Alignment

The Sit-to-Stand Challange

The sit-to-stand test received a lot of publicity in 2014. If you missed it, a Brazilian Study found that the ability to get off the floor without hands was a major predictor of longevity (as in, your life will probably be shorter if you struggle to get off the floor.)

Luckily, it's becoming common knowledge that if we sit (or remain in one position) for hours on end each day, our muscular system stops working for us the way it should. Here's the thing: difficulties in getting up from the floor or even a chair are not limited to older populations; it's a young people problem too, and that's scary. 

Do you ever catch yourself placing a hand on your thigh to get off the floor? Do you use the armrests of your chair to stand? Do you sit by falling, and rise with a heave-ho? If you answered yes (recent injuries aside), you are not using your musculoskeletal system optimally. 

Here is a video of a young woman performing the traditional test:

Now here is the fun part:

The Flow Movement® Sit-to-Stand Challenge!

First, find a song you love. Then lay down, flat on your back.  Slowly come to stand without using your hands or knees on the floor. After you stand, find your way back down with total control, still without your arms. You can move them in space, but you cannot use them to push off the floor or place them your own body to rise. Find as many ways as possible to do this challenge. Gradually, increase your speed to make things interesting…but NO HANDS. 

Post an an edited video on Instagram (you have 60 seconds now for videos, so no holding back!) or Facebook of your favorite ‘get up with no hands and no knees’  flow for a chance to win a free bundle of Flow Movement® videos.  Make sure to tag both #flowmovement and #fmsit2stand so we see your video.  We'll pick a winner for May on May 31, 2016.

Here are two of my favorite no hands ways to get up:

Featured
Catch This!
Catch This!

“I don’t do balls,” I used to say.

Like many other dancers I knew growing up, I formed an identity around being a dancer with no interest in activities involving balls, pucks, paddles, etc. (unless I was dancing with it).

In high school, I almost failed P.E. class because I flat-out refused to participate in any sports activity. As a result, in later years, whenever someone would throw me a ball I’d duck away rather than catch it, or if I did attempt a catch, it would be in a stiff and panicky state. It was embarrassing.

Ki’ilani (seen in the video) changed my relationship with catching. She loves balls more than anyone I’ve ever met. Every trip to a large store includes a visit to the sports aisle to feel balls. She even keeps a ball in her pocket for comfort tossing. One of our quarantine activities has been ‘dance catch.’

Learning Online
Learning Online

Have you ever bought any digital tutorials or courses? Or saved videos on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube?
Chances are you grabbed them because wanted to remember and LEARN the material.

But, did work through them?

How has it been integrating what you learned into your dancing/living/teaching?

Or, are the videos collecting digital dust...waiting for you to give them a chance?

If you have gathered materials, especially if you PAID for those materials, but haven’t given them the attention you intended, how about getting out your calendar RIGHT NOW and booking yourself some self-learning time?

Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone

If you look at any beginner movement class, you'll see widely-varying degrees of bodily awareness. However, regardless of how someone moves, with a little bit of cueing, anyone can feel if they are in contact with the floor or not.

You don’t need skill or imagination to sense your contact with the floor. You may not be paying attention to it most of the time, but it doesn't require anatomical awareness to grasp what 'weight-bearing' is or to notice which of your parts have the most pressure.

Weight bearing is a constant thing (unless you are temporarily airborne, space traveling, or swimming, you are bearing weight, somehow).

Yet, the details of rolling contacts are rarely zeroed in on outside of higher-level movement environments. But...they could be.

Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching
Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching

The first is called ‘Bodyfulness’ by Boulder author Christine Caldwell. It’s swelling with information for or anyone who’s ready to look at the how and why of how they move. The author founded the Somatic Counseling program at Naropa University and has been in practice for more than thirty years.

She says:

“The body isn’t a thing we have but an experience we are. Bodyfulness is about working toward our potential as a whole human animal that breathes as well as thinks, moves as well as sits still, takes action as well as considers, and exists not because it thinks but because it dances, stretches, bounces, gazes, focuses, and attunes to others.“

Less Choreography, More Dance
Less Choreography, More Dance

Have you been to a dance class that was supposed to be beginner-appropriate or all-levels, but the class progressed in a way that made you want to disappear?

Maybe you had fun the first few minutes when the sequence was short, but then the instructor moved on, and on, and on. With rapidly dwindling confidence, you were left stumbling in the wake of an ever-growing sequence. Perhaps physically you could have done it all, but you needed more time to really 'get it'. It was just too much to remember.

I've been there. In classes and in auditions, I've been there.

