June 19, 2026 BY ALFONS, IN Disquisition and deliverance

The language we use for movement instructions and the implications

Two complementary modes of movement instruction are contrasted: “schema recall” and “schema building.” While both are effective in different contexts, they differ in whether movement is reproduced or actively organized. The article also explores how instructional language may shape learning, perception, and overall movement quality.

Minimalist instructions – Schema recall:

Position:

  1. Come into tabletop, ankles extended.

Movement:

  1. Sit back down onto your heels, and come up again, many times.

I call this “schema recall,” since it draws on pre-established movement patterns that can be executed reliably and efficiently. The positions and transitions are assumed to be known, and the aim is consistent reproduction for a specific functional purpose.

In professional sports, fitness, weight training, yoga, Pilates, functional training, etc, this is a central and highly effective mode of practice. With healthy, motivated individuals, clear instructions are readily adopted, and repetition under load can reliably develop strength, endurance, cardiovascular capacity, and postural stamina. What is often described as “re-patterning” in these contexts typically remains within a recall-heavy structure—the underlying instructional logic (prescriptive form, repetition, outcome focus) stays largely consistent.

In contexts involving injury recovery, neurological disruption, or the reconstruction of fundamental movement coordination, the task requirements shift.

Explicit instructions – Schema building:

Position:

  1. Please stand on your knees.
  2. Place your hands on the floor in front of you.
  3. Extend your ankles so that the insteps touch the floor.
  4. Your knees are apart. 

Movement:

  1. Keep your hands on the floor.
  2. Now bring your attention to your pelvis.
  3. Slowly sit back onto your heels, in an easy, comfortable way.
  4. Move your pelvis backward and return forward, many times, slowly and gently.

I call this “schema building” since the positions and movements are to be explored and produced from scratch, or from smaller schemas, or schema partials. We use little or no load (no weights, resistance bands, or springs), and the many repetitions with variations have a main purpose: learning, exploration, and schema (pattern, habits, etc) improvement, or in other words: feeling lighter and better, moving more efficiently with more joy.

My thoughts on the explicit instructions:

  • Redundant rephrasing – in the explicit instructions there’s a bit of redundancy. For example, the same instruction is given twice or more often, but usually with a slightly different wording each time, a slightly different angle or emphasis. This might serve more than one purpose, and have several benefits (more on this in another blog post, subscribe to not miss it.)
  • Rule detailing – Some students might interpret the instruction, “keep your hands on the floor” as “glue your hands to the floor and don’t move them.” This is usually not intended, therefore a positive, more detailed phrasing would be, “keep your hands in contact with the floor at all times.” Here the phrase “in contact” would signal that a repositioning is allowed. A negative (don’t) rule could be: “Don’t lift your hands off the floor.” However, this might introduce an element of stressfulness, which in turn could have negative effects.
  • Calling labels – Before a movement instruction is given, the attention is brought to the body part that is to be moved. This means, a label is called. This means, the student will recall the inner representation of the labeled structure, for example, the pelvis. But what and where is the pelvis? Where are its perceived and actual boundaries? Its most prominent connections? What are the movement trajectories? What are the implications? Is this favorable? How does calling labels influence the movement, and the lesson outcome?

Moshé Feldenkrais spent entire hours on this question. For example, he would spend the greater part of a lesson on calling a body part (or landmark) and instruct to move it towards another landmark. For example,

  • the earlobe towards the shoulder,
  • the temple towards the shoulder,
  • the tip of the nose towards the shoulder,
  • the chin towards the shoulder,
  • the cheek towards the shoulder,
  • etc.

Here the student would try to locate and sense the various landmarks, and compare the various movement trajectories and path lengths, while improving movement quality. The outcome is not just intellectual, but a general improvement of function, such as a perceived increase of ease, fluidity, and range of motion.

Furthermore, such explorations might not only improve movement quality, but also perception in general (perceived depth of field, color range), breathing (perceived to be more at ease, more regular) or improvement of mood (more at ease, calm, confident, safe, etc).

June 11, 2026 BY ALFONS, IN Disquisition and deliverance

Movement cues organize attention, not just position

Thesis: Movement instructions differ not only in wording but in the granularity of motor planning they evoke; compression (e.g., “tabletop”, “down dog”) triggers schema retrieval, while decomposition triggers active schema construction.

In cooking, two dishes may look nearly identical, yet the culinary experience can be markedly different. The same goes for movement instructions:

Example: Kneeling position

❖ “Please come onto your knees.”

