Standing Fletcher Towel Work

Hi, this, uh, this, uh, is going to be about undoing your day. We all live a very frontal existence. Everything is sort of down and forward of us. So we're going to use the Ron Fletcher towel today. My tool of choice, this is, uh, this started out with Ron seeing someone, I'm going to swing this over my shoulder standing like this when he asked them to put their arms overhead and in frustration he went and he got a towel that was laying there and he twisted it and he had her hold it and hold her arms up and said, look in the mirror and make that a straight line.

So it was from that, that the towel work was born. It gives you a frame of reference. Um, it is a licensed, uh, course. So if you're a teacher at checkout, the Fletcher Plots website, uh, for licensing courses, uh, if you are, um, wanting to try this, you can take a bath towel at home, fold it half, half again, lengthwise. That's what we did in the old days. And you just twist it and you've got yourself a, you can use a stretch out strap. Rom didn't like the theraband because he said it stretches you don't.

So this has a tiny bit of give love this uh, thing, Fletcher Towel. So we're going to stand hip with the part and again, we're trying to undo the frontal, uh, existence that keeps us rounding forward, dropping forward. And you've seen plenty of people who, who are there all the time, so we don't want to be them. So we're going to take the towel. Uh, they have a system, uh, in the Fletcher work of finding your proper distance. I like to, uh, in the old days we just pulled the towel, taught at about shoulder width and you should have sort of an opening at your arm pit bone. I'd choke up a tiny bit more. There you go. And uh, you don't want to be too wide. You want to have a nice little bit.

So we're gonna start small. Okay. I'm gonna be doing the Fletcher breathwork or a modified my version, which is a little sip of Arion and exhale. And it isn't too big. No pursing of the lips, just nice and soft. Using the ribs like bellows, all of the Peloton ease, uh, underneath work as I call it. We're going to be doing as we work with the towel. So we're just gonna take the fingers easily wrapped around.

Thumbs easily wrapped around. I may ask you to open up your fingers at times. Grasp at times. I want you to be your own guide. If your hands get tired, change your hands position. Okay, so we're going to take an easy breath in with this towel. Just a loose, easy breath in. On the exhale we're going to pull it talk shin. Let it go. Slack.

As you do this, you're going to try to open up your chest. So the pulling of that towel creates a place where you stop. And from that you continue to widen. Exhale, you pull, and one more time you're going to hold that pull taught. Take an easy breath in. On the exhale, we're going to come just to chest level. Shh. Inhale, you get taller. As you come down. Exhale, you lift the towel to chest. Dropping the shoulders, lift the child to chest, lengthening the spine this time.

Think about narrowing the rib cage and stay here. Take a breath in, soften your elbows a little bit. On the exhale, you're going to pull taut trend. Again, remember we're trying to open the chest, stretch it open. I think of someone pulling my collar bones and for men and last one we're going to pull and hold that pole taught. We're going to take a breath in and on the exhale we're going to take that towel overhead, dropping the shoulders as we lift the arms. You're going to stay here for a minute. There's something called the humeral scapular rhythm.

The humerus is your top of your arm bone, the well. Let's bring the towel down. As the humorous rises, the Scapula, your shoulder blade drops, so when the arm comes up, the shoulders go down. Inhale and exhale. We're going to stay overhead where we were a minute ago. Take an easy breath in and exhale and pause right here.

Whether you're seated, which you can do. If you've got any sort of leg issues, you can do this whole thing sitting in a chair, still mindful of your placement. So with the towel, almost straight overhead, I want you to take a moment. Lengthen your neck, drop your shoulders, drop your ribs into your waist, feel your hips on top of your legs and your weight into the floor. Now we're going to go the other way. I want you to lift the weight up your inner thighs.

Lift your pelvis up off your legs, ribs up off your waist. We're working in both those directions all the time. Let's move. Take a breath. Take this bent elbow if you need. Otherwise straight arms are going to reach behind you. Not everybody can do this. So bent elbows is fine. Inhale up.

