Wow, what a ride! How did we go from the film Casablanca to What’s Eating Gilbert Grape to Spider-Man?

Also, I like how George RR Martin wrote about vampires in his novel Fevre Dream. His vampires are not created by the blood of another vampire, but his vampires are a species of their own, truly carnivorous humanoids, who procreate through copulation. One of the characters of the book is the archetype of an age old vampire, Damon Julian, hundreds of years old, whose suffering of longevity is so great that it sucks you right into the dark pit that he has in place of a soul. Maybe cuddling with homo sapiens’ inability to cope with more than a few decades of existence is what made Deadpool (2) one of the highest-grossing films ever?

Now, legs. The two things down there that walk us from the living room to the kitchen. Or so they seem when I look at scientific studies about walking.

Enter my latest video series “From The Ground Up” on Youtube [link]. An update on how we think about our legs. Or probably, about ourselves, the deeper we get into this series.

From books and motivational movies I have concluded that a leg (or both) can be cut off and the patient can live just fine, be living very successfully and socially active even. Youtube showed me a radiantly happy person without arms and legs who became a motivational guru and millionaire, loved by everyone.

But that’s not what I have seen in real life.

I’ve traveled through Cambodia and I’ve seen what land mines did to people. And even less spectacularly so, I have learned from my own life, as well as my clients and immediate environment, that even a slight negligence, a minor disturbance in the use of the legs, seemingly insignificant shortcomings of the integration of the legs into the whole self, can have major impacts on the whole self. To use the legs properly, and joyfully, and creatively, can be the difference between someone who still climbs their apple trees in their garden at age 79, and someone who ages fast and falls into disability early.

Amputation and disability is the worst case scenario that would surely bring down most people. I guess only the strongest of the most resilient are able to cope with such loss.

But even less spectacularly so, fascia that does not slide to the best of their ability, even if it is just around the knees or ankles, undifferentiated movements of the arches of the feet or ankles, such seemingly small things, surely overlooked by most professionals and laymen alike, can put the strongest body into disability; and maybe then it’s not only that body that’s disabled, but it’s the soul that’s left in the dark, the soul that does not even know the reason for its suffering, and therefore is suffering the most.

How did we go from dancing wild and free to choreographed to isolated movement strength training?

Video credits:

California Jubilee in “Let’s Twist Again”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggQSspSGU8

Twist, Twist |Beginner|Line Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM_hXVBMm5I

Knee Range of Motion Solutions From The ATG System!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMRPJmkbSVI

I’ve been playing with these movements for two weeks now, and it still seems rather impossible to touch my knees to the floor. If it wasn’t for other people, I wouldn’t even think it possible.

Nowadays it seems like no big deal to take pictures of yourself. But when I started out doing Feldenkrais back in 2004, it was considered almost borderline insanity to film yourself studying; certainly a lapse of etiquette being caught doing so. It gives me relief though. When I look at myself from the inside-out, sometimes the situation looks dark, stuck, insurmountable. But from an outside perspective, suddenly, what seemed to be a problem, seems like no big deal at all.

The knees don’t go down to the floor, so what? The play with movements, the explorations, the sense of self, the awareness of gravity and leaning points, the discoveries, aren’t those the important things, the sparks of joy?

Over the past few years the Youtube Recommended algorithm presented me with numerous “How to learn any language in 3 months”, “How I learned to speak Italian in 48 hours“, and “The real science of language learning – a professor explains” videos. This led me to two things: 1. Search for a browser plugin that can hide Youtube Recommended 2. Wonder about how first language learning might really work.

Backstory

Over the past few weeks I sat on chairs (of all places) a lot, and didn’t do any sports or exercising. But instead I overworked my knees with a few demanding postures, and started to have some knee pain.

Therefore, I decided to take my own medicine, and moved along to my video „Do your hip-joints connect up?” [link] I only did the first 20 minutes and only worked with my right leg. But after getting up, to my surprise, my knee pain was gone.

Two days later I wondered what else I could do with the same movements, and whether I could game-ify the movements of my lesson. A classic balancing game came to mind. It’s called „Labyrinth”, which I have on both my iPhone and Apple TV. It occurred to me that I could try controlling this game with my feet instead of my hands — much like some people paint with their feet instead of with their hands. I gave it a try.

Day 1

On the belly, with knees bent, feet towards the ceiling. 

It took a couple of minutes to figure out how to play, but then it actually went quite well. I put on socks and slipped the Siri remote control in between the sole of my foot and the sock to secure it. Then the game was on. It was fun. 

However, afterwards, when I checked for any improvements in my left leg, I didn’t register much. Overall my left foot felt a bit softer and more supportive, and my left knee seemed a wee bit more comfortable as well, but by far not as much as with 20 minutes of my movement lesson of Somatic Education on Youtube.

Day 2

I liked the idea of playing a computer game with my foot, though. It was almost like magic to watch the ball on the screen move, without my hands involved. This reminded me of a prank I played on a fellow office worker back in the day when I was a Software Engineer: I placed my computer mouse under the table and controlled it with my foot, out of sight to my co-worker, and pretended to move the mouse pointer on the screen with the power of my mind.

I tried a new position: on the back, with one leg extended, its sole pointing toward the ceiling. This time I used a rubber band instead of socks to secure the remote control on the sole of my foot, which worked a lot better.

Bok choy, was this a challenge. I knew my hamstrings were short—but with this game it really showed. I needed to do some auxiliary movements and some tricks first, just to get the soles of my feet level enough to be able to play.

But then I had a good gaming session, and completed the first 5 beginner levels with each foot. Twice.

Afterwards my legs felt a bit tired, but also light and more flexible than before.

Day 3

Today I was super excited to play the balancing board game again. In the evening I set myself up the same way as the day before: lying on my back, sole facing to the ceiling, with the remote control strapped to my foot with a rubber band.

Today the gameplay was smoother than yesterday. I could play more advanced levels. My nervous system seemed to already have learned and adjusted itself to the new gameplay style. Two things stood out:

• Balancing was a lot more steady with my feet than with my hands. This really surprised me. My hands are faster and more flexible, but my feet more steady and more precise. Overall it seems like balance control in this game is better with my feet than with my hands.
• My right leg is not only more flexible than my left, but my right foot is more “dexterous” than my left. This surprised me quite a bit. On the other hand, my left leg is my standing leg, and my right leg my moving leg. Obviously, there’s a handedness to the feet. Actually, no surprises there. But still, surprising to actually feel it as such a big difference.

After playing, my legs felt way more smooth and flexible, and going for a walk was a pleasure. l think this game might be able to solve my hamstrings „problem”. Stretching is out of this world boring to me, so that’s not an option, and I also get bored easily with lengthy Feldenkrais lessons for the hamstrings, but this game (I think) I could play 20 minutes to half an hour on several days a week, no problem.

Day 4 (morning time)

Yesterday evening I went to bed with limber legs and flexible hamstrings, and woke up with legs made from oak hardwoods. Interesting. Why is that? How come my body stiffens up its connective tissue overnight? Is this some kind of internal Settings reset? I mean, I welcome such tightening up for my facial skin, and neck, but for my hip joints and hamstrings… what’s the benefit of tightening up those areas?

Looking forward to play the balance game again tonight, I will keep us posted.