The deeper the connection I develop with my body the more I can see the value in different movement patterns and practices, so often the difference between a drill being worthwhile is determined by the sensitivity and mindfulness you can bring to it.
Over the last year I have done allot of work for my peripheral joints to prepare for the specific things I do in my practice but have spent less time focusing specifically on the spine in my recent practice. I have done cat-cows, scorpions, bridging and other spinal mobility drills as part of my practice regularly in the past but it hasn’t been making it into the rotation recently.
After seeing this video from Dewey Nielsen I was inspired to do a little more exploration of my spines mobility. Focusing on each segment’s movement instead of just global extension and flexion, revealed some poorly moving segment, taking the time to slowly work on them restored a great feeling of lightness to my movement that transferred to the rest of my training.
Take some time in your practice to pay deep attention to the movement of each part of your body and learn to know your compensations and what segments you articulate well. Many dancers do this extremely well, some Yogi’s, some martial arts practices. Andreo Spina’s FRC system intrigues me as very sophisticated and not mysticised practice to build this deep level physical awareness among its many virtues.
Here is some of Andreo’s flow training for your movement inspiration.
If you want to go deeper into thinking about the spines capacity for movement check out steve paxton’s work
and Simon Thakurs as well
