Body Mind & Spine Alignment

Making Waves in Other Ways to Sense the Relationship Between the Feet and Spine for Pilates, Posture, and Pain-Free Movement

The approach to Pilates exercise using the methodology of

Backbone and Wingspan in Manhattan

whether on the trapeze table or the reformer includes using imagery to forge the kind of mind-body connection that:

enhances free spinal movement,
accesses deep core strength,

and

encourages the person studying here to be able to use the imagery for

sports, stretching, exercise, and posture
performed outside of the studio.

Imagery is what creates
 

the most instantaneous and most sustainable changes in the body despite our tendencies to doubt or even dispel subtlety.

  
In a previous post I wrote about one type of wave 

and it's potential effect on the feet and spine:

ocean waves that roll on to the shore are immediately

drawn back into the sea where they emerged from.

There is a great informative force in this element of surf.

The retreating surf can be used either actually or imaginatively to help you to better understand how you connect to the supportive power of the heels in the back body by releasing the tendons in the front of the ankle.  

You can see with your eyes as well as feel with your feet the waves of the sea,

but there are countless unseen waves

that affect our lives in every moment:

thought waves, brain waves, cellular waves.

 
If only we could trust that the thought waves we send from our minds into the  universe and from  our minds into our bodies have the unquestionable ability to be helpful to understanding and empowering ourselves.

The way that we unquestionably trust that when we press send on our cell phones that the signal goes through and gets us connected can get us connected in our own physical bodies as well.

Learn to trust that your imagination is key to your everyday postural support:

If your back and feet are killing you while standing in stilettos at a party, or while you're waiting for the bus, or while you're jogging along the sidewalk, it is awkward to have to remove your shoes, and implausible to be able to lay down on the dance floor or your host's carpeted foyer or on a street corner to perform some stretching exercises.

But you can, in any social scene,  sport or exercise endeavor, send thoughts of softening to the toes, top of the foot, and front of the ankle as if the gentle rushing of the ocean's retreating surf were washing back over the tops of the feet.

This softening of the entire front of the foot (everything extending in front of the ankle) gives you the wave energy forward in order to be able to advance in your steps

But the body works in balance:

It is most efficient, and you will find the most ease, freedom, and power to your steps:

if you can imaginatively extend a wave energy also with your heel,

even with your feet still in your heels..........................

 

This imagery would be appropriate for partying all night, 

for marathon running, 

for performing the challenging chair pose in yoga,                                    

as well as for practicing roll up exercises

on the Pilates trapeze table here at Backbone and Wingspan.

At this time in the course of human development, it seems that people really wish to believe that their thoughts can change their life circumstances.
 
 Hence, the enormous mainstream popularity of The Secret, but also   
  
             Law Of Attraction by Esther and Jerry Hicks  

Manifest Your Destiny by Wayne Dyer 

Think and Grow Rich  by Napoleon Hill

Each of these books and their authors

explore various avenues towards

using thought to bring about desirable life changes.

There's More on the Shore than Meets the Eye:

Water Waves

 Emotional Waves

Electromagnetic Waves  

Light Waves  

Sound Waves     Shock Waves

 Standing Waves

 

"On the atomic level, all phenomenon vibrate as standing waves.

Standing waves appear with finite boundaries. Our bodies, organs, cells, etc. are standing waves…..

The four elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Air are archetypal standing waves, meaning they are types of arcs in the face of the wave." 

                                                     - Elizabeth Andes-Bell

 

 When I first explored standing waves a year or so ago through the writings of my teacher, Elizabeth,

and her weblog 

Everyday Sacred

I thought of the image of my upright spine as being a wave that extended out from above my head and also extended down from below my feet, as opposed to a rod that was constrained in my body.

 

The emotional wave that  washed through my body from imaging this thought of my spine as a wave in two directions led me into a transformational experience.

You can read about it if you like by clicking on to the link above for Everyday Sacred.

Even though I had not been to the ocean in months when I read Elizabeth's writing and commented on it during the month of March, I could recall the sense of oceanic waves that I had experienced in times before at the beach, and I could re-imagine the ocean waves' effect on my spine.

This is a key element of what I would like to put forth to you:

your thought of sensory feelings that you have experienced previously or that you can imagine experiencing are empowering to your body now in this moment.

