Webinar Series 2021

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Webinar Series on Vimeo on Demand

You can buy individual webinars on Vimeo or purchase the whole series with a 20% album discount. If you treat yourself to the whole album, you will also receive the recordings of the two Question&Answer sessions as well as the master class recording.

Purchase your webinars at Vimeo

Education Slings Myofascial Training

Webinar Descriptions

Join Anatomy Trains in Motion and Slings Myofascial Training creator Karin Gurtner for this exciting live online course where you will explore the Deep Front Line and a different kind of core competency. Sharing her profound understanding of structural integration and resource-oriented movement, Karin will provide an experiential immersion into myofascial anatomy. Topics of the day will include:

• DFL anatomy introduction and meditation
• DFL functions and tensegral relationships
• 4 Interactive lectures:
  • Foot spring: Toes to knee connection
  • Adductor magnus – pelvic floor sling: Knee to pelvis connection
  • Psoas – diaphragm slings: Inner thigh to spine connection
  • Core integration: Pelvis to head connection
• Anatomy mediation and integration

The course invites you to your core and fascia-focused core training in a different and maybe new way. In addition to learning relevant bony landmarks, muscles and fascial structures, you will enliven the bodywide core with deliberate myofascial exercises that support dynamic stability, movement ease, fullness of breath and vitality.

It has your back in all circumstances, is vital for overall optimal physical functionality, and essential for somatic trust: the thoracolumbar fascia.

Centrally located in the body, this complex, multi-layered fascial roundhouse influences your postural balance, movement efficiency, and body feeling from head to toe, for better or worse. Our aim is to turn “worse” into “better” and “better” into “excellent”.

In this interactive webinar, we will discuss the architecture of the thoracolumbar fascia, intellectually dissect three distinct layers, define the associated muscles, and speak about the LIFT, a force directing switch. From there, we will expand our vision and view of the thoracolumbar fascia as a roundhouse that influences and is influenced by the myofascial meridians of the Anatomy Trains body map. The theory segment will then conclude with defining training strategies for enhanced dynamic stability and movement freedom in the spine.

In the accompanying Slings Myofascial Training lesson, you are invited to enhance multidimensional strength, movement ease, and awareness in your thoracolumbar fascia. The diverse, resource-oriented exercise sequences can be adapted to suit different bodies with different functional needs, empowering each of us to gradually move from where we are to where we can and want to be.

The kind of inner togetherness that enables you to stand with ease, move freely, and feel secure in your body translates into multidimensional dynamic stability. It is an invaluable somatic quality that can be deliberately trained and retained; more than 20 years of practical experience has shown as much.

“Multidimensional” refers to the three planes of movement and includes time or rhythm as a 4th dimension. “Dynamic stability” might seem a paradox at first glance. However, when looking more closely at the neuro-myo-fascial interplay that sustains the body’s structural integrity in stillness and motion, the term is coherent and functional.

In this interactive webinar, we will define each component of multidimensional dynamic stability and look at the involvement of the muscular, fascial, and nervous systems, as well as essential qualities in muscles and fascia. To develop optimal training strategies, the following are differentiated:

• Core Stability
• All-around Stability
• Core Strength
• Prerequisites for Dynamic Stability

For each of the 4 categories, we will look at key training features and explore matching exercises.

In the consecutive Slings Myofascial Training master class, you are invited to empower your body from the inside-out to sustain or reawaken that amazing feeling of inner togetherness.

It is significant in size, function, and influence—yet regularly overlooked or kinaesthetically faded out: the adductor magnus. Together with the obturator internus, this myofascial powerhouse provides a mechanical and sensory pathway to the pelvic floor.

In this webinar, we will zoom into the Deep Front Line, where the adductor magnus-pelvic floor sling of muscles and fascia is embedded. For optimal functionality in and around the pelvis and lower back, we will dynamically stabilise the sacroiliac joints from within rather than externally. Favouring neither one over the other, inside-out and outside-in activity is deliberately alternated. As a bonus, tight or strained hamstrings are unloaded with versatile adductor magnus conditioning.

The multidimensional Slings Myofascial Training sequence that you are going to experience has been successfully tried and tested by movement teachers, bodyworkers, and therapists who utilise movement as nourishment and medicine; for themselves and their clients.

The pelvis is the structural centrepiece of the body. It serves as a base of support for the spine, rib basket, shoulders, and head. When balanced, these body parts can quite literally rest on top of each other. When imbalanced, they struggle to stay in place, leading to energy-consuming postural compensations and movement restrictions. Although the pelvis sits on the legs, its alignment significantly influences your lower body’s agility and how securely you stand on your feet.

