Session 1 Summary (4/04/26): Foundations & First Contact

Session 1 Summary: Foundations & First Contact

Spring 2026 Smart Movement Study Program | April 4, 2026

Assignment Reference

This session corresponded with the completion of Assignment 1 (Segments 1-2: Lessons 1.1-2.12) from the Baseworks Primer, covering orientation, the 6 principles, the key concepts (macro and micro movements, and form), and the first four forms. See: 2026 (Spring) Study Group Montreal

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Session Overview

The first in-person session of the Spring 2026 Study Group brought together a group with notably diverse physical backgrounds, from classical ballet and theatrical stage work to endurance sports, somatic therapy, and massage practice. We began with extended introductions, giving everyone an opportunity to share their backgrounds and what brought them to Baseworks. This was followed by a brief platform walkthrough covering the group feed, discussion forum, and how to use tagged forum posts for organized questions. We then moved into a practical introduction to four foundational forms: Squat, Star Form, Star Tilt, and Simple Cross Inflection, with Reclining Transition used as a linking movement between seated forms.

Because this was the first session, the emphasis was on experiencing the forms rather than achieving precision. The goal was not to get everything right but to begin noticing — noticing where activation occurs, where fatigue sets in, and how the body responds to unfamiliar movement patterns.

Key Concepts We Explored

Distributed Activation. Distributed Activation is one of the key principles in the core distinctive features of the Baseworks Method. It is a technique where we try to contract as many muscles as possible, at a low level, in any movement, which is achieved through simultaneously performing various movements that result in isometric contractions. This was specifically explored using the Star Form as an example. While there is nothing particularly difficult about “performing” this movement, the form acts as an “empty shell” or a container for the Baseworks movements patterns, such as “pulling the legs away,” “drawing the shoulders down,” “extending the spine,” “keeping the weight on the heels,” “stacking the ribcage and pelvis,” “spreading the fingers,” “extending the arms from the shoulder,” and so on. The simultaneous application of these movement patterns creates the state of Distributed Activation. This makes Star Form a perfect introductory practice task to train the Distributed Activation technique.

Distributed Activation vs “Core” Prompted by a question about abdominal activation, we drew a distinction between Distributed Activation and conventional core activation. In many physical practices, there is an instruction to “engage the core” or “draw navel to spine.” In Baseworks, we don’t encourage any deliberate activation of the abdominal wall. Instead, activation emerges as a byproduct of simultaneous engagement across the body — pulling the legs apart, drawing the shoulders down, spreading the fingers. When these actions happen together, the muscles of the torso activate automatically without needing to be targeted. Asia explained that pulling the stomach in, as you would when activating the core, actually needs to be partially undone in order to reach the state of Distributed Activation, so it’s better not to do it at all.

Patrick also explained the Distributed Activation through a mechanism related to breathing: rather than using deep breathing to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and drive blood flow to all muscles simultaneously (which also stimulates the secretion of stress hormones), Distributed Activation stimulates blood flow directly to each contracted muscle (also via the sympathetic nervous system, but a different, non-systemic mechanism, without the systemic release of hormones). This keeps the nervous system in a more neutral state — not in fight-or-flight mode, not necessarily in parasympathetic mode, but in a state where we can better regulate and understand our own responses.

Natural Breathing. Noémie asked about when to breathe in and out during forms. Patrick’s answer was direct: we don’t encourage any directed or controlled breathing in the Baseworks form practice. You should be able to do any form and carry on a conversation. If breathing becomes labored, that is a signal to reduce intensity — reduce the range of motion, the effort, the muscular activity — until you can breathe normally again.

This is a significant departure from practices where breathing is guided into movement to help overcome physical challenge. In Baseworks, breathing serves as a feedback modality. Asia put it plainly: “If you artificially control your breath, you are depriving yourself of being able to use it as feedback.” The bandwidth that would go toward managing breath is redirected toward the sensory dynamics of the practice itself.

