Getting Grounded Gracefully

Whole Body Turning

 

This lesson is called “Whole Body Turning”. It is a lesson that explores our ability to turn, how we can improve our ability to turn and it is a very good way to begin to understand the importance of the pelvis to our ability to move and to balance. In short, this lesson is our entry point into our exploration of balance.

 

Transferring weight

 

The lesson today, called Transferring Weight, introduces a key idea, involving another possibility of moving the pelvis, which will form the basis of several of the lessons. It’s an idea which is central to the whole program. We are going to take it slowly and gradually build our understanding of this idea. So don’t worry if at the beginning it’s a little unfamiliar, by the middle of the program you will find that the movements learnt in this lesson will be totally comfortable for you and you will wonder why you hadn’t always moved like this.

 

Activating Flexors in Sitting

 

This lesson is called “Activating Flexors in Sitting”. In it we are going to look at our ability to flex. Our flexor muscles are those muscles which generally help us to fold; as opposed to our extensor muscles which are those muscles which generally help us to straighten. So this lesson is about folding. And in doing this lesson we will see what impact it has on our ability to balance in standing and walking.

 

Standing up from a Chair Part 1

 

When we get a little older one of the things that is often difficult for us to do is to stand up and sit down on a chair. You often see older people straining when doing this, they might push with there hands or even ask for help. It is even something which can result in the older person falling. In this lesson I want to take a close look at this activity and see if we can’t discover a way to organise ourselves to stand up and sit down easily and with less effort.

 

The Feet, the Ankles & the Ground - Waking up your Balance Sensors

 

This lesson is partly a lesson about the sensitivity of our feet. Our aim here is to improve our ability to sense our contact with the ground. It is also a lesson about our ankles. Our ankles provide us with a lot of information. Information about where our body is in space, the shape of the ground we are standing on, and how we are orientated to the ground. In fact, they can be considered as acting like our other balance sensors, the eyes and the balance mechanism in the ears. So this lesson is about making our ankles function better, at making them work for us.

 

Standing Balance and the Pelvis

 

Today we begin the exploration of our ability to balance in standing. This is the first in a series of lessons which will focus on balance in a standing position. This lesson is called Standing Balance and the Pelvis. As the title suggest we are going to look at the importance of the pelvis, and our ability to move the pelvis, to our ability to balance when standing.

 

Introduction to Walking

 

This lesson follows on very much from what you learnt in lesson 6, the idea that our balance in standing can be much improved. In this lesson we are really going to focus on this and see if we can’t bed this down so it becomes a natural way of moving for us. To do this we are going to focus on how we breathe when transferring weight. You will see that after doing this lesson that your ability to stand at the beginning of the lesson is no match for your ability to stand at the end of the lesson.

 

Standing as Balancing

 

This lesson is called Standing as Balancing. It is an inquiry into our sense of ourselves as balancing when we are standing. When we stand it is virtually impossible for us to stand completely still. We are continually organising and re-organising our bodies, making little adjustments in order to remain upright. In fact, as human beings we are inherently unstable in a standing position and it is only because we continually adjust that we don’t fall over. In this lesson I want to see if we can feel in ourselves our own postural sway and discover for ourselves if, after having done the lesson, that it has improved.

 

Finding Your Feet

 

This lesson is called Finding your Feet. In this lesson the aim is to discover a stronger sense of our feet and their contact with the ground. We aim to discover what it really feels like to be grounded on our feet. At the end of the lesson we will find that the normal things we do, such as walking have become easier and more fluid again.

 

Standing up from a Chair Part 2

 

Today’s lesson is called Standing up from a Chair part 2. We are going to go back and take a further look at standing up from chair and see if we can’t further improve our ability with this important aspect of our everyday functioning. In this lesson we will focus, not only on the role of the pelvis, but the importance of the spine to our ability to stand up. We will see if we can’t discover a spine that functions well for us, rather than one that restricts us in our movement.

 

Walking along a Line

 

This lesson is called Walking along a Line. Although most of the lesson is done exploring movements in a standing position the lesson aims to evoke a response in our walking. To see if we can begin to find a more fluid, easy walk, a walk that is steadier and one that we can be confident in.

 

Walking on the Wall

 

This lesson continues on from the previous lesson in looking at our dynamic balance and building our confidence in our walking. After doing this lesson you will experience enhanced flexibility in the hip joint, an enhanced experienced of the pelvis being supple whilst you walk and find that your walking has become more fluid, balanced and with an ease that you didn’t have previously.

 

The Feet in Walking

 

In this lesson, which is called “The feet in Walking”. I want to again focus on the feet and take a look at how we use our feet when we walk. You will be surprised by the many different ways people use their feet when they walk and you may discover a habit you have with your feet that you were unaware off. During this lesson I want to clarify some of these patterns and hopefully discover a use of our feet which will assist our balance whilst we walk.

 

Dancing with the Wall

 

In this lesson we continue with our focus of improving our dynamic balance, our balance whilst we are walking.

This lesson, called Dancing with the Wall, takes us further with our exploration of walking. It is a lesson which again begins with focussing on our feet and ankles but includes their connection with the knee and pelvis. We will see that our legs can work so much better for us when the foot, ankle, knee and pelvis are integrated and function well together.

 

Graceful Walking

 

In this lesson we will look at how our whole body can be more fully involved in our walking. Here we learn to integrate the upper body into our walking. Particularly we look at the importance of the involvement of our shoulders and arms to a coordinated walk. And we learn to integrate the lower and upper body in walking in a fluid and graceful manner.

 

Driving from the Pelvis

 

This lesson is called Driving from the Pelvis. In the first part of this lesson we will review some of the work we have been doing. We will then move on to discover just how much improvement there has been in our movement, particularly in our ability to control movement from the pelvis. The pelvis has been a central theme of the program and in this lesson you will discover with surprise just how much availability of movement you really have.

 

The journey we have taken has involved many aspects, many moments of discovery. Discovering a control over our pelvis, discovering how important this is to our balance and our walking, discovering a way to stand up from a chair easily, discovering the importance of the feet in their contact with the ground, a sense of being grounded, discovering the importance of the ankles, discovering an improved balance in a standing position and, of course, discovering an improved balance and coordination when walking.
 

In this lesson we will see just how far you have travelled from when you began the program.