Session 1 Transcript

All right, so we’re gonna go ahead and get started.

We’re we’re missing a few people, but uh they might just drop in one.

Thanks very much for coming today.

We’re just gonna start with a before we go into our own monologue about what we’re gonna be doing.

We’re just gonna circle the room quickly.

A quick introduction from each person just so that we get to know each other. and um a quick just a quick reason why you’re here.

Hi, I’m Sarah and uh I am um I I work with people with these activities.

I give a class of like a gym and well also I am I am a master therapist and um therapeut and uh I was uh really aware with um somatic classes and I did for my classes and I always work with people like uh being aware of the how comfort Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, I’m axir.

Um I’m currently studying communication.

And I’m always curious about how those different practices can provide different means to encounter one another eventually ourselves.

And that’s how I got interested into that concession.

Hi, I’m Amy, sociology professor and massotherapist, and I’m not very I’m very happy to use it here.

I understand English, but actually not trying to Yeah, it’s okay.

So one one thing I want to say about English and French.

This is an English course.

But if somebody’s struggling to keep to to explain themselves Dion français.

Nous ne parlons bien français très bien, oui.

We’re terrible at French, but we’re studying every day.

Mais, um I’m happy to press this.

Okay, great.

But if it’s not understable, I’ll just say it to me and I will speak in the I’m happy to to do this course.

Uh I I really liked uh the video and it Can you hear me?

Perfect.

And Annie.

Annie.

Annie.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Genevieve.

I’m on swimmaster therapist. this for 30 years now, especially trailer approach with this a lot of uh connection with the body and sensation.

So I’m due to uh in my um um formation continue so uh i just fall on your publicity and two minutes after i register myself so that’s for me and Especially now I’m going to build a house for the next year, so I know I will be using my body a lot, so I was thinking how could I have a better knowledge of uh my I’ll learn this my life.

I can’t help but comment on that.

Um the house building thing, I think you’ll find building your house a very interesting parallel to what we do.

I’ll just say that right now.

Okay, next.

And children and uh pregnant and women and uh uncle is too.

So um and I work for a long time and I’m very interested in kinesthesis.

So when I started your your atelier I was very Thank you.

Hi, I’m O.

I’m a drama teacher in the Elementary School.

Um, I register Markers personal reasons because I tend to have inflammation and whenever I want to uh go deeper in sports or whatever I tend to get hurt so it’s more for that but I think um also teaching dramatic kids and make them able to be comfortable in the writing this could also be helpful, so that’s why it’s How do I pronounce your name?

Obel?

teacher what do you teach for me I am teaching to try trigger is approach is uh it’s uh it’s uh yeah very interesting kind of Okay.

Hi everyone, I’m Kim Vaughn.

Um I work in the arts.

Um why am I here?

You have very effective Instagram tapping.

But otherwise um I used to be very active and now I have like spinal confessions I make my pain uh that limits my mobility and I want to kind of get my body back.

Thank you.

I’m a dance artist and 12-inch here.

Recovering from a traumatic brain injury.

So when this program came down my feet on Facebook and I opened it and it’s like, yes, go.

Thanks, Ivan.

I’m a teacher, parcel teacher with uh disabled kids.

I’m a former dancer, writer, and I have a neurological condition with um the traitement of information sensorien so every sense everything comes in too fast, too strong.

What is the clinical name for it?

C’est quoi en anglais?

I’m not sure.

Sensory information.

Sensory information.

Sensory dis sensory information disorder.

And it’s got something that shut down, like a real shutdown six months ago.

And so I’m basically relearning to three.

Right?

uh uh um yeah I saw that and I like I didn’t even go see the videos and I immediately No, thank thank you for sharing.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is France.

France.

I speak French.

I retired.

I’m coming because of my daughter.

Note that I’m interested in neuroscience.

Donc voilà, because it’s not science physics.

Oh right.

Hi every day like I’m a welcome class teacher with small kids.

I came to the open class and I found the concept really interesting. about yeah learning better how to move it then how an intro like uh Uh Memo.

Uh my best work is I work with uh brain injured people and uh I would say my physical, my favorite physical activity is going back improvisation then.

And I’m here because I have a right hip that’s not very happy.

And I I like the consciousness. part with this work.

So that’s my importance.

I I have I have two hips that aren’t very happy.

Both of my hips are not happy.

Thank you.

My name is Andrew.

I’m a visual artist.

I had uh worked for two years in a job uh recently sitting old age after that um I have for another reason I get uh Yahmin scan and uh seat there like two months and it was not able to move all and slowly I did uh physiotherapy and I discovered that physiotherapy wasn’t very Parallel in my visual art I was moving to performance and I was interested to study different movements and different schools thinking like uh yoga, uh uh meals, dance, uh everything was um an opportunity to to exactly and um yeah and so yeah uh I want to get my so yeah Yeah, it’s very organic.

I try to divide into words like that.

And it’s a bit challenging for me to read here because it’s in English.

But I’m very happy to See the flexibility, so yeah.

But I’m prepared to talk and listen then read.

That was the challenge But thank you for having me.

I’m Calentine, I’m a writer, and I I have complex PTSD and so it really affects my interoception and my motorception.

And so I strongly feel that my body is like machine right over Um and that’s been something the last little while that I’ve been trying to work on by like trying to do stuff like that, but then I strongly try do what they’re like I can’t imitate what they’re doing and I can’t tell my body if I’m doing what they’re doing.

Um so that’s why I was interested.

And I also have related all of this like some chronic pain that is from a long tension that I can’t consciously get rid of.

So thank you.

I’m trying to get through my body better than a little more than that.

Thank you.

I’m Gina.

I am currently in a dance collective named Expressa Montréal.

We do have Afro-traditional Asian dance.

And I’m actually missing a class to be here because I think it’s I think it’s important that I get more cont contemplar complementary uh training for my dancing, especially because I used to be a former professional bodybuilder and I’m trying to deconstruct a rigidity from that life and be more into my in energy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cool.

Sorry.

I’m Sarah.

I work in arts administration.

I’m here for personal reasons.

I’ve got some um problems with my spine and some weakness in my hip and I want to raise my body awareness and try to redistribute my physical energy better.

Thank you.

Yeah, so go ahead.

Yes.

Uh I just want to say that it’s very hard for me because I I wrote my uh Siliac.

Siliac, yeah.

Sacro Iliak.

Last year.

So uh That’s why I think you can get a good time to Let’s all take a moment of prayer, pray together.

That was sent from God.

Your sacrilege will be saved.

Um We’ll introduce ourselves in a second, but uh something I did want to say anybody has injury and they feel more comfortable when we’re talking like this to sit on a chair, go ahead and take a chair.

Also some of the um Uh practices that we do later, we’ll explain on on the floor can also be done in a chair.

So that is an option at any point in time for anybody.

So Asia, go ahead.

Quick introduction.

Yes, okay.

So So uh my name is Asia, so it’s spelled Asia, but it is pronounced closer to Asia, but Asia is also fine, you know, just whatever.

Uh I am one of the leaders of uh uh today’s program and um I am a scientist and neuroscientist so I teach pace works but also it’s my job to study okay and I really really like talking about science but when I start talking about it it takes so much time.

So if you have questions which are related to theory, you know, to the biology, to the science of what we do.

We ask that maybe you address them on the forum so that we can I know but but still it’s it’s a very big part of my introduction.

