Lecture 4 • Rising to our full potential through a conscious exploration of the front and back line

Movements / Exercises from class

Kneeling roll up (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

Cat cow on blocks. Use cat to help support the spine and activate the front line of the body.

-From cat, push the hips forward to slowly roll up one vertebra at time, letting the back body pull down to “hoist the sail” of the front body

Standing roll up (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

If the kneeling roll up feels safe and supported, explore the same thing from standing.

Find cat spine with hands on blocks, then send hips forward to allow the spine to stack one vertebra at a time.

Try rolling up over the span of 3 full breaths, inhaling to pause and exhale to continue rolling up

Integrated neck roll (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

Instead of stretching the neck, let the whole body side bend from tailbone to crown. Notice how the deep core supports the weight of the head and neck.

-start with half circles forward. Option to eventually add spinal extension if the neck feels supported.

Summary: The final portion of class focuses on working holistically with the front and back lines of the body, as well as the deep core, to help us roll up the spine safely, arriving at a balanced shoulder position. By visualizing the back line as a rope pulling up sails, students can explore the tensional balance between the front and back of their bodies and find a balanced posture. Rolling up the spine slowly can also help to cultivate inner awareness and prevent falling into postural ruts.

The relationship between our deep core and rolling up through our front and back lines: Now that the deep core is awake and online, our foundation is secure, we can begin to work more productively with our head and neck.The Deep core and our shoulder release movements allow us to put our work into a dynamic movement that can help us with both simultaneously. On the simplest level, we are going to roll up the body slowly, feeling the deep core of support slowly lifting our shoulders up until they rest evenly on the shoulders. From a deeper perspective though, we are reseting the tensional balance in our front and back body, a macro level approach to balancing shoulder misalignment.

Explanation of Front and Back line tensional pull

Let’s zoom out and look at our posture from the beginning. We are born into flexion, and we return to flexion when we are tired. The muscles of our back line engage to awaken us from this forward fold, pulling us up to see and interact with the world around us.
This creates a tensional pull between our front and back lines. The Back line literally pulls us up like the sails over the mast of a ship. When that line is too tight, the front line bows back, and when it is too slackened, the front line droops forward, and a properly toned back line keeps us on center.

How to Roll Up Effectively: Let’s play with this in our own bodies. Visualize the back line as a rope pulling up sails, the rope is anchored at your heels, and the top pulley is at your head, the sails are in the front.

As the rope tightens across our back, we feel the sails raising too high, and as they slacken we feel them drooping. As you play with these two opposing strengths, see if you can find a space in between that feels balanced. This takes more than a mirror, but inner awareness, as you have to feel deeply within the actual experience of your muscles and posture.

To help us get out of the way, and allow our body to find it’s own homeostasis, we can also play with rolling up the spine. This will allow us to take our time and feel for balance and imbalance well before we fall into our own postural ruts.