suis très heureuse de faire partie de la cohorte et de rejoindre le programme, j’ai vraiment hâte de commencer et d’explorer le contenu avec vous et le groupe. J’aurais une petite question logistique : pourriez-vous me confirmer les dates prévues pour le présentiel à Montréal ? Étant basée à Sherbrooke, j’aimerais pouvoir anticiper mon déplacement ainsi que l’hébergement. Merci d’avance pour votre aide, et au plaisir de se rencontrer très prochainement Noémie

Context:

Pre-program inquiry; cohort group not yet open on the platform
Noémie is based in Sherbrooke — travel and accommodation planning is her reason for asking
Schedule is on the event page now; full logistics will be posted to the cohort group approximately 5–6 days before the first session, once registration closes
Enrolled participants receive a platform notification automatically when the cohort group is updated

Response sent:

Hi Noémie,

Great to hear from you, and we’re really glad to have you joining the cohort.

You can find the current schedule on the program page: https://baseworks.com/event/montreal-study-group-spring-2026/

We typically close registration about a week before the first session, and at that point we’ll post the full logistics inside the cohort group here: https://practice.baseworks.com/groups/montreal-study-group-spring-2026-cohort/

As long as you have notifications enabled on the platform, you’ll get an alert as soon as it’s up.

Looking forward to meeting you soon.

Patrick

2026-04-21 — Nathalie Dore: Forum Reply (Primer Community) + Neuropsychology Day Question

Channel: Primer Community forum (practice.baseworks.com) Direction: Inbound → Outbound Language: English Status: Replied Topic: Never mind I got my answer in the video…reclining transition (topic-id 22224) Synced note: Forum topic in vault

Context:

Nathalie posted in the Primer Community forum about Lesson 5.5 (Key Points: Reclining Transition). Original question was “why do you love this, it’s hard,” and by the time we saw it she’d already updated the title to “Never mind I got my answer in the video,” though the body still asked the “why” and mentioned she’d try the hip-flexor/abs tip.
Separately the same day, she posted a group update in the Montreal Study Group 2026 Spring Cohort group asking about Neuropsychology Day — she’d registered on Eventbrite and didn’t see Baseworks listed on the program. She deleted that post before we could reply in-thread.
Combined both into a single forum reply rather than splitting across channels.

Inbound (forum):

You mention here that you love this, why? It’s hard! I will try the tip to reduce tension in my hip flexors and abs.

Inbound (deleted group post, paraphrased from email notification):

Brenda Milner Conference Question — Hello, I signed up for the May 11th 11:30 am to 5 pm conference. I do not see you on the program. Is this correct?

Response sent:

Hi @Nathalie,

Glad you found the answer in the video. The hip flexor and abs tension you’re noticing is a useful signal: in Suspension, if you’re working hard there, the knees are usually a bit too high or too far forward. A small adjustment (knees slightly closer to the chest, or feet slightly lower) tends to reduce the effort without changing the quality of the position.

On why we love it: partly it’s how fluidly it slots between forms, but more than that it’s the interplay it sets up between controlling the movement and using the weight of the limbs. As you get used to finding the line over the center of gravity through the transition, the whole thing starts to feel less like holding and more like floating. Suspension and Reclining Transition also stay entirely active with a minimal point of contact, which is what makes them useful as diagnostic positions and why they get inserted so often between forms.

Also, we saw your post about Neuropsychology Day before it came down. The Eventbrite page doesn’t list every presenter. There are close to 25 to 30 presentations across the morning and afternoon from researchers, post-doctoral students, and other professionals. Ours is scheduled between 2:30 and 5:00 PM. The full day runs from 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM and includes the Brenda Milner lecture, and we’d recommend checking out the entire event if you have the time.

Patrick

2026-04-23 — Elinor Fueter — Assignment Progress Check-in

date: 2026-04-23
participant: Elinor Fueter
channel: email
direction: outbound
language_in: en
language_out: en
status: sent
sent_at: 2026-04-23 14:15 ET
subject: "Quick Check-in before Saturday's session"
topics:
  - assignment-progress
  - primer-completion
  - program-structure-synergy
  - session-3-contribution
cohort: spring-2026

Context: Patrick-initiated follow-up. Sent as email rather than platform DM because Elinor did not respond to or acknowledge the earlier welcome DM (2026-03-19), raising concern that platform notifications may be off or messages not being read. This is not a reply to anything she wrote — it’s a proactive check-in ahead of Saturday’s session.

