In this workshop you will learn what posture is and how to improve posture. Posture is the relationship and coordination of different parts of the body to the rest of the body. We might then label it as good posture or poor posture.
I often hear someone saying that posture is how you hold yourself. We want to be able to have dynamic posture where we are not having to hold ourselves up, it is where we have the correct amount of tone that sends us up as well as connecting downwards, like a tree, it is both going up and down at the same time, often we are battling one against the other.
We will look at how one stands, sits, moves and breathes.
On sitting,
1, We can be sitting in a upright spine, head nicely balanced with soft eyes, sensing our sit bones on the chair, our hamstrings alive and toned, feet under the knees, legs hip width apart, our shoulders are wide and away from the ears, our arms and hands are lengthening away from the top of the sternum, our clavicle/collar bone being the first bone of the arm. The breath flows naturally with a fully functional diaphragm and our peripheral vision is open and wide. We are relaxed and yet we are alert we are actively sitting.
2, Or, we could be sitting with our neck pulled forward and that brings our head back and down compressing the upper cervical vertebrae. There may be a collapse in the spine, that been a curvature of the spine like a C, on the front of the torso the space between the pubic bone and the top of the sternum is shortened, the legs and buttocks are not engaged and gone to sleep. Not only can this result in back pain but also the internal organs are displaced and will not be working efficiently, they get squashed, it may result in dysfunctional breathing patterns, heart and blood flow problems, digestion problems, constipation and problems for women with their menstrual cycle.
3, Or we could be sitting in a very upright posture, with shoulders pulled back and up towards our ears and over arching the back, exaggerating the S curve of the lumbar spine, pulling the back in towards the front of the body putting pressure on the disks and muscles of the back and spine, belly area is tight, the chest pulled forward while the top of the sternum is pulled back, the breath is compromised often the breath is in the upper region of the chest, legs can become very rigid.
Do you know what way you sit, do you alternate between collapse and over upright sitting, would you like to learn to sit and move in a more effortless way? The Alexander technique can help you. The workshop will guide you to sit like what is described in no 1.