Moderation and Intensity Modification. From the very first form, Patrick framed moderation as central to the practice. If your arms become tired in Star Form, put them down. If fatigue overrides your ability to maintain the movement patterns — spreading the fingers, drawing the shoulders down, pulling the legs apart — then the effort has exceeded the threshold of sensitivity. The response is not to push through but to exit, rest, observe, and return when ready.

Patrick shared his own example: sensitivity to weather, fatigue on a morning walk, joint pain from osteoarthritis. “I’m the founder and I moderate constantly. When you see me teaching, I’m moderating.” The point isn’t that advanced practitioners can do more physically demanding movements; it’s that moderating allows everyone to access the same benefits regardless of their starting point.

Sensory Resolution vs. Mindfulness. Another discussion of an important distinction emerged during the Q&A. What Baseworks does could be described as mindfulness, but it isn’t only mindfulness. Asia clarified: “You can be mindful and present and not pay attention to the sensations we’re focusing on. The content of your mindfulness is what’s important.” Baseworks is about increasing the sensory resolution of what is happening — attending to specific actions and the consequences of those actions, rather than a general state of presence. Mindfulness is about observing what you already have, and Baseworks is that plus developing the sensory capacity.

Patrick added that if the practice starts producing a “cosmic vibe” — feeling euphoric or deeply relaxed — that is also a signal that something has shifted away from the grounded sensory work. Baseworks is not trying to produce those states. Other practices may, and they have their place. But here, both excessive excitement and excessive relaxation dampen the level of sensitivity the practice is designed to develop.

This also relates to Marta’s question about whether Baseworks draws from Gurdjieff’s work. Asia clarified that it doesn’t, but if someone perceives parallels, this is real too. The overlap between Gurdjieff’s movement and Baseworks movement is that both actively try to interrupt automaticity, and both approaches use spatial cues to perform movements in a non-habitual way, requiring conscious attention. But where Gurdjieff’s approach uses movements as a wake-up device to move to higher realizations, Baseworks uses it for actual measurable sensorimotor learning (Can you do this or not? Can you tell what this part of your body is doing without looking or not?). Asia also pointed out that on a methodological level, Gurdjieff’s approach doesn’t rely on active contraction, whereas in Baseworks, it is the core of the method. We started our session 1 from Distributed Activation for this exact reason. At the same time, as Patrick mentioned at the beginning in his introduction to what inspired him to develop Baseworks: various abstract realizations do come up from a commitment to movement practice, and Baseworks was engineered with these realizations in mind, with an intention to make them more accessible for the general public, but these realizations are an emergent outcome, highly individual, and the immediate work in Baseworks is very simple and focuses on very foundational movement, perceptual, and self-regulation skills.

Entering and Exiting Forms with Control. We emphasized that movement in Baseworks follows a principle of reversibility: you exit the way you entered. When we rise from Squat, the arms lower as the knees straighten, mirroring the entry. When we begin working with unilateral forms, we will also vary which side we start on and sometimes exit from the opposite side. This is part of getting the body accustomed to controlled, deliberate transitions rather than collapsing out of positions.

The Forms We Practiced

We started the practice from a standing Ignition practice. We will cover the Ignition practices conceptually later, but we will be doing them in every session. After the ignition, we proceeded to the four forms.

1. Squat (Introduction)

We began with the foundational Squat. Starting from a stance with feet hip-width apart, toes pointing slightly inward so that the outside edges of the feet are parallel, the weight to the heels as the knees bend. The arms come forward to offset the body’s weight over center of gravity, preventing you from falling backward.