Already we get into the science.

Yes anyway but uh so I really like the science of base work. right so we will be doing movements which are simple but we will be approaching them in a very unusual way.

I’m very passionate about it.

And um yeah so I’m very passionate about sayings that people usually are not so passionate about.

Anyway, you will get to know me better throughout our study group and I will get to know you better.

Yeah.

That’s all I want to say.

So I’m I’m Patrick Wancy.

I’m the founder of Baseworks.

It was founded in Japan.

It was uh the byproduct of the work that I did over years over the years of uh Being involved in various different movement disciplines and pedagogies that look at not only movement but perception and cognition as well.

And you could say that it’s been a work in progress on the basis of my feeling like there are too many things going on adjacent to my interests that all make a lot of sense.

So It all starts with the body, in my opinion, and this is what we’re here to try and share a little bit with you about over the next six weeks.

Uh the body’s a great metaphor for many different things, and on a fundamental level, when we understand uh the um the subjectivity of our own movement or our own understanding of our body, that’s an excellent starting point to transfer that to other domains of of uh uh things you may experience in your life.

Just contextually, Asia and I met in Japan.

She she uh uh was a student at our studio in Tokyo in 2015 and as a as a byproduct of her experience Asia very similarly to you felt very out of her body Clementine when she first started doing base work she was an academic There was a great joke.

You know Sir Ken Robinson?

Has has anybody heard of Sir Ken Robinson?

He’s an educator from the United Kingdom and on the group forum today I’m gonna I’m gonna uh put a link to a TED talk that he did.

Very cool guy, very innovative, but he made an analogy to or a reference to an academic conference he went to once.

And the after the after party for the conference was at a nightclub.

People were having a a drink together at the nightclub and he says If you ever want to see the the the uh epitome of disembodiment, go to a nightclub with a bunch of academics after an academic conference and see how they dance.

And it’s an interesting it’s an interesting thing because we uh we we we met on the basis of her being very interested in in trying to resolve some of her own problems as as an epileptic, Ash has has epilepsy, and also trying to get a better understanding of her body and how to overcome these situations and she resist student.

So we started to collaborate and when I s when I heard that she was a neuroscientist, I thought, oh I’m gonna exploit her. and uh offer her a job.

So my business partner sat to go and I said, you know, why don’t you become a research associate for Baseworks Join the company and we’ll give you this salary.

And she was working at a consulting company in Tokyo and she came to work for us for a quite a considerable salary cut.

That uh sin and then as a as a exactly as a byproduct of that we also Fell in love and got married.

So we and and it’s not I I was very careful about my ethical boundaries whenever I was teaching. that it was a no-brainer that one.

I thought there was no way I’m ever gonna meet another neuroscientist uh that that was so interesting and so passionate about what we’re doing and we decide to work together.

So Asia Satiko and I.

Satiko is not here.

She lives in in Boston.

And Satago is taking an extended leave right now to do a doctorate in physical therapy.

So she’s studying at uh Tufts in in Massachusetts and uh she’s taking an extended leave for working with us right now but uh she was a huge part of the development of Baseworks too at our studio in Tokyo.

And together Asia Satoko and I collaborated to unpack a lot of what I’d developed from the experiential perspective.

And another thing I wanted to say here about this experience is that Even though I’m the founder and there was like a collaborative development to where we are at this point in time, the student body and the teacher body that we had were all developers.

Like they were all an active part of the feedback loop which influenced the direction that this goes in.

And we don’t consider this to be static. it’s malleable.

So it’s always changing and it changes depending on the groups of people that we work with.

And I I want to be very clear about that first because even though there’s a lot of rigidity and dogma in the way that we teach the outcome is not meant to be dogmatic.

Okay?

The outcome is meant to be malleable.

It’s and whatever feedback we get from people also puts our process Under a critical lens to look at and examine objectively to see if it’s actually effectively working for everybody in some way.

So your feedback And comments are always going to be welcome.

We don’t always have a lot of time in these practical sessions, but on the forum, for example.

And for everybody who’s comfortable in French, you can put your comments in in French on the forum.

As well.

And we’ll maybe translate those.

Please just at any point in time give us your feedback on your experience, what you don’t understand in the question periods.

If you don’t understand something, let us know.

It may be that we have to alter what we’ve already developed to help you better understand or or or you know experience it.

So with that being said, I think we’re just gonna start for now.

We do want to just take one Group photo at the beginning here against this wall.

I want to get it out of the way right now.

We don’t have everybody with us today, but the group photo I’m just gonna post on the on the forum and you can take a copy of it if you want If that’s okay.

So everybody stand against this wall together.

Close This is your HC back problems.

Or you can sit if if you want, you can sit on the floor as well.

Everybody move that way a bit if you can.

Sorry.

Everybody moving that way a bit, every classic question.

So you need to take an Another picture s in six weeks to see if our buddies change.

It’s actually not a dialogue, right?

People change it.

Uh sorry, that was a pocket call.

I I call the emergency The guys done nine one one?

Nine one ones?

What Jesus.

Alright.

You know the I don’t know, like somehow iPhone there’s too many fucking action buttons on this. thing and I can’t all right here we go.

Great.

Okay.

This is the cannon.

Okay.

Where am I gonna go?

In front.

In front.

Yvonne?

There, yeah.

Perfect.

Okay, so there’s gonna be a ten second timer and I’m gonna run like hell to get there.

Shit.

Okay.

Five, four, three, two, one, smiley.

Let me check.

One check.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Fucking awesome.

What it’s so Yeah.

I’ll uh it’s a little bit blurry, but I’ll I’ll AI it.

All right.

So um Asia and I will be standing over here.

Here.

So everybody can fan around us.

And if you can also create You can create space between yourselves and at any point in time too you You can think when we’re instructing any kind of movement from the front here that you don’t have to be A single file forward.

You can turn your body to face me, if that makes sense.

So you don’t have to turn your head like that necessarily to look at You can turn your body in any position as we’re doing the different forms.

If it feels more comfortable, you can look occasionally then look away.

There’s a lot of verbal instruction too.

So If you can understand, listen to the verbal instruction, those cues are going to be very clear.

Otherwise the um Just try to be as comfortable in the room as possible standing wherever you’d like.

Yeah, Asia?

Let’s try to do 30-14 minutes. 30-40 minutes.

Okay, so what?

So thirty?

Thirty-fourteen minutes maximum.

Maximum.

Okay.

So I’m just gonna set a timer.

Thirty?

Well between thirty and forty, so that we have time.

So thirty-five.

Okay, thirty-five.

Okay, so we went we went through it’s so fucking thirsty.

Oh my god We went through the everybody just kind of barely made the first assignment.

Thank you very much.

Some people were very Very fast.

Very fast, yeah.

So that what today is a we’re gonna be focusing on three forms specifically today, but we’re gonna go through a practice initially.

You can see if you can transfer anything that was in that first assignment to the movements that we do right now, even if you don’t um If you’re not familiar with them.

And then the latter part of this will be that we’ll focus a little bit on those three forms, the squat, star form, and uh star tilt.

Okay, so those ones will be inflection idea.

Hope we have time for that then.

Asia we’ll go into some of the some of the concepts of uh the principles as well.

Uh just so that you know there there are Close to 140 forms and variations in base work.

There’s a lot.

So what we do with in this uh first uh study group as we explore just a fraction of it uh in order to be able to understand the um the principles and how they apply to the movements. and hopefully we can continue.

