28 Day Challenge, Days 1-2, Principles & Neck

[Connie Brown]

LESSON 1: Principles, and Neck Movements

Assignment:

1. Watch the Intu-Flow™ DVD, "Principles" section.

You can get to it by selecting Beginner, then Play All.
WW people, you can read this article in CST Magazine: Intuitive Training Defined (http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/17/sonnon2.html)


2. Do the neck movements

Turning the head right left, 3-5 reps.
In anatomy terms, this is "rotation." In the 6 degrees of freedom, "yawing"
Performance Goal: keep eyes level with horizon while turning, lead with upper palette

Tilt head side to side, 3-5 reps.
"Lateral Flexion" , or "rolling".
Performance Goal: allow neck to make a graceful arch, leading from the base

Glide head forward and backward, 3-5 reps.
"Anterior Posterior Translation," or "surging".
Performance Goal: lead with upper palette, relax through the cascading effect of the movement.

Side to side glide, 3-5 reps.
"Lateral Translation," or "swaying".
Performance Goal: Keep eyes level, no tilting or turning of the head

Scoop and tuck the chin, 3-5 reps.
"Flexion and Extension," or "pitching".
Performance Goal: lead from the upper palette, keep the back of the neck soft


3. Report back here and describe how it went for you.

Please include your RPE (Rating of Percieved Exertion) and your RPT (Rating of Perceived Technique), and RPD (Rating of Perceived Discomfort).

[Joseph David]

Thank you Coach Brown, you did an awesome job with the first lesson.

I'm pleased to be assisting Coach Brown in this online IntuFlow Challenge.

[KD Jones]

Neck is a little tighter than usual, and somewhat sore from some undetermined activity yesterday. Could have been something in MA class (though I didn't take any hits to the head).

In going back to the beginner level, I've been attempting to focus as much as possible on technique I'd missed before, really reaching out to the edges of the motion. I feel this most in the "scoop and tuck" motion, in which I really have to focus to make the nautilus-like shape of the movement as large as possible. I find that if my attention wavers even a little, I start to get only one component to really "reach out." Either the back part of the motion is big and round while the forward motion leading up to the tuck becomes shallow, or the tuck is full and the back portion becomes shallow. I think there's something deceptively complex in this motion, perhaps because of the ranges/limits of motion of the atlas and axis, and the resultant need for interaction of various muscles to complete the motion. Don't know if that's meaningful, but it's my best shot at a munge of my subjective experience and my limited understanding of physiology.

Side to side was more limited than usual, due to soreness.

Tilting upward with mandible isn't uncomfortable, but still gives me the audio effect of having someone seperating chicken cartilage in the back room at KFC...

RPT 8, RPD 3 (occasional 4 on side to side), RPE 4 (mostly in terms of concentration, which should perhaps not figure into exertion (?) but then, it seems to me the need to expend energy focusing on technique can change without actually change the resulting level of technique as performed...)

[Joseph David]

Nice exploration Kyle,

The scoop movement atlas axis is intesting in many ways. One thing aboutthe movement in that joint that it is poor at the element of translation, it is better at turning, tilting, lifting or tucking. I like to think of the cascade effect of a movement. If the movement doesn't cascade than the fulcrum of initiation carries the bulk of the load. Think about integrating the rest of the cervicals while performing that drill.

[KD Jones]

Precisely, and thank you. I think it's the "need to integrate the rest of the cervicals" that makes for that element of "interaction" I was trying to get at. Thanks for reading through my muck and getting to the core. (Ha.)

[Edwin]

Good beginnings. No problem with the forward glide. Only problem is the backward glide with a RPD of 6. I felt some stiffness in this maneuver. The rest is RPT 8 RPD 1.

[drbri]

Coach Brown, the advice you gave about which part to lead with was very helpful. It helped me experience each motion in a new way.

Rotation - Leading with the upper pallete made me feel more of a true rotation about the y-axis. I felt more fluid and more control over the motion.

Lateral Flexion - Leading from the base gave me a significant increase in ROM. Before I was leading with my head and I think I lost half the ROM I was capable of.

Anterior/Posterior Translation - Relaxing through the movement helped me feel each articulation in my c-spine. Leading with the pallete made the motion more fluid and gave me more control.

Lateral Translation - I have always been comfortable with this motion. This time I relaxed through the movement and tried to feel each articulation. I discovered I have the most ROM when I am also in slight anterior translation. In neutral I have moderate ROM, and in posterior translation I have the least amount of lateral translation.