Key instruction points:

• We hinge in the hips — the pelvis shifts backward while we maintain the stacked ribcage and pelvis
• Knees stay stacked over the ankles, not forward over the toes
• No deliberate abdominal engagement
• Arms open to align with the spine as the squat deepens
• Only going to a comfortable depth: any signs of fatigue are a signal to reduce the intensity
• Exit by straightening the knees while lowering the arms, reversing the entry sequence

2. Star Form (Introduction)

Star Form is a foundational standing position where all movement patterns are active simultaneously. Feet wider than hip-width, outside edges of the feet parallel (which may feel like the toes are pointing slightly inward). The weight sits above the heels, pelvis above the heels, ribcage and pelvis stacked.

From this base:

• Pull the legs away from each other — the movement is like trying to slide the feet apart, but traction against the floor prevents it. This activates the muscles of the inner and outer legs simultaneously.
• Draw the shoulders down (Shoulder Depression)
• Spread the fingers
• Bring the arms to shoulder height, palms forward
• Keep the rib cage and pelvis stacked — no arching of the chest
• The neck stays completely relaxed; you can move the head side to side to confirm this

Asia noted: “We want activity without it being too much.” The goal is light, distributed engagement across the whole body. When it becomes too much, lower the arms, take a rest, then return.

Natalie asked where the activation should be felt when pulling the legs apart. Asia demonstrated: the motion originates from the feet (gripping away), and the muscles activated are primarily those working to create the abduction movement. But because of Distributed Activation, the sensation may vary — different people will feel it in different areas depending on their body and condition.

3. Star Tilt (Introduction)

From the Star Form stance, one heel turns back (rotating the pelvis inward), and the opposite foot opens in line with the leg. With legs pulling away and the pelvis positioned diagonally between the two legs, the arms come to shoulder height, the direction of the pelvis and ribcage aligned, the arms perpendicular to that direction.

The tilt itself is pelvis-initiated: the pelvis tilts as the upper body moves together with it as one chunk. The arm line stays as part of that unified piece. The key is that the movement comes from the hip, not from bending at the waist or leaning sideways.

We practiced both sides with hands on hips first, then with arms at shoulder height.

4. Simple Cross Inflection (Introduction)

This was the final form of the session, practiced from the floor using Reclining Transition as the linking movement.

Reclining Transition: From the floor, elbows under shoulders, forearms gripping forward, legs extended diagonally with ankles extended and balls of the feet pushing. This position is used throughout Baseworks practice to move between seated and floor-based forms.

Simple Cross Inflection: From Reclining Transition, cross the legs (one shin over the other), lower to the floor, and come up to sitting. Lean slightly back so the pelvis tilts, arms forward, edges of the feet gripping forward. Draw the shoulders down, chin in, maintaining a rounded rib cage.

From here, the practice moves through flexion-extension-flexion of the spine (the INFLECT dynamic):

• Flexion: Roll forward, rounding the spine, relaxing the neck while continuing to grip forward with the feet and draw the shoulders down. Micro-movements of the rib cage — undulating, side to side — help reduce residual tension.
• Extension: From the lower back upward, straighten the spine to find a completely flat upper body. Shoulders as far apart as possible, chest open but not arched. Micro-movements of the rib cage — undulating, side to side — help clarify the spinal position and reduce residual tension.
• Return to flexion: Round the spine again, chin in, then lean back to exit. Arms come forward for balance, legs lift off the floor, and you return to Reclining Transition.

We practiced both sides (right leg over, then left leg over). Asia noted that the gripping motion with the feet is continuous throughout — it’s what maintains the engagement in the legs and connects the lower body to the spinal movement.

James asked about the word “grip” — whether it means pulling toward or pushing away. Patrick and Asia clarified: focus on the direction rather than the word. “Grip forward” means the action moves in the forward direction. “Grip in” means the action moves in the direction toward you. The word “grip” is used because of the traction it creates, not because of the direction of a squeeze.