Exhale. Think of dropping the front of your ribs as you take the towel behind you. What your body wants to do is this, but we're not going to, I'm going to correct it there. Inhale up. Exhale, reach and stay. Let's bend your elbows. Inhale, reach your arms. Straight. X sales for these straight behind you there.

Dana if he can. There you go. You may want to slide your hands a little wider on the towel if you need to choke up, if you need to do that. Last two, remember the ribs in front drop and you're gonna stay. You got enough room there, Leslie, you may want to stand for a minute. Let's take the towel down behind us while Leslie takes a stand. Take a stand. Leslie, you're going to take an easy breath in from here on the exhale, just up to waist level and down.

So we're working incrementally to open the shoulder girdle up and as we open the shoulder girdle, we're trying to maintain the integrity of our vertical posture. Weight over the center of the foot, knees, hips, ribs, shoulders in line. We're going to take one more and we're going to land at the waist. We're going to bend the elbows into our waist. Now what I love about this work is opposition.

So your hands should be straight out from your waist, not forward, not back, but straight out. [inaudible] now what am I going to ask you to do is pull your elbows away from your waist, pull that towel and ferment. Now that you've got that towel pulled in for men, pull your elbows towards you, but they're not going to go anywhere. Feel that opposition. We're going to do four poles just there. Inhale to prepare. Exhale, pull. And again, arms. Just stay.

Shh. One more time. Shh. Now take a breath in on the exhale. That's gonna slide up your back up to overhead. Take a breath here and the towel is gonna come down. Let's let the hands relax for a moment. Just hold loosely.

Little shoulder rolls and the shoulder roll and a shoulder roll and relax. Where did it go? Onto a different plane here for a minute. Welcome to sit down. Let's all take a turned out position sort of a wide second. Or if you've got any hip issues, you tend to be a stick in your butt out kind of Gal. Bring your feet in a little bit so you can sit yourself nice and in proper alignment. In good alignment. Okay.

So we're gonna take this towel and we're just going to whack it behind us for a minute. You didn't see that, okay? You're going to take the, you're going to take the towel behind you and hold it taut. Now this is risky for those of us who hyper extend our elbows. We don't want to be in that position. So soften them if that's, if that's what you do, okay? We're going to take the towel all the way to overhead. But what you're going to think about is not the towel going overhead, because that's frankly the simplest part of this.

You're gonna think of your shoulders driving down your rib, sitting into your waist, standing tall on your legs. And this is, uh, something that I've recently paid a lot of attention to. And that is to have a sense of lifting your sternum up off your ribs. We tend to hunker down, and so you want to have a little float of that sternum up. Easy breath. Exhale, the towel is going to come behind you and overhead bend your elbows if you need and come back. Inhale, exhale. We're keeping it very simple.

Using the towel as a tool to open up the shoulder girdle. Last one. Stay here. You're gonna make the correction with me on me. Shoulders are gonna drop. We're going to take a little tip to my right.

Your left over you go. Just a little and up. Thank you for, for the breath. Bond over to the other side and up and keeping it small. Just the rib cage tipping and coming up. Now stay. Now you're going to twist towards your left shoe and center and right and center and again and center.

One more time and center. Now we're going to go over to the leftist far, far, far as you can go and up. I personally am going to choke up on my towel and over to the other side and up and you Candace, you may want to choke up on your towel a little unless it's that shoulder that's dictating that with and a couple more and up. Standing tall on your legs. Head goes, ride online with the spa fine and up. We're going to take the arms down. We're going to let the wrists relax.

Little Roll of the wrists, little roll of the wrists, and we're going to hold that Tel talk across the front of our hips. Okay? So what you're going to do is you're going to take your left arm high and your right arm low, and it's like a little pendulum swing to the other side. We don't do lateral work very often in our lives. So here's a place where you want to feel the side of your body lengthening and the side of your body that's shortening.

