It stretches your stomach and back muscles. Lie on your belly with your hands facing forward flat on the floor, directly under your shoulders. Stretch your legs out behind you and point your toes. As you exhale, lift your chest up and push your hips into the floor. Take care not to extend your arms so far that you lift your hips up. Hold the position for 15 to 30 seconds.
[ ] Touch Your Toes 12 … !(iPhone, iPad)
This one loosens up your inner thighs, groin, hips, and knees. Sit on the floor or a mat and bring your feet together so that your soles touch and your knees bend to opposite sides. With a straight spine, grasp your feet, then lean slowly forward and gently push your thighs down with your elbows until you feel the stretch along your inner thighs. Hold for 15 to 30 seconds.
In a standing position, find something to hold for balance. Put one straightened leg up on a step or a block. Bend slightly (not beyond your toes) with the opposite knee until you feel a gentle stretch at the back of the thigh of the raised leg. Bend slightly forward from your hips if you need more stretch. Move slowly and evenly, without bouncing. Hold it for 20 to 30 seconds and switch legs.
To demonstrate the exquisite sensitivity of our sense of touch, try this one. Get five to 10 different grades (roughness) of sandpaper from the hardware store. The degree of roughness should be printed on the back. Cut the sandpaper into pieces about 3 in by 3 in. (If you want to get fancy, you could glue the sandpaper on to block of wood, but this is not really necessary) Make sure you write down the grade of roughness on the back of each cut piece of sandpaper! Mixup the pieces of sandpaper and place them with the rough side up. Using your (or have someone else do it) finger, line up the pieces of sandpaper in order...from the smoothest to the roughest.
What areas of our bodies are most sensitive to touch? Hands? Feet? Fingers? To find out, perform a 2-point discrimination exam on a friend. Bend a paper clip into the shape of a U with the tips about 2 cm apart. Make sure the tips of the U are even with each other. Lightly touch the two ends of the paper clip to the back of the hand of your subject. Your subject should not look at the area of skin that is being tested. Do not press too hard! Make sure both tips touch the skin at the same time. Ask your subject if he or she felt one or two pressure points. If your subject reported one point, spread the tips of the clip a bit further apart, then touch the back of the subject's hand again. If your subject reported 2 points, push the tips a bit closer together, and test again. Measure the distance at which the subject reports "I feel two points."
If you have done the 2-point discrimination experiment, you have likely seen how different parts of your body are more sensitive than other parts of your body. This is because the more sensitive areas of your body have more touch receptors than other parts of your body. Here is one more way to demonstrate this concept.
Become a neurologist! Make your own set of Von Frey hairs to test detection thresholds. The tactile detection threshold is the smallest amount of touch necessary for someone to say "Hey, I feel that." To make a set of Von Frey hairs, get various thicknesses of monofilament FISHING LINE from your local sporting goods shop or hardware store. That's right...fishing line! From each thickness of fishing line, cut a piece about 1.5 in. (4.0 cm) long. Glue each piece of line at a right angle onto the end of a popsicle stick. The stick serves as a the holder. You can also write the thickness of the line on the stick. Your completed Von Frey hair apparatus should look like this:
What could it be? Only the Brain Boxes and Bags of Science know for sure. The boxes and bags are used to isolate the sense of touch from sight and hearing. The object is to put something into the box and then have other people try to guess what it is just by feeling it with their hands. For the Brain BOX, use a "medium-sized" cardboard box (bigger than a shoe box). On the side of the box, cut a hole large enough to put your hand through. Cut off the closed end of an old sock to make a tube. Tape (duct tape works well) the sock to the inside of the box so that the sock makes a "tunnel" from the outside to the inside of the box. You can make 1 or 2 more tunnels and holes in the box so that more than 1 person can use the box at the same time. Decorate the box with pictures and drawings.For the Brain BAG of Science, use a pillow case. Have people put their hand into the bag while you hold it or sew a length of elastic around the top to close it up.
The Braille alphabet was invented by Louis Braille to help people whoare blind read. The Braille system uses a series of raised dots thatpeople "read" with their fingers. To make your own set of Braille letters,print out this picture on a piece of paper. Place a small dot of whiteglue on the black dots of each letter. When the glue dries, you will havecreated large Braille letters. Cut out each letter and try to arrange theletters in alphabetical order using your sense of touch.