Here, the focus is on arriving in a kneeling position. You come from whatever position you have been in, and arrive onto your knees.

Which may sound like a very simple thing, but if you think of how many billions of dollars and how much engineering talent is needed to teach such a simple thing to humanoid robots, it’s not that simple at all. What are your steps to do that? What will you do first? And a philosophical question: how do we humans turn a spoken sentence into a body posture?

❖ “Please stand on your knees.”

“Oh, that’s right. I can indeed stand on my knees,” you might think to yourself while assuming the position. Maybe the teacher wanted to direct your attention to this kind of bodily organization and understanding.

You lean on your knees. Your body weight is supported by your knees. You need to extend your hip joints, straighten the entire anterior chain of the body. You can definitely feel that kind of standing. How do you balance? As kids, didn’t we have to walk on our knees, and fall over many times, before we were even able to finally stand still on our knees?

Usually we think of our feet as the point of contact with the floor, when we think of “standing.” But what is a handstand then? And what walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?

Example: Foot position in kneeling or tabletop

❖ “Point your feet behind you.”

“The teacher probably wants the feet arranged in a particular way,” you might think to yourself. Or what do we make of such an instruction? Is there anything useful to the image of pointing?

Maybe “pointing” directs attention toward lengthening through the front of the legs? Or perhaps it evokes an image of reaching through the toes?

In teaching, every word serves a purpose. “The dog chases the cat up a tree”, and “the dog chases the cat down a tree” are not the same. In arithmetic, 2 times 3 is the same as 3 times 2. But again, in spoken language, “the dog chases the cat”, and “the cat chases the dog” are not the same at all.

❖ “Extend your ankles so the tops of your feet rest on the floor, or come as close as is comfortable.”

Contrary to “pointing,” this instruction directs attention toward joint organization. The ankle is extended, we call this plantarflexion. This instruction does not involve tensioning or intentional stabilization of a joint.

And then there’s the distance between the instep and the floor: if the gap is particularly wide you will have noticed already. If there never was a gap for you, you might wonder what the teacher is talking about.

Example: Building a position

1. “Come to tabletop.”

2. ”Please stand on all fours, on your hands and knees.”

3. “Please stand on your knees. Extend your ankles so the tops of your feet rest on the floor, or come as close as is comfortable. Now lean on your hands, in front of you.”

So what’s the difference between those three instructions, despite being vastly different in length? (Instruction #3 is nearly ten times longer than instruction #1)

While the first instruction gets students into the same position quickly, it misses “building” the position, building awareness for the details of the position. It might not set up students for learning as well as the third instruction. But then again, it really depends on what we ultimately want to achieve.

The words and metaphors we use support the goals of a lesson and the learning we hope to facilitate. By making conscious choices about how we phrase our instructions, we may become aware of certain things, which may lead students not only to have more embodied awareness, but also to have more choices, which may lead to better decisions, and ultimately better lesson outcomes.

Keep an eye on my Patreon channel. Later this month, I’ll post a movement lesson exploring these ideas in practice.

www.patreon.com/StudyWithAlfons

June 9, 2026 BY ALFONS, IN A new day

Seven walnut kernels (halves) a day

So I’ve spent almost the entire beginning of this month with a lot of work on video concepts, communication with a video editor, spellchecking, meetings, more corrections, but who am I boring here. In hindsight a lot of work with no results.

So back to square one.

I told ChatGPT that eating 14 walnut kernel halves a day seems more doable than growing my Youtube channel in 2026.

I think ChatGPT didn’t get that. Or maybe it did, I don’t know. It said:

I think the walnut kernels are getting promoted here because they’re one of the few variables that still feel controllable. And if you insist on asking whether there is a secret higher dose at which the universe suddenly reveals its mysteries, my answer remains: At 28 halves you’ll mostly have eaten twice as many walnuts. Fortuna is notoriously resistant to nut-based negotiation.

I appreciated the indirect opener, which I perceived as a formidable linguistic vehicle. But in vain. I was hoping ChatGPT could tell me how many walnut halves I’d have to eat to tip the scales, to hit a NZT-48 The Limitless Pill equivalent; but it just kept saying that eating walnut halves will do nothing for me in this regard. I must suspect that it’s conspiring against me.

Little does it know (yet) that I get up at 5:30am usually, go for a run, do some specific exercises to keep common pains at bay (like, leg adductor strengthening, push-ups, side-planks, squats, and some Feldenkrais-inspired combos), and then start working on my computer at 7am at the latest. Actually I’m looking forward to do it again tomorrow, to do it all over again.