You want to lengthen that too. So you're trying to lengthen the underside end, the overside and last one little pendulum. And you're going to bring that towel up. You're going to bring it behind you and you're just going to relax there and take a little what I refer to as a beloved little slump. We love those little stuff like that bond, and then you're gonna round your spine back up. He beloved little son.

I think some of these are longer than others. [inaudible] yes, it seems short. Okay. All right. That's fine. Oh, that's why you're holding the edge. Yeah. Find something that is comfortable, comfortable place for you. We're just going to take a little bend to the knees and uh, no need to stand up.

Just take a slightly wider stance. [inaudible] and we're just going to hold this. Oh, I love those trains. Hold this nice and tight behind you. This is just a little bit of easy movement side to side. Take the weight in. One leg, weight in the other.

Constant little pole of that towel taught. I think of my collar bones reaching away from each other for more of these and three and two and last one to the left and center. And come on, we're going to go all the way. Inhale, exhale. Oh the way over to the back. Take a breath. Exhale. Oh the way over to the front. Take a breath and again, breath at the bottom.

We're going to finish with the towel to the back. She just let that tell. Go for a moment again, take a little release and coming on up. Um, Leslie, I think for this you may want to stand up toes in heels in, bring your legs together but not tight. A little narrower than hip width. So this is an old piece of Ron's my right. Yeah, let's have your left hand on top. [inaudible].

So what you're going to do is you're going to draw a line right across your head. Now this is a crazy little twist right here. You can feel one rib reaching, you're just going to keep that towel pulling behind you. You're going to pull the top arm up in the bottom arm down and you're going to come on back. And when you get back you're going to switch and we're going to go overhead. Bisecting reaching back, pull and from end and coming back.

We're just going to do one more each side, doing our best to keep that line right on center. Very hard to do. Pull till that top elbow is bent, pull and firm and resist one arm pulling in the other. I think we got a switch to finish and last one reaching, taking it right over top if he can. And Paul. So we've been building up to a nice open chest release. I'm going to choke up a tiny bit if you feel you're comfortable, if your shoulders are open, of course the narrower your grip, the more stretch there is. And uh, can you see, are you good? Okay. Uh, the narrow your grip, the wider your stretch. I, because I'm a body worker as well as applaud east teacher and my thumbs are getting tired. I'm going to reach around this way for a little bit. Okay.

Changing the position just a little bit makes a difference. So we're gonna take that towel up. We're going to bring it right behind our shoulders and just let it rest against you and just pull it taut. So we're going to keep the towel and we're going to take a little rotation. Stay in that rotation, go a little farther, stay in that far rotation, reach the towel out behind you, bring it back in and come back to center.

So you're going to twist to the other side, leaving your hips forward. You're going to twist a little farther. Reaching the hips in opposition. You're gonna take the towel out behind you. You're going to bring the towel back in and you're going to twist to center, bringing the towel up. I'm going to change my hand hold. Here's what you're going to do.

You're going to bring the towel forward and you're going to lift your chest without the ribs coming forward. You're going to bring your focus back to center. As the towel comes up, you're going to take the towel behind you and you're gonna lift your chest to center without letting the front of the ribs splay as far down as you can. Bring the towel up and you come back to center. We're going to repeat that chest lifts. As the towel comes forward, your focus comes forward as the tail lifts. Chest lifts as that hell goes back and back to center.

One more of these because they feel darn good. Chest lifts. As the tail comes down, focus centers. The Tel comes up, just lifts. As the towel reaches behind and back to center, we're going to take a twist to your left. Once you're in that left twist, you're taking the Tel behind you. You should feel a big stretch on your sides.

Bring it all the way down. Bring the towel back up and to the other side through center to the other side. Take a breath. Exhale. Take that tell behind you as far down. Mindful of your posture. Breath in. Exhale. Take the tell up and come back to center.

