key points standing ignition 1 circle form

6.3. Key Points: Standing Ignition 1 - Circle Form — Transcript (English)

Summary:

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Transcript

Hi, welcome to this Key Points lesson.

And today we are going to look at one of the standing Ignitions in Baseworks, which we call a Circle Form.

Let’s take a look.

So we begin in a standing position, and then we bring the legs a bit wider than hip width apart.

And we interlock the fingers in front of the chest and we’ll lightly bend the knees.

And you can see that I bend the knees little bit more than Satoko, but both variations are acceptable.

And we keep the weight close to the heels.

And the arms are approximately at the shoulder level.

And you need to remember which finger goes on the top first, because we will repeat the Ignition twice.

And if at first, for example, the right finger was on top, then the next time we do it, it’s going to be the left finger on top.

So we interlock the fingers, kind of draw the shoulders down.

And also in this type of Ignition, as we perform dynamic movements, we do align breathing and movements.

So when you actually perform the Ignition, you will be hearing cues about when to inhale and when to exhale.

So let’s take a look.

So we interlock the fingers, then we inhale.

And then on the exhalation, we press the palms away from the chest while we round the upper spine.

So exhale, press forward and really round the upper spine.

Then on the next inhalation, we bring the arms up and in this case, it’s okay to let the shoulders lift, right?

So we’re not trying to keep the shoulders as down as possible.

We’re comfortably stretching up while pressing the fingers up.

And it’s okay to lift the rib cage.

So you can see that in many Ignitions, we actually allow to do the movements that we don’t do in the main body of the Baseworks practice.

So we really stretch very, very comfortably here.

And then as we exhale, we begin to bend forward.

And depending how you feel in the back of your thighs, you can keep your knees extended or you can keep them bent, right?

So here we don’t want to have any pulling sensations in your hamstrings.

But essentially you bend over, okay, as much as you feel comfortable while still keeping fingers in this position.

And then depending on the session, sometimes we will do the movement in one direction or another.

But in this particular clip, you will see that we begin to bend the right knee.

And if you imagine if you bend the right knee, it will allow you to turn your trunk to the left. so see what’s gonna happen.

So as we bend the right knee, right knee in this case is the one away from us.

So see we bend the right knee and as we inhale we begin to press the arms to the side kind of drawing a half circular motion.

This is why we call it Circle Form.

We draw a full circle and it feels really nice on the stretch side of the body.

So when we pass the center, we begin to bend the opposite knee, the left knee in this case, and as we exhale, we begin to lower our body, and in the very end of this movement, we kind of unbend the knee, so we return to a position where our body is facing forward.

So we did a circle in one direction, and then as we inhale, we are going to do a circle in the opposite direction.

So here we are going to now bend again the left knee and press the palms to the right side, drawing a half circle and as we inhale.

And as we exhale we bend the right knee and we bring the arms down and we return to center, right?

And then we kind of undo the movement that we were doing in the very beginning.

As we inhale we press the palms forward and up.

So the torso comes up and from here if it’s possible you can do a variation that I’m doing.

We can come up on our tip toes.

In this case ensure that the ankle is completely completely straight and the ankle line is not broken to the side.

And in this case also you can back arch and you really press the arms up, it may be a little bit difficult to balance in this position.

And if it’s difficult to balance you can keep your heels on the floor, it’s also completely alright.

So we do this on the inhalation.

And in the very end on the inhalation we start releasing our fingertips and we’re just really comfortably stretching our arms up and then as we exhale we will begin to lower the arms through the sides and again really really reaching away away away away from shoulders.

And if you were on your tiptoes, you slowly bring the heels on the floor at the same time.

And then after we finish the movement, we allow our body to completely relax.

The arms are relaxed.

So we spend just a few moments here to recalibrate a little bit, relaxed, and then we perform the same movement on the other side.

So we interlock the fingers the opposite way from before.

Once again, we bend the knees a little bit.

We inhale, then on the exhalation, we are pressing palms away from the chest and we inhale as we’re pressing up.

It’s okay to back arch here.

As we exhale, we tilt forward, the knees can be bent if your hamstrings are burning, and then we will do the circle in the opposite direction.

So we did the right knee bends first before, Now the left knee will be bent first before.

So we bend the left knee, pressing palms to the right on the inhalation.

Then we come to center.

As we exhale, we bend the right knee and we do the circle on the other side.

And then the circle goes back.

So bend the right knee up, circle, inhale, begin to exhale, and then bend the left knee and down.

So you really need to understand the mechanics of this movement before you do it because we combine the movements with inhalation and exhalation and plus you will be looking down.

So it will be very difficult to look at the screen as you do this.

It’s just gonna be too much information.

So we really recommend that you review the key points lesson video until you are familiar with the dynamics of the movement, okay?

So anyway, here let’s watch until the end because there’s something else happening after we do both circles.

So we inhale and arms up, we can come on to the tip toes or not if it’s difficult to balance.

And then as we exhale, we slowly release the arms and through the sides, we’re bringing them down.

So all this happens on one exhalation.

Slowly, slowly, we bring the arms to the sides and then we just let the arms go loose and from here again we completely relax.

So we did two circles, one side, the other side, and then if it’s possible we are going to close our eyes.

If you feel like it’s difficult to balance, you don’t have to close the eyes and you can keep your eye lids just maybe like half closed and look down onto the floor, but if it’s possible close the eyes.

And we will have maybe a minute of stillness.

And you will hear the instructions when you actually do this Ignition.

You will be guided to focus on the internal state of the body.

And essentially we just want to observe how you feel, try to notice any sensations, any tension.

These standing practices are actually very interesting in terms of how much you can notice about the distribution of tension or maybe some asymmetry on the right side, on the left side in your body.

If there is one practice that can teach you really a lot about your body, it’s probably some form of standing stillness practice.

So this Ignition offers this great opportunity to observe.

And we spend some time in this position.

And in various practice sessions, usually it’s from one to three minutes, but this particular Ignition you will spend about one minute in this stillness.

It’s actually interesting to watch the video.

You will see a little bit of sway.

Both me and Satoko, you can see how the body sways as you stand, which will also happen to your body when you do this.

And then when we finish, we just bring the feet back to hip width apart and this is normally how we will begin a practice session.

So this is an Ignition practice, something that we will do at the beginning of a practice session, and usually it helps you additionally to relax, you know, to do this mental shift towards the practice.

You know, you were busy before you were doing something else, but then when you begin the practice, you really need to be focused on the body.

And this is what this Ignition does.

So in the following lesson, you’re going to do just this Ignition.

In Baseworks, we normally don’t do an Ignition practice on its own.

So it just happens at the beginning of the practice session.

But in this Primer course, as we become familiar with the dynamics, you are going to do just the Ignition so that you can feel comfortable with the movement dynamics.

So if you need to review this Key Points lessons several times to get the dynamics, please do so so that when you go to the next practice lesson, you can follow along without any interruptions.