Thing #1 – FALL SESSION pre - REGISTRATIONS are open just for you - only till June 8th; after that the general registrations will commence. Please do use the opportunity to pre-register, especially if you are in the one of the busier classes as I will not be able to guarantee your spot once general registrations start. You can access registrations e-mail here.

Thing #2 – some of you have missed the ball order so it is going in again. Here is the link to get your THERAPY BALLS pre-ordered. I will be collecting orders till next Thursday - June 9th.

I feel like I need to explain myself… (as you know these waves come over me once in a blue – or a full – moon). Here goes it!

In yesterday’s corrective movement class, while we were balling our hips on the wall, I asked everyone to squeeze one hand into a real tight fist – so tight that they couldn’t squeeze any tighter.

Wanna try it, too?

And then I said: “Squeeze even more!”

Well, naturally, nobody could do that because they squeezed their fist to the max in the first place.

I said: “Now imagine that instead of your fist, it is one of your muscles – for example the buttock muscles – gluts -  that we are so busy rolling out right now – is engaged to the max ALL OF THE TIME.” It did, of course, make sense right then and there because rolling the ball on the gluts really brought it home.

This really will sound counter-intuitive, but here is the thing: we want our muscles to be able to contract when we load them, and relax when we don’t. If your muscles – gluts or otherwise  - are ON all of the time, they can’t engage to stabilize and move you when you need them to. Hence the relaxation practices I am so fond of, and, of course, the ball.

Did that all make sense?

I didn’t have time to get these converted into our pretty PDF for you to print out – sorry!

As I have mentioned in the last week’s follow up, your body has 3 ways to balance itself:

~visual

~auditory

~proprioceptive

Proprioception largely depends on communication between your tissues and the brain; so if your tissues are a) tight and b) under stimulated / underused, your proprioception and balance will suffer. I won’t get into too much detail – you can read more here.

Walk barefoot on a variety of different, non-level surfaces. Grass, sand, pebbles and tree roots are all excellent choices.

At home build an obstacle course out of couch pillows and folded blankets and walk on that periodically.

Practice looking forward, rather than under your feet, whenever you walk – and especially when you walk up or down the stairs (hold on to the railing for safety.)

Level 1: Step one foot directly behind the other. Find your balance. Close your eyes. Repeat on the other side.

Level 2: Same as above, but lift your back heel slightly off the mat.

Level 3: Same as above, but just keep your back toes on the mat.

Level 4: Repeat steps 1 – 3 on a slightly (just slightly!) unstable surface.

Enjoy your lovely weekend - happy walking and gardening!

Cheers,

Julia