Attendance / progress context (see Elinor’s profile): completed the Squat Experience form (2026-04-03) and the Forms segment feedback (2026-04-08). Last week’s segment feedback hasn’t come in, and the longer assignment ahead of this Saturday’s session hasn’t been started. Contributed the pelvic-floor activation question in Session 3 (2026-04-18) that prompted Asia’s extended response on Distributed Activation. Background: professional dancer, cross-disciplinary experience including Qi Gong and other mindfulness practices.

Framing: lighter calibration of the same pattern used with Noémie on 2026-04-19. Uses the canonical program-structure synergy framing plus the experienced-mover caveat. See the catch-up DM pattern memory for the structure.

Sent email:

Subject: Quick Check-in before Saturday’s session

Hi Elinor,

A quick note before Saturday. We noticed last week’s segment feedback hasn’t come in yet, and the longer assignment ahead of this Saturday’s session hasn’t been started.

The questions you’ve been bringing into the sessions add real value to the collaborative dynamic we’re building with everyone, and we’re genuinely glad to have your perspective in the group. The pelvic-floor question in Session 3 is a good example of the kind of cross-disciplinary contribution that benefits the whole group.

Within the structure of this program, the between-session assignments aren’t meant to be interpreted as optional. They integrate directly with each in-person session and are a very important synergistic aspect of the work, both for you personally and for the dynamic in the room with the other participants.

One thing we often notice, when we work with people who carry extensive movement experience, is a natural tendency to approach new material through the frameworks they already know. In many contexts, that’s a real strength. With Baseworks specifically, what we’re sharing is uniquely distinct from other disciplines, and it asks to be looked at through its own critical and distinct lens. Once that lens is in place, what you learn here can transfer back meaningfully into whatever else you’re working on, but the distinction has to be established first. The Primer content and the Saturdays are designed to build that distinction together, which is why the between-session work is as important as the in-person sessions.

We know the weeks get busy. The assignments are set up so that twenty minutes a day, or even less, is enough to move through them alongside everything else. Reading the session summaries on the forum is also a real help: each one covers the forms, the foci, and the specific questions that came up, and they fill in much of what the Primer material sets up.

If fitting this into your schedule is the main challenge and you’d like some practical tips, let us know. We’re happy to share what’s worked for others.

I’m reaching out directly because I think you’ll get a lot out of this program, and the structure we’ve created is what makes it unique.

Looking forward to Saturday.

Patrick

2026-04-24 — James Murray — Acute Gout Flare / Session 4 Attendance

date: 2026-04-24
participant: James Murray
channel: email
direction: inbound
language_in: en
language_out: en
status: responded
topics:
  - health
  - acute-gout-flare
  - session-4-attendance
  - intensity-modification
  - logistics
cohort: spring-2026

Context: James emailed late afternoon asking whether he should attend Session 4 (2026-04-25) given an acute gout flare in his right ankle. Two ER visits earlier in the week (Tuesday + Wednesday). Working through the second half of Segment 4 today, V-Sit first position was barely possible (~10s), Z-Lunges expected to be out of reach, and even leg raises with knees bent at 90° were too intense. Right ankle at ~50% mobility with considerable swelling, can walk without pain but with a marked limp. Motorcycle to studio not viable; Métro + walk from Laurier station also marginal.

Course progress (per practice.baseworks.com): 39/79 lessons in the Primer, status in_progress, mid-Segment 4. Consistent with the email.

Background on his condition: gout is an inflammatory arthritis driven by monosodium urate crystal deposition in the joint, with an NLRP3-inflammasome / IL-1β-mediated acute response. The right ankle is the second most common flare site after the first MTP joint. The joint isn’t structurally damaged — recovery typically 7-10 days as the inflammation resolves. Day 3 trajectory (50% mobility, weight-bearing returning) is consistent with normal flare resolution.

Practice implications: the ankle joint and surrounding soft tissue are the only compromised structure. Anything loading the right ankle through dorsi/plantarflexion or inversion/eversion under bodyweight is going to provoke pain and may prolong inflammation. Everything else (upper body, shoulder depression, ascent qualities, distributed activation, micro-movements, the contralateral leg, focus work, perceptual/discussion components of the session) remains fully available. Roughly 70-80% of Segment 4 is accessible without ankle load. Logistics safety note: rear brake on a motorcycle is operated by the right foot via plantarflexion — not safe to ride at 50% mobility.

Original message (2026-04-24, subject: “Tomorrow”):

Hi,

I have not had a great week, health wise. Half a day Tuesday and then again on Wednesday in the E.R. for two separate problems. The first one, a nasty attack of Gout, in my right ankle, is making my presence tomorrow a day of decision. I’m only getting to the second half of segment 4 today, practicing Z-Lunges has been out of the question although, left leg may be possible tomorrow. I could barely hold V-Sit today in the first position for maybe 10 seconds and even doing what I thought was the absolute minimum for leg raises with my knees bent at 90 degrees, my breathing slowed but it was too intense for me.

