04.04 Key Points: Safety 3 — Transcript

04.04 Key Points: Safety 3 — Transcript (English)

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Transcript

So this is the last key points lesson in this series where we’re talking about the principle of Intensity Modification with the concern for safety.

And we’re going to talk about the form which is called Horizontal Shoulder Flex.

And the name comes essentially from this movement.

However, our safety related concerns are not gonna be related so much about the shoulders but about the ankles.

Because in Baseworks, when we perform this movement, we usually sit on our ankles, and that may not be possible for everybody.

So let’s take a look what I’m talking about.

So if it is available for you, we would like you to be able to sit in this position.

If it’s not available for you now, we would like you to be able to sit in this position at some point in the future.

So here the ankles are extended, knees are together, heels are together, and we’re essentially sitting on the heels.

So the heels are very, very close to each other. they are not gonna open to the sides like this.

And depending on your ankle mobility, that may not be possible.

Also, if you have broken your ankle in the past, this may also make it difficult to be in this position.

But in order to make it more manageable and also for the sake of developing ankle mobility, what we do here is that the top of the feet are pressing into the floor, and you can see that movement a little bit.

If sitting on the ankles is absolutely impossible for you at this point in time, in the lesson, you will see this hint that in that case, you may just choose to sit with your legs crossed.

But in that case, you need to still make sure that when your spine is upright, the pelvis is upright.

And then, when you’re leaning back, the pelvis is tilting back.

So let’s go back to our form.

Suppose we sit on our ankles.

In this case, we will bring the hands forward and we will lean back.

And you can see that the pelvis tilts back.

It is possible that your ankles were still okay when the pelvis was upright like this, but when you start leaning back, that puts more weight on the ankles and it may become more uncomfortable at this point.

However, what we’re going to see here is that again, we’re not just dropping the entire weight of our body on the ankles.

We press the top of the feet on the floor and we’re doing this movement of almost extending the knees a little bit.

And later I’m going to show your clean clips which shows those specific movements, but you can see I’m exaggerating that movement.

See, you’re using your feet and your knees to lift yourself, lift the weight off the ankles so that you don’t put so much weight on the ankles.

But either way, so if you are comfortable sitting on the heels, you sit on the heels.

If not, you sit cross-legged.

What we do with our arms in this form is that we cross the arms at the shoulder height without momentum.

So we don’t do this.

That just doesn’t happen.

It’s a very, very, very, very controlled movement.

And also look, because you’re leaning back, that actually brings the shoulders forward.

So that gives you more range of motion here, but without throwing yourself into the movement.

And then, if it is possible, you cross your arms around the elbows like this with both elbows bent, your shoulder mobility may be limited.

Maybe you only will be able to bring your arms to a position which looks a little bit like this.

This is completely fine.

Essentially the cue is that the shoulders are down.

We don’t want one shoulder to be higher.

So whatever you can do with both shoulders down.

If it looks like this, it looks like this, but we will be pressing the arms into each other than in this position and that will eventually work our mobility here, and this eventually will allow us to bring the elbows closer together.

So you are respecting symmetry here, you are pressing the arms into each other, and then from here you will extend the spine.

And here, as we often do in other forms, we begin the undulating movements of the spine.

Also, we’re trying to bring the elbows to the shoulder height.

But again, if it causes too much compression in the shoulders, you can keep it slightly lower, but keep the shoulders down.

So, never allow this to happen.

The shoulders stay down and we press the arms into each other.

We don’t forget about the feet.

You continue to press the top of the feet into the floor and we’re moving the rib cage from side to side. to want the pelvis to be upright, the ribcage to be upright.

So we don’t want to back arch here.

Be very, very careful that your spine is completely straight and we are stacking the ribcage, the lower back and the pelvis.

And then to come out, we lean back one more time and we are lowering our arms so it’s almost like your elbows are going a little bit into your belly.

And then to release the arms- again no momentum, no snapping out, very controlled movement.

We first pull the arms one more time in that kind of opposite direction, the way we came in.

And then when we move out we’re moving the shoulders as if moving through the water or opening the curtains in water, right?

So the arms were here, and then one arm and the other arm- we really want to press the arms out to release any compression that this movement might have caused to the shoulders.

We release that compression by doing this movement.

You can also just move your shoulders a little bit like this to relieve any compression and then we will do the other side.

So that’s essentially the form and I’m going to show you a couple of clips related to the safety concern and the Intensity Modification for the ankles.

So here’s Satoko showing the leg movements.

See you’re almost lifting your butt off the ankles.

Of course staying in this position takes some energy from your thigh muscles, that also may be a little bit tiring, but that relieves the weight from the ankles.

So that’s one movement that you’re doing.

And here Satoko lifts her pelvis off her ankles to exaggerate the demonstration of the movement that the ankles are trying to be doing.

See, so it looks like this, you’re kind of trying to flex your ankles, right?

But they’re not really fully flexing because you have your pelvis pressing on the ankles, but that’s essentially the movement you’re trying to do.

And finally, if you feel like you’re almost okay with your ankles, but maybe when you start you’re okay, but then at some point it becomes uncomfortable while you’re in the form.

Another possibility is that you can take something like a towel and roll its side like this and then put it under your ankles like this.

See, so then the top of the ankles are on top of a very thin layer of fabric which still protects the top of the ankle from being pressed into the hard surface, and under the ankle it’s also elevated just a little bit with some cushioning, but you don’t want to put something very fat there, because then it defeats the purpose.

So it has to be really something very thin like what Sadako is showing here and if you have to stack something very thick under your ankles to make it comfortable, then just don’t do that and then you just do the cross legged variations.

So this is really only for this kind of borderline level, borderline condition where you are almost comfortable but not quiet.

Okay?

And in Baseworks we do a lot of other movements like for example when you’re in High lunge, your back ankle is always completely extended.

Or whenever the legs are off the floor, we are pushing the balls off the feet.

The ankles are always completely extended, spreading the toes.

So every time we do those movements in other forms, this is bringing you closer to being able to sit on your ankles comfortably in these forms.

So that’s it for the key points.

Now you’re ready to go to the next practice lesson and perform a sequence which consists of the three forms, which we discussed.

Try to decide which versions of the movement are appropriate for you.

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• Transcribed by: Auto-import
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• Date: 2026-02-03