Week 12: Walk (And Stand) Before You Run

(If you're new here you can read the article describing my project.)

Summary:  The title summarizes my focus this week.  This week marked the first week of formal Pose learning and training.  The webcam video sessions with the Pose coach (Jeremy Huffman) are really helpful.  In just a couple of sessions he has noticed some patterns that need to be addressed.  It’s amazing how something (body position, walking, etc.) can look so different from how it feels.  In my daily life I’ve been trying to reorient my body from being primarily weight back and on the heels to being more forward and weight over the ball of the foot.    Rolfing session #3 was completed.

Details:  As I said last week I’ve started working with a Pose coach.  We met twice this week via webcams and Skype.  It worked really well and I’m really impressed with the information and insight that can be exchanged.  He’d step back from the camera and demonstrate various things.  I’d step back and do things and he could comment; either confirm I was doing it right or tell me what needed to change.  (Additionally, from a raw technology standpoint, I found it quite amazing.  I work in high tech so on the one hand it was all pretty mainstream stuff:  Skype, webcams, YouTube, etc.  On the other hand, however, I was pretty astounded that I could interact so well with someone 1,200 miles away.  I’d shoot a video of myself, get it on YouTube, and within an hour had feedback from him.) 

Like most new things that are learned there are some foundational concepts that need to be firmly established before moving on to more complex concepts and actions.  This week the learning has been focused on:

• The Pose stance.  It’s a relaxed, two-footed stance with a slight knee bend and erect posture, with the body weight over the ball of the foot.  Eliminating as much tension throughout the body while in this stance is really important.
• Falling.  Transitioning from stationary standing to falling forward.  This falling motion is the basis of the forward movement.  It’s also important to maintain the erect body posture while falling.
• Use of the hamstring (not the hip flexor) to pull the foot off the ground.
• Doing nothing to get your foot back on the ground.  That sounds kind of odd, but the intent is to not use muscular tension or force to get the airborne foot back on the ground when you need it there because you’re falling.  The intent is to let gravity bring the foot back down – and rely on your brain to subconsciously get it where it needs to be to keep you from falling on the ground. Your brain will do it automatically.  We don’t need to force it to happen. 
• Focusing on the sense of how these things feel.

Have I got this stuff mastered?  No, but Jeremy has helped a lot in moving me along the road.  He also has me doing a variety of hip strengthening and flexibility exercises which are outlined in Dr. Romanov’s Pose Method book.  Getting some of these basic concepts incorporated into daily life (walking through the grocery store, walking around the office, standing at the counter doing dishes, etc.) will set a strong foundation for when I start to make it more complicated – by running. 

Rolfing:  Session #3 was completed.  This is one of the “integrative” sessions – designed to tie together the work done in the previous two sessions.  Erin worked on the IT Band, the trunk/core, arms, shoulders and neck.  Afterward my shoulders and arms felt incredibly loose.  We set up a standing every-other-week schedule.  Next up:  the medial lines of the legs.

Jim