Flexion/Extension - Because of the reversal in my c-spine flexion has alway been limited for me and extension is fairly uncomfortable (RPD 3-4.) I found if I lift from the crown and keep this posture engauged as I perform flexion and extension I feel no pain whatsoever through this ROM. Pretty cool!

Overall RPT 8, RPE 1, RPD 1

[Trebor]

Turning the head right left, 3-5 reps.

More tight when turning to left

Tilt head side to side, 3-5 reps.
More tightness when tilting to left shoulder

Glide head forward and backward, 3-5 reps.
No prob

Side to side glide, 3-5 reps.

More tightness when going to right, if I relax, lower body shits weight more to right hip, spine straightens a bit and no problems (It's that dang left hip flexor complex that is so tight from the year on crutches pulling my whole system out of wack and it's apparent in the way my neck moves. Interesting but frustrating.

Scoop and tuck the chin, 3-5 reps.
No prob.

[onealjn]

Hello All,

PRT:

Of all the movements I've tried on the DVD, these are some of the simplest to execute, subtleties from Coach Brown notwithstanding. Therefore the PRT of all the movements would be ~7-8.

PRE:

The degree of exertion on all the movements was nominal: ~1-2

PRD:

Due to a few auto accidents (recent), head trauma from fighting (recent), and spending a lot of my day engaged in activities where my neck moves very little (current), my PRD for these movements is higher than any other I've tried on the DVD.

Typically there is little to no PRD throughout the movement until reaching the movement's extremity, then the PRD jumps quickly.

Turning the head left to right: ~1-3 throughout entire movement.
Tilting from side to side: ~2 until extremity, then ~5.
Gliding forward then back: ~2 except for extreme back glide, then ~6.
Gliding side to side: ~1-3 throughout entire movement.
Scoop & tuck: ~2 throughout entire movement.

Perhaps I should do these throughout the day? Anyone have any luck decreasing discomfort (pain) via this program?

Thanks for the help,

Jason O'Neal

[Joseph David]

Hello All,

PRT:

Of all the movements I've tried on the DVD, these are some of the simplest to execute, subtleties from Coach Brown notwithstanding. Therefore the PRT of all the movements would be ~7-8.

PRE:

The degree of exertion on all the movements was nominal: ~1-2

PRD:

Due to a few auto accidents (recent), head trauma from fighting (recent), and spending a lot of my day engaged in activities where my neck moves very little (current), my PRD for these movements is higher than any other I've tried on the DVD.

Typically there is little to no PRD throughout the movement until reaching the movement's extremity, then the PRD jumps quickly.

Turning the head left to right: ~1-3 throughout entire movement.
Tilting from side to side: ~2 until extremity, then ~5.
Gliding forward then back: ~2 except for extreme back glide, then ~6.
Gliding side to side: ~1-3 throughout entire movement.
Scoop & tuck: ~2 throughout entire movement.

Perhaps I should do these throughout the day? Anyone have any luck decreasing discomfort (pain) via this program?

Thanks for the help,

Jason O'Neal

Jason,
A couple of suggestions for you. Try doing the drills at different times during the day. Daily biorythms can effect tension patterns. Remember to move up to the tension and not through it. I find as I "try" less and decrease my effort to 1 or less, I'm much more succesful at shaving away tension. And on your posterior glide, see if your keeping your chin gently tucked. If your lifting the chin, the neck is going into extension and this will greatly effect the RPD.

[Joseph David]

Coach Brown, the advice you gave about which part to lead with was very helpful. It helped me experience each motion in a new way.

Rotation - Leading with the upper pallete made me feel more of a true rotation about the y-axis. I felt more fluid and more control over the motion.

Lateral Flexion - Leading from the base gave me a significant increase in ROM. Before I was leading with my head and I think I lost half the ROM I was capable of.

Anterior/Posterior Translation - Relaxing through the movement helped me feel each articulation in my c-spine. Leading with the pallete made the motion more fluid and gave me more control.

Lateral Translation - I have always been comfortable with this motion. This time I relaxed through the movement and tried to feel each articulation. I discovered I have the most ROM when I am also in slight anterior translation. In neutral I have moderate ROM, and in posterior translation I have the least amount of lateral translation.

