Session 5 Summary (2/15/26): Transit & Practical Application

Winter 2026 Smart Movement Study Program | February 15, 2026

Assignment Reference

This session corresponded with the completion of Assignment 5 (Segment 5: Lessons 5.1-5.4) from the Baseworks Primer. See: index

---

Session Overview

This session marked a shift toward more integration and practical application with less explanation. Patrick noted at the outset: “As we kind of get through this, there’s going to be marginally less explanation, more practical application. The session summaries that we post are quite detailed. So if you miss a session or you don’t understand something, just for the last few sessions, we ask that you return to those session summaries and read through them.” We moved through a comprehensive review of standing forms, introduced new floor-to-standing transitions, and covered two new forms in detail: Z-Lunge and Split Form Inflection. The extended session time allowed us to address participant questions about managing practice when fatigued or recovering from other physical activities.

Key Concepts We Explored

Transit Focus and Controlled Transitions. A major theme was the importance of controlled, deliberate transitions between forms. Asia emphasized being “very aware of all the transitions” and maintaining “very, very controlled movements.” This applies particularly to moving from one standing position to another and from seated positions into Reclining Transition—the exit should feel like “unfolding in water, like exploding in slow motion.”

The Midline as Reference. Split Form Inflection introduced explicit work with the midline—the imaginary line dividing the body into two halves. We had everyone find a line on the floor to use as reference: “When I hinge, I hinge on top of this midline. I don’t do it on top of the leg, and I don’t do it away from the middle.” Being aware of the midline helps maintain symmetry throughout the flexion-extension dynamics.

Fixing-Separating-Isolating in Z-Lunge. The Z-Lunge demonstrates the principle of isolating movement of the upper torso from the legs. Asia demonstrated: “See, it’s only my upper body moving. My upper body can do do any movement, but my legs don’t move.” The common error is allowing the legs to lift the torso—“the legs move, the legs lift you up. We want to prevent this.”

Practice When Fatigued—Physical and Emotional Dimensions. Luchida shared that she almost canceled her attendance because the day before she had done intensive traditional dance practice (10am-4pm) that she described as “hypersomatic”—it affected her deeply, and she was still recovering. Her question was about how to process this, acknowledging “this is also somatic in a way for me.”

Patrick’s response addressed both the physical and emotional dimensions. He acknowledged that “the dance experience that you had yesterday may have crossed over into something which is now in your nervous system. Any type of dynamic physical practice is gonna do something to the nervous system, particularly when it’s expressive like dance.” He spoke about the connection between movement and emotional experience: “I’m a big believer in transferring physical education to embodied experience. So my perception of movement is informing my motivations… when we start to work with the body in a specific way, it does something to the nervous system which crosses over into something which might make you feel vulnerable.”

The practical advice: rather than stopping entirely, find a dramatically reduced intensity that feels manageable. “You might be surprised that it may shift something or may calibrate something about yesterday’s experience.” In Baseworks, a squat doesn’t have to bring your upper body to 45 degrees to the floor. It can be just 1-2 degrees—that’s already a squat, but the effort required from the muscles is almost indistinguishable from simply standing upright.

This distinguished Baseworks from wellness approaches: “Some people look at Baseworks and they think it’s a wellness practice. Actually it’s not.” Wellness often emphasizes rest and withdrawal—“Are you burnt out? Take it easy, have a hot chocolate, watch The Sound of Music.” While there’s nothing wrong with that, simply pulling away from challenging experiences by doing nothing doesn’t necessarily allow for effective processing. In Baseworks, the aim is to do what you can within the practice in the most appropriate and modified way—not to push through, but to remain gently engaged. This allows the practice itself to sit alongside other life experiences, potentially helping to calibrate and process them rather than leaving them unaddressed.

Hydration as Indicator, Not Crutch. Asia shared a practical tip she received early in her Baseworks training: don’t rely on water during practice. “If you think ‘I have my water bottle available and I can drink anytime and it will cool me down,’ you will overdo it. But if I come with a mindset that water is not available as an external tool that will help me to calm down, then I will just approach everything at a slightly lower intensity.”

Patrick added context: many fitness and yoga classes emphasize hydration—“bring water, hydrate”—but in Baseworks, the logic is different. “Unless you’re thirsty and need to wet your mouth, there’s no necessity to hydrate, because there shouldn’t ever be the point in time that you are exerting yourself so much that you feel physically dehydrated from the experience.” If you do feel dehydrated, hot, or experience muscle fatigue, these are messages to moderate—indicators that intensity needs to come down, not signals to hydrate and push through.

We recommend coming to practice on an empty stomach when possible—no food, minimal water, empty bladder—so that nothing interferes with your ability to notice these internal cues. This isn’t about restricting hydration; it’s about using bodily signals as real-time feedback for calibrating intensity.