And we're gonna take the towel behind us. I like to take it back to let it go and you're just gonna let that go. One side or the other. Take a little stretch around. Okay. We're going to go back to our wide position and changing the foot position changes the feeling of the work. So we're going to do a simple twist to the side.

We're going to take our focus up, we're going to take our focus down. We're going to take our focus center and go to the other side. Okay, so just trying to work the range of the rib cage, lifting it up off the waist, stable, lower body, mobile, upper body is what we're working on and working on undoing the forward focus of our day. All right. Fixing your shirt. Yeah, I think you're good where you are. Okay, so we're going to pull the towel taught. We're going to bring it overhead. Take a breath in, twist to your left. Sure.

We're just going to take the towel down and lift our chest. We're going to take the towel up and we're going to take an upper abdominal curl. We're going to come to center and to your right and to the other side. Thank you very much. We're going to take our chest up in the towel down. We're going to take the towel up and our chest spills over.

We're going to come to vertical. Thank you. And back to center. One more time. Twist towel goes down, chest goes up, towel comes up. Rounding forward, lift your vertical. Shoulders drop and last time to the other side. Chest lifts as a Tel comes down, towel comes up. As the chest reaches over.

Back to your vertical and center. We're just going to take a tea talk. Uh, there's a inhale. Exhale. Inhale, exhale. Now we're going to move the hips. Offsetting [inaudible] both sides. As long as you can keep them last too. [inaudible] stay here through center to the other side, through centers.

Shoulders drop as those arms lift to more in reach, and one more after this and last one. Now we're going to go up over top with the chess lifting and coming around with a high upper ab curl up overhead chest lifts a round. Inhale. Exhale. One more time. Inhale, exhale, and of course we're going the other way. Heck, sail end. Inhale up and over.

Exhale around shoulders drop as the arms lift. Two more and up and last one, dropping the shoulders as the arms lift. Stay. Take the towel behind you. Drop your ribs in front, take the towel behind you. Drop the ribs in front. Three more increments, two more increments. Last one, coming all the way down. Just let your arms relax.

Bring your focus forward. Turn in your toes, bring in your heels, toes to hip with the part. Just take a moment here and wrap that towel right under your buns, back of your legs and pull taught. I want you to push your thighs back of your thighs, hamstrings into the towel. Yeah, this is going to be good for you. Leslie. Choke up nicely so we tend to Tuck our butts under even ever so slightly.

So I want you to think of lifting your buns away from the back of your legs by pulling your hamstrings into that towel and then go into a tuck in a slump lift. Push your hamstrings into that towel. Push, push, push. You should feel a little engagement of your fast sets, your low back there and release. Now I'm looking at you and I'm feeling in me. Let's open up our shoulders when we do this. One more time.

Pull that towel talk. Now push your thigh back of your hamstring. Lift your butt away from the back of your legs. Open your chest, lift yourself tall. Try to hang onto that and let the towel relax. Bring the towel up. Nice, easy hold. Not really pulling taut and bring the towel forward. You're going to get taller. Keep those glutes away from your hamstrings.

Slowly bring in that towel down. Just letting the towel relax. Bring your heels together, knees together or hip with the part. Just wants you to close your eyes for a moment. Reach your head through the roof. Think of lifting your arches up off. Not your toes, not your heels, but your arches. Lifting your inner thighs up, lifting your pelvis up off your legs, your waist off your hips, your ribs off your waist, your shoulder girdle up off your rib cage. Neck is reaching long.

You're going to be shifting a little bit side to side. That's you finding center. Cheekbones are light. Roof of the mouth is light. Imagine you've got a little angel pulling the top of your ears up. Forehead up. Take a big breath in with your eyes closed.

Bring that towel forward and over hat with your eyes closed. Take that tell behind you with the rib sitting. Nice. Right above your hips. Take the towel back up. Overhead. Eyes are still closed. Bring the towel back forward. Take a big breath in. Exhale, open the eyes.

Yes, thank you. Thank you. [inaudible] shoulder opening for the end of the day. A long day.