04.09 Key Points: Effort 1 — Transcript

04.09 Key Points: Effort 1 — Transcript (English)

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Transcript

Welcome to another Key Points lesson.

Here we are going to talk about the Intensity Modification with a concern for effort.

And we’re going to have two separate Key Points lessons and two separate practice lessons related to this aspect of the principle of Intensity Modification.

So let’s take a look.

We’ll start in the Reclining Transition.

And the first form we are going to do in this sequence is going to be the V-Sit.

We already talked about the V-Sit in detail.

So I’m only going to focus on the aspects which specifically relate to the principle of Intensity Modification as a recap.

So from the Reclining Transition, we’ll bring the feet onto the floor and then one hand will go onto one knee, another hand goes onto the other knee and then see how the elbow is completely extended.

We want to find a feeling of actually hanging from the knees.

Of course, the shoulders are drawn down.

And as we hang, we’ll shift the weight a little bit back, so the feet come off the floor.

From here, we extend the ankles, spread the toes, push the balls of the feet.

We still continue to draw the shoulders down.

And then we release the hands.

So you see, we keep the shape of the body.

We press the palms forward, and there is a wall in front.

Keep drawing the shoulders down.

Notice how the arms are completely parallel to the floor, right, so we want to keep that shape as well.

And then to remind you, in relation to the principle of Intensity Modification, if this is already a little bit challenging, then you just stay here for as long as you can maintain your breathing calm.

Okay, so if at any point you feel like you begin to get tired, bring the hands back onto the knees, put the feet onto the floor and rest a little bit, okay?

And then you can default to this option at any point when you feel tired.

But if this is okay, then while keeping the legs active and shoulders down, we’ll start extending the knees.

And again, we only extend them to the point where the knee position doesn’t change.

There’s no shaking, the breathing is relaxed.

So you should be completely relaxed as you do this.

And you can see here that as I extend the knees, Satoko keeps her knees bent.

And the feet stay active.

So we spend some time here.

Of course, if at any moment, let’s say for example, you went into a position that I’m doing right now, but after a few seconds, you thought, or it’s a little bit challenging, you’re always welcome to return to what Satoko is doing or bring the legs down.

Just try to do it without snapping with very, very controlled movements.

So we’ll do the V-Sit.

You can see approximately how long it’s going to be in the video.

We spread the toes, extend the ankles, we draw the shoulders down.

And then from here, we will lie on our backs, bend the knees and bring them to the chest.

And then the hands will go kind of V shape a little bit away from the body.

So not too close, but a little bit away.

And from here, what we want to see is that the back of the shoulders and the lower back should stay grounded completely on the floor.

So at no point, your shoulder should come off the floor like this or your lower back arch.

So when the knees are bent to the chest, it’s a very good position to kind of roll the hips from side to side a little bit and flatten the lower back, make sure that the lower back is flattened.

And then from here, we will bring the legs up.

And here again, if you are relatively flexible and you can comfortably bring the feet just above the hips like what I’m doing, this is what you will do.

However, if doing that, you feel either that your abdominal muscles are already working or you feel tension in your hamstrings, you’re welcome to bend the knees like what Satoko is doing here.

However, remember, if you bend the knees, you need to really extend the ankle, spread the toes, and really keep that shape of the leg.

So if this is the shape of the leg that you have chosen, so we’re gonna be doing leg raises from here.

When the legs go lower and then they return, they should stay in the shape that you have assumed at this stage of the form.

So we draw the shoulders down, and also the palms are pressing into the floor.

That helps to add a little bit of Distributed Activation, and as a result, some abdominal strength, and the ankles and the balls of the feet stay active.

And then from here we will begin to lower the legs and when you lower the legs, don’t just think that you lower them and you lift them.

Imagine that the legs don’t just go down but imagine that they want to separate from your hips like if somebody’s pulling on your legs, trying to pull them out from the hip sockets.

So the movement is away and down and then away and up.

