About Walking - 10 - Walking in Different Planes (Side, Back)
Fred Astaire dancing on the wall, a different orientation for sure.
About Walking - 10 - Walking in Different Planes (Side, Back)
A Change in Orientation Might Just Rock Your Walk
Based on “Walking on Your Side” as presented by Robert j Burgess, www.efeld.com
To close out this series, another basic lesson that can be as simple or profound as you have energy for. It’s a variation of the classic “Flexors and Extensors” lesson, typically done on the back, to loosen the spine and get the torso and hips flowing in opposite directions. In the context of walking, it puts together the step-turn motion of walking into an easy swing.
What’s different in this lesson is moving the whole thing to one side. The weight of the body is a limiter (a constraint), turning the floor into a training partner to help you sense the roll of the shoulder blades and pelvis in movement.
Lying on your side, knees drawn up level with hips, palms touching, arms extended out from the shoulders, you first lift the ‘triangle’ arms to roll the upper body. Not as easy with the floor in the way! Then up come the feet - also connected - to roll the hips in the opposite direction. Both hands and feet lifting creates quite a spinal twist.
Then the other way, pressing triangle arms into the floor, lifting the knees, for the opposite twist. On that side. Then flip.
It’s a short lesson, giving us time to explore the magic that happens when you return to gravity. Freedom from the floor gives your shoulders and hips the room to sway, and your feet the chance to ground down. You might feel natural rhythm of the side to side movement of the hips and chest, the way you shift weight from the back to front of your foot, how the arm swing gives lift to the chest and your step.
This lesson is perfectly adaptable to a chair, if side lying isn’t in your repertoire.
Thanks to colleague and source of light, JoAnn Rahl, GCFP® in the Naples, Fl, region, for guiding me to this lesson.
Set Up:
Lying on a mat, first on your back and then on your side. Some students might want some low back support in the form of a pillow or rolled blanket as a spacer between the knees.
OR… Sitting on a flat, armless chair, where your hips and knees are level. A rolled blanket under your seat or feet can help level the knees
Science nerd candy this week: A review of some of the material we covered in “The Grand Horizontals” series. Both are comprehensive and accessible explanations of the workings of the upper and lower body. Together, you get a full anatomy lesson in how the pelvis, spine, ribs, shoulders and neck collaborate to create the miracle of walking. These are a bit longer than my usual recommendations, and won’t be covered in class. Watch them at 1.75x with the captions on if you are pressed for time:
Shoulder Anatomy Tutorial, Randale Sechrest, eOrthopodTV, (6:52) – detailed anatomy of bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves and bursa of shoulder girdle
Hip Anatomy Animated Tutorial, Randale Sechrest, eOrthopodTV, (9:44) – comprehensive review of bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves and bursa of hips
How You Might Feel After This Lesson: Connected through the entire torso; Ribs open and flexible; Breath deep and wide; Arms resting easily in shoulder sockets; Shoulder girdle - shoulder blades, clavicles - resting comfortably over upper ribs; Ready to swing; Regal posture as you glide across the room, or up a wall.
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Hold center while the body explores the intensity of tango.