What you do today will be easier to do tomorrow.
What you don't do today will be more difficult tomorrow.
Everyone knows that Walking equals Health.
Quality walking is both a measure and indication of fitness and longevity. To find quality walking, we go beyond popular suggestions, fashions and opinions and look for the model of objective criteria in nature itself. The exclusive contribution of the Walk for Life program is in its strategies to engage the organic subconscious to correct itself.
When you are not imposing an authoritative standard on your body, but rather reveal to it its primal potential for natural walking, you will sense the ease and spontaneity of movement, as well as feeling the pleasure of moving. Trusting that your body is willing to move of its own free choice, the urge to move becomes something you love to do and will love to do again tomorrow.
The program creates a learning environment which allows participants to gradually practice dynamic patterns of movement. A variety of strategies are used to mitigate damage to vulnerable joints and to develop a reliable axis of posture while performing dynamic anti-gravity movements.
The program also introduces selective corrections to counter productive habits, which the body does not know how to create by itself. All changes are tested and confirmed in actual movement within harmonious correspondence between all body parts.
In our indoor sessions and while walking in nature we will:
- Organize all parts of the body to accept an anatomically correct disposition of the hip joints, so the mobilizing force can transmit through the joints without upsetting their safety.
- Train to protect the lumbar vertebrae at the moment of impact in walking, when most of the body mass is focused on one foot.
- Post the head on top of the spine, in the most sensible disposition, from which the neck can turn the periscope of senses in any direction with the same ease.
- Put a spring in your step to guarantee the spontaneous shock-absorbing task of the knees for smooth, free walking.
- Challenge subconscious resourcefulness to the commitment of maintaining stable vertical posture, in order to prevent falls, as well as building confidence in training to fall without injury, inspiring biological optimism.
- Explore a variety of self-mobilization patterns to encourage a combinatory approach toward adjusting organic complex coordination and optimal moving efficiency.
- Facial expression is part of the complex walking pattern. The expression you put on your face, while engaging in demanding tasks that involve your total body, is the expression that will strongly tend to be registered and adopted by you as a habit.
In this program, the use of walking poles not only helps us to maintain equilibrium, but also redistributes effort, reviving our arms’ primal function — like the front legs of quadrupeds to produce pressurized impacts into the ground.
The resulting counter-force from this pressure thrusts our shoulder blades back toward the vertebrae, helping to restore flexibility in this often stiff, non-negotiable area of our dorsal spine.
Pole usage when walking also increases our vitality, since the non-habitual interaction of the arms with the ground (through their extension via the poles) employs a long lever that boosts the ballistic force we employ for propulsion.
As a result we discover our optimal alignment, coordination, and pace, and as a bonus, we burn more calories.
Walk for Life is a Movement Intelligence program created by Ruthy Alon. It is based on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais and Bones for Life®.
This program can be taken for personal education, continuing education credits, and teacher training certification.