Common Adjustments and Corrections

• Foot position in Star Form — tendency for feet to open outward; the outside edges of the feet should be parallel, which may initially feel like the toes are pointing inward
• Stance width — Elinor was guided to a slightly narrower stance for Star Form based on her proportions, with the transition into the Star Tilt in mind.
• Arms up too long — when the instruction takes long, participants may hold their arms at shoulder height longer than comfortable. If the arms become tired, lower them at any point without waiting for instruction.
• Breathing becoming effortful — any time breathing is labored, reduce intensity or stop entirely
• Belly activation — tendency to engage the abdominal wall from other movement practices; keep the belly relaxed

What We Did Not Cover

This session focused on introductions, platform orientation, and a first experiential contact with the foundational forms. We did an Ignition practice, but not the Assimilation (the closing calibration sequence), using the time at the end for a Q&A instead. Both will be introduced properly in upcoming sessions. We also did not explicitly name several core concepts — Gridlines and Symmetry, Fixing-Separating-Isolating — though elements of both were physically present in the forms we practiced (for example, the “arm line” and “tilting the upper body as one chunk” in the Star Tilt). These will be named and developed in subsequent sessions.

Session 2 will build on today’s forms and add new ones from the next assignment. As Asia noted: “We don’t just study these forms and move to the next content. We will be continuously revisiting the same forms and going deeper and deeper.”

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Tags: Squat, Star Form, Star Tilt, Simple Cross Inflection, Reclining Transition, Distributed Activation, Micro-Movements, Natural Breathing, Intensity Modification, Stacked Rib Cage and Pelvis, Shoulder Depression, Spreading the Fingers, Heel Traction, Leg Abduction, INFLECT

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Resources

The following resources relate to concepts introduced in this session (optional study):

• From Three Forms to Twenty-One: Inside the Winter 2026 Study Group — an overview of how a previous study group progressed through the same material, covering Distributed Activation, micro-movements, and the arc from foundational forms to full practice sequences
• Baseworks Distributed Activation: The M1 on Fire — a deeper look at the neuroscience behind Distributed Activation and why it differs from conventional muscle engagement
• The Mystery of Proprioceptive Awareness — on the three types of body awareness and muscle sensation as a perceptual skill, relevant to the sensory resolution discussion from this session
• What Movement Training Misses: The Micro-Movement Gap — on why continuous small adjustments matter more than static positions
• The Neuroscience of Baseworks — an overview of the six principles, including Distributed Activation and Natural Breathing
• Study Group Preparation Guide — practical guidance on what to expect, how to prepare, and additional resources for study group participants
• Session 1 Summary — Forum Post — the published version of this summary on the group discussion forum

Gurdjieff — Context for Marta’s Question

• George Gurdjieff — Britannica — encyclopedia overview of Gurdjieff’s life, teaching, and the Fourth Way tradition
• Gurdjieff Movements — Wikipedia — background on the sacred dances and their role in self-observation, relevant to the discussion of interrupting automaticity through movement
• Meetings with Remarkable Men — Wikipedia — Gurdjieff’s autobiographical account of his early travels and the teachers who shaped his work

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Group Post

Thank you all for a productive first session. The detailed summary covering everything we practiced and discussed — Distributed Activation, the four foundational forms, Natural Breathing, and the questions that came up — is now available here: https://practice.baseworks.com/groups/montreal-study-group-spring-2026-cohort/forum/discussion/session-1-summary-foundations-first-contact/#post-22186

Next Assignment (for Session 2, Saturday April 11, 1:10-2:50 PM, Studio 2): Complete Segment 3, Lessons 3.1-3.8. Total time: approximately 56 minutes.

This segment introduces the foci — the different dynamics that organize how the forms are practiced. You will also encounter new forms. As always, if you have questions as you work through the material, post them to the forum.

We will continue working with the forms from Session 1 alongside the new material. Every session builds on the previous one, and revisiting the same forms with more experience is how the practice develops.

To refer to all of your Primer assignments, you can find them here: https://practice.baseworks.com/groups/montreal-study-group-spring-2026-cohort/forum/discussion/primer-assignments-2/#post-22127