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I have a few exercises that I use with my students, that I call the “impossible exercises”, Well, they’re not exactly impossible, but its difficult to do them much, or we can do much less than we imagine we ought to be able to do. One is the transversus abdominis activator – lie on the back, arms crossed over chest, knees to chest, and then raise the sacrum a little bit off the floor. Surprisingly difficult. I get my students to learn the movement if they cant do it, by flinging the legs up a little bit and then getting the deep abdominals to come in at the end to give the legs and sacrum a little kick along the way. I hope this gives them the feeling of what activating the TA is like, so they can concentrate on that and enhance it. Why is it so difficult? This exercise is much easier if the legs are raised vertically instead (lying on one’s back). I think this shows why – when the knees are to the chest, the pelvis is tilted up towards the head at the front, so the TA is already shortened, so its difficult to make it contract more. Not sure if this is correct though. Maybe in that position other muscles can come in. Other impossible exercises are done on the front. One is a glut activator – lie on the front, one knee bent up to chest, other leg out straight behind. Then lift the straight leg off the floor, using the glutes – without bending the knee. I can do this on my flexible side, but only sometimes on my other side, and in neither case can I go far, or hold it for a long time. Many of my students can’t do it at all. To make it easier for them, I then get them to raise their hips up on a block, and then they can do it. Why is it so difficult? When standing, and not working against gravity, we can take our leg back at the hip much further than we can when on our front. I am not sure why, but it may be that with the knee bent to the chest, the pelvis (as in the previous case) is tilted up towards the head at the front, so the hip joint of the leg going back at the starting position, is already extended beyond its normal neutral position. So naturally it is more difficult to take it further. Again, I am not sure if this explains it fully. Another difficult one is the arch body hold. I and many of my students can passively (with our arms) push up quite high into a cobra. However we find it difficult to raise the upper body in the arch body hold more than a short distance, and difficult to hold it for a long time (though we are working on that). Why is the active range so very much less than the passive range? I think it might be just lack of strength (even on these people who are already stronger than the average). However it is a common gymnastic/contortion exercise to arch the upper body high just with back power, so the muscles are there – just not strong enough in us. Whether normal people need them that strong is another matter. Still, its frustrating that we are so bad. Same with the legs in the arch body hold. The active range is far less than the passive range (and unlike the earlier cases, the pelvis is in neutral, so there is no pre-contraction at the starting position which might explain the poor lift). Again, maybe lack of strength. If anyone has any views on this I’d appreciate hearing them, and whether they think my analysis is correct, because it is frustrating that we are so bad. If anyone cant understand the starting positions, I can post photos if needed. Thanks, Jim.

Following the closure of Studio Relax here in Brisbane, I've started teaching a new ST class for a group of the displaced students. One of the class members (who I have taught on and off for several years) has more kyphosis than he wants – while it is not actually disfiguring, it leads to some awkwardness in posture and walking, and apparently led to him needing physio on his lower legs because when walking he has to tilt the whole body backwards a bit to look straight ahead. The kyphosis has not improved even though he has been doing ST (or P and F) classes for several years now (but then, neither has it got worse). I presume it is functional, not structural (I’ll have to ask him his history). He is male, mid 50s, muscular, stocky build. If possible, I'd like to do something for him in my classes. I've looked through this site, but only found one relevant thread (shoulders forward thread). That emphasised to me the issue of tight hip flexors, which we will certainly work on - those are an important element of my classes anyway. Olivia's Arch Body Hold video is highly relevant, for activation and use of the middle and upper back spinal muscles - the "pull the sternum forward with a string" cue certainly works well for me when I test it. If I say my own thoughts and experience in this: Obviously, we have more body tissue in front of the spinal column than behind it. Therefore we have to contract the muscles along the back of the spine to stop ourselves flopping forward. We naturally do this strongly in the waist and neck where muscle activation is essential. But in the middle-upper back, the rib cage stops us flopping forward, so we can get in the habit of neglecting the deep spinal muscles at this level. Eventually, this leads to the spine curving forward at this level, increasing kyphosis as we age, and compression of the rib-cage, with all sorts of undesirable consequences. In me, who has had some degree of kyphosis for years (from desk work and general neglect of my body), regaining control of these muscles has been a great breakthrough. Even though I had been doing yoga for years (with a lot of locusts – i.e. arch body holds) I had managed to avoid using the deep spinal muscles in this area. Some group classes with a very knowledgeable physiotherapist Selina Tannenberg (at Fitness Wonderland, Brisbane; I commend her to everyone) identified neglect of these muscles. My memory is that the yoga sphinx was the best way of learning activation – first pushing the shoulders wide in the sphinx, dragging the elbows and hands back against the floor, pushing the upper spine and therefore chest forward between the shoulders, and then lifting the sternum (the latter is similar to the cue from Olivia’s video, described above). Because the body is supported on the elbows in this position, maybe it will work better than a position where the whole torso is lifting itself off the ground, because we want to develop awareness of muscles in a small specific area. We do this routinely in my other class, and the class members report that they do develop awareness of and activation of the upper-middle back over time. Incidentally my own neglect was at slightly higher up the spine than Olivia points to in her video, and assuming that kyphosis tends to develop most at the level where muscles are least activated, then in this student it would be higher too. I can presumably cue the spinal muscles in the right area by running my fingers vertically a little on either side of the spine (though I have to be careful in women because this can tweak the bra-strap). It least in me, there was a short area with complete neglect and complete lack of awareness of what the muscles were doing. Regaining control here now means that I can stand properly straight, and my efforts to “stand up straight” don’t involve me tilting the rib cage up and back as they did before. So I will try both methods with the class member. If anyone has any comments or any other suggestions, I would very much appreciate hearing them. Thanks, Jim.

Hello all, https://vimeo.com/ondemand/mfbb As well, please find the PDF to take with you for easy reference: http://kitlaughlin.c...ck_Bend_ABH.pdf A note: for most people, and for health, this is the most important of the Mastery series. It covers HFs, quads, extension in the lower, middle, and upper back, and flexion in the shoulder joints. All together? Full back bend. And then, as the last exercise in the Program, there is one of the best examples of how to teach I have ever seen: Olivia takes Craig ("MH") through ALL the necessary cues for performance of this fundamental strength exercise.