Here’s a postural exercise to help you feel the dynamic energy flow you need for your best singing.
If you’ve watched the Nobble Lift video, you know I believe the quality of your posture really depends on how efficiently you’re transferring your weight through your skeleton into your supporting surface (the floor, a chair) so the muscles of your body are free to engage and move. Stand on your bones, and your muscles will be available for whatever you might want to do with them!
This is what I call dynamic posture, and it feels much more energized than just standing up straight.
But sometimes, even if I’m standing on my bones, I feel a bit squashed, either physically or energetically, and that’s when I use the Forward Fold. Try it with me!
How to do the Forward Fold
- Bend forward as though to touch your toes. Now turn your attention to your neck and head! The priority here is not in folding over as far as possible or stretching the hamstrings. The essential element is releasing the back of the neck so the head can hang like a bowling ball on a loose neck.
- Give a few gentle nods and shakes to check that looseness in the neck.
- Regardless of how far you’ve folded, imagine your body is now in the shape of an A, with the hips as the top point and the head and feet on the bottom. Begin to feel that there is an energetic flow away from the hips in both directions. First, focus on the upper body – gravity is pulling the head away from the hips, lengthening the spine.
- Now, turn your attention to the lower body, and begin to send some energy and muscular engagement down the legs into the floor. Imagine driving tent stakes down into the ground! You might notice that when you send a Zing of energy from the hips down into the ground, there’s a slight lifting feeling in the upper body, like a lever.
- On your next big Zing of downward energy, ride that wave of upward movement in the upper body, and continue rolling up, keeping the neck released and hanging until you’re all the way upright.
- Now that you’re upright, keep feeling that division of energy that starts in the middle of the body: a powerful downward flow through the legs into the ground and a free, effortless flow through the upper body and out the top of the head. Notice where the energy begins? Right in the middle of the body, the seat of your powerful breath.
- Keeping this lively, dynamic posture, it’s a great time to move into your breath work and singing practice. Enjoy!