Nowadays, a shifted-forward pelvis seems to be an even more common pattern than the regularly observed anterior tilt. Many, if not most of us, have also developed a pelvic rotation, which often underlies spinal counter-rotations. In all of these patterns, the muscles contributing to hip flexion and hip extension (11 and 11, depending on how you count) and their fascia are compromised.

In the “best of” Slings movement and self-massage sequence featured in this webinar, we will actively lengthen the hip flexor line-up while enhancing fascial glide, softness, and hydration, which frequently is of greater value than stretching. At the same time, we will multidimensionally strengthen, easefully lengthen, and relax the hip extensor assembly. Besides the immediate positive effects, the exercise combination has proven successful in gradually rebalancing the pelvis, therefore increasing postural and movement ease above and below, sustainably.

Simply profound Slings Myofascial Training exercises in the spotlight:

• Cat Series
• Hip Massage & Leg Series & Swinging Semicircle

At the centre of the bodywide myofascial core, aka the Deep Front Line, 3 myofascial slings connect the legs and spine, hip joint movement and breath, doing and being. The psoas major lies in the middle, while illiacus and quadratus lumborum form the outside track, and pectineus and psoas minor the inside. With confident serenity, these slings enable you to be uplifted from within, let you move forward with ease, and vitalise your innerness with every breath you take. Unwinding the core stands for releasing restrictive structural patterns while softening, nourishing, and invigorating muscles and fascia.

Simply profound Slings Myofascial Training exercises in the spotlight:

• 90/90 Side Bend
• 90/90 Side Stretch with Spiralling

We are delighted with the extent to which our Slings Webinar participants engage with the webinar-content and are interested in a professional exchange. During the webinars we have received many interesting and content-relevant questions. Due to limited time Karin was not able to answer all of these questions. Therefore, we decided to answer a selection of them live online in a one-hour Q&A with Karin Gurtner. We believe that all of us can benefit from the discussions around these highly interesting questions. During the live Q&A, you will also have the opportunity to submit questions related to the last six webinars via the chat function.

The live Q&A is free of charge. A gift from us to you! As always, we will make the recording available to you 24 hours afterwards. So, you can even join in if you can’t make it live. If you are interested in a professional exchange or have submitted questions relevant to the webinar topics, be sure to register.

“The vividness of your interoceptive body image determines how well emotions and cognition are embodied.”
Paraphrasing Bud Craig

Interoception facilitates the perception of emotions by creating a sensory image of the body. Within this image, the emergent feelings provide the basis for self-awareness and the ability to take ownership of your wellbeing. The interoceptive soundscape is an experience-based, science-informed tool to enhance the nuanced recognition of emotional responses to physical sensations.

Part one of this interactive lecture discusses the health-promoting qualities of interoception (experience of innerness) and its relationship with exteroception (perception of touch) and proprioception (orchestration of movement). The (neural) pathway from sensory input to self-awareness is an additional topic alongside the interoceptive soundscape itself. In the second part, you are invited to embody the theory in a feel-all Slings Myofascial Training sequence.

This session is for those who value tools for emotional self-efficacy and may believe in or be curious about resource-oriented, fascia-focussed movement as a medium for positive change.

Elasticity is a unique fascial movement quality that adds structural resilience to the body, buoyancy to everyday activities, efficiency to athletic performance, and - based on experience - uplifts the mood. Best of all, it can be (re)trained and enhanced to sustain or bring back a youthful feel of inner spring.
In this webinar, we will explore a “Slings original”, which has proven to be a superstar in the way it elasticises the body, while enlivening the core and opening the sides. The movement is complemented with another exercise favourite whose seeming simplicity can camouflage its profoundness. Topics experienced and discussed are:

• How to safely (re)train an elastic fascial architecture, considering fascially loose and taut body types.
• When, why, and how to engage or disengage specific muscles.
• When, why, and how to breath for particular myofascial purposes.
• Why and how to sequence the movements.
• Why and how to time movement rhythm based on the tensile strength of fascia.

The repertoire combination elasticises the body from the inside-out, the outside-in and all around, which brings about a feeling of lift and lightness that is somatically invaluable.