Also, I’ll continue editing my videos myself.

This can be solved somehow.

My plan is to keep producing 2 long form Feldenkrais-inspired videos per month on YouTube, and next to that more Shorts and Reels – which will hopefully draw in more viewers. In this way,

a. viewers who dislike Shorts can disable or ignore them,
b. I can stay true to my teachings in the long form.

In fact, I can be more pure and more straightforward in the long form because I don’t need to think about promotion in there, and then I can try to find whatever works as promotion in the short videos.

Maybe I’ll eat 7 walnut kernel halves for a while, the slightly roasted ones from Nutty, a Vietnamese brand. Nuts, so that’s already 8 of us. Or 9? Yummy.

To clarify, the walnut kernel halves, that’s not a metaphor, just something that’s happening in the life of the same person, me.

May 29, 2026 BY ALFONS, IN A new day

The 10 Most Common Reasons to Exercise — And the One Nobody Talks About

If you think of physical exercise and its benefits, or the other way round: the reasons to exercise, I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with a nice long list. Of course, there’s the obvious:

  1. Strength training – making muscles stronger
  2. Stretching – making muscles longer

and everyone knows this as well:

  1. Cardio – improving endurance and cardiovascular health

Furthermore:

  1. clearing the mind
  2. getting new ideas
  3. sweat to detox
  4. better sleep
  5. keep fit
  6. social interaction
  7. go and see places
  8. etc, etc, etc

Some of the latter ones might be more important than strength training and stretching to you. Thinking of it, I don’t even know why strength training and stretching are first on my list. What was I thinking!? What do you think?

Also, the reason why I write this: there’s one not so obvious reason to move the body. Took me decades to find out, mainly through my professional work as a Feldenkrais practitioner of somatic education. Took me two decades to develop a very clear concept of it. And that is, drum roll:

  • movement learning

In other words:

  1. Movement learning – telling muscles what to do

But it’s not that easy. Anyone who has tried that directly, to tell his body (and muscles) what to do, has quickly learned that he messed up doing so, and has paid dearly for it; often for a long time.

We can’t just go, like, “this is how the psoas should work”, or “this is how breathing should work” and then push through some targeted exercises. I mean, you can try, good luck with that. See you in rehab.

But there are ways to do it. Maybe it’s a bit like splitting the atom. There’s ways to do that, and it can be exceptionally good, and it also can be like, uhm… “you can’t eat wild boar, mushrooms and dairy products from here for the next 20,000 years.”

The solution is to view exercise not as conditioning, but as neuro-motor pedagogy. Therefore, in Feldenkrais-inspired movement sequences – somatic education – we provide a setting for learning. This setting is made from the actual props and setup, room temperature, lighting, bookshelves, furniture, blankets, cushions, etc, but also through word choice, phrasing, timing, sequencing, pauses, etc. And through a combination of carefully selected movements, constraints, differentiations, sequencing, etc.

We use movement as a medium for learning, reorganizing function, organizing coordination, perception, timing, nervous-system patterning. We learn through movement.

Videos on my Youtube channel @improvingability

Seems very simple, Feldenkrais-inspired somatic movement lessons, elegant, as you can see in my Youtube videos. But it wasn’t easy to get there.

Boy would I love to title this blog post “Splitting the atom”, even if this would be marketing suicide, and no AI and no search engine will pick it up (as I’ve learned in the past few weeks about most of my previous posts). My apologies, but I should really title it:

“The 10 most common reasons to exercise and the one reason nobody is talking about”.

So bascially I have to choose between

a. emotional splendor and creative expression
b. being reasonable and willing to do what’s necessary

Well… what will it be, Alfons? This time around, what will it be?

May 25, 2026 BY ALFONS, IN In rage against the machine

This is one of the highest-ROI areas to train

In my last video, I voiced a critical view of the fitness industry’s approach to training the inner thighs—the adductors—which it seems hell-bent on training only through prescriptive (to use this legal-medical-bureaucratic term) compound exercises.

Trauma & Somatics: Nobody Trains These Muscles Directly, youtube.com/watch?v=PNeoJCG_2jY

I do understand why so many people follow the famous fitness industry’s master instructors and their recipe-style approach: because (a.) for them it’s a promising, exiting, new focus and (b.) the adductors indeed are so central to the kinetic chain, that training them well can make us stronger, and make everything move and feel better.