You can only stumble around, a count behind everyone else, for so long before you want to shrivel into the corner and become unseen.

When you’re new to a style or form (or even just with a new teacher), learning a lengthy complex piece of choreography (maybe alongside people much younger or more skilled than you) is daunting and often
disheartening. Based on what I've observed, the amount of choreography delivered in many dance classes leaves a LOT of people behind.

In my opinion, if you are still trying to remember the choreo during the last minutes of class, you're missing out on the joy of dancing, the part where the movement starts to carry you and you can transcend who you were when you arrived.

My message is this:

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway
Pumpkin Flow Giveaway

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway:

If you flow with a gourd of your choice between now and Nov 5, I’ll send you a code for $5 off any event or video. 

How:

  1. Get busy with you pumpkin and catch it on video.

  2. Post at least 15 seconds on FB or IG and tag #pumpkinflow and @flowmovement 

  3. Send us a message on either platform with the link to your video and we will send you your discount code. 

The Group Fitness Class Experience
The Group Fitness Class Experience

Yesterday, I witnessed a group movement experience that I was SO glad I was not a part of.

After a month away and a week of living the truck driver life, I got a month-long pass to a nearby gym. It’s primarily a rock-climbing gym, but they have a weight room upstairs.

This particular gym runs some group conditioning classes inside of the weight room. While I was gleefully doing irreverent things on the back extension bench, a voice came over the loudspeaker letting everyone know that “Body Blast with Mr. Blasty Blast” [ok, not his real name] was starting soon. I thought, “Oh nice, I’ll get to see if I would ever want to join the class.” Consensus:

OH NO, I WILL NOT FUCKING EVER. (Unless you pay me. I’d consider it if money were involved.)

Continuous Shoulder Pivots

Overhead view of continuous shoulder pivots. This technique is seen in contemporary dance and martial arts under a few different names. I love this movement because the head, arms, pelvis, legs and breath all play a constantly dynamic role. When one body part lags, the fluidity is lost.

Featured
Catch This!
Catch This!

“I don’t do balls,” I used to say.

Like many other dancers I knew growing up, I formed an identity around being a dancer with no interest in activities involving balls, pucks, paddles, etc. (unless I was dancing with it).

In high school, I almost failed P.E. class because I flat-out refused to participate in any sports activity. As a result, in later years, whenever someone would throw me a ball I’d duck away rather than catch it, or if I did attempt a catch, it would be in a stiff and panicky state. It was embarrassing.

Ki’ilani (seen in the video) changed my relationship with catching. She loves balls more than anyone I’ve ever met. Every trip to a large store includes a visit to the sports aisle to feel balls. She even keeps a ball in her pocket for comfort tossing. One of our quarantine activities has been ‘dance catch.’

Learning Online
Learning Online

Have you ever bought any digital tutorials or courses? Or saved videos on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube?
Chances are you grabbed them because wanted to remember and LEARN the material.

But, did work through them?

How has it been integrating what you learned into your dancing/living/teaching?

Or, are the videos collecting digital dust...waiting for you to give them a chance?

If you have gathered materials, especially if you PAID for those materials, but haven’t given them the attention you intended, how about getting out your calendar RIGHT NOW and booking yourself some self-learning time?

Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone

If you look at any beginner movement class, you'll see widely-varying degrees of bodily awareness. However, regardless of how someone moves, with a little bit of cueing, anyone can feel if they are in contact with the floor or not.

You don’t need skill or imagination to sense your contact with the floor. You may not be paying attention to it most of the time, but it doesn't require anatomical awareness to grasp what 'weight-bearing' is or to notice which of your parts have the most pressure.

Weight bearing is a constant thing (unless you are temporarily airborne, space traveling, or swimming, you are bearing weight, somehow).

Yet, the details of rolling contacts are rarely zeroed in on outside of higher-level movement environments. But...they could be.

Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching
Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching

The first is called ‘Bodyfulness’ by Boulder author Christine Caldwell. It’s swelling with information for or anyone who’s ready to look at the how and why of how they move. The author founded the Somatic Counseling program at Naropa University and has been in practice for more than thirty years.

She says:

“The body isn’t a thing we have but an experience we are. Bodyfulness is about working toward our potential as a whole human animal that breathes as well as thinks, moves as well as sits still, takes action as well as considers, and exists not because it thinks but because it dances, stretches, bounces, gazes, focuses, and attunes to others.“

Less Choreography, More Dance
Less Choreography, More Dance

Have you been to a dance class that was supposed to be beginner-appropriate or all-levels, but the class progressed in a way that made you want to disappear?

