So many people work hard at their fitness and then let themselves down with the way they walk, sit and stand – or shuffle, slump and slouch.

As a bodyworker with the Feldenkrais Method one of the most challenging aspects to deal with is [...]]]> Maintaining posture is one of the most important skills to develop for yourself.

So many people work hard at their fitness and then let themselves down with the way they walk, sit and stand – or shuffle, slump and slouch.

As a bodyworker with the Feldenkrais Method one of the most challenging aspects to deal with is to teach clients to become aware of how they move and hold themselves. That is, to try and help them in maintaining posture.

If they don’t they will re-create bad posture all over again.  It is the whole function – structure relationship.

How you move determines your posture as well as your posture allows your range of movement. That’s why maintaining posture is so important.

There are modalities more aligned to correcting the structural aspects of posture but not the movement patterns.  This is why so many people have to keep seeing their practitioners for the same presenting reasons.

A purely functional correction on the other hand can sometimes take too long to help with more accute situations.

A balance is best.

How to do this?

Well, I was very excited to find the Posture Coach for my iPhone.  It is a brilliant application that lets the user know when they have strayed too far from the vertical – i.e. slumped.  It is effective for both moving – walking – as well as standing and sitting.

What a clever invention.  I now mention it to all my clients – the lucky ones who have an iPhone anyway.

You can find it here:

The Posture Coach

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with this Application and receive absolutely no commission. Enjoy.

There is a way of doing this that doesn’t work though – or work anywhere near as well.  That is to exhibit this [...]]]> If there is one aspect of movement I have found to be consistently in common with great athletes, dancers and musicians it is the capacity for fluid integrated subtle movement through the torso.

There is a way of doing this that doesn’t work though – or work anywhere near as well.  That is to exhibit this style of movement but with too much tension in the body.

I have known dancers to easily be able to do the splits for example but their muscles are like highly strung piano wire – twang!!

Try this as an exercise with your friend / colleague.

Have them stand in front of you while you put your fore fingers gently on each shoulder – one say on the front of their right shoulder and the other on the back of their left shoulder.

Very very gently – feather light - start to rotate them towards their right – your left if you are in front of them.  You are looking for their capacity to rotate their shoulders in relation to their pelvis.  As soon as you feel even an ounce of resistance – stop.  Most people will barely be able to rotate more than an inch or two before this ’stop’ moment turns up.

In fact a lot of people wont even get to move at all – it takes more than an ounce of strength to move them.  What do I mean by an ounce of effort – say less than it would take to push over a glass of water.

You can even ask them to hold their pelvis to the front and only allow the shoulders to rotate.

A particularly well organised person can glide around well past 90 degrees. Remember, our criteria is with less than an ounce of resistance.  You could probably move them much further with no physical harm with a bit of force but that isn’t our test.

If you do this properly you might just be amazed at how much tension you have been carrying and not noticing until now.

Car seats demand that you overwork certain muscles just to keep your head up.  Having one foot held on the accelerator introduces tension into parts of one [...]]]> It is very useful to track your balance and rhythm at any given time.  You can begin to lose this to a degree just by going through your day.

Car seats demand that you overwork certain muscles just to keep your head up.  Having one foot held on the accelerator introduces tension into parts of one leg.  Carrying a bag.  There are many ways to inadvertently introduce tension into your body and then tighten up to a degree.  Given all this happens in the field of gravity these are compounded with every step you take.

These tensions appear without you realising it and you tighten up without realising it as it is all so gradual and minor.  It can add up though.

Ways of assessing how you are going at any time include looking for visual cues.  Look at your shadow, if you can, while you are walking.  You want to see your head just gliding along in a straight line – not jerking up and down or side to side.  You can see this by observing your shadow.

This is also why we have shopping malls.  As you are walking through look at your reflection as you walk towards a shop window.  Again, you want to see your head just gliding without the above bounce and wobble.  To achieve this, you probably need to relax aspects of your torso, jaw and hips.

When you find yourself walking on a wooden floor, listen to the fall of your feet.  Ultimately it should be silent and soft.  Perhaps not the ‘walk on rice paper’ version but in that direction.  I am always amused at the Hollywood tough guy version which is usually tight rigid and bouncy.  Any martial artist will tell you how ineffective this is.

None of this is massively critical but it can help you stay refreshed and alert throughout your day.  If you have important meetings at the end of the day it might actually just make the difference some time.

For me, this is around the head / neck region.  I can usually tell when a professional is about to drop their standards – on the field [...]]]> There is a certain style of tension that seems to most interfere with a clear mind and a capacity to perform at your highest level – mentally and physically.

For me, this is around the head / neck region.  I can usually tell when a professional is about to drop their standards – on the field or in the office or on stage – as the tell tale sign of a tight jaw and stiff neck show up first.

Very soon after that they start to fumble, miss shots, lose their line of thought etc.

There are some very easy pre-emptive movement strategies you can use to stop this happening.  They involve very gentle slow movements of the head, shoulders and torso.  Literally just turning your head slowly side to side, perhaps while you rotate your shoulders in a ‘bicycle pedal’ type movement.

It is very easy to disguise these movements if you have to – in an office or on stage for example.  In my trainings I am as fresh after 10 hours as I am at the beginning.

There is much more to this, but if you just try the two movement strategies I mentioned – starting before you need them – you might just start playing better later into the round and even winning more often.

An unfair advantage.