Is bad posture a matter of strength or a matter of conscious control?
It’s BOTH.
Most people think that to avoid lauching posture while sitting or to be able to maintain a more upright position as you walk, is required to strengthen the back muscles, your abs, stretch and get the best ergonomic accessories. Yes, this helps but is not all what is needed.
To achieve a real and long lasting solutions for your posture problems you need to work on what you want to improve, to be more clear, if you want to improve your sitting or standing position you need to also re-educate your body through your brain and body perception (propioception) for this specific act; in a a very similar why like when you learn a sport.
For example when a football player wants to be a better at long kicks he needs to train his coordintation and the strenght that are more used for this activity.
So, what do you need to do to stop having problems with your posture and to finally improve it?
1)Exercise
This will help to increase the general muscle tone, mantain the mobility, activate the cirulation and stimulate the breathing . For example walking or swimming are excellent and complete ways to engage your whole body in one activity and in a balanced way. My favourite are the excercises using your own body weight. I really think that is a pitty that we stopped climbing; like our ancestors or like a child: hands, arms, back and legs working equally and with enough strength to lift your own weight. If you do climb, well done! continue doing it if you don’t you can find a nice easy rutine to follow at home around 7 to 10 minutes. It doen’t need to be hard or difficult, just possible and slightly challenging.
2)Stretching
Stretching exercises should be part of our daily routine like washing our teeth, it brings a lot of benefits and it can take just 10-20 minutes of your day. Soft and gradual stretching of the legs, back and arms. I found that some Yoga exercises are very interesting for this and also the SGA or Global Active Stretching exercises from the Souchard Method.
3) Ergonomic accessories
I can’t stop thinking about our new reality of ”home office” I saw so many people suffering just because they didn’t have the correct furniture. If you are going to buy a new chair, please try it first! It has to be good for YOU. There is so much information about the parameters that you need to check when you are at your desk. In short: ”May the furniture adapt to you and not you to the furniture”. Observe carefully this simple graphic, that I found on the internet:
Scan this image from top to bottom:
-Eyes: the imaginary sight line parallel to the floor helps your head to be in the right position.
-Head, neck and back effortless in balance and supported.
-Elbow in a 90 degree angle and supported.
-Hips in 90 degrees (never less, it will overload your lumbar spine and discs).
-Knee angle (not the most important in my point of view, everybody move de legs constantly, but in this case I would mention that it is very important that the back of your knees are not touching the seat, ).
-Feet resting on the floor or on a support.
Now coming to our key point. If I go to walk everyday 30-60 minutes, stretch 10-20 minutes and have a very nice chair and table to work. I have less pain in my neck, but I’m still lauching when I sit, what’s wrong?
The answer is Conscious Control.
The truth is that if you are used to a certain way of moving, sitting, etc this frequent and habitual way is recognized by your brain as ”good” or ”known” way and all the authomatic adjustments, at an unconscious level are constantlly in use and fascilitated in order to optimize this activity. So, to make a real change you need to develope a more conscious control of your self and with the time your will be able to modify this habitual use.
To explain this to my patients I like to compare it with the process of learning a language; to re-educate your body you need time and practice and it will require you to think until it becomes natural. The Alexander Technique is an excellent approach and very helpfull for people who are struggling to get reed of nasty habitual use. Through the lessons your body awareness will expand and you’ll learn more about how ”your” body works, you will be able to experience this misterious connection between body-mind and you will find out the amazing relationship that this has with your breathing and with your emotions.
Everyday you can dedicate between 5 to 20 minutes at any time or at a more advanced level, while performing any other activity, integrating this to the way you move and live.
When this happens is because your are modifying your habitual use and finally the old patterns, you have started to make a consious choice and to stop them. This achievement together with all mention above will ring you to a whole different level with the relationchip with your body.
If you are curious about the Alexander Technique or do you want more advice about posture improvement don’t hesitate to contact me.