Flexion/Extension - Because of the reversal in my c-spine flexion has alway been limited for me and extension is fairly uncomfortable (RPD 3-4.) I found if I lift from the crown and keep this posture engauged as I perform flexion and extension I feel no pain whatsoever through this ROM. Pretty cool!

Overall RPT 8, RPE 1, RPD 1

Good work Bri, I'm pleased the perfomance goals gave you fresh insight.

[KD Jones]

Jason -
(I hope I'm not out of line here saying this. Coach Brown and Joseph, let me know...)

I agree that doing the motions throughout the day is helpful - it certainly has been for me. Little bits here and there seems to break down any tension before it completely takes hold, and may take some of the "performance anxiety" out of doing everything at a single period.

Also, with regard to pain, I've found that I have at times overshot my body's natural motion as it is be at a given time. And as Joseph has said, the range seems natually to change and fluctuate over time. I sometimes catch myself associating a particular range of motion with the motion itself - as though I'm not doing the side-to-side motion unless I'm looking fully 90 degrees (or 80, or whatever), anything less is not the correct motion.

Basically, I'm finally learning what it really means to "move TO the tension, not THROUGH the tension." If keeping the intuitive paramaters withint prescribed limits requires a much smaller range at some time during the day (or even for a ny longer period), than the smaller range is indeed perfect for that time.

I've also found that my technique increases when I stop trying to push range.

Then, lastly, there's Coach Sonnon's emphatic statement from Flow Fit (paraphrased): "if you go forward in baby steps, I guarantee you that you'll progress faster than any other way."

Hope that helps in some way.

[Coach Gostnell]

KD wrote:
Basically, I'm finally learning what it really means to "move TO the tension, not THROUGH the tension."

That's a major lesson...and one I occasionally have to relearn. :embarassed:

[Kikker]

Hiya! I was previously known on this thread as "elbop," which is my husband's username. I've gone legit with my own registration, lol. :)

Rotation - Definitely more tight when turning to the right.
Lateral flexion - Tighter when tilted to the left.
A/P translation - No real issues.
Lateral translation - No real issues, however, I seem to tense up at the end-points of ROM... Or maybe this is me trying to "push through the tension" as discussed above.
Flexion and extension - No real issues.

:confused: Are we supposed to "gently" force our ROM on these drills? Can we push a little as long as there is only tightness but no real pain felt?

:eek: I'm hoping the Rice Crispie Chorus will diminish over time. This is most evident in the rotation and lateral flexion exercises.

RPE - 1
RPT - 8
RPD - 1-2

Cheers!

[Joseph David]

:confused: Are we supposed to "gently" force our ROM on these drills? Can we push a little as long as there is only tightness but no real pain felt?

Good question with an ambigous answer. It depends on the state of something I call dynamic stability. In the tensegrity structure, muscles are working concert with the myofascial network. While some muscles are lengthening others are shortening. When there is confusion in the coordination, the structure will reinforce stabilty with tension chains and myfascial density. Once the muscles are coordinating correctly, then it's ok to push a little. That's one purpose of Bio Mechanical exercise, to integrate coordination.

So If you choose to see what happens when you push it a little, the sign that something else is going on that needs to be addressed is that the body will have a reaction to the stress of pushing it. This reaction is marked by loss of ROM, pain or a syptom showing up in a different part of the structure. Try useing super slow protocol to gently move to the tension without moveing through it.

[KD Jones]

A sudden, blinding flash of redundant light:

I realized today, while toying with the side-to-side glide, that I have always tended to exert at least some, sometimes much pressure in the shoulders to stabilize them and maximize the motion of the neck relative to the shoulders.

Suddenly it struck me to see what the motion would be like if I tried to keep the shoulders as relaxed as possible, and letting go of my preconceptions of what the breadth of the glide should be, and focusing on efficiency within the bounds of a relaxed base.

It's a whole new understanding I'm getting from it... and I'm most surprised that I never came upon it before.

[Kikker]

Oh yeah!!! Absolutely! It's almost meditative when you are completely relaxed... Much better! Wow! That feels so good I may sit and do this all day! :D Will ROM increase this way though? Or.... Let me see if I'm getting this right...

I have a lot of adhesions built up along my spine and especially in my neck. So... as these adhesions are released through, for example, myofascial massage and/or trigger point therapy, in addition to IF to help lubricate the joint spaces, then the ROM will increase. If so...then it is actually the myofascial adhesions that are obstructing my ROM and to "push through" it may only aggravate the situation more by irritating the muscle tissue. Do I have that right? :confused:

[Connie Brown]

KD, that is a good point about concentration being part of the experience.

