Regula’s Joy of Movement has new classes for fall 2008, Pilates Mat, Feldekrais Awareness Through Movement and Gentle/Medical Yoga. These new classes all emphasize alignment and core strength.
Pilates Mat: Joseph Pilates said that mat class is the essence of his work. In the mat classes, you learn about neutral spine, and what that is, how to move from it, through the whole hour. From there, you learn flexion & extension, flexion & extension with rolling movements that incorporate inversions. Spinal misalignments become very clear to you, fast. Props (magic circle, ball) will be added to aide in moving through these misalignments. Pilates mat is a dynamic, fun, challenging and gentle workout that helps lengthen the spine and limbs. In Pilates mat, we learn conscious breath, and to move with conscious breath for the whole hour, and to take it home into whatever we do. My teacher Romana, a pupil of Joseph Pilates, used to emphatically say, “It’s a dance!”
Awareness Through Movement (ATM): These classes are specific for a certain area in the body, such as neck, shoulders, arms, hips, lower back, feet, ankles, etc. ATM emphasizes the skeleton and it’s connections. It makes you become aware how muscle is attached to bone and how when bones are out of allignment, the muscles become cranky. With movements that are familiar to your body because we were all babies, having to learn how to crawl and walk and run, ATM is an exploration of how to come back to this wonder of freedom, of how to lift the head, how to be on hands and knees, how to stand up. It’s a journey connecting bones, through motion, where they need to be for you to feel well. One discovers very quickly that the human body thrives on circular movements, and lives well once those circles are round. In the fall session, the first 8 weeks, we look at the function of hips and lower back. After that, the focus will be feet and ankles. Please bring a notebook and something to write with. Wonderful for sciatica sufferers and those recovering from disc injury, it is very gentle.
Gentle/Medical Yoga: This is a good class for people that suffer from MS or other disabilities (not yet wheelchair accessible – looking for accessibility consulant to help us change this). With the help of chairs, blankets, belts, and above all, the wall, we find support to do things that we think are not attainable. It is a very restorative class. With breath and opening the lungs and heart, or making the legs move up a wall, the nervous system can deeply relax. Eyebags will be used to relax the eyes and therefore the brain.
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