Core Awareness, Revised Edition: Enhancing Yoga, Pilates, Exercise, and Dance

The eye-head reflex maintains a sense of orientation in space and is observable by gently bobbing the head. When the head moves, the eyes always respond. This reflex is overridden when we lock the eyes while reading a computer screen. Allowing the eye-head reflex to function prevents headaches as well as neck and eyestrain.

Biomechanics classifies the psoas as a hip flexor; however, the psoas is an evolving tissue and its form and function has shifted over time. From being a major flexor to a supple guide wire, the healthy psoas no longer behaves as a flexor, but as a neutral, multidimensional transmitter. No longer as massive as a primate’s psoas, the human psoas doe

How are we to determine “right choices” if our bodies are drilled into numbing obedience?

Gravity stimulates the fluid cellular growth of living bone. During infancy the naturally bowed legs are stimulated to lengthen, strengthen, and eventually straighten. All throughout our childhood bones continue growing, with permanent fusion occurring some time after the eighteenth year of life. Encouraging a baby to stand before his or her bones

Adding resistance further supports skeletal integrity by isolating the specific muscles being stretched and, ideally, breaking down scar tissue and hydrating connective tissue.

It is for those ready to let go of their identification as a dancer, yoga student, athlete, or performer, to embrace the common human experience of sensation in motion.

Maintaining proper positioning while stretching helps unravel muscular substitutions and compensations.

Any restriction in the upper psoas will impede diaphragmatic breathing, compressing in and down, creating hyperextension in the lumbar spine. By limiting diaphragmatic expression, a constricted psoas shifts the diaphragm forward, limiting its range of motion and three-dimensional capacity.

the psoas is associated with adrenal depletion, exhaustion, and lowered immune response. Nourishing the adrenals helps heal an injured or dysfunctional psoas and, vice versa, a supple psoas replenishes the adrenals through its massaging movement. An anchored upper psoas also affects the breath and quality of feeling throughout the lungs and heart.