1st Gear

Last week's blog expanded upon the concept of movement I been working to developing for the last year. This week I am continuing to unpack this system, zooming into what I called the 1st gear, of movement.

In my original 4 gear post, I examined 4 different intentions we can set during our movement practice based on our tempo. In this framework, my 1srt gear was designed around holding poses and finding stillness. Of course, we are never truly still, and to think otherwise is culturally accepted delusion. As long as we breathe we are engaged in complex movement patterns. What we think of as stillness when we first start to practice holding poses we soon learn is bustling with motion. That said I found in my own practice there is much to be gained in the attempt of eliminating all non-breath related movement. The deeper we can dive into our stillness the easier it is to explore the foundational patterns of how we move.

I made the case last week, that it can be beneficial to begin a movement practice in gear 2 of my system if we have trouble silencing the ruckus of our mental monkies that show up when we try to find stillness. If however, we can wrangle those monkeys when beginning a movement practice I recommend incorporating holding poses into that practice from the beginning so we can heighten our awareness of our breath as soon as possible.

We should learn how to start all movement with our breath. Movement can become quite complex and push the limits of our endurance. But all healthy movement starts with breathing in and out. Every muscle in our bodies has to adjust to the ceaseless expanding and contrasting of our ribs. As our lungs expand to take in a fresh supply of oxygen our ribs grow apart. Dozens of our muscles are directly connected to our ribs. Those muscles cross over and share attachment sites with the rest of the muscles in our body. This process of expanding and contrasting happens naturally thousands of times a day. Spending time holding a pose observing this phenomenon makes it more apparent as to when we should move our body based on our breathing.

Connecting our moment to breath is not only a practical way of improving our movements but is also something within each of our abilities to do. Some of us may have limitations in our capacity to move for various reasons. Whatever the condition of our health is, no matter what physical limitations we may have, we can work to lengthen, smoothing and create more rhythmic breathing. Relearning to better harmonize our breath with our movement will in itself seed smother, rounder movements patterns. Even if we do nothing else but better learn to control our breath we can find empowerment and start to chip away at any feelings of frustrations we may have with our bodies.

Poses have much to teach us. Holding any pose requires much endurance. Every pose we find ourself in requires certain lines of muscle energy to be engaged while other lines of muscle tissue are being stretched. As different muscles fatigue we are giving valuable insight into our physical capabilities. We become aware of what muscles are tight. Whatever discrepancies between our right and left side will also make itself know. The more we engage in maintaining various poses the more we realize how these two lines of conscious engagement and of conscious release are continues and infinite in nature. Where the force of one muscle ends the force of the next muscle begins. This makes sense as the longer the line of force the stronger that line will become. This connectivity that we can find and develop while holding poses is what separates functional strength from aesthetic strength.

This self-awareness becomes crucial when we advance into gear 3 and 4 of this still in process system.

Anthony Bruni