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Your Put Your Left Side In, You Put Your Left Side Out
that's a bend?

This week in my Progressions Program the topic is 'Flexibility Through Changes of Bend.'  The key to this comes from last week's Progression of 'Straightness through Bend' and pivots upon understanding what bend actually is in a horse -- it's actually a twirl or twist throughout the length of the spine.  This translates into the inside of the horse's spine lifting and the outside of the horse's spine dropping when it goes into position.

The diagram to the side, p 38 from Anatomy of Movement by Blandine Calais-Germain, shows how fibers between the vertebra twist with the effect of shortening the overall length of the spine.  As those fibers shorten, the transverse processes distance themselves from each other, on both sides, stretching the muscles on both sides of the spine.

This is similar to the ribbons in a candy cane.  When the taffy is twisted, the ribbons stretch.

During this week's progression, I am playing with how evenly the twisting can happen in both directions -- and how quickly I can go from the one to the other.  Specifically, I am finding out what I and the horse *can* do.  I am not making either the horse or myself twist more than is absolutely comfortable (Ortho-bionomy concept) or faster than we can learn from the experience.  (Feldenkrais concept.)  I am looking for the range of movement I can do.  (Somatics concept.)

The exploration-exercise is a combination of a Feldenkrais 'exercise' and a Somatics approach and was inspired by a recent rediscovery of dermatomes.  <snip>  OK - that got lengthy and off track!  Short version: where you feel pain is necessarily where it's originating from.  I've known this for some time - was very impressed a few years ago to find out Dr. Netter knew this, too, and put it into his books - found out many medical texts have it as well.  Purchased some of these things and 'devoured' them.  Then life went on and that slid away until last week when I got to thinking, "uh, flattened back, problems in arm - are they related?"  (why yes, they are!)

So as I contemplated the rides ahead and mentally reviewed the rides from yesterday, I wondered "Hmmm.... stiff horse, things not bending, parts-is-parts - are they related?" (why yes, they are!) "What to do about that?"

I think I know!

I learned the Feldenkrais 'exercise' from an incredible Centered Riding instructor Sandra Code-Cabel.  She is extraordinary!  The exercise she taught is based upon exercises in the book Relaxercise: The Easy New Way to Health and Fitness byDavid Zemach-Bersin, Kaethe Zemach-Bersin, Mark Reese and is one I usually use at the Open Clinics I teach.  For that exercise, one twirls sections of the spine in a single direction and comes back to neutral, repeating and adding more sections until finally you have a beautiful 'bend' or 'position.'  I often refer to this as the 'Lazy Susan' exercise.  It one that I use during the 'Straightness through Bend' weeks of my program.

I got the Somatics approach from Thomas Hanna's book The Body of Life: Creating New Pathways for Sensory Awareness and Fluid Movement.  In it, Thomas Hanna recounts an elderly gentleman coming in hunched over and shuffling.  During that visit, he articulated each vertebra along the spine - rotate left, rotate right.  And the man left with a definite skip in his step!  This inspired me to learn Somatics - not that I went to school, but I delved into it!

Today's exercise blended the two.   Basically, it's neutral, 4 steps into position left, 4 steps back to neutral, 4 steps into position right, 4 steps back to neutral, repeat --  all done with forward movement.  (as in, not lateral.)  of course, there are mis-steps but the idea is that it's a wavy line, done with attention.

I attend to each articulation along the spine.  Today I started at the head with the C2/C1-skull articulation, then did C2/C3 to C2/C1-skull, then did C4/C3 to  C2/C3 to C2/C1-skull, working 'down' the spine.

If the head is at the top and we're looking at the belly, then the 2nd diagram shows the left side 'lifting' and the right side 'dropping' -- aka Position Left.  (if you get on all fours and lift your left shoulder off the ground and drop your right shoulder towards the ground - this is Position Left.)  I drew in the dots and the lines to help illustrate the movement.  The bigger dots are closer, the smaller ones further away.  In neutral position, the blue lines are at rest.  When the vertebra twirl relative to each other, the blue line has to stretch to cover the longer distance.  (The blue line represents the small intertransversii msucles.  I didn't dray in the interspinales muscles but you can see by the movement of the dots that they get stretched, too.) 

This a good thing for days when you would prefer something quiet.  It takes a lot of attention to detail (not scrutiny!) and can, if you go on too long, result in your brains dripping out your ears, so it's not like I do this every day!

There's more to it, of course, but speaking of brains starting to drip, I think I'll end here.  

If you try it, let me know how it goes!  And if you'd like some hands on, call me up for a lesson.  

Cheers!

L

ps I'll just add, in Centered Riding, the main concept is that whatever I'm doing with my own body, I'm modeling for the horse to do in theirs.  So you'll notice I didn't say anything about which reins to use or where to put my legs or anything.  I do this all on a loose rein. (unless the horse tries to exit stage left and then I keep contact!)

Here's some good 'intro' books. Not too little, not too much.

Books: Amazon Assoc. / Old Favs

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"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities." 

~ James Allen