05.05 Key Points: Reclining Transition — Transcript

05.05 Key Points: Reclining Transition — Transcript (English)

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Transcript

Hi there, in this key points lesson, we’re going to look at how to perform the Reclining Transition and the quality of movement in the Suspension, which is also a movement that you will often encounter in the Baseworks practice.

Let’s take a look.

So we will start by sitting on the floor and you just bring the knees relatively close to your chest, and just bring the hands onto your knees.

Then we will lean back, and we will first suspend and at this point, the elbow is extended.

So make sure that the elbow is not bent too much.

So the knee is as far away from your shoulders as it has to be so that you could keep your elbow extended.

And when the feet leave the floor, immediately they become activated, which means that we extend the ankle, we push the balls of the feet and we try to kind of spread the toes.

So then from here, we let go of the hands and this position is what we call Suspension, right?

So obviously we have to flex our hips here and use some abdominal strength in order not to just kind of collapse, but also notice how the shoulders are drawn down, we spread the fingers, we extend the ankles, we push the balls of the feet.

So in this position, we are absolutely active.

And we can just explore this.

We keep extending the ankles, push the balls of the feet, we draw the shoulders down.

We can play with our center of gravity here a little bit.

We’re suspended.

You can try to move your legs a little bit and try to explore what is it that prevents you from falling here.

Why is it that you’re stable, even though there’s just very small point of contact with the surface, but somehow you’re not falling.

What is it that keeps you together without collapsing on the back or on the front?

And then from here, we’ll try to move into the Reclining Transition, slowly with control, no snapping, no momentum, no falling.

Step by step, right?

So as we begin to extend the legs, we need to bring the elbows under the shoulders.

So we slowly move the elbows under the shoulders.

And then finally, we touch the floor, the elbows touch the floor, and we come… this is almost a Reclining Transition because the chest is a little bit collapsed here, we’ll fix it in a moment, but you see that the knees are extended, ankles are extended, we’re pushing the balls of the feet, the shoulders are drawn down, so we’re not like this, right?

So the chest is relatively open.

And from here, we’ll lift the chest, yeah?

And press the forearms into the floor.

See, I’m showing this movement, how pressing the forearms forward helps to keep the chest up.

And that really assists also a little bit with the abdominal strength.

Extending the ankles, extending the knees, pushing the ball over the foot.

So this is also a position which is entirely active, similar to Suspension, maybe it is a little bit more challenging than the Suspension because your knees are extended and legs are upward.

And then when we come out, we try to come out also through Suspension, which means that we begin to lower the legs and we use the weight of the legs to bring the upper body to Suspension.

So see, we’re trying to perform this movement with as much control as we can, and then we just return back where we started with the hands on the knees.

So in Baseworks, we love this Suspension and the Reclining Transition, we try to insert them anywhere where it kind of logically fits in the movement dynamics between the forms.

Very often when people come to Baseworks classes, when they notice that we repeat this Reclining Transition over and over, then they’re like, Oh, wow, why are we doing this so much?

And as I said, well, apart from building strength in a very, very gentle way, these positions really require your entire body to be active.

You cannot be sloppy while you’re on a Suspension or a Reclining Transition.

So it forces you to be aware, mindful, and in control.

So give it a try in the next practice lesson and really watch the quality of movement.

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