How to get on the floor with ease
Channel: Infinite Movement
Date: 2019-01-23

Tessa offers a process to help you learn how to sit on the floor more comfortably. Side note: it also develops core and leg strength!

We don't sit on the floor much in our modern, furniture-filled society, and as a result, we lose the ability to do it easily. As we age, getting on the floor can become nearly impossible if we don't do it regularly. Falls could be greatly reduced if we practiced sitting on the floor more, so it's important to integrate it into our lives now rather than letting it be something we avoid just because it isn't encouraged culturally.

First we take a look at the hip joint on a skeleton. It's a massive ball-in-socket joint that carries a lot of weight but has the ability to move in so many ways! If we use the hip joints well and fully, with awareness, our agility and posture will quickly improve in all positions and movements. Tight hamstrings? Back and neck pain? All can improve greatly with improved awareness of the hip joints.

Stand with your legs a bit wider than your hips, and begin to shift your weight from leg to leg, letting your trunk turn a bit toward the leg you're shifting onto. This essentially "points out" your hip joints to your brain, making sure you'll articulate them when you start to lower yourself toward the floor.   

There are lots of ways to take it further, but here Tessa progresses to kneeling one on knee with the same hand on the ground, for a tripod base of support. Then it's easy to get to your hands and knees position (very stable). From here you can transition to side-sitting on the floor, which is easier for most people than sitting cross-legged because it requires less flexion in each hip joint and doesn't ask the trunk to be totally upright since you're leaning on one of your hands. To get to side-sitting, simply slide one of your knees toward the opposite hand, which will turn you a little and lower one side of your pelvis onto the floor. Hang out here if you're comfortable and play with side-sitting with your legs in the other direction if you want. Use a pillow under your sitting hip and hand if that feels better. Just breathe here for as long as it feels good, and then start the process of returning to stand, which is just as beneficial as getting down to sitting!

Returning to standing feels a little different, since you're working against gravity rather than with it, but it's exactly the same sequence of movements. If you do this whole up and down sequence daily and really focus on increasing your control of each movement instead of dropping onto your knee or hand (ouch!), you'll find that you're actually a lot more comfortable getting on the floor than you thought you'd be!

Remember, make it a multiple times per day habit -- do it right before you sit to eat or watch TV/sit at the computer. You only need to do it once each time, and only to the degree that you can maintain control and good quality. Make sure you're breathing easily the whole time, wherever you are in the sequence. Try it every day for 2 weeks and let me know in the comments what you're finding!