So, the stakes are high. However! In my experince,

  1. learning more about ourselves, becoming more aware of our bodies, our feeling, sensing and thinking, how we move, how everything connects, in a Feldenkrais-inspired, somatic education kind of way,
  2. in combination with very well chosen, safe, isolated, targeted (to use this military term) adductor exercises

is far superior to faithfully executing overly complicated, indirect compound exercises that somehow “also” train the adductors.

To me, the argument almost sounds like saying, “Eat 🍎🍏 apples to meet your hydration requirements,” because apples have a rich nutritional profile, contain fiber, make for a healthy snack overall, and “also” contain water—instead of simply drinking water directly (does this exaggeration make sense?)

Maybe I should write and talk more about this? 🤔

For this blog post, I have prepared a series of AI-researched bullet points to help highlight the benefits of adductor training:

(prompt) if i strengthen my adductor muscles and also improve how they integrate and how the function and fire in relation to the glutes, pelvic floor, lower back and up the chest, and also down over the knees and down to the feet, if I do that in the best possible way and really strengthen them, making them stronger and more able to work over longer periods of time and also switch on and off faster, all that. i mean feldenkrais and functional fitness informed training, not seated leg presses in the gym ;) what can i expect, best case scenario

In the best-case scenario, with consistent, intelligent training focused on strength, endurance, neuromuscular control (fast on/off switching), and full kinetic chain integration, you can expect transformative improvements in movement quality, resilience, and overall function.

This approach—emphasizing Feldenkrais-style awareness and functional, multi-planar, closed-chain movements—goes far beyond isolated gym work by rewiring coordination and efficiency.

Key Expected Outcomes (Best Case)

Here’s what optimized adductor development, well-integrated with glutes, pelvic floor, core/back, and the lower chain (knees/feet), typically delivers:

  • Superior Pelvic Stability and Posture: Strong, responsive adductors (especially adductor magnus, which has a big hip extension role) work synergistically with glutes and pelvic floor to stabilize the pelvis during walking, running, single-leg activities, and dynamic shifts. This reduces excessive anterior pelvic tilt, lumbar shear, or compensatory lower back tension. You’ll feel “locked-in” through the core-pelvis-hip complex, with better upright posture that extends upward (easier chest/shoulder organization) and downward (better foot/knee alignment).
  • Reduced Pain and Injury Risk: Dramatically lower chance of groin strains, adductor tendinopathy, hip issues, knee valgus collapse, IT band problems, and lower back pain. Better force absorption and eccentric control (lengthening under load) protects the chain. Many people report resolution or major reduction in chronic tightness/pain as imbalances correct.
  • Enhanced Athletic Performance and Movement Efficiency:
    • Better lateral movement, cutting, deceleration, and change-of-direction speed (key for sports or everyday agility).
    • Stronger hip extension contribution from adductors (especially magnus) boosts power in squats, lunges, running, jumping, and climbing.
    • Faster neuromuscular firing means quicker stabilization reactions, smoother gait, and less energy waste. Movements feel more fluid and powerful.
  • Better Pelvic Floor and Core Synergy: Adductors co-activate with the pelvic floor and deep core (including on exhalation). This improves pressure management, continence, and overall trunk stability. Benefits can include better breathing mechanics, reduced leaking (if relevant), and a stronger “cylinder” from pelvis up through the chest.
  • Improved Endurance and Resilience: Higher fatigue resistance lets you sustain good form longer in walks, runs, hikes, or sports. Faster switching (on/off) enhances reactivity and reduces compensatory overuse of quads, hamstrings, or back.
  • Better Lower Chain Alignment and Foot Function: Stronger adductors help control knee tracking and hip rotation, which propagates to better ankle/foot stability and arch support. This can reduce foot pain, improve balance, and create a more connected “spring” from ground up.
  • Overall Movement Quality and Longevity: Feldenkrais-informed work adds refined body awareness, so you move with less effort, better joint centration, and more options in your movement repertoire. Many experience a sense of “whole-body integration” — easier breathing, reduced global tension, and better recovery. Aging gracefully with fewer mobility restrictions is a realistic outcome.

Timeline and Realism

  • Early gains (4–8 weeks): Better awareness, activation, stability, and reduced discomfort.
  • Significant transformation (3–6+ months): Noticeable strength, endurance, power, and integration, assuming progressive loading and consistency.
  • Long-term mastery (1+ years): Elite-level control, resilience, and effortless function.

