Lower back discomfort is a common issue that affects many people, often resulting from poor posture, muscle strain, or underlying medical conditions. The Feldenkrais Method offers a gentle, innovative approach to addressing lower back pain through a series of mindful movements and exercises. This method focuses on improving body awareness, movement efficiency, and overall functionality, which can be particularly effective in relieving lower back discomfort. In this article, we will explore some of the top Feldenkrais exercises for lower back pain and how they can benefit your well-being.

Understanding the Feldenkrais Method

The Feldenkrais Method, developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, is a somatic education approach designed to enhance movement patterns and body awareness. This method involves two primary techniques: Awareness Through Movement (ATM) and Functional Integration (FI). Feldenkrais exercises for lower back discomfort often incorporate elements from both techniques, focusing on gentle, exploratory movements that help alleviate pain and improve flexibility.

Key Feldenkrais Exercises for Lower Back Discomfort

Pelvic Tilts Pelvic tilts are a fundamental Feldenkrais exercise aimed at improving lower back flexibility and strength. To perform this exercise:

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.

Place your hands on your lower abdomen and gently tilt your pelvis backward, flattening the curve of your lower back against the floor.

Hold this position for a few seconds, then release and return to the starting position.

Repeat the exercise 10-15 times, focusing on smooth, controlled movements.

3. This exercise helps to engage and relax the muscles in the lower back, reducing discomfort and improving overall stability.

4. Cat-Cow Stretch The Cat-Cow stretch is a classic Feldenkrais-inspired movement that helps increase spinal flexibility and reduce lower back pain. To perform this stretch:

5. Start on your hands and knees with your wrists aligned under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.

Inhale as you arch your back, lifting your head and tailbone towards the ceiling (Cow position).

Exhale as you round your back, tucking your chin towards your chest and drawing your belly button towards your spine (Cat position).

Continue alternating between these two positions for 1-2 minutes.

This exercise gently mobilizes the spine and stretches the muscles along the back, alleviating tension and discomfort.

Seated Forward Bend The Seated Forward Bend is a Feldenkrais exercise designed to stretch the lower back and hamstrings, helping to relieve pain and improve flexibility. To perform this exercise:

Sit on the floor with your legs extended straight in front of you.

Inhale and lengthen your spine, reaching your arms overhead.

Exhale as you gently hinge forward from your hips, reaching towards your toes or shins.

Hold this position for 20-30 seconds, then slowly return to the starting position.

This exercise helps to stretch the lower back and hamstrings, reducing muscle tension and improving overall mobility.

Side-Lying Leg Lifts Side-lying leg lifts are effective for strengthening the muscles around the lower back and improving overall stability. To perform this exercise:

Lie on your side with your legs extended and stacked on top of each other.

Support your head with your arm or a pillow and place your other hand on the floor for balance.

Lift your top leg towards the ceiling, keeping it straight and in line with your body.

Lower your leg back down with control, avoiding any jerky movements.

Repeat 10-15 times on each side.

This exercise targets the muscles of the lower back and hips, helping to improve strength and reduce discomfort.

Bridge Pose The Bridge Pose is a Feldenkrais-inspired exercise that strengthens the lower back and glutes while promoting better posture. To perform this pose:

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart.

Place your arms by your sides with palms facing down.

Inhale and lift your hips off the floor, pressing through your heels and engaging your glutes.

Hold the position for a few seconds, then exhale and lower your hips back down.

This exercise helps to strengthen the muscles of the lower back and glutes, improving overall support and stability.

Integrating Feldenkrais Exercises into Your Routine

Incorporating Feldenkrais exercises for lower back discomfort into your daily routine can offer significant benefits. It is essential to approach these exercises with mindfulness, focusing on smooth, controlled movements and paying attention to your body's sensations. Practicing these exercises regularly can help improve flexibility, reduce muscle tension, and enhance overall well-being.

For best results, consider working with a certified Feldenkrais practitioner who can guide you through personalized exercises and provide feedback on your movement patterns. Additionally, combining Feldenkrais exercises with other treatments, such as physical therapy or chiropractic care, can further enhance your recovery and pain management.

Conclusion

By Gia Kourlas

Published Jan. 22, 2021Updated Jan. 23, 2021

Bruce Lee talked about emptying the mind in order to become formless and shapeless like water, which “can flow or it can crash,” he said. “Be water, my friend.”

The pandemic has made us shift our perspectives in so many ways, but Lee’s guidance rings true: We need to be water. And we need to move. It heals. And if more people moved, they might just find their way to dance.

Dancers know that how you are in your body relates to how you are in your mind and how you move through the world. Most New Yorkers live in cramped quarters that now often double as workplaces, too. Our bodies are constricted. And though we aren’t back to a complete shutdown the way we were in March, as the pandemic drags on, it’s getting harder and harder to find moments of release and wonder.