Backbone and Wingspan

Founder and Teacher: Tim Driscoll

New York City

212-647-8878

Pilates

 

Tim teaches his unique support-for-the-spine, posture, and core methods at:

Mind Your Body Upper East Side Manhattan

and Contour Studio in Bedford Hills

 

Call Tim at 212-647-8878 or

email him at tim@backboneandwingspan.com

to inquire about his availability and special introductory rates!

Backbone and Wingspan®

www.backboneandwingspan.com 

Backbone and Wingspan LLC

 

Heel to Heal: Using Notions of the Ocean to Release Tendons Around The Ankle Gives Better Support in Footwear for Any Sport in Any Season

Movement principles become ingrained in the body by performing Pilates exercises or any movement-oriented exercise regime while using mindful imagery. This can be imagining a sensory experience you haven't yet had, or re-imagining an experience you've had in the past. Although it's mid-winter, you can call upon the elements of sea, surf, and sand at any time in any clime. 

Creating elasticity in the tendons

 in the front of the foot

leads to being able to access the muscular tone attached to the leg and hip bone structure that supports your spine.

 

Elasticity in these tendons, because they are small, is   accomplished primarily through imagery -

by what you envision in your mind while you are having to use those tendons.

 

 This is what a mind-body connection is:

using your imagination and  mindfulness to

affect the way 

 you walk, stand, and exercise.

Using imagery is the way in which you will make the most profound, sustainable, and long-lasting changes

 to your body...
    

  

 

 

If you tense and overuse the tendons in the front of the ankle

because

your high heels push you forward into 

the balls of your feet and toes,

or

you run by overusing the tightened tops of your feet, 

or

you pull the toes back into a hard flex when exercising, 

   

  

 

 

you will needlessly deprive yourself of the

hugely supportive power of the

heel

which connects to the powerful back body muscles:

 hamstrings, glutes, and lats.

At Backbone and Wingspan in Midtown Manhattan, NYC, mind-body connections are forged using the back-body posture connections that employ the use of the heel.

In order for the heel to come into play to direct the entire line of backside connections which support the spine, the tendons on the front of the ankle must be released.

Use sea, surf and sand imagery to help release these tendons while performing bending movements of the ankle, knee, and hip. These images from the beach experience are often very vivid sensory experiences that anyone has had and can recall.

The images are helpful because as the tendons are released in the front, you can expand the heel in the back and begin to avail the body of the support of hamstrings and the lats.

Now as to notions of the ocean that can help you to soften those tendons, and assuage those tendon's "tendency" to grab and grip.......

I spent ten days this summer on an island in which my intentions were to rest, write, and study how the sea related to my feet.

I thought that I would take pictures of my soles above the undulation of gentle waves coming to shore on a day when the surf was not so rough.

I found that it was the retreating surf that helped me better under-stand my feet. 

 

Can You Dig It?

Try the following, whether you are lucky enough to be going to the beach on a winter's vacation or 

even if you have to imagine the last time you had the waves lapping at your ankles.

 

  

 When you bend the knees, rather than the bend coming from a forward movement of your  knee-caps,

feel that the knee bend comes from expanding through the back of the heel.

The deeper you bend, the more you have to soften the tendons so that you can create a fold in the front of the ankle.

The retreating surf helps with this softening and folding:  

the water rushing back to the sea creates a flowing force in the front of the ankle that can  help to ease and crease those tendons, and the water will dig out the sand underneath the back of the heel.

So then the next time you are riding your bike,

and your hip flexors get tight,

see if you are also grabbing the tendons

in the front of the ankle.

Next time you take yoga, and you are performing a lunge with a deep-knee bend,

and your muscles on the tops of your thighs are screaming,

or

the next time you have your feet on the   

Pilates Reformer Footbar

try releasing the tendon in the front of the ankle by

envisioning the retreating surf flowing over your feet, and

being drawn forcefully back to the sea.

 

In releasing the tendons in the front of the foot, you will be availed of the expansion of the heel, which will connect to the hamstrings, sits bones, and the backs of the hips. All of these forces: hamstrings, sits bones, and the backs of the hips are the paired places in the back body area which are on either side of the line of the spine.

In this way, the Heels, Hamstrings, and Hips provide support for the spine.