So don’t forget this away aspect of the movement.

And when we lower the legs it can be just a little bit.

So we begin to lower the legs and this is maybe the lowest where we want you to go at this stage for this particular form.

If you feel comfortable lowering the legs to this angle and you can keep your breathing calm, then this is where you would go with this.

We don’t want to go completely low in this particular form.

And then, before lifting the legs, again, “away and up,” and a good way to imagine it is that, imagine that you’re scooping something with the top of the feet.

So there’s something lying on top of your top of the feet and you are as a result kind of have to lift it with the top of the feet and up.

So away and up and we will return the legs to the position where we started.

Watch Satoko.

See how although her knees are bent, when the legs go down and the legs go up, the shape of the leg doesn’t change.

So if you did one round and your breathing became irregular and you feel tired, at any point you can bend the knees and rest.

So altogether in this particular practice lesson we are going to do five repetitions.

So be prepared that you should be able to do five repetitions and you need to gauge your effort.

So for example rather than bringing your legs to 30 degrees two times and then the other three times barely being able to do one degree, try to gauge the effort in such a way that every movement is more or less uniform.

There should be no momentum.

The lower back stays flat all the time.

The shoulders don’t lift, right?

It should be completely, completely comfortable to do this.

And maybe you will do just five degrees.

Maybe you do just one degree, but try to imagine, okay, I need to do five repetitions with relaxed breathing.

How much effort am I going to spend per one movement in order to be able to do that, okay?

So we’ll do five repetitions at about this speed and then at the end we’ll bend the knees to the chest.

And then here you massage the lower back to release any tension.

One thing I would like to add is that if you have any ongoing problems with your lower back right now, let’s say you woke up today and your lower back hurts, be extra careful when you do this.

And even if normally your abdominal strength is great, but your lower back is not feeling very well today.

Then also don’t lower the legs too much.

There should be no pain, okay?

So you just bring the legs up and you begin to lower them.

The moment that you feel that your lower back starts feeling funny, don’t go lower than that, return a little bit.

And also for the lower back to stabilize, lower back you really need to draw the shoulders down and press the palms into the floor.

And also the movement of not just lowering, but “away and down” and “away and up.”

If you think about that, that will also help to stabilize the pelvis.

So don’t forget about that.

Okay, so from here we’ll bring the legs up one more time.

And again, so Satoko’s knees are now extended, but you can have them lightly bent.

Then we’ll lift the head, look forward, and press the palms forward like we did in the V-Sit.

So the arms now are more or less parallel to the floor.

And what we’ll start doing from here is that we begin to slowly lower the legs and you’re really, really trying to round the spine as much as possible here.

When you’re rounding the spine, your upper body becomes kind of shorter and you’re trying to find a tipping point where you will be able to come onto your sit bones like this and we will suspend here for a few moments, extend the ankles, push the balls of the feet, just suspend, don’t move, and then we will return one more time into the Reclining Transition, We’ll draw the shoulders down, extend the ankles, push the ball of the feet, complete Distributed Activation, natural breathing, and we’ll bring the feet down.

So that’s essentially the entire sequence that we’re going to do.

So Reclining Transition, V Sit, lay down, five repetitions of the Leg Raises, Reclining Transition, and that’s it.

And be prepared to do the sequence and just see how you feel.

Make sure that your breathing stays calm.

It would be great if you can repeat this sequence on different days.

For example, when you feel very energetic, see how it feels.

And then maybe another day, you feel really tired, but still try to do this sequence in a way where your breathing stays calm and you don’t over-exert yourself.

So according to the principle of Intensity Modification in Baseworks, we don’t have a very strict difference between exercises which are high intensity and exercises which are low intensity.

Any exercise can be performed at varying levels of intensity depending on how you feel on the day.

And this particular sequence is a great way to exercise this ability to adjust your performance based on effort.

So go on, get to the next practice lesson and try this sequence.

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• Date: 2026-02-03