Working Around Physical Conditions. Sarah and Clementine both raised concerns about their necks—certain movements were causing discomfort, particularly transitions in and out of Reclining Transition and any movements involving spinal flexion-extension initiated from the head. Patrick acknowledged that “the neck, tense neck, like this, can send tension to the entire body.”

The key insight wasn’t to focus on the neck as the problem, but to find ways to practice where the neck isn’t being bothered while continuing with all the other patterns. Patrick’s guidance: “Whatever you can do, like if you can push the feet into the floor or mildly flex the spine, whatever you can do to not irritate this—do it.” The movement patterns—drawing the shoulders down, pressing the feet into the floor, spreading the fingers, gentle side-to-side neck mobilization—can all be practiced in various positions of gravity without aggravating a specific condition.

This reflects a broader Baseworks philosophy about injuries and physical limitations. Rather than the conventional approach of doing nothing around an injury to avoid aggravation, Baseworks encourages two complementary approaches: continuing to apply movement patterns in areas that aren’t affected, and—when you feel ready—periodically returning to the affected area at dramatically reduced intensity. Both keep the body engaged and informed. “Any movement is going to inform whatever’s the problem… Any of the movements we do in any position of gravity, which you can find a way to do without causing the problem in the neck—there’s a very good chance that the combination of those movements within different positions of gravity might fix the neck problem.”

Patrick shared his own experience: “I had neck problems my whole life from doing yoga… I had a herniation in the C6, C7 vertebrae. I was stiff like this for ten years. I fixed it with Baseworks.” While he can’t promise the same for everyone, the principle remains: keep practicing what doesn’t aggravate the condition, and that continued engagement may contribute to resolution.

This connects to why we encourage people to show up even when feeling challenged, injured, or tired. By not coming, you miss the opportunity to participate in this pivotal aspect of the practice—learning to moderate intensity in real-time rather than defaulting to complete withdrawal. The development of this skill is the practice. There’s nothing wrong with resting at home or practicing independently when needed, but within the context of this program, learning to calibrate happens differently when we’re guiding you dynamically through the material in sync with the pre-session study content. Intensity Modification isn’t something we teach and then you apply—it’s something we develop together, in the room, as situations arise.

The Forms We Practiced

Standing Forms (With an emphasis on Transit Focus)

We moved through the standing forms as a connected sequence with less stopping for explanation.

Squat. Feet hips-width apart, outside edges parallel. Arms forward to offset weight as knees bend. Patrick demonstrated finding “whatever variation of the squat you feel is appropriate for you today.” Calibration through neck mobilization and rib cage movement while maintaining drawing the shoulders down (Shoulder Depression), spreading the fingers, and weight to heels.

Wide Squat. Feet wider than hips-width apart, toes slightly pointing outward (especially if you feel you’re approaching compression in the knees). Elbows (or extended arms, depending on your mobility) connect to inside of knees with opposition—elbows/arms press into knees, knees press into elbows/arms. Drawing the shoulders down (Shoulder Depression) activates the scapula and entire back body. The spine remains straight.

Star Form. Feet wider than hips-width apart, outside edges parallel. Arms raise to sides with palms forward. Opposition: heels grounded pressing into floor, back of neck extends upward, shoulders draw down opposing the neck extension, fingers spread, grip the legs slightly away from each other. Mobilize rib cage while maintaining the belly relaxed—“See as I mobilize the rib cage too, I’m exaggerating a little bit by letting my belly protrude and push out. By doing that too, you create a little bit more space around the diaphragm.”

Star Tilt. Entered from Star Form by turning one foot out, then the back heel drops back. Key clarification repeated: the upper torso turns automatically with the foot movements—“My upper torso just turns a bit… I’m not turning towards that front leg.” Arms stay locked with shoulder girdle: “This back arm is not moving separately from the shoulder, nor are the arms going forward. The arms stay in line with the shoulder girdle and they just move with the upper torso.” The tilt is governed by the front hip drawing back.

Suspended Star Inflection. Asia led this segment. From Star Form, hands to hips, ensure rib cage is stacked above pelvis (“we don’t flare the chest out”). Weight on heels. Hinge at hip with straight spine, going only as deep as hamstrings allow without strain—“When you begin feeling hamstrings, bend the knees just a little bit.” Then chin in, round upper spine (flexion), wiggle spine side to side with drawing the shoulders down (Shoulder Depression), then extend from lower back up to straight line (extension), then round again (flexion), and roll up from pelvis. When we roll up at the very end from flexion, it is the pelvis that starts to unroll first, and the rest of the upper body follows.”