With a ball-point pen (or washable marker), touch a location on the skin of a blindfolded person (your subject). A small pen mark should be left behind. While your subject is still blindfolded, give the person a pen of a different color and ask him to touch the point that was just touched by you. Measure the distance from this guessed point to the actual point that was touched.
Our sense of touch is so sensitive that we can read with our fingers. READ WITH OUR FINGERS??? Blind people do - they read with the "Braille" alphabet. Each Braille letter is a series of raised spots. People readBraille by moving their fingers over the letters. Try making some of yourown Braille letters. Cut out squares (2 inches by 2 inches) of cork orcardboard. Draw a letter on the square. Now stick the sharp ends of pinsinto the outline of each letter. Blindfold a subject, then have thesubject try to identify the letter by feeling the blunt ends of the pinswith just his or her fingertips.
Use your sense of touch to identify the value of different coins? First, get a sense of what different coins feel like by exploring the tops and sides of each coin. Then try these experiments using US coins (coins from other countries should work too).
Jigsaw puzzles are fun, but did you ever try to put one togetherwithout looking at it? Get a simple children's puzzle with only 4 to 6pieces. The best ones are those with a raised rim around the border. Emptythe puzzle and try to put it together using only your sense of touch.
From a standing split position, place your palms onto the mat directly below your shoulders and gaze at the space between your hands. Stack the standing foot directly below your hip with a slight bend in the knee. Engage your core and kick up with control, drawing the thigh up and into the hip socket to lead with the standing leg. Reach the lifted leg straight up and engage through your toes. Bring your legs together with your big toes touching and heels slightly separated.
From Malasana or garland pose, place both hands onto the mat directly below your shoulders. Spread your fingers wide with the middle fingers pointing forward. Lift the pelvis up slightly and bend the elbows while rotating your forearms in towards your midline. Lightly press your knees high against your triceps, near your armpits. Gaze down toward the mat just beyond your fingertips. Spread your shoulder blades wide and slowly shift your weight into your hands and engage the core. Keep shifting your weight forward to lift your feet off the mat. Point your toes and kick your heels toward your butt to engage the hamstrings. Straighten your arms to complete the pose.
From Ardha Hanumanasana or half monkey pose, shift your torso up and place your fingertips directly below your shoulders. Flex your front foot and engage your quad to protect your knee. Begin to slide the back knee back and the front heel forward until your front sit bone makes contact with the ground. If it does not touch the ground, grab a block, a bolster or a folded-up blanket to prop it up. Square your hips as much as possible by rolling the inner thigh of the back leg up. Inhale to lengthen the spine and exhale to fold over the front leg drawing your ribs and your navel in. For extra support, keep your hands down at your sides. For an added challenge, reach your arms up above your head.
From downward-facing dog, lift one leg up high off the ground and bend it at the knee. Shift forward and bring the lifted leg to the mat behind your hands, laying your shin down perpendicular to your body. Flex the ankle to protect the bent knee. Untuck the back toes and lower down to the mat, ensuring that your back leg is extended in a straight line behind you. Square off your hips and bend your straight leg to a 90-degree angle. Knit your shoulder blades together and down to draw the chest forward as you slowly gaze up towards the sky. Extend your arms high and back, reaching for your foot as your lengthen out your neck. To deepen the hip stretch, release your foot and fold forward, walking your hands out in front of you or coming down onto your forearms.
From feathered peacock pose, bend your knees coming into a pike shape. Point your toes and actively press your heels back towards your butt. Begin to drop your head, pushing down firmly through the entire forearm. Bring your head and your chest through the gateway of the arms. Reach your butt back and knees in the opposite direction, creating a counterbalance, extending one foot down towards the ground while the other hovers above your hips.
Begin on your back with your knees bent, feet hip-width apart, toes pointing forward and shins straight. Squeeze your glutes to lift your hips up off the ground while raising your arms up above your head. Plant your palms next to your ears with your fingers pointing in. Push down through your hands and feet to lift your torso and lightly come onto the crown of your head. Lower one forearm down at a time and interlace your fingers behind your head. Make sure your elbows are directly in line with your shoulders and squeeze everything (inner thighs included) in towards your midline. Push down through your elbows and lift your head up off the ground, opening your chest and pressing out through the gateway of your shoulders. To shorten and deepen your stance, inch your feet closer to your hands. For the one-legged variation, balance on one foot while reaching your other foot high towards the sky. 2ff7e9595c
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