Of course this imagery can also work for you whether you are wearing

sneakers, stilettos, or any kind of shoe and

whether you are dancing, jogging, or waiting for the bus.

Speaking of sea and wave imagery, my practice and teaching have been greatly influenced by my teacher, Elizabeth Andes-Bell,

who uses many nature-oriented images in her class and her other teachings.

For my next post, I will write about another way to discover notions of the ocean in relating how Elizabeth's weblog

Everyday Sacred and her writings about Standing Waves

has influenced my body and being.

 

Backbone and Wingspan   Pilates

Founder and Teacher: Tim Driscoll

New York City          212-647-8878

 

Tim teaches his unique support-for-the-spine, posture, and core methods at:

Mind Your Body Upper East Side Manhattan

and Contour Studio in Bedford Hills

 

Call Tim at 212-647-8878 or

email him at tim@backboneandwingspan.com

to inquire about his availability and special introductory rates!

Backbone and Wingspan®

www.backboneandwingspan.com 

Backbone and Wingspan LLC

 

Shin Spinning

In exercise from Backbone and Wingspan, in NYC, Pilates movements are grounded with

Universal Principles of Movement.

 

Principles in this series of lessons:

Spin               Space               Volume 

 

                                                       Outer space

There are images of space that I have seen in which I get a sense of the vastness of the universe. Despite having never actually been in outer space with my body, I believe enough from having perceived images of the cosmos to have a sense of it that affects my mind. I sense a potential for expansion within myself from picturing in my mind the enormity of it all.

  Inner Space

Like the moon or Mars I have also never seen the two bones that make up my lower leg: the tibia and fibula. Knowing the names of those bones makes no matter for our purposes, I just love mentioning the names of those particular bones because tibia and fibula would make very good names for twins - the shin twins.

 

 

The shin is one of the easiest places in the body to perceive as flat, and therefore I have discovered the shin area and front of the ankle to be one of the tightest places to the touch. The front of the ankle and the shin are crucially important areas of the body to help someone to release in order for the body to be grounded.

 

Read more about the import of the relationship between the front of the ankle and shin for your body to be able to access the deep core support for the spine in this post:
 

 

 

Feel the Feet to Get More Core

 

I believe that one of the reasons the shin and front-of-the-ankle area are so tight is because we are told from a very early age to "stand up straight."

I have found that people are generally ungrounded through the feet because the perception of "standing up" makes them lift the weight up from the front of the body, particularly lifting up and pulling back from the front of the foot.

 

I have noticed when leading people through exercises with the feet, people tend to push from the tendons in the front of the ankle, which diminishes space in the ankle.

Space is necessary for a joint to function.

On a more subtle level what people are doing when they are standing or walking is actually pulling back into the ankle to attempt to move forward and pulling up in an effort to stand up straight.

 

 

 

 

Remember a big part of these principles being universal is that you find both freedom and strength by being in sync with the aspects of the universe.

Finding liberation from cramped ankles and overworking shins has to do with creating space in the ankle joint, and then putting a spin on the shin to receive a grounding into the earth while at the same time being able to suspend the spine in order to move forward.

 

 

Put a spin on your way of thinking!
Your body is a reflection of the earth!

 

 

Watch for a continuation of the informative nature of the relationship between the ankle....... and the heel below it, and the shin above it.........

in a future

Universal Principles of Movement

Pilates Iconoclast posting,

inspired by a post in The New York Times "Well" Blog entitled

"How to Fix Bad Ankles."

 

 Also, please review one of the first posts of Universal Principles:                                                     Footing, 

for a comprehensive "under - standing" (to lead you away from the notion of having to stand up) of the sole, the heel, the arch, the ball, and the toes.

This post focuses on the elements towards creating an expansive foot which grants a pedestal-like support for the ankle to suspend and the shin to spin.

 

 

For many years I knew a marvelous osteopath who was my student as well as my physician.

She called the ankle, "the neck of  the foot."

More on that soon. Comments and questions are most welcomed.

                                                                                        Tim

Backbone and Wingspan Universal Principles of Movement

Integrating Fitness, Movement,and Health

Tim Driscoll, Backbone and Wingspan founder and owner and

author of Pilates Iconoclast

is now located on the Upper East Side at Mind Your Body Pilates

1370 Lexington Avenue @ 90th Street

and also at Contour Studio in Bedford Hills

 

Tim can still be reached at 212-647-8878.

 

Backbone and Wingspan: Pilates-Based Movement-Oriented

Manhattan New York City   212.647.8878    Tim Driscoll

  

The Spring in Your Step Could Be The Achilles

In teaching movement through the use of Pilates equipment, springs attached to the underside of the reformer can be perceived and utilized, not as resistance, as is widely asserted:

People using the Pilates reformers are usually told to push the carriage out away from the springs, then to resist the springs with the movement of the carriage on the way in.

Instead, the springs can be utilized as sensory support and information - the feeling of the body being connected to a carriage connected to an uncoiling spring has the potential to tap a person into his or her own inherent buoyancy or springiness.

This is particularly relevant when teaching someone how to use the heel on the Pilates reformer foot bar to access the springiness of the Achilles tendon. The heel must be drawn down away from the ankle, not hiked up into the Achilles and then shoved down and under the bar, but drawn down with gravity away from the ankle so that whether the person is lowering or raising the heel, the Achilles can remain in a state of constant uncoiling. 

This action of drawing the heel away from the ankle is especially relevant in working with women who wear high heels to teach them that the heel of the stiletto shoe doesn't have to shove their own physical heel up into the Achilles, jamming the tendon and tightening the calf.

 

As is evident in the following accompanying video to this Pilates Iconoclast blog post,      the teacher assists the student in levering her heel down towards the floor whether the heel is lowering or raising.

In the next Pilates Iconoclast weblog post, more on the Achilles:     using these tendons as spring loading mechanisms to transfer that springy feeling all the way up into your sacrum !

The Pilates reformer is ingeniously designed and the foot bar is particularly useful to release tight calf muscles and to incorporate the sensation of springiness in the Achilles tendons. It is important that the heels be drawn down towards the floor during both the lowering and raising of the heels to teach the calves and the Achilles that when the feet are involved in a walking stride, particularly in high heels, that the calves can connect down into the Achilles tendons and extend a gentle and sustainable springy feeling to the step.

You can notice that the instructor here doesn't pull the heels of the client forward and up for the release - he helps her to lever the heel down towards the floor away from the ankle to create space in the ankle joint, and then she can continue to lever the heel away from the ankle even when she raises the heel, so that when she takes that experience out on to the street, her body can recall the sensory experience of space, release, and spring, and the calves will have less of a tendency to tighten up again.

Space in the ankle joint means a spring to your step!(more)

Feel the Feet - Get More Core

 Feel the Feet - Get More Core

People who study with me privately also take group Pilates mat classes in other studios, often relating that in the group classes they have trouble feeling a connection to or the toning of the low, deep abdominals,

Of course, it is much easier to feel the upper abs, but getting to the low,deep ones is challenging, and sometimes even seemingly out of reach for them. I believe the core will always seem out of reach, unless you feel your feet, and by that I mean the heels.

I always support people

with my hands, helping them to

deepen the heels down into the

table when they are doing

deep core and

"ab work."

   

I have found that accessing the deep core involves getting someone to really understand and feel the feet, down, down, down to the ground.

Earth to Feet!....

Come in Feet!

Pulling the toes flat back (what we usually think of as "flexing" the foot) tightens the tendons in the front of the ankle diminishing the space in the ankle joint so that there is no flow down.

It is better to soften the toes and give thought to expanding the heel by giving the back of the foot more contact with the surface (as you can see in this photo, my foot - yes that is my foot- is making a little dent in the upholstered surface of the table underneath).

One may also use gravity and imagination to draw the heel out further down from behind the ankle. Gravity and imagination may be what one may have to utilize in a group class that is taught on a thin mat or on a wooden floor.

Or use actual earth

(or tiny granules of it)

to feel the feet beneath:              

    Sandbag 'em !

I have found that when I have given the experience to someone of the support of my hands helping them to feel the back of the heel deepen into the table, or the sensation of having weighted bags on the feet to help them utilize more the back of the heel than the front of the ankles, that they can take these sensory experiences into group class and draw upon them imaginatively to create the same stability.

Universal Principles in Action!