Maybe you had fun the first few minutes when the sequence was short, but then the instructor moved on, and on, and on. With rapidly dwindling confidence, you were left stumbling in the wake of an ever-growing sequence. Perhaps physically you could have done it all, but you needed more time to really 'get it'. It was just too much to remember.

I've been there. In classes and in auditions, I've been there.

You can only stumble around, a count behind everyone else, for so long before you want to shrivel into the corner and become unseen.

When you’re new to a style or form (or even just with a new teacher), learning a lengthy complex piece of choreography (maybe alongside people much younger or more skilled than you) is daunting and often
disheartening. Based on what I've observed, the amount of choreography delivered in many dance classes leaves a LOT of people behind.

In my opinion, if you are still trying to remember the choreo during the last minutes of class, you're missing out on the joy of dancing, the part where the movement starts to carry you and you can transcend who you were when you arrived.

My message is this:

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway
Pumpkin Flow Giveaway

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway:

If you flow with a gourd of your choice between now and Nov 5, I’ll send you a code for $5 off any event or video. 

How:

  1. Get busy with you pumpkin and catch it on video.

  2. Post at least 15 seconds on FB or IG and tag #pumpkinflow and @flowmovement 

  3. Send us a message on either platform with the link to your video and we will send you your discount code. 

The Group Fitness Class Experience
The Group Fitness Class Experience

Yesterday, I witnessed a group movement experience that I was SO glad I was not a part of.

After a month away and a week of living the truck driver life, I got a month-long pass to a nearby gym. It’s primarily a rock-climbing gym, but they have a weight room upstairs.

This particular gym runs some group conditioning classes inside of the weight room. While I was gleefully doing irreverent things on the back extension bench, a voice came over the loudspeaker letting everyone know that “Body Blast with Mr. Blasty Blast” [ok, not his real name] was starting soon. I thought, “Oh nice, I’ll get to see if I would ever want to join the class.” Consensus:

OH NO, I WILL NOT FUCKING EVER. (Unless you pay me. I’d consider it if money were involved.)

Stretch

This is one of my favorite stretches:

At the bottom of an externally rotated toe-balance squat, with your heels just under your sit bones (1st position grande plié for the ballet speakers), grab onto your knees. Pull your knees outward as you press your knees into your hands. Lengthen your lower back then puff your chest and look upwards. This requires major ankle stability and a lot of upper back activation.

Photo by Pole Ninja Photography.

 
Marlo Fisken Flow Movement
 
,

Shushing the Shoulds...

,
All up in my Kindle at the Denver airport

All up in my Kindle at the Denver airport

I usually read full books, but out of curiosity I read the 15 min summary of the "Motivation Manifesto" by Brendon Burchard. I will never go for a summary over the experience of reading the book again. I felt like I was cheating on the author. Plus, similar to someone telling you about how good a class was, secondhand info can never replace what you may have learned from having the experience yourself. 

Anyway, that’s not what I am writing about, there was a quote in there that struck a cord....

"Waiting for the perfect day to initiate change is essentially the same as choosing never to start, because perfect opportunities are so few and far between.”

If you keep hearing yourself say “I should …..,” either take steps to make it happen ASAP, or have an honest talk with yourself about why that thing is not actually very important. It will probably never be done. 

Harsh? maybe.  But I’m here to fuel your fire. 

You are probably subscribed to Flow Movement because you are interested in moving better.  Perfect, I can help with that. But first, in what ways do you let opportunities for movement improvement pass you by?

Take a minute to think it over. 

Movement improvement can happen at any time -- not just during designated training times. 

Here are a few tiny things you can do NOW

(and over and over again/always) to improve your movement quality:

**Place one hand on your belly and one on the center of your chest. Check in with your breath. If you do not feel your abdomen move for the first 2/3 of your inhalation, and the chest for the last third, try to relax your airways and allow natural, three dimensional breath movement to happen.  Go for belly expansion with a soft chest and throat. 

**Check in with the alignment of your head.  You are reading this, but how are you holding yourself while reading this? Chronic forward head posture is a major stressor to your musical-skeletal system with repercussions ranging from chronic pain to lack of flexibility/strength and even negative emotions.  It’s worthwhile for you to become conscious of the relationship between your head and shoulders.

**Immediately after reading this go to the closest wall or floor and have two minutes of you time. Breathe, stretch, and explore.  Scan your body for muscles that could use some blood flow and pump them up.  Focus on what you feel.  Stay with what needs more attention. 

Short on ideas? I don’t believe that -- you have made it this far....Start with anything: move your head, your pelvis; squeeze your glutes; make yourself long. If you still need help, check out some videos HERE.