Rolling Forward in the Chair

Introducing Mr. Yellow!

Welcome to one of my rare - so far - exercise videos! Today’s post is meant to give you an activity other than walking and lying down to explore the Alexander Technique. As you watch this video, please keep in mind that no one is forcing me to do stop motion videos… I’m just partly insane… But if you like these videos please let me know as I’ll be making more of them!

Yel-low

What Is Rolling Forward In the Chair?

This little exercise was shown to me ages ago by Beret Arcaya. She described it as a ‘cheap but effective’ way to get a stretch in the back and relieve pressure on the joints. She absolutely did not use the word ‘cheap’ with negative connotations and I still use this exercise to explore my mobility and all of the concepts I’ve written about to date.

If you want to know what I mean by rolling forward in the chair, take a look at the video below!

Pretty dumb, eh? :)

So what did Mr. Yellow do? Well the technical term is that Mr. Yellow explored the full range of flexion of his spine. I don’t particularly enjoy calling this activity spinal flexion because the motion begins and ends with the head!

Why Do I Do This Exercise?

By hook or by crook, many of us lose the ability to articulate various parts of ourselves. In particular, the mobility of the head on top of the spine becomes stiff and unbalanced. By playing around with this exercise very slowly, you will get a chance to feel that:

1. the head can pitch down without having the neck push forward

2. wherever you send the head, the rest of the body must respond with some type of mobility

3. your hips can also pitch down while sitting

If you can manage to experience any one of these 3 sensations, give yourself a gold star! 🌟

The more familiar you can become with these 3 the better. I consider these to be the Level 1 sensations when doing this exercise. It will NOT cure all of your troubles but it WILL go quite some way towards giving you a new experience of yourself and improve that Inner Sherlock.

Wait… Level 1?!?

With any exercise like this, I would expect to see different levels of execution. I do not equate flexibility or strength with higher levels of difficulty. To hit Level 2, one would need to demonstrate that they are really allowing the head to lead the movement on the way down and that they could reverse the sequence without creating stiff weight on the way up.

Someone who is naturally flexible may achieve the superficial appearance of rolling forward in the chair, but they may only know how to do so by kerplopping their head down like a sack of potatoes. Range of motion is really not that interesting to me; range of supple and balanced motion IS.

Great, so I practice this 10 times a day and then I know the technique!

Wouldn’t that be nice, eh?

Nothing will beat STOPPING, checking in on your energy, thinking, and having a slow walk. What this can give you is a better sense of when you are blocking the head from pitching down during your normal everyday activities. And while you certainly can do many more things with your head and neck than pitch down, I think it’s very important to learn the difference between the head pitching down and the neck pushing forward.

Watch This Video Several Times

In the video, you’ll see several directions that I would like you to follow and several that I would like you to prevent. Pay just as much attention to the preventative directions as the others! They are the absolute shining light of the Alexander Technique and will serve you well.

If you have the hang of this exercise, you will have a nice foundation for the next exercise/game…. Looking Up. Unfortunately, neither Mr. Blue nor Mr. Yellow have the flexibility to demonstrate that correctly. Please be patient and pray that I don’t get sadistic and chop up their necks up for “educational purposes”.¹

Modify Modify Modify!!

Don’t feel comfortable going all the way down in the chair? Don’t!! Stop where you like!

Don’t have a chair and you’re waiting on the bus? Have a little roll forward while standing (with your knees slightly bent).

Try sending the head slightly to the left/right! I bet the back feels differently.

As long as you’re following the preventative directions in the video, you should feel comfortable and experience weird wild stuff!

Ask Questions!!

If any of this is unclear to you, please ask questions. This is principally a resource for my private students but anyone could potentially benefit from this!

Get In Touch

Thanks for reading “Rolling Forward in the Chair“! If you’re in NYC, you may learn more about my private teaching practice at johndalto.com.

If you’d like to book any lesson time with me, you can find my booking link here.

1. I may or may not be watching spooky horror movies while typing this…