For us, this this new format of study group is something we want to do here in Montreal because we physically live here now So we can start to do these periodically going into the future.

And then hopefully as the momentum builds with our groups here in Montreal, we can lay out a different layers of study groups for the people that have attended the preceding study groups if that makes sense so people can continue at least and hopefully we’ll be doing them at these these spaces circuit est and some other dance spaces we’re currently trying to find some other alternatives as well right now.

So in the beginning, I would like you to stand with the feet.

Oh, by the way, if your feet are or can endure a little bit of the cold, we recommend bare feet.

But if you want to keep your socks on, absolutely no problem as well.

So the feet stand a little bit wider than the hips width apart to start.

And they can be, the toes can be slightly pointing away from each other.

And we want to lean the weight back to the heels.

And a good analogy for this would be that as we lean back, you could think that you’re almost like sitting to the edge of a bar stool, if that makes sense, a tall stool.

So if you’ve ever done that, if you sit onto the edge of a bar stool, not quite sitting onto it, but it’s anchored onto the floor, or in bars sometimes the stools are anchored to the floor and you have that stability and behind.

The weight goes to the heels, but the upper torso don’t let it drop back too much.

You fall.

Keep the upper torsal weight over the top of the pelvis.

So even though you sit back to the heels and bend the knees, you feel the active, you feel the legs get active a little bit here.

Keep the knees slightly bent, keep the weight to the heels.

And then you can move from one leg to the other leg.

You shift so it’s kind of undulate from one to the other.

Just so you can sense how the Weight gets distributed down to one heel or down to the other heel.

So you’re trying to sense the floor below you, the stability of the floor below you, and how the quadriceps and legs are acting to stabilize yourself.

And then you come back to center at some point.

At any point in time, you can wiggle the hips like this side to side.

You can try to isolate the movement of the hips.

Try to make sure not to lean forward into the knees here.

You want the weight to be going back to the heels.

And it is an awkward feeling that you might fall backward.

That’s normal At one point you find a way to be stable onto the heels without falling back.

And that’s a part of what helps to build the sensory awareness that we’re trying to introduce here in the practice.

So with the knees bent, weight to the heels, you can imagine that the arms are quite relaxed, or they are relaxed initially, but you can imagine that there’s a marionette uh master like a puppet master that’s going to be raising your arms up and you’re not having any act activity in that movement whatsoever so you can think if there’s strings attached to your arms There’s a puppet master lifting them and as you lift them, try very slowly to lift them.

So as you lift them like this, the um Wrists go limp and the fingers just hang down like that.

So this is actually limp, right?

So when you’re lifting up, it’s almost as if you’re maybe like unconscious or sleeping and somebody was trying to lift your arms and you aren’t putting any activity into the hands.

And the arms come up to about shoulders height.

With the weight into the heels, with the knees slightly bent.

And then I’d like you to torsion the hands around to the front like this.

So the movement is the wrists torsioned forward.

And you can imagine that you have two physio balls. in the fingers.

You know, the visio balls are are soft and they give them to people to work on uh isometric contractions in the wrists and you’re squeezing onto the physio balls and you’re torsioning the wrist forward.

Now this should feel that the forearms become active as you torsion the wrist forward.

So there’s activity.

Let your arms go down once and straighten the legs one time.

So the thing I’d just like to mention here at any point in time that if it’s tiring for you.

That you can always do what I just did, lower the arms, straighten the legs, and just watch for a second.

Okay?

So that’s very important that you feel uh That you’re not overexerting yourself at any point in time.

The initial phases of what we’re trying to do here are not about trying to build an an endurance around an activity, but more about just trying to sense.

What we’re doing.

So this movement, the torsioning with the wrists, activates this.

The arms are up at the same time.

So many things happen.

The shoulders get tired when your knees are bent the thighs may get tired.

So you can stop at any point in time.

The end result would be that we’re holding this for a while, okay?

But that just happens as a byproduct of the continuity of the practice.

You can go home and practice this on your own, you become more resilient to it Okay, so let’s try again from the beginning.

So weight leans back into the heels, relax the arms down.

And then raise the arms up.

It’s like, or somebody else is raising your arms up for you to shoulders height.

Torsion the wrists.

You’ve got the f squ squishy physio balls in your in your fingers.

It’s a light sort of squishy kind of foam feeling.

You’re squeezing onto that and you’ll feel that the wrists become active and the forearms become active right to the elbow.

And then move through the neck to see if there’s any tension that came up in the neck through that.

Do not pike the shoulders up to the ears.

Try to relax the shoulders down. as you torsion the wrists forward.

So this is very awkward as we torsion the wrists forward as you grip onto the balls because the wrists want to just go that way.

So we’re trying to oppose that in an antifunctional way with the hands moving forward like this.

We’re trying to keep the belly here really relaxed too.

You let the belly completely hang.

So Try not to think that there’s a necessity to draw the navel back to the spine or to activate your abdominal muscles.

The belly should hang and feel totally relaxed.

And the breath should be quite neutral and calm here.

If you find your breath starting to get really intense, then you would lower your arms, straighten your legs, take a break, and come back in to the point where you could just talk like I’m talking to you right now.

So throughout the whole exercise here, I’m talking to you, I’m not getting tired, I’m trying to be um Relax, my belly’s relaxed.

This is the the goal, the intended goal we’re aiming towards.

If that doesn’t feel possible, lower the arms, straighten the legs, take a break, join back in.

So remember, torsioning the wrists, squeeze the physio balls, sense the weight to the heels, relax the neck.

Don’t lift the shoulders.

Keep the shoulders down.

But don’t shrug the shoulders either.

It’s just the shoulders are neutral After.

Make a note of the question and and we’ll we’ll uh definitely, Dawson, we’ll answer that after.

So membrane torsion the wrists, squeeze the physio balls, relax the neck, and weight to the heels.

Belly relaxed.

All right.

Wait, bro.

Sigh of uh relax now.

Let the arms go down quite slowly as you straighten the legs.

There’s a little bit of a sigh of uh somebody that some sort of sigh.

So as the arms go down here, the legs are straight.

You can close the eyes for a second if you feel comfortable or just keep them open a little bit and pick up spot on the floor diagonally down in front of you and just look at that spot on the floor and allow for whatever kind of I don’t know like if there was any kind of stress that came up or it was difficult, or there was a kind of interesting sensation.

You can imagine that whatever came up, it just drops down to the feet. downward.

So I the feeling is we we’re trying to let any residual fluctuations go down And the breath is calm here.

Your knees are straight.

It’s more comfortable to stand with the arms down, definitely.

And in the same way too, we’re trying to sort of tune into how you felt.

Okay, so in the beginning we did that first uh introduction and w were you really tired?

Um did your body temperature change?

Did you feel anxious?

Take note, a mental note of all those things, because this is a kind of a calibration tool we use at the beginning. of our practices which you’ll learn a little bit more about later in the primer course.

They’re not assignments for this specific group, but you’ll study them later.

Okay, so open your eyes if you haven’t opened them already.

I’m gonna bring the feet hips width apart now.

Now, looking from above, if you remember this from the squat videos, we’re trying to set the feet up so the outside edges of the feet are parallel to each other.

That means if you look from above, the toes are not pointing away from each other here like this, but rather pointing forward.

And if you look to the outside edges of the feet They’re quite parallel.