[Connie Brown]

Only problem is the backward glide with a RPD of 6. I felt some stiffness in this maneuver. The rest is RPT 8 RPD 1.
Did you by any chance, play around with the degree of "chin tuck"? Or use a mirror? What do you think is going on?

That's an interesting piece of the neck moves, to have an issue come up. Most people say something about the side-to-side glide (the "Egyptian.")

[Connie Brown]

Coach Brown, the advice you gave about which part to lead with was very helpful. It helped me experience each motion in a new way.
Er... that would be Joseph. We make up these lessons together, behind the curtain over there.

I don't even know what a pallete is, in anatomy. A quick Google search turned up only art terms or skull diagrams with no "pallete."

So Joseph and Dr. Bri, what is the "pallete"?

[Connie Brown]

More tight when turning to left

More tightness when tilting to left shoulder

What do you do for a living, and what is your "handedness"?


(It's that dang left hip flexor complex that is so tight from the year on crutches pulling my whole system out of wack and it's apparent in the way my neck moves. Interesting but frustrating.)
Yes. Well this is the way to make it better.

For the frustration: I have found that when I can adopt a Spock-like attitude ("hmmm, interesting") that both perception and ROM get better. A teensy bit anyway. I know it's not always possible.

[Connie Brown]

Perhaps I should do these throughout the day? Anyone have any luck decreasing discomfort (pain) via this program?
I second what Joseph said.

Also: have you compared how relaxed your shoulders are, at the most comfortable range in the neck, versus the outside edge of the range?

Sometimes in our zeal to get MORE ROM we recruit all the muscles from the startle reflex. Hmm

[Connie Brown]

(I hope I'm not out of line here saying this. Coach Brown and Joseph, let me know...)
Your personal experiences are ALWAYS welcome. Now if you flip into just telling others what to do... not so good. Not only is it a bit off but what we do is help each other learn how to figger it out our own selves.

Just so you don't have to be so conscientious and shy in future.

[Connie Brown]

:confused: Are we supposed to "gently" force our ROM on these drills? Can we push a little as long as there is only tightness but no real pain felt?
You can go to Rating of Perceived Discomfort of 3, technically.

One thing I like to do to find out where the boundary is, between "to" the tension but not "into" the tension, is to go super slow and find out if there really is an invisible line or something.

Also: what are you using as your idea of how far the ROM can go? For ages I held myself up to Coach Sonnon's neck mobility on the DVD, until I paid attention in person and realized his neck is twice as long as mine. Doh. There are individual skeletal things in play too. (no guesses as to which of us is an outlier)


:eek: I'm hoping the Rice Crispie Chorus will diminish over time. This is most evident in the rotation and lateral flexion exercises.
You might want to make a note of the Crispie Chorus. Many times I wished I had paid attention to how long it lasts. Some days a day or two, some days longer. Without any data I couldn't make connections to any patterns.

[Connie Brown]

It's a whole new understanding I'm getting from it... and I'm most surprised that I never came upon it before.
Big smile

[Connie Brown]

Oh yeah!!! Absolutely! It's almost meditative when you are completely relaxed... Much better! Wow! That feels so good I may sit and do this all day! :D Will ROM increase this way though?

If so...then it is actually the myofascial adhesions that are obstructing my ROM and to "push through" it may only aggravate the situation more by irritating the muscle tissue. Do I have that right? :confused:
Ding ding ding! Yes ! that's it.

Dr. Kevin says, "so relaxed I could drool"

[Zephyr]

A sudden, blinding flash of redundant light:

I realized today, while toying with the side-to-side glide, that I have always tended to exert at least some, sometimes much pressure in the shoulders to stabilize them and maximize the motion of the neck relative to the shoulders.

Suddenly it struck me to see what the motion would be like if I tried to keep the shoulders as relaxed as possible, and letting go of my preconceptions of what the breadth of the glide should be, and focusing on efficiency within the bounds of a relaxed base.

It's a whole new understanding I'm getting from it... and I'm most surprised that I never came upon it before.

Funny, I had the exact same experience today! I suddenly perceived all of the tension that was involved in holding the posture, and when i let that dissolve, there I was...gliding side-to-side. I had some trouble recreating it again (this time before a mirror), but i guess that is part of incremental progress.