Winter is not my greatest season. I mean it can be a struggle to stand. But when I least feel like moving is when I need it the most. It’s good to sweat. I run. Last spring, a friend who knows me well recommended a trainer, Erika Hearn, and she has saved my body and mind through her Instagram classes, which mix strength, Powerstrike kickboxing, resistance band-work and mobility. It’s a meticulous total package; plus, she moves with such dynamic ease that watching and mirroring her fluid execution of steps — including her occasional human moments of imperfection — in some small way fills the gap of not being able to see live dance. When she says “stay with me” it’s not only about completing a movement, it’s about having faith in movement.

Still, it’s hard to remain optimistic about much of anything at dusk. It’s too cold to roam the city; we’re basically stuck inside. But even our milder version of lockdown doesn’t have to feel as if we’re locked up. We can use movement as a way to look inward. Through stillness and slowing down, we can create a rich sense of space by moving our minds around our bodies. Slowing down can feel like freedom — and, for me, that’s a good antidote to dusk.

Somatic practice — named for “soma” or the living body — is a way to connect the mind and body that encourages internal attentiveness. “We’re talking about allowing the living body to inform behavior,” Martha Eddy, an esteemed somatic movement therapist, said. “But then how do you do that? It’s by using your proprioception” — the ability to feel the body in space — “and your kinesthetic awareness.”

Focusing on the navigation of space and becoming conscious of how you move, especially when outdoor ventures are limited, is unsettling and grounding, excruciating and exciting, but always transformative. It’s a trip you can take. “It’s a mind journey,” Eddy said. “And it’s a mind journey that’s real.”

During the pandemic, virtual training has opened up the somatic approach to the bigger world. Classes in the Feldenkrais Method and BodyMind Dancing are available at Movement Research at no cost. (The joke is that they’re priceless.) Eddy’s BodyMind Dancing, appropriate for any level or any body, is a delightful, curative way to spend a Monday night.

It’s fitting that a key somatic principle, Eddy said, is the idea of slowing down. “I call it slowing down to feel,” she said. “Related to that is going into the breath, and related to that is releasing tension. Sometimes I separate those two and sometimes I keep them together: releasing tension and breathing.”

There are levels, but slowing down to feel isn’t a static act: It’s about shifting to a more internal place. The hope is that you emerge from a somatic class and bring some of that awareness into your everyday life. I know I have. In a time when it seems we have little control, having agency over our bodies — and our internal world — is a kind of power. By engaging in a somatic experience, you come to realize that these practices are not just about creating flexible bodies, but flexible minds.

The Feldenkrais Method, created by Moshe Feldenkrais, does that and more with its system of exercises that zone in on skeletal function and self-awareness through movement. It’s slow, methodical and controlled. Sometimes the movements seem imperceptible. You are told to hold back, and you are also on your back a good deal. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Rebecca Davis, a Feldenkrais practitioner, broke it down: “You do a movement and you pay attention to how it feels,” she said. “You do something with the right side. You do that same action on the left side. I’ve tried to distill it to that I teach people how to pay attention, what to pay attention to and why it matters.”

In one class I took focusing on the feet and legs, Davis told us — repeatedly — to stay in a 5 percent zone of range and effort. This, it turned out, was impossible. It’s like my muscles were laughing at me. Attempting to do less is a hard, humbling act.

“When I say, ‘Now slowly tilt your legs to the right,’ what comes out of people is definitely not my idea of slow,” Davis said later. “We have to recalibrate pacing, timing because for this work in particular it’s the sensory details that we’re interested in. Once you slow down and start paying attention to yourself in a different way, that’s really where change can happen.”

Davis, who teaches at Movement Research (her next classes are in February) and has an online program, talks you through the physical instructions, which in turn develops a skill: You listen both to a voice and to your body. While executing small, detailed movements, she invites the release of the eyes, the jaw, the forehead — sites of parasitic effort, where parts of the body don’t need to work. It’s a way to quiet ourselves so the sensory details of our experience become clearer. It’s like relearning yourself from the inside out, and the breakthroughs are otherworldly.

“When your weight is not collapsing onto your spine, onto your skeleton — when you’re not falling onto yourself, when you figure out how to use your feet so that your weight is coming up and through, that feels so good,” Davis said. “You’re lighter. It takes less work to move.”

But it also takes work to remain still. Early in the pandemic, I found yin yoga, a practice focusing on passive poses, and Kassandra Reinhardt, who has been teaching on YouTube since 2014. She can ease the memory of any miserable day, and so can yin, which isn’t about stretching muscles, but relaxing into them in order to release ligaments, joints, bones and fascia. Poses are held for at least two minutes and usually longer.