Expansion of the back of the heel gives more access

to the sit bone which has alignment with it,

and the three hamstrings which are attached to each sit bone,

(which is a huge amount of stabilization).

More specifics about this in a subsequent blog post.

It is as simple as this:

the topside of the toes and the tendons in the front of the ankle

relate to everything else in the body that is frontal:

the shins, the quads, the hip flexors,

none of which can connect you to

your core or your deep abdominals.

 

Softening the toes

(and thus the tendons

attached to those toes)

will assist in releasing the overworked

quads and letting go of tight hip flexors,

which will subsequently allow you to better access what will

support the core: hamstrings, calves, achilles, and heels.

Expanding the heel grants release of the calves to connect their force to the springy achilles, which (since we are in the spring season), will be the source of my next blog posting:

The Spring in Your Step Could Be The Achilles

Repeat..................

Earth to feet.... Come in Feet!

Footing

Principles in this lesson:

    Arc         Dynamic        Expansion

Sensitivity over Exertion     Trusting Subtlety

 

The feet are monumental.

Think of the architectural term ‘footing.’

How important the underlying footing is
to the entire foundation and
structural support of the building.

The feet are a great beginning place
to get you grounded
and away from flattening
any part of your body.

Getting grounded resonates on many levels –
physiological, psychological, emotional, psychic

The connection between a sense of well being
and having feet that are feeling and facile
and sensing instruments is immense.

The very ground of your being
and your well being
can be found in your feet.

(think of reflexology in which points
on the foot correspond to every
organ and appendage)

I have spent the last several years of my career on my knees....................

ministering to vagrant toes,

cupping in the palms of my hands
heels
that have been teetering
too high for years

lengthening and expanding countless soles
into more supple states.

The principle of arc is  essential here.

"Archetypes are types of arcs..."

  Elizabeth Andes-Bell                                                 Namaste Yoga Center

My teacher taught me that one way of working with archetypal imagery
is that one can separate the personal from the impersonal,
and I realized that the body itself is archetypal
in that it can be ascertained impersonally
as a brilliant assemblage of arcs and energies that extend into arcs.

When you take a look at the bottom of your foot,

 (or do you leave this searching solely to me and your pedicurist)

hopefully you can clearly detect three parts:
the ball, the arch, and the heel.

Although the toes could be ascertained as separate from the ball,
for our purposes,
we will include them into one arcing energetic flow.

The ball part is a series of pads,

most distinctly

the pad under the big toe

   and the pad under the pinkie toe.

Although the big toe and pinkie toe themselves are very different in size, the pinkie toe pad is about the same size as the big toe pad.

This could be an earth-shaking, ground-breaking, getting-you-to-be-ground-ed revelation, because it can lead you to using both sides of the ball evenly.

Think of how padded and sensory and

crucial-to-survival 

the padded feet of a cave-dwelling bear or a tree-climbing cat are.

Use your imagination to tap into that same quality of padding

(as opposed to pounding) whether it’s the  pavement or the park.

Also direct the arc of the toes forward as opposed to pushing the toes out to the sides.

The next time you are out on the street, see how many people walk in some degree of duck feet.

Some people, especially men I have noticed, look like their feet are as turned out as the way I was warned not to walk after ballet class.

Putting Principles to Practice

Sit on a chair or a bench of a height
that allows you to have your feet
comfortably in contact with the floor.

Make sure that your knees are  aligned

over your ankles and that
your heels are not
pulled back too far behind.

The lower leg should be plumb –
not angled forward or back.

Most of the time we sit with the heels
pulled too far back, causing a lot of
tightness in the shin and the front of the ankle.

After a while we don’t even realize this overworked frontal part of the body is tight.

Subtlety can be embraced as a quality of sensitive contact
             that can be sustained and refined.

If you had to forcefully push the foot down, it would wear you out, and cause tension.

With subtlety, you are learning to become useful of sensitivity and contact, and letting go of over-efforting.

You are exploring the ultimate empowerment of activating through awareness and developing an affinity for surfaces (such as the floor, which is just an extension of the earth).as opposed to having to muscularly engage.

Now, and this is subtle, deepen the contact of the ball part of the foot,
sensing what you detected when you looked at

the big toe pad and pinkie toe pad –
that these pads being of similar size,
they can be given equal contact.