Front (High) Lunge Extension (Transit Focus). Emphasis on the transition: from standing, arms forward with drawing the shoulders down (Shoulder Depression) and spreading the fingers, bend knees with weight to heels, shift weight to one foot, the opposite leg extends back landing on tiptoe. When choosing the stance, “Find the position where you feel like you could spend five minutes here.” The stance can be small—“Make it manageable, the stance doesn’t have to be so wide.” To maintain balance, the legs pull away. To enable Distributed Activation in the legs, it is essential to also keep the back foot high on tiptoe, ankle extended, knee extended. To exit, we lean transfer the weight onto the front leg, return the other foot back to hip-width apart and then return the body to center/midline.

Split Form Torsion. From a standing position, step back into Split form - both heels down, both knees extended, feet roughly hip-width apart (not on same line—“two tracks apart”) and parallel. Pelvis faces forward. Arms to shoulder height, upper body in line with back leg. Torsion from center of chest toward front leg without breaking the arm line—“Make sure especially that the right arm doesn’t go back.”

Floor Forms

Reclining Transition. We worked on the fluid exit from seated positions. Asia demonstrated: “Imagine someone is pushing me in the stomach. Someone is pushing, pushing, pushing. See, it is as if I am being pushed backward and my body just follows the forces. As I continue to lean back, at some point it becomes possible to lift the legs, so I lift them.” The goal is to “unfold like in water, like explode in slow motion.”

For those finding it difficult (particularly with neck tension), modifications included: keeping legs straight instead of bent, staying in what was spontaneously labeled as the “beach position” (propped on elbows with legs extended on floor), or keeping hands further back for support. Asia noted: “In this position, if I completely relax, I’m relaxed and just I’m not using anything, no muscle. I’m in this position just because the elbows are under the shoulders.” (Note: the “beach position” requires no abdominal strength, but it may still be challenging if there is tension in the neck area)

Square Cross Inflection. Starting from Reclining Transition, right leg crosses over left, shins parallel, ankles at 90 degrees—“like a square.” For those with limited hip mobility, the front foot can go forward as modification (the shin closer to the body will be perpendicular to midline). Press feet into floor and forward while in flexion; continue pressing as spine extends. The exit follows the same “unfolding” principle: round spine, lean back as arms come forward, legs become light, lift and extend into Reclining Transition.

Seated Inflection. Legs wide, ankles extended, toes touching with heels slightly apart (“because you want the top of the foot to be looking up”). Push balls of feet forward. Patrick used a walking analogy: “If your feet were curled inward, you wouldn’t be able to walk or stand very well… you have to imagine that the balls of the feet are tiptoeing on the floor., as if you are walking on your tiptoes.”

Flexion-extension-flexion dynamic with chin in to round, then extend from lower back, then round again to exit. “Here we don’t want the hip flexors to work. This is not an abdominal exercise.” If past 90 degrees with straight spine, hands should go back, behind the pelvis, to assist the pelvis.

New Forms Introduced in detail

Z-Lunge. Named for the Z-shape formed by the front bent leg. Front knee directly above toe—“The knee is not too forward and not above the heel. It’s literally the knee is above the toe.” Back knee lightly touches floor with top of foot pressing down, creating opposition: “We want to feel the grid lines between the right leg and the back leg. And the back foot is pressing into the floor so that there’s almost no weight on the knee.”

Key instruction: pull legs toward each other, then lift upper body without moving the legs. “The purpose is being able to control the legs separately from the upper body.” This particular form is physically challenging, making it difficult to concentrate on control—Patrick encouraged short bursts: “Do a little bit, stop. A little bit, stop.”

Patrick demonstrated a faster version: “Bend, hands come down, left leg long back. Top of the left foot down. Legs pull toward each other. Take the hands off the floor. See? Legs pull. That’s all we do for today. Hands come down. Tiptoe, lift, step forward.”

Split Form Inflection. Legs in split stance (one forward, one back) with pelvis facing forward. The key is finding your maximum stance while maintaining pelvic symmetry: “If my legs are too wide, I cannot possibly bring my legs into the parallel-feet position and keep the symmetry.” Pull legs away to stabilize.

Hinge forward over the midline (not over the front leg), round spine, extend spine to flat line, round again, then roll up from pelvis. “If you feel it’s difficult to balance, pull the legs away more—this helps to find the balance.”

Asia added detail about the shoulder dynamics in flexion-extension: “When I’m completely flexed, my shoulders also go a little bit forward too and it’s really, really rounded here. And when I extend, the shoulders go away from each other.”

Ignition and Assimilation

Ignition. Standing with feet slightly wider than hips-width apart, sitting back onto an imaginary bar stool. Arms raise as if pulled by marionette strings—“You’re not really doing any work.” Hands torsion inward (palms forward, wrists twisting)—“It’s not meant to be comfortable.” This is the most active element; everything else remains relaxed including belly and breath. Asia checked everyone’s wrist position as this is commonly misunderstood.