Some of them feel good; others feel like death. “We’re slowly breaking down physical tension that we might have been carrying for years,” she said. “Maybe you just have it from the run that you did earlier that day, but maybe this is decades worth of tightness and tension that you’re now consciously releasing.”

It’s a process: You find your pose — and your edge within it — and breathe while remaining still. If all goes well, you melt lower and deeper; when class is over, it’s like you’ve shed a layer of skin.

Embracing stillness-oriented practices is important to Marie Janicek, a dancer turned personal trainer who hosts a podcast, “This Thing Called Movement,” that explores how movement impacts our lives. “It allows us to flesh out the true depth and subtlety and dimensionality that’s inherent in the movements we do day to day,” she said. “And then we have a greater ability to appreciate all the threads of what’s happening in our bodies, in our minds, in our sense of self. Not just when we’re actually moving, but then outside of that as well.”

As Eddy pointed out, even when we are seemingly still, there are physiological rhythms that occur in our bodies. “Which is our breath, which is our blood flow, which is our craniosacral rhythm, which is the cerebrospinal fluid around the nervous system,” she said.

For her, it’s an orchestra. “Sometimes it’s very, very quiet and sometimes one particular instrument is very dominant,” she said. “But no part disappears.”

You can access that dimension and richness in her classes, too. In a recent BodyMind Dancing session, we were swinging and swaying in whatever way we chose. She said, “Let the weight move into lightness.”

It was the sensation of moving heavy water — thick yet unbound — and suddenly being swept to shore by a wave. In my apartment. After class ended, Eddy asked if anyone wanted to share their experience. One woman, effusive and out of breath, popped onto my screen and said she had been working up until the time class started, but was determined to take it anyway. She went to a park. But she didn’t want to lie on the ground to perform the exercises.

“I found a tree!” she said.

In thinking about how to get through the current moment, I pulled out this piece I wrote a while ago. I figure being kind to ourselves is the way through.

This residency opportunity popped up in my feed. It sounded amazing. A week in a castle with artists from many disciplines on an island off the coast of England? A collaborative exploration in conversation with international artists and the tidal patterns? Yes, please. I could use the magic of a castle and a group process by the water. How do I apply? I was all ready to hit the application…

Introduction:

In the fast-paced world we live in, taking care of our bodies often takes a back seat to the demands of daily life. Stress, poor posture, and sedentary lifestyles can lead to discomfort and restricted movement. If you're seeking a holistic approach to improve your overall well-being, the Feldenkrais method and a skilled Feldenkrais Therapist might be the solution you've been searching for.

Understanding the Feldenkrais Method:

The Feldenkrais method, developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, is a unique approach to movement education and rehabilitation. It focuses on enhancing your awareness of movement patterns, promoting flexibility, and optimizing physical function. The method is centered around the principle that improving your awareness of how you move can lead to positive changes in your overall well-being.

How a Feldenkrais Therapist Works:

A Feldenkrais Therapist is a trained professional who guides individuals through gentle, mindful movements and exercises. The sessions are designed to increase self-awareness and encourage more efficient ways of moving. These therapists use verbal cues and hands-on techniques to help clients explore and understand their habitual movements.

Key Benefits of Feldenkrais Method:

Improved Flexibility and Range of Motion: Feldenkrais exercises are tailored to address specific movement patterns, helping to increase flexibility and enhance your range of motion. Through gentle and deliberate movements, a Feldenkrais Therapist can assist you in discovering new possibilities for your body.

Enhanced Body Awareness: Many of us go about our daily activities without paying much attention to how we move. The Feldenkrais method encourages heightened awareness of your body and its movements, fostering a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection.

Pain Relief and Injury Prevention: By identifying and addressing inefficient movement patterns, a Feldenkrais Therapist can help alleviate chronic pain and reduce the risk of future injuries. The emphasis on mindful movement can contribute to improved overall physical well-being.

Stress Reduction: The Feldenkrais method is not just about physical movement; it also incorporates relaxation techniques and breathing exercises. These elements can help reduce stress and promote a sense of calm, contributing to your overall mental and emotional well-being.

Customized Approach: Each individual is unique, and a Feldenkrais Therapist tailors sessions to meet your specific needs. Whether you are recovering from an injury, managing a chronic condition, or simply looking to enhance your physical performance, the Feldenkrais method can be adapted to suit your goals.

Real-Life Success Stories:

Countless individuals have experienced transformative changes through the Feldenkrais method. Take Sarah, for example, who struggled with chronic back pain due to poor posture. After a series of sessions with a Feldenkrais Therapist, she not only found relief from her pain but also developed a newfound awareness of her body's movements, leading to improved posture and overall well-being.

Another success story involves John, an athlete recovering from a sports injury. Through targeted Feldenkrais exercises, he regained strength and flexibility, allowing him to return to his favorite activities with greater confidence and reduced risk of reinjury.

Conclusion: