This week, someone said something in a lesson that stayed with me. “I felt movement where I’ve never felt it before… and it felt exciting.” I realised afterwards that this sentence could have come from almost any lesson I taught this weekend. The details were different, but the experience was remarkably similar: people discovering possibilities … More A Chance to Choose
Hidden in Plain Sight If you’re not moving your pelvis, everything becomes more difficult. And yet, it’s not something we talk about very much. Perhaps because it’s close to the genitalia, it tends to get shuffled quietly offstage. But the pelvis deserves centre stage. It just happens to be where sex and excretion take place, … More Giving the Pelvis its Due
How many parts of you can you feel when you move your knee? When does your leg move in isolation (from the hip joint) and when does the pelvis join in to support? Often when we have pain or an injury we adopt an adaptive way of moving to stop the pain. And that’s useful, … More Thigh bone connections
This week, I was working with a client, who was thinking about how he stands. He realised he wasn’t using his legs as well as perhaps he might, as he was getting pain from them. In our lesson I asked him to kneel, (standing over his knees) and then I worked on rotation from the … More Intelligent Legs
A common idea for us as musicians, organising different parts to move together. We’re excellent at dividing attention between our instruments, sound and musical colleagues. Yet we’re often less practised at applying that to ourselves. The Symphony of your Leg The complexity of the movements of the legs need all four areas to work together. … More Connecting the Dots
How often do you think about your toes? Are you someone who takes care of their feet, or are they too far away to think about? Feet are the some of the most underrated parts of our body. Your feet working well is crucial for our movement health. How movable your feet are affects whether you’ll … More How supple are your feet?
A system of Springs Your joints from the feet up work synergistically together, like a system of springs. They give you stability and mobility at the same time. Your legs play a central role in our mobility and freedom of movement. You only have to break or sprain an ankle to recognise that.Learning to move more efficiently … More How intelligent are your legs?
Developmental movements are holistic. From rolling, to creeping to crawling, with transitions into different positions too, they all use all of you. And once we get up on our feet, and start focussing in on hands and tasks, that holistic nature of ourselves gets forgotten about. But it’s one of our greatest resources. It’s not … More Developmental Movements
Yesterday I was invited to offer my first Mums and Baby group session, helping Mums with Tummy time. And I got to see many of the movements I’ve been talking about in action! It was so much fun! Babies rolling from their backs to the belly and returning, Babies who liked to roll to one … More Back to Basics
I’ve always loved owls. And the way they can swivel their head to see behind them in a moment. It would be very useful in lots of scenarios! As you probably know, an owl can turn its head 180 degrees because of the double jointed neck. And we don’t have one of those, which is sad. … More Would you like to have the turning power of an owl?
