The next exercise will be to cup your hands around your hips with your thumbs toward your stomach (fig. 13). Place your hands as high as you can reach. Now begin a pulsing sort of pressure. Push, relax, push, relax, push. This can be done either slowly or in short, staccato bursts. Move your hands down your legs, three inches at a time, continuing the pulses of energy.

Next, tip your hands so that the fingers are further beneath your hips (fig. 14). Relax your lower body and exert the force using your upper back and arms directing the energy toward your fingers pushing your hips upward as well as down. By placing your hands with your thumbs closer to your groin (fig. 13) and pushing downward with your thumbs, you can exert your pressure toward the bed and toward your feet at the same time. Thus, by reversing the direction of the pressure caused by the tilt of your hands, you can push your hips downward toward the bed while continuing to push toward your feet. These two variations will allow you to gain control over three separate moves: 1) The straight downward force, 2) The downward while rotating your hips slightly upward and 3) The downward while rotating your hips slightly back toward the bed. All three can be done with the pulsing action. You must, at all times, concentrate on relaxing your lower back. That is the essential ingredient for success with the Von Latta Technique.

A technique that has been very helpful in allowing me to exert the proper, even pressure on my spine and related muscle is The Horizon Focal Point Imagery. To utilize this aid you simply close your eyes while doing the Von Latta Technique, and imagine a horizon at some distant place beyond the lower part of your body. Then draw an imaginary line from the top of your head, down your neck, down the length of your spine, continuing through your feet, sole to sole, and out, in a perfectly straight line, to that focal point at the imaginary horizon. This allows you to visualize a very long, straight line with your own feet, spine and neck at one extreme of the line. By such visualization, you can become much more aware of the need for a STRAIGHT spine with the application of EVEN pressure. While concentrating on this straight line you will apply the Von Latta Technique. Its a simple aid in your effort to exert even, straight pressure (unless, of course, you are intentionally exerting uneven pressure.)