Welcome to CORE RESTORE METHOD | Lesson 1

Welcome to CORE RESTORE METHOD | Lesson 1 | Moving From The Hip

Published: Fri, 09/14/18

Hey

Welcome to your first Core Restore e-lesson.

Our goals are lofty; our time together time is short.

Weekly follow up e-mails are designed to supplement your mat practice; to expand your understanding of core; and to deepen your knowledge and felt sense of the body.

To get the most juice out of our class time together, please read carefully through included information and do the assigned homework.

It helps when we don't have to go back to basic concepts over and over and over again during the class time. Structurally, moving forward is impossible if the majority of the class is struggling with the foundational pieces.

I would love to help you to CORE RESTORE - yet I also have to take in consideration where everyone in the class is and structure each class accordingly. So please, even if you find it difficult to do the homework for yourself, do it for your class mates!

Now that that's out of the way, let's start with proper introductions:

Please fill-out this 2 minute questionnaire to introduce yourself and let me know what your most important goals for this yoga session are.

All your feedback and ideas are extremely valuable; they help me to refine how the classes are structured so that they can serve you in the best way possible {on that note: I am restructuring e-mail system to include a pre-class touch point - both with the driving instructions:) and also on some of the subjects we've discussed during class this week to cut down on sitting.)

A note to Satori regulars: please, please, please fill out the form - yes, yet again! I am not trying to be a major PITA, I promise!

Health + Body things flow and shift, and as they do, our goals and expectations change - sometimes year to year, but more often month to month, and even week to week. Think of this questionnaire as a way to clarify and set your intentions for the yoga session ahead.

The Core Restore Method: GOAL + FOCUS

The core is our physical, emotional & energetic center.

Its power is not found in isolation but rather in relationship to our whole being and its interaction with the world around us.

Working from this premise, our core musculature needn’t be ‘held’ in stabilization but rather activated by the way we move.

To achieve that we are going to focus - consistently and systematically - on restoring awareness and function in the hip joint and all of the muscles surrounding it.

We will isolate the movements that underlie our most common daily tasks – such as standing, walking and sitting - to build a more functional base for our daily activities.

Our foremost goal - to begin with - is to learn to release tension and to also begin to recognize where our movements are coming from (as in: what is driving your leg movement as you walk? what stabilizes you as you stand?)

Start with the test:

Stand in front of the mirror; it might be helpful to place your hands to the front of the pelvis.

Lift one knee up - just slightly is enough - and observe the changes in your pelvis + rib cage position.

Did your pelvis or rib cage change shape or position when you lifted the knee?

Did your movement originate from the hip joint or someplace else?

In class, we did a similar movement while lying on our backs with the knees bent - this particular position changes our relationship to gravity and also shortens the levers of our legs to make the pure movement (from the hip!) more accessible.

Once you've tried this movement while standing, do the same while lying on your back: start on your back with the knees bent; observe the position of your pelvis and rib cage against the mat. Practice lifting your knees - one at a time - while noting the changes in your body's relationship to the mat. In class we've placed a core ball under the pelvis to improve relationship between pelvis and rib cage.

This is a primary movement of our hip joint - hip flexion - and something we are going to practice for the next several weeks. So, to build a better awareness about your movement patterns, also pay attention to how you sit and walk - do these movement come from flexion at the hip or misplacement of the pelvis and rib cage?

A Word On Tension:

Our musculature is arranged in layers around the skeleton, with the muscles closest to the bone being responsible for stability - this is where our stability and balance are fine-tuned!

Most of us have poor awareness of these muscles (there are reasons for that - we will talk about these later on!), so instead we tend to use large outer lying muscles for most of our tasks, from flipping a light switch to stabilizing the body.

One of our goals is to learn to initiate the movement from the joints by relaxing the overworked muscles of the exterior. Your movements may seem jerky in your initial explorations, and that's OK.

Your are learning to free the movement potential at the very core of your body. Give your system all the time it needs to integrate new patterns into your neuromuscular circuitry.

Move at the pace of a growing plant.

Entering the realm of the felt sense is for many people like entering a strange new land, and land they've often visited without ever bothering to notice the scenery.

Gradually your movements will become smooth.

Remember: slow is smooth, smooth is fast!

HOMEWORK {or HOMEPLAY:)}

The most important thing right now is developing awareness of how you move through the hip girdle. Everything else is build on that foundation.

Human hip joint has a variety of movements available.

Which ones can you find without compromising the stability of your pelvis:

Can you move your leg further away from the center line of your body, and then closer to it without moving your pelvis?
Can you rotate your leg inward and outward without moving your pelvis?
Can you identify the times that your pelvis moves with the leg?

1. Pay attention to:

how you sit down / get up
how you sit when you tired
how you sit when you are tired but trying to sit correctly
how you walk up / down the stairs
how you sit in your vehicle
how you walk - what moves, what doesn’t
how you are breathing when you are eating? working? driving?
where do you breathe predominantly - chest? ribs? belly?
are there any conditioned habits as to how you "should" stand, walk, sit, breathe?

2. Hip flexion / stabilization self - assessment { instructions above }: try it on your own in front of the mirror several times {stand both facing and then sideways to the mirror}. Practice observing movement in others - this is yet another tool that can help us develop a better body + movement awareness.

3. Seating experiment + self - assessment: the process of sitting down as well as sitting itself involves hip flexion (and knee flexion, of course!).

Pay attention to how you sit down and how you sit in general - do you move through the hip joints or rather tuck the pelvis under and round your back for ease of operation?

4. Gait Assessment: does you walking gait involve moving from the hips (do you feel your leg bones swinging to and fro?) or some other swiveling / swinging / sashaying movement?

Go for a short walk; slow down so that you can really listen and feel how your body is moving:

Can you feel your front hip flexing as you step one foot forward?
For extra brownie points: what are your toes doing? Are they active or passive participants in your walk?

When you walk up the stairs:

Does your pelvis tilt side to side?
Do you lean your torso forward as you go up?
Do you load both legs evenly?
Can you pause and balance on each foot / stair?
Do you look forward or down?

When you walk down the stairs:

Do your feet / knees point out or forward?
Do you walk sideways?
Do you look forward or down?

5. Use Ball Rolling as a way to get familiar with different areas of the body { you might find some hurts you didn't know you have!} and also to relieve / release tension.

6. Practice 10 Point Relaxation technique once or twice and notice how you feel afterwards. This is our segue to next week's topic.

Additional Printouts / Worksheets:

See you on the mat

Julia + SATORI YOGA TEAM