February 4, 2018. The Rolf Movement training that was held has finished Part 2 as well. In terms of receiving certification as a Rolf Movement Practitioner, what remains is Part 3 — October 10–13, 2019 (4 days) and November 27 – December 1 (5 days), 9 days in total (on the curriculum, see “With What Kind of Curriculum Does It Proceed?“).
This time, I also did yoga practice in parallel with the Rolf Movement training, and the forward-bend and backbend poses were easy to take, with a strong sense that the upper body and the lower body are connected.
What is significant is that, while taking a yoga pose, I came to be able to practice while being more aware of where the Pre-movement is.
This time, I’d like to touch on Pre-movement.
As I wrote in “What Comes into View Through Intuition and Body Observation…“,” according to Aline Newton (hereafter Aline), Pre-movement is “where force is entering in order to stabilize the body before performing an action?” — the “movement (Movement)” “before an action is performed (Pre).”
And I learned that it is easy to observe when moving from a “standing posture” to a “sitting posture.”
Looking at people practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, many put force into the trunk and the pelvic floor.
In yoga, taking poses using bandha (bandha = meaning a “binding”) is learned; it is considered one of the techniques performed to close inwardly so as not to let the flow of what is called prana in yoga (in Japanese, “ki”) leak outward.
When practicing with awareness of bandha, force is put more into the coccyx and the sit bones, and the spine easily comes into a state of being pulled downward. As a result, the back rounds (the coccyx pulled down, the head pulled up), the width of the chest on the opposite side narrows, and the posture changes into one in which the chest is constricted. The range of motion of the shoulders narrows, and backbend and forward-bend poses become harder to take.
In Rolf Movement, from the all-fours and sitting postures, an exercise is learned for being aware that the pelvic floor has the pubis, the sit bones, and the coccyx, and that these three move independently; through this, breath enters the pelvic floor more easily, the range of motion of the shoulders widens, and low-back pain too proceeds in the direction of relief.
And I could feel, through sessions with clients as well, that paying attention to Pre-movement produces a dramatic change in the body.
For example, the ninth day. When I did a client session, the force in the shoulders and chest would not release; but Rita Geirola pointed out that it would change by working with an awareness of releasing the force of the pelvic floor, including the coccyx.
Indeed, since the client was struggling, unable to be aware of the sit bones while sitting in the chair, I had thought there was likely something there; and when, having received the suggestion, I actually tried an exercise for releasing the force of the pelvic floor, a sensation of the spine lengthening emerged, and as a result, the range of motion of the shoulders widened without any work on the shoulders.
I felt keenly that, with the body, it is important not only to turn the eye to the shoulders and chest, but also to turn the eye to the whole body, including the spine.
Pre-movement resembles paying attention to the relationship between the head and the spinal column in the Alexander Technique. In the Alexander Technique, attention is paid to that relationship, unnecessary automatic reactions of the body are noticed, and stopping them is learned. It is known as a method of having the body learn to release force.
Noticing unnecessary bodily reactions before moving and undoing the tension is, in a sense, also changing a habit. Since it is also something that changes dramatically, I’d like to keep paying attention to Pre-movement going forward.