The synchronized release: “As we straighten the knees, we lower the arms and we release the torsion from the wrists. So we’re trying to synchronize those three release actions.”

Assimilation. We did not do an Assimilation practice in this session. The session concluded with extended Q&A and discussion.

Further Participant Experiences and Discussion

Marking vs. Modification. Mimi, familiar with dance, asked whether “marking” (doing abbreviated versions of movements) in dance was similar to Intensity Modification. Asia clarified that they’re fundamentally different: “Marking is automaticity—you have the full, well-rehearsed movement somewhere in the muscle memory, and marking is about rehearsing a sequence of well-learned movements without performing them ‘full out’ to conserve energy… In Baseworks, we are emphasizing that your full motion is automatic, and we need to break it down. Therefore, instead of reducing an automated movement to its symbol, we will begin to unpack it, but we will stop as soon as the movement we’re performing exceeds the effort we are allowed to spend based on our current condition.” Both conserve effort, but through opposite approaches—marking compresses an automated movement into a symbol, while Baseworks Intensity Modification unpacks movement to find the minimal viable version.

Balance Challenges. Manon mentioned struggling with balance in standing positions. Asia’s response: “If you really feel like it’s difficult to balance, my suggestion would be before modifying, really focus on pulling the legs away, because this is what stabilizes.” She demonstrated how without leg activation, lunges become “wobbly,” but “if you really lock it and you keep doing it, the legs become very, very, very stable.”

Improving Proprioception. Magali asked about not knowing whether she’s straight when she can’t feel it—would repeatedly doing it incorrectly make her “learn” it incorrectly? Asia explained: “That problem is that you don’t get enough sensory feedback from your body just because your body never needed it. So even if you keep doing it and it’s not straight, if you keep focusing on it, this is when the sensory information will start going up to your consciousness more.” Even practicing “incorrectly” for a while still serves as sensory re-education. Once you can feel it, being straight will be easier. Suggestions: touch your own body to understand the dynamics, occasionally use a mirror (but don’t depend on it).

Note: Luchida’s question about managing practice after intensive dance, and the broader discussion about Baseworks vs. wellness approaches, are covered in detail in the Key Concepts section above under “Practice When Fatigued—Physical and Emotional Dimensions.”

Practical Reminders

Japan Cultural Context. Patrick shared context about floor sitting culture in Japan—sitting cross-legged, using squat toilets—explaining how consistent practice from a young age creates mobility that Westerners (with sofas and chairs) don’t develop. “But that’s not what our practice is driven by. The byproduct of what we do helps this mobility, but we’re trying to get you to understand the limitations first.”

Pro Tips. Several practical tips emerged:

• When watching demonstrations, if it’s too tiring to keep the arms in the air, put hands on hips rather than holding arms up—“it helps concentration and doesn’t tire the arms”
• Use a butt cushion (like Any’s setup) or towel for floor work if bare floor hurts your sacrum/sit bone area
• Practice spinal flexion-extension standing with less gravitational load before attempting it in hinged positions

What We Did Not Cover

Equate Focus was mentioned as content for next session (in line with the next session’s Primer assignments). The session was extended but concluded when the venue needed the space.

---

Tags: Squat, Wide Squat, Star Form, Star Tilt, Suspended Star Inflection, Front Lunge, Front (High) Lunge Torsion, Reclining Transition, Square Cross Inflection, Seated Wide Inflection, Seated Inflection, Z-Lunge, Split Form Inflection, Transit, Fixing-Separating-Isolating, Gridlines & Symmetry, Intensity Modification, Distributed Activation, Stacked Rib Cage and Pelvis, Shoulder Depression, Spreading the Fingers, Heel Traction, Ignition

---

Group Post

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Session 5. The detailed summary is now available here: Session 5 Summary: Transit & Practical Application

This session covered a lot of ground—Z-Lunge, Split Form Inflection, and extended discussions about working around physical conditions and how Baseworks approaches fatigue differently than typical wellness practices. We encourage you to read through the summary, as it captures details that are easy to miss in the flow of practice.

Final Assignment (for Session 6): Please complete Segment 5, Lessons 5.5-5.8 before Sunday. This is only 27 minutes total (19 min Key Points, 8 min practice)—no theory lessons this week. This assignment completes the first five segments of the Primer course.

What Comes Next: After Session 6, you’ll have covered the foundational material and can continue through the remaining course content at your own pace. We’ll remain available through the Forum to answer questions and guide you as you progress. We’re also currently finalizing plans to continue weekly sessions starting in late March or early April, where we’ll revisit Practice Labs and Key Points lessons together. As you continue, it will all start to come together and make a lot more sense.

See you Sunday.