I need to get a better handle on the RPE, RPD, RPT terms, and hope to report in that fashion soon.

Brandt

[drbri]

Er... that would be Joseph. We make up these lessons together, behind the curtain over there.
OK, thank you to Joseph as well!

I don't even know what a pallete is, in anatomy. A quick Google search turned up only art terms or skull diagrams with no "pallete."

So Joseph and Dr. Bri, what is the "pallete"?
Todays anatomy lesson=Pallete
We all have a hard pallete (the bony part of the roof of your mouth) and a soft pallete (the soft part at the very back of the roof of your mouth.)

So, when I was doing my ROM, I just imagined I was leading with the whole roof of my mouth or "upper pallete" :)

[TNichols]

RPT: 8-9 for all exercises except lateral glide. 6-7 on that; see below.

RPE: dead easy, except for lateral glide. Despite a conscious attempt to remain relaxed, I had difficulty with my shoulders (i.e., when gliding right, my right shoulder wanted to rise and my left shoulder wanted to drop). Also battled a very strong tendency to "force" the glide further than the neck could readily go.

RPD: 0-1 on lateral glide (irritatingly, it doesn't hurt to do it wrong) and everything else except scoop and tuck was ~3.5. Right side is fine, but on the left I have a pain at the very base of the skull on the scoop, and it translates in the tuck into a vague discomfort from the base of the skull down into the central thoracic spine, and a separate 'pulling' sensation that runs from mid-neck clear down to my tailbone.

This is interesting. I've been doing figure-8s for ~3 weeks now. I don't know whether this crept in on me, or whether it's been there all along, and my sensitivity has improved enough that when I isolated the motion, I caught it. (Not that it matters, but I'm the curious type.)

[Connie Brown]

RPE: dead easy, except for lateral glide. Despite a conscious attempt to remain relaxed, I had difficulty with my shoulders (i.e., when gliding right, my right shoulder wanted to rise and my left shoulder wanted to drop).
Sounds like SMA with your body "protecting." Does that seem so?


Right side is fine, but on the left I have a pain at the very base of the skull on the scoop, and it translates in the tuck into a vague discomfort from the base of the skull down into the central thoracic spine, and a separate 'pulling' sensation that runs from mid-neck clear down to my tailbone.
I'll be curious on the changes, if any, in this over these 28 days.


This is interesting. I've been doing figure-8s for ~3 weeks now. I don't know whether this crept in on me, or whether it's been there all along, and my sensitivity has improved enough that when I isolated the motion, I caught it. (Not that it matters, but I'm the curious type.)
This is why we all love going back to the different levels. Everyone from Scott on down (or should I say sideways since we're all in this together)

[JTCluck]

OK. Here's my report...

All normal with one exception discussed below:

RPT: 6-7 -- still a few things to work out
RPE: 2
RPD: 1 except the tilt which was 3 (I tried not to push)

I had a very stressful spring into early summer and I think I have residual tension from that (still!). With the head tilt (side-to-side), I found muscular tension, especially to the left. I did not try to push it but I did leave my head tilted on each side on a few of the reps because it felt good to stretch the muscle a bit. I didn't increase the discomfort but I am wondering if there is a problem with this.

Oh, and I did the side-to-side lateral movement in front of the mirror and noticed that my head tends to go forward a bit when I glide to the left. I don't know what to make of that.

A note on the "rice crispie chorus:" I have found that lifting from the crown -- mentioned in this discussion -- helps with the crunchiness. I do not have the best posture so I think that, for me, the crunching was telling me something about that.

Finally, your palate is the roof of your mouth but a palette is a board a painter holds for mixing colors.

[TNichols]

Sounds like SMA with your body "protecting." Does that seem so?

Not sure. Help me out here...
1. My understanding of SMA is that it acts to *decrease* ROM. In this case, when gliding right, I'm dropping left shoulder and raising right, which seems to increase the lateral displacement, not decrease it. (The right shoulder isn't rising enough to inhibit neck motion, I don't think.)
2. On the other hand, I just checked, and doing it right feels oddly vulnerable. (I actually had to move into position and then, holding position, release the tension in traps/lats. After 4-6 reps of that, the amount of trap/lat recruitment caused by moving into position has noticeably diminished, but it's not gone by any means.)

It's some form of 'armor' for sure, but I'm not sure SMA is the right description, but my conception of SMA may be deficient. Thoughts?