Simply profound Slings Myofascial Training exercises in the spotlight:

• Dynamic Hip Release & Side Bend
• Energy Swing

With our hands and arms, we handle tasks; hold on to, or take toward us, what we want; let go and reject what we don’t want. They can manifest our creative ideas and give emphasis to our words. Also, the state of our hands influences the myofascial balance of the core. In turn, the functionality of our core changes the workings of the hands. To say that our upper limbs are amazing is not an overstatement. They call for deliberate appreciation and contribution to full integration.
The featured movement and self-massage exercises solidly tone and actively lengthen the Front Arm Lines and the Back Arm Lines, from the fingertips to the core. Enhanced glide and fluid flow in the shoulder fascia fosters a feeling of lightness, while refined sensory awareness in the hands facilitates kinaesthetic integration. In short, we aim to empower the arms, so you can handle life with more aplomb.

Simply profound Slings Myofascial Training exercises in the spotlight:

• Gecko
• Press Up & Roll

A spine that has the freedom to spiral in a dynamically stabilised and balanced manner signifies structural health and functionality. The joints are mobilised, intervertebral discs are nourished, muscles are kept agile, and fascia retains its tensile strength, resilience, and fluidity. To make good things even better, internal organs are massaged, and energy regulation is supported.

Now, a twist is not a spiral, and actively spiralling the spine is not the same as letting the spine spiral. For the purpose of enhancing glide and elasticity in the myofascial origami of the abdominals and the back, we will employ the “Bow and Arrow” technique to wind up and unwind the Spiral Line, therefore create spiralling spinal motions. The Arm Lines are deliberately used as “tension tuners”, either increasing or decreasing the tautness of the “fascial bow strings”. As we move deeper, an unwinding of core tension and invigoration of the inner organs takes place.

Simply profound Slings Myofascial Training exercises in the spotlight:

• 90/90 Spiralling Twist
• 90/90 Open Twist & Arm Pendulum

The feeling of self-determination is essential for holistic wellbeing. It empowers engaging the contrasts of life with a healthy dose of emotional vigour and mental clarity, therefore greater physical functionality. Like courage, self-determination is not a quality one inherently possesses or lacks; it is a skill that can be trained and enhanced.
Slings Myofascial Training is a resource-oriented integrative movement practice that facilitates inner dynamic balance and a sense of togetherness along with intrinsic motivation and growth. These elements strengthen the kind of self-determination that motivates you to move, be proactive, and adapt while allowing you to be moved, let go, and bounce back.
Fascia as a collaborative sensory system with structural resilience is in focus in this interactive webinar. Explored are:

• Kinaesthetic intelligence, therefore the interplay of proprioceptive finesse (moving) and interoceptive clarity (being moved).
• Fascial tone regulation, therefore the dynamic counterpoise between the sympathetic (activity) and parasympathetic (release) nervous system.
• Fascial elasticity, therefore rhythmical lengthening (adapting) and recoiling (bouncing back).

If the back allows, the abdominals can work with powerful ease. If the abdominals are strong and at ease, the back can elongate effortlessly. It is not uncommon for one to restrict the other. Consequently, “the other” has to work extra hard, which can lead to back pain, shoulder tension, breathing restrictions, and organ dysfunctions, just to name a few. In this empowering, yet soothing movement sequence, we will focus on multidimensional spinal mobility, muscular strength, length, and relaxation in the abdominals, as well as fascial invigoration, softening, and hydration in the back. The muscular conditioning and fascial nourishment immediately benefit the body. In the long run, the exercise combination will allow your back to let the abdominals work with powerful ease, and your abdominals will let the back elongate effortlessly. Win-win!

Simply profound Slings Myofascial Training exercises in the spotlight:

• Curl Up Butterfly with Back Massage
• Twisted Curl Up & Arm Arc with Back Massage
• Melting Easy Twist with Back Massage
• Curled Back Massage

We are delighted with the extent to which our Slings Webinar participants engage with the webinar-content and are interested in a professional exchange. During the webinars we have received many interesting and content-relevant questions. Due to limited time Karin was not able to answer all of these questions. Therefore, we decided to answer a selection of them live online in a one-hour Q&A with Karin Gurtner. We believe that all of us can benefit from the discussions around these highly interesting questions. During the live Q&A, you will also have the opportunity to submit questions related to the last six webinars via the chat function.

The live Q&A is free of charge. A gift from us to you! As always, we will make the recording available to you 24 hours afterwards. So, you can even join in if you can’t make it live. If you are interested in a professional exchange or have submitted questions relevant to the webinar topics, be sure to register.

Purchase your webinars at Vimeo