I Am a Movement Educator

The following is a description of a Feldenkrais lesson working with the extensors.

Today I worked with Terry who, while lying on her stomach, habitually kept pressing her right hip to the table while she was attempting to lift her right leg. Her hamstring on that side was inordinately tight and no matter how may times I asked her to shift her weight to the left, she still pressed down on her right hip.

It turned out her sacrum was the problem, so we moved to the Craniosacral Therapy table and did some work to free up the sacrum.

Upon returning to our movement explorations, she could sense what she was doing and allow her pelvis to roll to the left, allowing for the shift of weight to occur. This awareness allowed the constant firing of her right gluteus Maximus and Medius to subside.

When we returned to CranioSacral Therapy table, I no longer felt her sacrum “boring down” on my hand, causing it to go numb. Instead I hardly felt any weight at all, as it should be, given that Terry only weighs 110 lbs. Previously the weight I felt in my hand was due to the Inertia in her pelvis.

Now that the gluteal muscles were no longer firing indiscriminately, she could let go and stop the unnecessary efforting that was going on habitually. The pain in her hip and lower back subsided.