[KD Jones]

Another thought on the "scoop and tuck."

In concert with the "integration of the cervicals" in my percieved complexity with this motion, I've noticed another possible factor limiting this motion overal...

Most downward motion that my body is familiar with is simply "looking down." This is just basically changing postition of the coronal plane almost as though the axis were the singular hinge for the motion. The corollary is true for "looking up."

In order to do the "scoop and tuck," a lot of motions that feel unrelated have to occur, and they have to shift from one to the next... moving from tuck back, I have to add the tuck itself, a shift to a forward extension, a shift to a lengthing of the spine upward (like trying to be taller) simultaneously to moving the coronal plane upward and to the rear...

I find that if I really pay attention to making as full and round a motion as possible, my concentration tends to fail on one or more components. The full motion - though I never thought of it as one of the most challenging of the movements - is actually one of the least natural, and therefore I percieve it as more complex.

One fine performance point: at the fully back position (looking up), I'm doing a bit of a tuck in at the rear, because it makes the overall motion of the head a bit more circular. But now that I think of it, I've never heard anyone speak to this specific (and admittedly granular) element. Any thoughts on this?

[drbri]

Finally, your palate is the roof of your mouth but a palette is a board a painter holds for mixing colors.
Thank you for the spelling correction. You are right, a palate and a pallete are two different things! I have been thinking about that ever since I wrote it and it has been driving me crazy. Oh well, LOL;) !

[Joseph David]

Not sure. Help me out here...
1. My understanding of SMA is that it acts to *decrease* ROM. In this case, when gliding right, I'm dropping left shoulder and raising right, which seems to increase the lateral displacement, not decrease it. (The right shoulder isn't rising enough to inhibit neck motion, I don't think.)
2. On the other hand, I just checked, and doing it right feels oddly vulnerable. (I actually had to move into position and then, holding position, release the tension in traps/lats. After 4-6 reps of that, the amount of trap/lat recruitment caused by moving into position has noticeably diminished, but it's not gone by any means.)

It's some form of 'armor' for sure, but I'm not sure SMA is the right description, but my conception of SMA may be deficient. Thoughts?

Tim,

What you are describing sounds a little more like a compensation pattern rather than SMA.

Here is a very cool closed chain drill for you to try. Stand in front of a wall a little closer that forearm length, Bring your hands to the wall, fingers should be at shoulder level and width. Gently activate shoulder pack, this is depression of the scapula, the action of pulling the shoulder back and down. From this posture do your neck drills. Move back and forth between open chain and closed drills to make a comparison.

[Joseph David]

Thank you for the spelling correction. You are right, a palate and a pallete are two different things! I have been thinking about that ever since I wrote it and it has been driving me crazy. Oh well, LOL;) !

I'm seroiusly spelling imparred.

[Joseph David]

Another thought on the "scoop and tuck."

In concert with the "integration of the cervicals" in my percieved complexity with this motion, I've noticed another possible factor limiting this motion overal...

Most downward motion that my body is familiar with is simply "looking down." This is just basically changing postition of the coronal plane almost as though the axis were the singular hinge for the motion. The corollary is true for "looking up."

In order to do the "scoop and tuck," a lot of motions that feel unrelated have to occur, and they have to shift from one to the next... moving from tuck back, I have to add the tuck itself, a shift to a forward extension, a shift to a lengthing of the spine upward (like trying to be taller) simultaneously to moving the coronal plane upward and to the rear...

I find that if I really pay attention to making as full and round a motion as possible, my concentration tends to fail on one or more components. The full motion - though I never thought of it as one of the most challenging of the movements - is actually one of the least natural, and therefore I percieve it as more complex.

One fine performance point: at the fully back position (looking up), I'm doing a bit of a tuck in at the rear, because it makes the overall motion of the head a bit more circular. But now that I think of it, I've never heard anyone speak to this specific (and admittedly granular) element. Any thoughts on this?

Kyle,
This is spot on, you are taking inventory and noticing the difference between cognitive learning and associative learn. Good work!

[sames]

I do the neck movements a LOT. Throughout the day on many occasions. Washing hands in the washroom, move the neck a little. Good stuff.

RPT-8 (except for the side to side glide, room for improvement there especially when sliding to the left)
RPD-1
RPE-1

Scoop and tuck is new in IntuFlo (not present in WW Beginner). No problems though and a welcome addition. I usually toss in a couple of neck movements from PYB also.