So that means that the heels may be slightly away from each other.

And the feet are no wider than your hips width apart here.

Yeah.

So we want to squeeze the heels toward each other here and when we’re squeezing the heels toward each other Not so strongly squeezing the heels toward each other, but just lightly squeezing the heels toward each other so that you feel the legs become active.

It’s just a natural thing that’s going to happen to the legs.

The legs will become active.

And then the shoulders now are going to shrug down.

And a visual reference for this. is that you can also imagine like somebody’s sort of pulling your arm downward from from here.

Like somebody’s beside you and pulling the arms down.

That’s shrugging down.

The movement doesn’t come specifically from the the hands. or from the shoulders, but the entire arm gets loaded downward like this.

And when you do that, when you shrug the shoulders down, you should feel The muscles around the back, the side, and the abdominal wall become slightly active.

It’s just a byproduct of that movement.

Everything becomes slightly active.

So draw the shoulders down.

At the same time you draw the shoulders down, spread through the fingers.

By spreading through the fingers, then the forearms become active So we’re just spreading the muscles in the hands become active and the forearms become active.

All these movements I’m going to exaggerate, but you don’t have to exaggerate them.

You can just do them more softly than me.

I’m exaggerating just so you can see what’s going on.

Spread the fingers down, draw the shoulders down, and then at the same time move through the neck here. to make sure that the neck is relaxed and then we’re going to add one more movement into this.

So as the shoulders shrug downward The crown of the head moves up.

So it’s almost as if you can imagine that somebody’s got something on your head here and slightly lifting up.

For all the massage therapists in the room or for anybody that’s been to an osteopath cranial sacral, orthobionymy, uh g cr uh uh chiropractors.

They work with the manipulation of the cranium and the spine in a specific way and the cervical spine pull is something that most people would have experience at one point in time we’re trying to do that sort of movement but nobody’s touching us right so it’s just that the crown of the head goes up the shoulders draw away from that the cervical spine the neck extends Now one more time grip the heels toward each other spread through the fingers draw the shoulders down what does it need to rip the heels?

Uh uh spread through the fingers?

Oh the the heels so yeah what what does it yeah it’s just the same story about the heels.

Uh the heels here.

Ah yeah.

The feet.

Yeah, the the feet, yeah.

So we you bring Bring them inside or something.

Inside.

Yeah.

But not so strong.

Heels grip, fingers spread, draw the shoulders down, crown of the head moves up.

Move this movement of the shoulders away from the neck up and this is all very minor movements spread squeeze lengthen, shrug, extend the neck.

If you want, you can even bring your chin a little bit closer to your chest to kind of aid in that extension through the back of the neck.

At the same time your shoulders draw down away from that movement with the heels gripping toward each other.

So you should feel that the whole body is quite rigid here and it’s almost locked.

So you’re gonna relax at once.

Everything relaxes.

The legs are relaxed.

The arms are relaxed.

The neck is relaxed And we’re gonna try that again.

Just a quick cue.

Neck extends.

To get the neck extending, you can also draw the chin slightly down.

So it’s kind of this.

Does that make sense?

Ever take your fist like this?

Put your fist in front of you like this.

This is a martial arts thing.

Hoosh!

This is martial arts, yeah?

But they do this in karate, in the karate ka in Japan, as a kind of way to um first stabilize the body.

This is not coming from karate, I’m just using it as an example.

The shoulders draw down, the fists go down, and the back of the neck extends up, and the back becomes quite tense. at the same time that you do that.

So you can just try that once for a second again.

The fists draw down and the back of the head moves away at the same time your chin draws in.

Okay, so remember that feeling and let’s try it again now with that with the hands away.

First, the heels.

Pull toward each other.

It’s like the movement is this.

You want to pull the heels toward each other, but you don’t move the foot.

The heels just pull toward each other.

This is the type of movement you want to engage.

So grip, active legs, shoulders draw down, spread the fingers.

Chin draws slightly in, extend the back of the neck up, move the neck at the same time.

So even though the neck extends, we’re trying to find a way to make the neck feel tension-free It’s an elongation of the neck.

As you spread the fingers downward, draw the shoulders down, heels gripping towards each other.

And relax one more time.

Okay, so that’s the foundation for a lot of the stuff that we do here.

We’re gonna keep um repeating those uh movements over and over and over again like a broken record and it’s not because we don’t think you understand it’s because we want you to remember Right.

So it’s a uh the the baseline of this practice is constantly keeping those things active.

And awareness should come up through that.

So let’s go maybe to squat, right?

So one thing I’d like you so squat we had lots of great comments for the squat here.

The squat so the starting for the squat too is the same idea that we had in the beginning when the feet were further apart and the and the weight went to the heels.

It’s a similar thing here, but we’re starting with again these feet parallel to each other and the weight goes to the heels.

So the important thing here in the hinge is when the weight goes back, it’s almost as if you feel you’re gonna fall over.

I wonder if we have enough right.

Everybody grab a spot on the wall.

Let’s try this together.

Just go to the wall and lean against the wall like this.

And I’ll demonstrate over there.

I’ll just do that.

So yeah.

After, yeah.

Yeah, ideally, yeah.

So it’s not that we don’t want to hear your questions.

We’re just going to go through the practice.

We’re going to finish the practice.

Remember the questions that you have and we’ll address them at the end of each session If we don’t get enough time in the session, remember your questions, put them on the forum, and then we go ballistic with the answers.

We give long detailed answers, right?

And uh yeah, we’ll try that.

So like if you’re standing, lean back to the wall, right?

That feels so stand, let’s say stand um uh 30 centimeters or one foot away from the wall, like one foot 30 centimeters, and then just lean backward and sit onto the edge of the wall like this.

Now, when you’re on the wall, draw the buttocks down. and lean the weight to the heels.

So your knees should not be bent forward.

If they’re bent over the top of your toes, you have to come a little bit further away from the wall Okay, so that feeling that the pelvis is back against the wall and the knees are slightly bent, now turn the pelvis downward to make the lower back flat to the wall and try to feel the weight into the heels.

Now this feeling of falling back, we have the wall as the support here.

This feeling of falling back is what we want to try to get all the time when we move away to the heels.

So try to remember this sensation that you have here And then come back out into the middle of the room and let’s try it again Are you gonna sideways demonstrate?

Okay.

So again, feet are about hips width apart, outside edges of the feet are parallel to each other.

If you’re looking from from above, no wider than hips width.

Also not too narrow.

They should be exactly the width of your own hips, outside edges of the feet parallel.

Lean the weight into the heels.

Again, as if you feel like you’re gonna fall.

And then we’re gonna hinge into the hips.

So it’s like you’re slicing here as you hinge.

So the weight moves back all the time, but the upper torso, the upper torso and arms.

Can some you understand that this is weight bearing, right?

Upper torso has a lot of weight, so as you hinge back, the weight of the upper torso and arms is going to offset The weight over center of gravity.

Okay, so the center of gravity is down.

If we don’t move the arms forward or lean the upper torso forward, we’re gonna fall down, right?

So we have to use the weight over center of gravity.

Hinge, weight over central gravity, come to this point, and then take the arms forward.

As you take the arms forward here, grip the heels in towards each other Spread through the fingers.

Draw the shoulders down.

Continue to grip the heels toward each other.

Draw the shoulders down again.

Elongate the back of the neck And then once come up.

Okay.