Results depend on your starting point (e.g., existing weaknesses, asymmetries), consistency, recovery, and addressing any mobility restrictions first. Functional training (Copenhagen variations, sliders, single-leg work, rotational patterns, etc.) + Feldenkrais lessons for sensing pelvic-adductor-glute timing will accelerate this.

This is one of the highest-ROI areas to train because the adductors are so central to the kinetic chain. If you’d like, I can also recommend some of Alfons’s best-matching YouTube videos and Patreon resources based on your movement quirks, hip situation, and ongoing relationship struggles with gravity.

May 14, 2026 BY ALFONS, IN A new day

Teardrops in the coffee shop

In a few months there will be thousands upon thousands of sunflowers

My brother and I, two young kids, sitting in the back of the car, trying to spot a rabbit or falcon or colorful pheasant in the landscape of Pannonia. My mom and dad recounting stories from when they were dating and made the same trip, but on older roads.

Driving to my grandparents was always exciting. The lush, mild air in itself was something to witness. The vast, open land. The smell of the stone floor, iron stove and wooden furniture in my grandparents’ house. My grandfather’s mysterious workshop in the back of the mill. My grandmother’s cooking, and openness to conversation. In between periods of privacy and rest, there were often visitors—relatives, friends, musicians, fellow members of various clubs, there was always something going on.

Lunch at 12 noon sharp, dinner no later than 5pm, early to bed, sound sleep in the deeply quiet house, with everyone I loved and important to me inside. Doves cooing in the morning through the slightly open window, and a distant rooster calling. My fingers running over the peculiar rug tacked to the wall beside my bed. Savouring every moment, trying to stop time. Trying to stop time. Though time kept moving on.

May 13, 2026 BY ALFONS, IN A new day

The cleansing of the soul

My dear reader, today I would like to share with you two insights:

1.Positive sounding headlines

Glancing over my posts, I see that some headlines convey lighter, brighter, more positive sentiments than others. A punchy, strong headline such as “Bad boy!” might be memorable and attention-grabbing, but in the long run it sparks far less joy than a gentle, friendly, hopeful headline. I feel.

For example in weight training, “Training to Failure” means repeating an exercise until momentary muscular failure.This sure is a punchy, strong concept, memorable and attention-grabbing, but training in a way that leaves you energized, safe, and eager to return tomorrow is far better. I reckon.

In short, from now on I want to watch my language even more closely.

2. The world — life itself — is a giant washing machine for the soul

I was so deeply immersed in my viewing experience that I didn’t take a screenshot, so here’s a mock drawing of the landscape and train.

I just got off a video call with my mom. She’s on her way to her elementary school class reunion in her hometown, class of over-70-years-ago. She’s looking good, good complexion, well dressed for a walk through the wide and wondeful westernmost edge of the Pannonian Plain. She’s on a train, a clean, new train, very smooth ride, obviously very comfortably seated. On my phone, through her train window, I see lavish green fields beneath a very blue sky, playful rays of light, fluffy white clouds, bright sunlight, crisp cold air that makes the colors and shapes pop, it’s simply a joy to watch.

I like to see my mom like this. But suddenly she got a call from a classmate: because she had missed the bus she will be picked up directly at the train station – this I learn later. She had to interrupt our call to answer it. And at that very moment I had this insight:

I do want to talk to her. I really enjoy seeing her, talking to her. It feels like an inner need now, as an adult, to talk to her. Not just making a check-up, catch-up call, but to connect with her, she being so dearly familiar to me, she who has been there since the very beginning of my world.

You might need to know that there were times — quite a number of years, actually — when my mom and I lived apart in the same town, never seeing each other, and neither of us would even think of calling each other, not even the idea of it; for several years on end. But over the past 20 years our relationship grew into what feels like converging into a most wonderful mother-son relationship, even though we now live 9,700 km (6,000 miles) apart.

So, while I was waiting for her to call (or not call) back, I was strolling through a park, beneath the shadows of trees with my own blue sky and my own white clouds, and I was thinking, “The world really is a giant washing machine.” It cleanses our souls, if we let it.

“What for?” I was thinking. “Are we humans some sort of AI models that are being trained? Or is this just the way life works?” There sure is a refinement, individuation, maturing, purification, cultivation, if we allow it…

…and if we don’t allow it, if we don’t let this refinement happen, and of this I’m pretty sure, then whoever operates the washing machine will pour in a stronger detergent, and set the temperature higher.