The foot bar on the Pilates reformer is an excellent way to explore how

the ball of the foot deepens contact while the arcing toes flow forward.

The subtle deepening force of the pad part of the ball is down, but that is joined with the flow of the toes connected to the pads, and the flow of the toes is forward.

The combination of deepening down and flowing forward is an arc.

Just pushing the pads down or just pushing the toes forward doesn’t do it.

The down and forward together is what makes an arcing flow that is conducive to getting the foot out of flatness.

Heeling: If there were an action verb form
of the noun heel, that verb would be heeling.

The heel works in a perfect dynamic with the ball.

The bottom of the heel deepens down – it’s not a press – you do it much more with your sensitivity than with any forceful exertion –

if you feel your calf engage or tighten up,
release any sense of needing to effort, and instead. send softening messages to the heel and breathe.

The expansion of the bottom of the heel is combined
with feeling the back of the heel  expand  equally to both sides.

As I mentioned before, most people push the toes out to the sides to some degree which doesn’t allow the outer heel to activate and participate in a widening expansion that leads the whole foot into un-flattening.

Once the two halves of the heel are sensitively exploring expansion, then you can imaginatively extend a talon-like energy from the Achilles tendon.

If imagining a talon seems strange, it may interest you to know that the word for heel in both Spanish and French is talōn.

You make the same arcing flow with the three-dimensional heel as you did with the ball-toe part of the foot.

The heel deepens down

(as well as wide, just like you even-out the big toe pad and the pinkie toe pad)

and then by extending a talon-like energy back,

the resulting flow is a combination of down and back which is in balance with the down and forward flow of the ball-toe.

These two arcing energies and contacts,
in opposing directions,

but in a balanced symmetry,

create together a lengthening of the entire sole of the foot and brings into play

the arch

which is the triumverate element in between the ball and the heel.

    

  You don’t have to do “exercises” to get
  a springy arch.

  The dynamic between
  the arcing forward energy of the ball-toes  

  and the arcing back of the heel-talon

  creates

  a buoyant lengthening lift of the arch.

 It's like a wave that swells from underneath in order to crest.

Let’s define dynamic for our purposes.

Dynamism has to do with energy, force, and motion.

The dy part of dynamic could convey a sense of

two, as in dy-ad, or di-alogue or di-gital.

When the two directional forces between the front of the foot and the back of the foot are equalized and in balance and harmony, that is a dynamic.

Feeling mostly the heel, or mostly the toes is not so dynamic.

It is only within the interplay of dynamic 

between the ball-toes and the heel-talon

that the arch arises.

If it still seems strange to you
to imagine a talon-like energy
extending off of the heel,
look at your Achilles tendon
 and the way it is very much
like the talons on this turkey foot
 (minus the claws of course).

There is a verse in Lao-tzu's Tao-te Ching that says:
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.

I look at this birthing as being in the foot. We perceive the foot as one thing, but one becomes two once the ball-toe and heel-talon become a dy-namic. The interplay between them creates the third element of the arch.

The newly-birthed triumverate feet then become informative for all of what is structured above them.

This foot composed of three elements relates further to what is central: the ball-toe relates to the pubis, the heel-talon relates to the tail,and the springy, buoyant arch relates to what is between the pubis and the tail: the springy, buoyant perineum, or pelvic floor.

Extending a talon-like energy off of
each heel becomes triumvirate with
extending a tail-like energy off of
the actual tiny tail bone.

The ball-toes deepening down and forward assists the pubis to emerge out from being tucked under tight groin muscles – the pubis can come forward in liberation for the pelvic floor or perineum to expand, but the pubis, like the ball-toes, does not move forward in flatness. It arcs out by releasing down and then coming forward from underneath.

Once the feet expand, then all above can begin to come into play:

the shins can spin, the calves can unravel, the hamstrings can gently activate and tether up on to the sit bones, the femurs can deepen......

and the spine which has three elemental curves to it just like feet, can begin to unwind, because the spine senses it's arcing relationship with the ball, arch and heel.

Undulating soles support a serpentine spine.

Truthfully, there are times
in my teaching that I repeat the terms
talon and tail so often that I almost
want to change the name of the studio to
Backbone Wingspan Talon and Tail

   

Credits:

Cat's Paw: morguefile

Building: publicdomainpictures.net