So let’s calibrate one more time in terms of what uh To find a way that’s going to be most appropriate for you today.

So if it’s difficult to hold the arms up higher, you can keep the arms lower for one.

If it’s difficult to bend the knees too much, then don’t bend them so much, if that makes sense.

So that we want to find a way To do this that’s comfortable for you so that you can manage also let’s uh enter step by step.

So back and only then bend.

Okay, why don’t you do one?

Okay, yeah.

So let’s go over here.

Let’s do granular detail.

Okay.

Yeah, speak a little bit louder and quick.

Yes, I remember.

Yes.

So making sure that feet are hip width, support toes are lightly in.

So dosing you need to bring your feet just a little bit more in.

Outside edges of the feet up. parallel.

Okay, so from here first bring the arms forward just like this, right?

And then bring the weight onto the heels.

Feel like you’re almost falling.

Feet are not parallel.

Spread the fingers.

If you can, try to bring the arms slightly higher, but if it’s really tiring here just in front of you is also okay but somehow just diagonally up draw the shoulders down relax the head and then from here think about your hips As if somebody is doing this to you.

You want to move your pelvis back, back, back, back, back.

Your spine is straight.

The weight is on the heels.

That’s it.

Okay?

Keep drawing the shoulders down, spreading them fingers and then from here when the weight is on the heels start bending the knees just a little bit there’s no goal to go like all the way down so straight knees bend the knees just a little bit and here stays completely completely straight if the shoulders are getting tight lower the arms just a little bit Okay, but the weight is still on the heels.

We draw the shoulders down, spread the fingers, and you can continue to lightly grip the heels in.

Okay, and then when we come out as we start extending the knees, we slowly draw the shoulders down.

Relax the shoulders bit more here, shoulder T.

So what I was observing in a lot of people is that this happens.

The shoulders go up like this.

The shoulders have to go down against.

I’m not sure if you were instructing that movement, right?

Were you instructing shoulders?

Yeah.

So there’s a tendency for this to happen.

And then what happens is then it becomes a crisis, you know, like happening.

You have to draw the shoulders away from the neck.

And elongate the neck.

Okay, go ahead.

So let’s just, yes, because draw the shoulders down is one of the key movements we do hundreds of times.

All the time in Baseworks.

You draw the shoulders.

That’s the shoulder.

That’s thousands of times.

Yes.

So let’s just try just this movement only.

So just bring the arms forward, spread the fingers.

Arms have to be active, not like not like this.

Just sorry, she didn’t say that.

I’m sorry about the sort of shoulders down.

Yeah.

Lift the shoulders just a little bit and then draw them down.

Yeah.

Yeah?

So just a little bit, lift and draw them down.

Okay?

Slowly lower the architect.

Yeah, very good.

And then from here what we will try to do is we will first draw the shoulders down.

So draw the shoulders down.

And then keep drawing the shoulders down.

And begin to lift the arms without moving your shoulders.

Keep drawing the shoulders down and keep lifting your arms.

Make sure that the shoulders are still down.

You should feel activation maybe here, maybe here.

Bring the arms only to the point where you feel comfortable.

Okay, slowly bring the arms down.

Be careful, don’t lift the chest so much.

Yeah.

So then again, that’s a tendency, just a few people watching, uh, even though it’s not obvious, there’s a tendency for the ch look the chest to go out like this.

So A great analogy is squats in the gym.

Has anybody ever done squats in the gym like with weights?

Yeah, so squat in the gym, it’s this is different. squat.

There’s a squat in the gym when we load, either depending on the position of the bar or whatever you’re loading, you need to set the form up so that the chest is slightly up. when you’re squatting.

Here we’re not trying to do that.

We’re trying to let the chest stay neutral.

So it’s a re-education of the movement.

Okay.

Yes.

So just watch me for a moment.

Watch my rib cage in the pelvis.

Arms just here for balance.

See as I do this movement, as I move my hips back, this relationship doesn’t change so as I go into squat I don’t want to do this but I also don’t want to do this right so I want to keep this completely completely straight So we will try one more time.

So let’s bring the arms down first and um can you just show me as like bring me into this position Manipulate my body, do this and then do this.

Okay?

So imagine that I’m just standing like this and somebody else is guiding this movement for me.

See So basically it’s here and then here.

But this stays completely together.

So let’s try one more time together.

So come up.

Draw the shoulders down, spread the fingers.

Remember to draw the shoulders down.

As you draw the shoulders down, bring the arms forward.

Keep spreading the fingers, drawing the shoulders.

Then think that somebody is pushing you like this in the crease of your thigh.

The spine stays straight, so this relationship remains the same The weight is on the heels.

Draw the shoulders down.

Don’t hike the shoulders up.

Spread the fingers.

And then microbend the knees and go in just a little bit.

It shouldn’t be tight.

Tiring, right?

This or this is almost the same in terms of effort on the sides.

It’s not about getting tired.

Also make sure that your knees don’t do this.

Okay, so the knees are above the feet.

And let’s come out.

Extend the knee, slowly bring the arms down.

Okay?

Good.

Make it next for me.

All right.

So still facing forward, facing me, let’s do the star form.

Let’s go to the star form.

Was this the last one that everybody did in the primer.

So the feet will now come a little bit wider than the hips width apart and as was explained in the practice lab It really depends on what’s going on with the hips and also the length of the legs.

So wider legs could potentially go a little bit wider than a meter.

Hip mobility giving, you can go a little bit wider, but it’s not about how wide we can go with hip mobility.

It’s much more just about keeping the pelvis neutral with the amount that the uh range of motion allows for it to be to the side.

But the outside edges of the feet, they have to stay parallel to each other.

So it doesn’t this doesn’t happen.

So we have to first gauge.

Can we keep the outside edges of the feet parallel to each other in a wider stance?

If we can’t, then narrow the stance a little bit so that you can set that up.

So can you decide where you’re gonna go?

So similarly to that of the squat, we grip the heels in.

Now this is gonna create a slightly different sensation to the legs.

So the heels grip in towards each other, the legs become active.

You don’t have to think about activating the legs.

With the heels gripping in, the legs automatically become active, if that makes sense.

And then from there we’re going to draw the shoulders down once just to sense what it feels like here with the arms down, but the shoulders drawing down, and then let’s move the neck and let’s bring the crown of the head upward and let’s spread the fingers down.

So Heels grip, shoulders draw down, spread the fingers, move through the neck.

And then from that point, we’re going to raise the arms up to shoulders height.

You can spread through the fingers.

And forgot the start form is it forward or down for this?

Forward and forward.

For this, okay.

Activate the legs away from each other.

At this point, turn the hands forward, spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down.

So the heels no longer grip, the feet now pull apart.

If that makes sense.

So we’re trying to pull the floor apart below us.

Right leg pushes to the right, left leg pushes to the left, the arms extend out to the side, the fingertips spread out, the shoulders draw down, the back of the neck. extends upward and the crown of the head extends up.

So all these movements that we’re doing they should be done in a way which is um Low level is just slightly active, not overly active.

Our movements here are exaggerated just to help you understand the dynamics.

Okay, lower down once.

Step the legs together once.

Relax for a second.

Okay, come apart again where it’s comfortable.

Actively pull the legs away this time.

Shoulders draw down, spread through the fingers, raise the arms up.

Don’t stick the butt out, don’t stick the chest forward.