My right ankle can bear my weight now; for 2 days it couldn’t. I can walk without pain. I might be at 50% mobility in the right ankle today. There is still considerable swelling.

Motorcycle travel to the studio is far from sure right now. While I can walk, the lack of mobility means a considerable limp so it would take quite awhile to walk from the laurier Métro.

Based on your plan for tomorrow and given my considerable limitations, do you think it will be worth my while to attend, if I feel up to it?

Thanks,

James

Response sent (2026-04-24):

Hi James,

Thanks for the heads-up, and I’m sorry you’ve been dealing with this. A gout flare in the ankle is genuinely one of the more painful things a joint can do, and two ER visits in two days speaks to how acute it’s been.

I want to address the practice side first, because there’s quite a bit to say.

What you’re describing is consistent with an active flare. The reason V-Sit and Z-Lunges felt the way they did isn’t a regression in your practice. It’s that those forms load the ankle joint directly, and an actively inflamed ankle simply isn’t going to tolerate that load. The same applies to the leg raises with knees bent at 90 degrees: the lower leg is still acting as a lever and the ankle is still being recruited, even when the bend looks like a substantial reduction in intensity. Your body is doing the right thing by telling you to stop.

This is exactly the kind of situation that intensity modification is designed for, and it’s worth widening how you’re holding that principle. Modifying intensity isn’t only about scaling effort up or down within a form. The deeper application is figuring out how to keep practicing when something in the body is temporarily unavailable. With a flare like this, the right ankle is essentially out of the chain for now. What’s still fully available is most of the rest of the system: the entire upper body, the shoulder depression you’ve been working on for weeks, the distributed activation qualities across the limbs, the micro-movements, the structural focus, the seated and reclining work where the ankle can be unloaded or supported, and almost the entirety of the focus work running through Segment 4.

Coming in tomorrow and practicing only what’s accessible to you is a perfectly valid way to attend, and we’d encourage it. The standing forms that load the right ankle (the Lunge, the Squat, anything that puts weight through that foot) we’ll work around once we see what the ankle is doing on the day. The V-Sit can be approached without trying to extend the legs straight or hold the second position: its core qualities, sit-bone grounding, ascent of the spine, shoulder depression, distributed activation through the arms and the left leg, are all there for you to engage with. Reclining work can be done with the knees bent and feet supported. Most of the discussion and feedback components of the session don’t ask anything of the ankle at all.

On how we think about a condition like this more generally: the first priority is rest for the area that’s actively inflamed. Load there will aggravate, and aggravation extends recovery. That part is straightforward. Less obvious, but something we’ve observed consistently with students over many years, is that continuing to engage the practice with the parts of the body that aren’t compromised is something we’d actively encourage rather than pause. We’re not suggesting that moving the upper body or the unaffected leg is going to heal the ankle directly. What we have seen is that stopping practice entirely whenever one area becomes unavailable interrupts something that takes time to build: the perceptual sensitivity, the calibration, the developing relationship with how the body organizes itself in movement. Baseworks is a unified process that asks you to keep refining that relationship across whatever your personal condition allows on a given day. Continuing within those constraints keeps that development active. It may also support recovery in indirect ways (improved circulation, sustained nervous-system engagement, the overall settling effect of practicing at all), but the central point isn’t a claim about healing. It’s that the practice continues to develop while the ankle recovers on its own terms.

The same applies to the online practice between sessions: there’s no reason to stop it. Continue with whatever doesn’t ask anything of the right ankle, leave the parts that do for later, and ease back into those as the inflammation settles.

On the motorcycle: the rear brake is operated by your right foot, and at 50% ankle mobility with pain on load, that’s not a foot you can rely on for an emergency stop. I wouldn’t ride it in this state. There are a few alternatives that would skip the walk from Laurier altogether. If you have a car, there’s parking nearby. A Communauto or Leo car share would work the same way if either is accessible to you. A taxi or Uber straight to the studio door is the simplest option. Any of these gets you there without the limp.

If even that isn’t workable and you’d rather rest the ankle entirely, the session summary will cover everything in detail, and we can pick up from there next week. There’s no pressure to force the trip if it’s going to set the recovery back.

Whatever you decide, take care of the ankle first. If you do come, just let us know on arrival what range you’re working with on the day, and we’ll calibrate from there.

Patrick