Newsletter no. 42 – Wednesday 19 October, 2022
This is the web-based version of Stretch Therapy Newsletter no. 42
Workshop registrations are open!
Relieve tension: neck, middle back, and abdomen
Do you hold tension in your neck, middle back, and/or abdomen? Who doesn’t, right? 😻 In this video Olivia guides you through a sequence of positions and movements that help her to relieve tension in these parts of her body.
The main positions are the standing forward bend, the full squat, the lunge, and lying face up. For the forward bend and squat positions, if you prefer, by all means do these parts while sitting on a chair.
Each of these fundamental positions will be familiar to many of you. The variety of movements shown are a result of Olivia exploring and playing with the basic positions, and feeling how often subtle changes in position change the feeling. We strongly encourage you to explore in this way – it is the path to finding out precisely what your body needs.
Watch
Working the outside of the ankle (inversion; supination)
Essential for parallel–feet side splits and Pu Bu (the Chinese martial artists will know what this means).
If you want to keep your feet flat on the floor in Chinese side splits, you need this. As well, increasing the range of movement in this direction (until you can put the outside ankle bone on the floor) means it will be much harder to sprain your ankles—it’s sudden movement into this ROM that is the most common way for this injury to happen.
In time, you’ll be able to walk across a padded floor’s surface like this, too.
Anti-pronation exercise
This is an immensely important exercise. Despite what you have been told, it is possible to turn pronating ankles into strong, well aligned ones, and this exercise will build up the muscles in the feet, too. The colloquial term for pronation is "flat feet", but true flat feet (where a bone in the foot is displaced medially) is rare.
To correct pronation is simplicity: you need a step, and something to hold on to, and a quantum of willpower.
A note from a student
Kind regards
Jude – via email