Keep the pelvis neutral, the chest stays neutral.

The abdominal wall stays relaxed.

As you can see, my belly’s sticking out a little bit here.

And I purposefully started to eat a lot more than I normally do for the winter just to be able to demonstrate properly how this works.

My belly’s relaxed.

I’m not activating my abdominal wall.

I’m spreading the fingers The breath is calm, spread through the fingers, the shoulders draw down, the legs pull away.

So every movement is just minor in terms of the activity.

And of course, any point in time you can let the arms go down and relax.

Activate the legs away from each other, spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down, move through the neck.

The crown of the head moves away and up And then slowly lower the arms down and then step the legs together and just relax for a second.

I’ll let you do a version right now and I’ll walk around.

Same thing, star form, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

So bring the legs wider than hip widths apart.

And first let’s make sure that we understand the gripping movement.

Bring the hands here.

Just like it a little bit in front of your thigh.

So not the waist but the hips here.

Okay?

And now we will pull the legs away and try to feel how these muscles become active as you pull. away can you feel that so not on the side but more like on the front pull away and feel how the muscles become active anybody who doesn’t feel it can you feel So the legs Can you say it in French?

Um Go for it.

Yes, she You’re so good in French.

So the mo uh Oh she’s shy.

The movement is this Okay?

Yeah.

So as you do this, you should feel it here.

Can you feel that?

Yeah?

Okay.

This is what we’re gonna be doing.

So Oh okay, I’ll do it like this.

Pull away.

Keep.

Keep pulling away.

Don’t stop.

Shoulders down.

Spread the fingers.

Arms to the shoulder height.

Keep pulling away shoulders down spread the fingers.

Make sure you’re not doing this, you’re not doing this This rib cage pelvis stacked.

Spread, shoulders down, pull away.

Only the neck is completely relaxed The arms are a bit too far away.

Shoulders down.

Spread the fingers.

Pull away.

And just back a bit more, sir, like this.

Ribcage goes in like the weight is on the heels.

So we never do this type of thing.

That’s it, much better.

We don’t lift the chest.

Everything Everything is neutral.

And then slowly bringing the arms down.

The sensation, the sensation is like this to me. like this.

Patrick?

Yeah.

Maybe start tilt now.

Yeah, let’s do it.

We gotta just yeah.

Yeah.

So I’ll explain the details.

Watch me first.

Okay.

This movement.

There were a lot of questions.

What is the final position?

There is no final position.

I like so let me explain.

Okay, that’s thirty-five.

I think it’s good.

We’re kind of mixing up.

What what is our timeline here?

Eleven twenty is when we’re finished, so we have twenty five.

What time do we have to get out of the room?

Okay.

What does this movement mean?

I know it’s a strange movement, but watch shoulders, hips, this rectangle.

Just watch my upper body.

Watch my arms.

What do you see when I do this?

Nothing moves, exactly.

This is what I want to see.

Walk over there, right to the center of the room and everybody can just walk around.

You can surround Asia and look walk around her if you want.

So it is as if somebody takes my hips and does this.

Yeah?

But arms are here.

So everybody’s legs, hips, you know the the width is different.

So the exact position in the end is different for everybody.

Now, what is the also meaning what are we trying to do here?

If you watch my leg and this part of the body, it is as if I was doing this.

See?

But when I do this, I cannot pull away.

Like this is unstable.

We want to pull the legs away and while we pull the legs away this is active I do this movement While this is active, we cannot do it like this because this is for many people this is impossible.

This is there is a limitation.

But by turning the pelvis like this, it becomes possible. possible.

So this is the logic.

So Okay.

Yeah.

Let’s do it.

Here.

Now we will do it.

So actually why don’t you stand why don’t you watch people now do so I’m going to stand here you can stand around me and we’ll do it.

Well how about that?

However you’d like.

So let’s start again with the feet hips width apart because we’re going to transition back to it.

Oh no, let’s stand by the feet like this.

Okay, so that we’re in star form.

Okay.

The feet are the same width as they were before comfortably where you just were.

So activate the legs away from each other first.

Okay.

Let’s not take the arms up first.

Let’s just get the position of the feet.

It in response to um Dawson’s form question I talked I explained a lot in detail there this is what I mean by the pivoting okay the pivoting means this okay so there’s a kind of this motion here does that make sense So the pivoting takes place onto the balls of the feet.

So we can pivot, say let’s go like this, pivot the left foot back, the right foot slightly goes forward, and then raise the arms up.

So let’s come back again to center.

Take the arms down, actively pull the legs away from each other first, raise the arms up, spread through the fingers Let the activity of the legs go for a second, drop the left heel back, pivot the right foot forward, and then the upper torso just moves with that motion.

Does that make sense So it moves.

See this?

My upper torso moves without motion.

And then we keep the arms here actively pulling away from each other.

And then this right hip, as Asia just explained, kind of draws back as the legs pull away.

And then we allow ourselves to go forward just a bit.

Think about somebody doing this for you.

Like this.

So we’re hinging only just a bit here.

The arms stay out to the sides.

Draw the shoulders down, extend through the back of the neck.

The neck head position ideally should just be the same as the center of the chest.

Spread through the fingers.

Activate the legs away from each other as you come up.

Lower the arms, pivot the feet back to center, relax the arms down for a second.

Let’s try the other side.

Maybe let’s one time try without the arms just let’s try the other side first and then we can do that.

So activate the legs away from each other.

Reach the arms up spread through the fingers.

Pivot.

And the C the upper torso comes.

Pivot.

See I’m exaggerating the movement almost here too The upper torso and arms move in one uniform line towards that front foot, maybe even a little bit too much, I’m exaggerating here, but continue to activate the legs away from each other.

Think of this left tip as Ashra was just demonstrating.

It pulls back as we go a little bit forward and down like this.

So try to keep the spine straight here, the neck is neutral and relaxed So activate the legs away from each other as you come up, pivot forward, and lower the arms down.

Okay, as you go ahead.

So a couple of things that I observe Similar to how we’re here, we are not doing this, okay?

Rib cage pelvis.

In order to be able to tilt, this has to be aligned.

If you’re like this, it’s a completely different movement.

So first of all, when the legs are in this position, forward 45 degrees back, make sure that this is closed.

Okay, also let’s try one time without the arms.

Bring the hands on the hips.

So feet parallel.

Now right leg, okay, think about your right leg forward, left heel 45 degrees back.

Try to pull the legs away here and bring the hands on your hips.

And pull the legs away and bring the hands on your hips Focus here.

Don’t do this.

Bring the rib cage above the pelvis.

Patrick, make sure that everybody’s doing that.

Yep, I’m just watching you first, actually.

Then from here, as you hold your pelvis Try to tilt your pelvis without moving your upper body.

You’re tilting forward, the left hip goes a little bit back.

What can happen is that maybe your chest will go forward like that.

A little bit more like that.

Yeah.

Try to focus on the hip.

Somebody is pushing your hip back.

The rib cage and the pelvis stay the same.

Back.

So say on ready air.

Okay.

Yeah.

That’s very important.

Come on up for a second.

There are two different movements which are very easy to confuse.

One is bleeding from here.

Okay, absolutely.

This is one possible.

This is not what we are doing.

What we are doing is the pelvis tilts, looks like this.

Try to find the difference.

We are wanting to Tilt with the pelvis.

Think of this folding back.

Pelvis?

Tilt.

Put them up again like this.

Also, if you put fingers in the crease of your thigh, so you hold your hips here so that your fingers are here.

As you tilt, you can feel that the muscles are moving. here in the crease of your thigh as you tilt.

Oh no not so much not twisting just uh just the position of the hips anybody do you feel that you don’t understand what is the more that you’re doing.

Lift your hands if you don’t understand.

Okay, who wants to be a model?

I want one person who’s gonna come here and we’re gonna watch you.

You can try, come on.

Okay, let’s okay, let’s do climate time.

Okay, so you can do that.

No but that no.

Actually it’s looking it’s looking good.

It’s it’s really so repeat after me.

Let’s do the left foot forward.

Let me stand in front of you.

Left foot forward, right heel back.

Exactly.

Yes, both knees are extended.

But don’t don’t hyperextend.

Yeah, just straight.

Just not this, but just straight.

Don’t better.

Pull the legs away just a little bit.

Now bring the hands on your hips.

You are moving your shoulders.

I’m gonna do it.

Yes, that’s it.

Do you feel the difference?

Before what you were doing before, you were leading with your chest and shoulders.

And now what you are doing is you’re tilting in the pelvis.

Do you feel the difference?

This is going to be very good for you.

With this hinging at the hip.

Do you feel the difference?

You’re doing it but you don’t feel it yet.

I don’t know what was I doing before?

You were doing more like this, leading more with we didn’t With your chest.

Yes.

And what to want the Keep this straight.

Draw this hip back.

The hip element.

Yeah.

And then the upper torso is moving with this motion.

You were doing a little bit like this.

Don’t do that.

Just this hip goes back and then your upper torso follows.

Yeah.

Like this.

Yeah.

Okay.

Take your arms out.

Yes, you you are doing it much better.

Okay.

Anyone else who is on Yeah, a little bit, a little bit.

The left hip will will go back in order to be able to accomplish Okay, let’s let’s try that again once together.

I’ll walk around and I’ll watch your move.

Yeah, and you can walk around and So let’s stand with the feet parallel.

It doesn’t matter where you are in the room.

You can just look from follow me.

Activate the legs.

We’re gonna try both sides.

Okay.

Legs actively push away from each other.

Okay, first to set this up.

Reach the arms up, draw the shoulders down, spread the fingers Relax the legs for a second.

Okay, let the legs go soft for a second and then pivot.

The right foot comes forward, the left heel draws back.

At the same time you felt that that right hip draws back.

You can see that, right?

And then the upper torso follows the position of the right leg.

Spread through the fingers, activate the legs away from each other, draw the shoulders down, extend through the back of the neck.

Continue to activate the legs away from each other, spread through the fingers, shoulders draw down, extend through the back of the neck.

Activate the legs away from each other, raise the upper torso upright, turn the feet back to parallel, release the arms down.

Activate the legs away from each other, draw the shoulders down, spread through the fingers, extend through the back of the neck.

Activate the legs away from each other, spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down, extend through the back of the neck.

Relax the legs for a second, turn the left foot forward, drop the right heel back.

We’ll try it in a different order now.

Raise the arms up, spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down, activate the legs away from each other, extend through the back of the neck.

Activate the legs away from each other, spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down, extend through the back of the neck.

Spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down, activate the legs away from each other, extend through the back of the neck, lower the arms down, turn the feet back to parallel into the center.

Let’s do one more round, relax.

Activate.

Shoulders draw down.

Spread through the fingers.

Reach the arms up.

Relax the legs for a second.

Let’s separate the movement of the feet.

Turn the right foot forward first.

Drop the left heel back.

Hinge into that right hip.

Activate the legs away from each other, spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down, extend through the back of the neck.

Activate the legs away from each other, extend through the back of the neck, draw the shoulders down, spread through the fingers.

Draw the shoulders down, extend through the back of the neck, activate the legs away from each other, spread the fingers.

Relax the arms down, turn the feet back to parallel center.

Activate the legs away from each other, draw the shoulders down, spread through the fingers, extend through the back of the neck.

Raise the arms up, spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down, extend through the back of the neck.

Relax the legs for a second.

Let’s do one foot at a time The left foot turns, the right heel drops back, the upper torso follows, the left hip hinges, spread through the fingers, activate the legs away from each other, extend through the back of the neck, shoulders draw down.

Extend through the back of the neck, spread through the fingers, shoulders draw down, activate the legs away from each other Spread through the fingers, activate the legs away from each other, extend through the back of the neck, shoulders draw down, left hip draws slightly more back.

Spread through the fingers, draw the shoulders down, activate the legs away from each other, lower the arms.

Turn the left foot forward, the right foot forward, step the feet together.

And relax.

Lay onto the floor now wherever you are.

Lay onto the floor Actually, sit onto the floor, just take a look at what I’m doing here.

Just watch me.

We’re gonna be tractioning the spine here in this next movement.

So the first step in what we do here is to find a way to feel the weight of every part of the body onto the floor below you.

So we’re just watching for a second and then we’ll do it together.

And you can do this a little bit by moving and starting to feel comfortable in your body and how you feel the weight of the body downward.

The legs should be in a comfortable way slightly away from each other and the arms should be slightly away from the upper torso at first The next thing we’re going to be doing here is lifting the chin up towards the chest, and we’re going to be looking that way.

And then we’re going to be taking both shoulder girdles like this, and we’re going to start to move in this direction. so that the back becomes round like a turtle, right?

And as the back becomes round, you feel the lower part of the spine extend.

The upper part of the spine extends, and then at the same time you can extend out through the hip.

So the right hip extends, the left hip extends, the shoulder.

Flexion, lower back starts to extend, the chin comes to the chest.

At one point we lower the arms.

The arms can be w however you want, just lower them down.

The chin will stay to the chest, with the back now flat to the floor from this flexion.

And then we’re lowering the chin, we’re keeping the chin to the chest, lowering the back of the head down.

Now once the back of the head gets to the floor here, you can take this hand. or one hand and just take the back of the neck and pull it like this again so you do that little bit of an osteo pull there with the back of the neck so that the cervical spine also gets tractioned.

So you should feel here that the back of the head’s connected to the floor, it’s not moving.

The pelvis is connected.

The lower part of the back is pretty pretty flat.

Thoracic spine is also extended, and then you’re just relaxing. the legs relax.

So let’s try that together.

Everybody lay on the floor.

Wherever you are, lay on the floor.

Yeah, yeah.

So let’s try.

Move on the floor first However you’d like to find that way that you feel a little bit relaxed now onto the floor.

You feel the weight of your pelvis, the weight of the legs, the weight of the arms, the weight of the back of the head, and you feel the joints really loosened up Initially here, the joints are relaxed, they’re really loose, relaxed and loose.

Now, now that we’re all relaxed, lift the head up.

Look forward towards your feet.

Now the shoulders start to move forward and your scapula come away from each other.

The shoulder girdle. starts to broaden and you start to move.

At the same time, start to move through the legs, the feet push away from you, so you feel that the hip joint becomes extended and you flex, you start to feel the lower back is long, the thoracic spine is long, you’re in this kind of like rolling motion forward And then at the very end, slowly keep your chin in towards the chest, lower the head down to the floor.

And once you get down to the floor, first step, relax the legs Next deck, tape whichever hand you want to the back of your head and just give it a little light, gentle pull.

Be mindful of your own condition.

So that you feel this neck stretch.

Now, once the neck is stretched, let the head go back down to the floor to connect.

Let the arms relax to the side of the body however you’d like to.

Now try to just stay here still for a second, and you want to sense the weight of the different parts of the body into the floor here.

So starting with the heels, feel the weight of the heels.

Feel the weight of the back of the calves.

Feel the weight of the back of the pelvis.

Feel the weight of the back of the shoulders.

The weight of the back of the forearms and hands.

And the weight of the very back part of the head.

Now, with this weight, you can imagine that each of these points that I just described are kind of merging into the surface below you.

So you kind of just think you’re merging into the floor.

The weight is comfortable.

It should feel comfortable The spine is tractioned.

That should also feel comfortable, but if your spine doesn’t feel very good, wiggle a bit to adjust.

Allow the weight of the body again to really drop and sense that weight.

Sense the comfort of that weight.

You can keep the eyes open here or you can keep the eyes closed.

It’s totally up to you.

Keep the breath totally calm.

We’re continuing to sense the weight here.

It’s a It’s not unconscious what we’re doing.

We’re trying to continually feel that weight.

And at one point, what happens if we’re lucky?

is that the weight lessness sort of starts to make itself apparent.

But for the time being, the weight heels, calves, pelvis, shoulders, forearms, elbows, hands, back of the net head, all that should feel connected to the floor and heavy.

Okay, now I’d like you to slowly start to move the body how you feel it’s appropriate to move and find your way over to the stomach.

Okay, so move comfortably.

Release a bit and then you can roll whichever direction you’d like to however you’d like to.

Lay flat onto your stomach with the arms out to the side, however you feel comfortable.

If you have glasses on, you might want to remove them.

You can turn the head to either side or you can keep the forehead down, whichever is more comfortable for you.

And with the legs slightly away from each other and with the arms slightly away from each other, you can start to move the pelvis back and forth, wiggle the pelvis.

And then once you feel that the pelvis has moved enough, let the pelvis go neutral.

And again, feel the weight of the arms, the chest. the front of the thighs and the knees and the tops of the feet and the head wherever it is whether it’s on your cheek or whether it’s on your forehead feel that weight the sensation of that weight being heavy Into the surface below you.

And remember, God loves you Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

Okay, now however you’d like to find your way back up.

And let’s uh open the floor to questions before we leave today.

How much time do we have?

Huh?

Five minutes.

Five minutes.

Okay, so we have five minutes of questions.

Yes, please keep.

Move your pelvic pelvis uh back and forward.

I saw them swaying.

Oh, okay.

Not for me This back and forth.

Okay, good analogy.

So I was I meant sw moving my pelvis back and forth.

That for different people it may mean swaying, so swaying, moving, whatever, but this is what I mean, this movement.

Rocking rocking rock rocking sway Yes Yes Dawson Oh sorry Magali was maybe first yeah um I I think I have I have a natural posture with the back hurt.

So if I relax then I’ll curve.

But then at the end of it my lower back hurt plus I think I I just relaxed like I don’t know how to nut force but I’m not getting a much yeah.

Um relax the belly means don’t clench, but think, talk and a little bit so Pull in and tuck like this, see like from here, in and a little bit in.

Position, only position.

Don’t think about clenching, just position.

One, two.

Closes, let me feel attention because I’m yeah, relaxing.

I would I will engage every but I would be like that.

So now I I just force my So you don’t force you position the parts of your body in a certain way.

But let’s try.

So Well you know what we’re gonna do?

In relation to that, we’re gonna give a very good explanation on the forum.

So check the forum tonight and she’s gonna write an explanation of that.

Dawson.

Yeah.

I don’t know.

That’s just tightness from my own chest, but my like radial nerve gets real triggered when I lift my arms and I get all tingleys and my thumb and stuff.

Is that expected or is that just For some people, uh if it makes so so it’s not dangerous, uh probably something in your shoulder, probably you’re not used to do this for extended periods of time.

Actually yeah.

Really?

And does it tingle?

But not like holding.

Not holding.

Anyway.

But I’m bent.

Not as soon as I straighten that.

So if it’s uncomfortable you can keep the arms like lightly bent like this, maybe for you.

If it doesn’t bother, try to extend more, but it’s like look for example see this movement like this and like this the the position here changes for some people if this is tight you may have tingling but again if it tingles too much then don’t force the elbows out so much it’s okay to keep slightly bent.

But another another comment I’d just like to make there to to to move on is that um What we do here is going to bring up lots of sensations for people, different types of sensations.

Like I think Clementine mentioned also that there was some stress.

The things that come up are there’s an adaptive process to that where when you’re doing the work with us, you may feel some tingling in the beginning, you may feel some stress, some fatigue. those things should even themselves out the more you apply all the principles over time.

So yeah.

Any one last question for today.

Sorry.

It’s not that we don’t want to answer your questions.

We will direct them to the forum.

Since we have to get out of here at eleven thirty, so I’m just a bit confused about the distributed activation and tension in the neck.

Because you keep saying like relax the neck, but like when I’m trying to do the distributed activation, like my map always goes.

Yes.

And so yeah, I understand the question.

Great.

My question is linked to Where from it start when the school it’s the it starts from here, from here Okay, those are actually two different questions, but I’ll answer both.

Okay, so in relation to this, you draw the shoulders down and from drawing the shoulders down you’re trying to relax the neck as much as possible It takes time to get used to, but especially for people who call hold a lot of tension, drawing the shoulders down repeatedly should change how it feels.

But uh in general all the muscles except for the neck are active, only the neck is relaxed.

So we always check shoulders down and then just check So I think it’s fine to sort of exaggeratedly do that myself while you’re gonna do that.

Yes, yes.

It’s like a like a GIF image as opposed to a JPEG image.

So not just draw the shoulders down and stop you can like draw and like move a little bit and move and draw again draw again to reaffirm the position in relation to that you imagine that somebody is holding your head like this and Pulling it up.

Well like the entire head, like or like this like this.

It doesn’t really matter, but just like you are like like this and somebody pulls it up.

Yeah, or the head is down.

No, that’s then the head is not very difficult.

Yeah, so if if you do this, it activates the muscles kind of here a little bit.

This is not that important.

It is kind of case by case.

But what’s more important is that the shoulders are down and active, but the neck is relaxed and you can kind of move it In different ways.

Sorry, um that’s it for today.

So first first firstly, thank you very much.

I just we just want to let you know that It’s always an honor to work with a new group and we’d like to thank you very much for taking your time to book into this course and come today.

It’s a real Pleasure to meet you all.

We’re really happy that you’re here and direct more questions onto the forum and we’ll passionately answer every question in detail.

And what we’ll try and do maybe for each session too is create a quick summary of each session and we’ll post that on the forum.

And I’ll try to make the bilingual version of that in French too on the forum.

How about that?

So I think that that makes a little bit of a recap for everybody on the forum effectively.

Does that sound good?

And if you have any other questions that came up in relation to today, please post them onto the forum and we’ll answer all of your questions.

But post them publicly and try to tag um try to tag them too accordingly.

If it’s star form, there’s a tag already.

If you start to type star form in the tag, it’ll show up and just click on that tag.

Distributed activation, micro movements, they’re all tags there that are existing on the form.

Tag.

In the form you’ll see a thing in the bottom which says tags.

It’s a reference.

So as you start to have combinations.

Thank you.