Posture Exercises Revealed: Weird Looking but Amazing Results
Posted by admin on May 4, 2009
Conventional posture exercises may need rethinking as an alternative aproach is having some truly amazing results in helping those with poor posture. Giora Pinkas and John A. Baron have over 65 years of experience between them in teaching the Alexander Technique – a strange looking yet highly effective practice to attain good posture.
In the video below you will see some trainee Alexander Teachers in action. It does look a little strange at first, but that seems very significant after a few lessons as you start to realise how amazing it feels to have good posture. My favourite quote from the video is: -
“It’s really strange that at age 64 I feel better than I did at 34″
99% of All Posture Correction Solutions Actually Make Things Worse
Posted by admin on May 3, 2009
One of the most painful things I hear people say is, “My bad posture is hereditary. My parents had bad posture, so did their parents, and so I have bad posture too. I guess I’m just stuck with it”.
To me these words sound like fingers scraping on a blackboard as they represent unnecessary hopeless that is all too common these days. This theory of inheriting bad posture is completely untrue, so why do so many back pain sufferers believe in it?
The answer is simply that doctors are failing to help people with postural problems. So much trust is put into our doctors, that when they can’t help us, we often give up all hope. What most people don’t realise is that doctors aren’t really experts on posture. At the time of writing a report has just been released that says, “Doctors are failing to treat four in five Australians who suffer from back pain.”
What back pain sufferers have to realise is that posture correction is the Achilles heel of the medical profession.
So if doctors aren’t qualified to help with poor posture, who are?
Answer: Teachers of the Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique is the best way to improve posture…. period. This statement was recently supported in a British Medical Journal Study.
Improve Posture By Utilizing Your Skeleton Instead of Excess Muscle Tension
Posted by admin on Mar 14, 2009
Knowing how to improve posture is a rare skill these days, but it is something that teachers of the Alexander technique have mastered.
When I try and explain the Alexander Technique to someone who’s never heard of it I’m never sure how to best describe it. It’s a bit like explaining to someone what an orange tastes like using only words. I’ve come to the conclusion that words aren’t really up to the task; you have to experience it to understand it.
The following video has a very good explanation of how to improve posture. It may be as good as you can get without actually having a lesson. I particularly liked the bit where she talked about people using excess muscle tension to hold ourselves, instead of using our skeleton.
Posture Correction: 99.99% of Westerners Don’t Know How To Sit Up Properly
Posted by admin on Mar 12, 2009
Posture correction advice is all around us.
If I had a penny for every time my mother told me to try not to hunch at the computer….
Yet, nobody ever tells us exactly how to do it. To be more precise, there’s a right way and a wrong way to improve posture.
Since posture is controlled by a primative part of the brain, good posture needs to be an automatic reflex, not a concious effort. Try it for yourself. Conciously sit up straight, and within 5 minutes your likely to have reverted to your old slump habit.
So everyone is being told to sit up straight but very few people ever learn how. Robert Rickover, a posture correction expert, says that this is the reason for many seemingly unrelated ailments:-
“The consequences of this information gap can be seen all around us: stiff necks, shoulders hunched forward or pulled tightly back, restricted breathing, and tightness in the thighs, legs and ankles. Backaches, headaches, and other painful symptoms are often the unfortunate result.”
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Alexander-Technique-Taking-the-Presssure-off-your-Body&id=247670
P.S. Don’t even think a posture alarm is the answer. It aint. Instead try learning the Alexander Technique.
Posture Correction: How to Avoid Slumping at Your Computer
Posted by admin on Feb 23, 2009
This posture correction video shows how most people unsucessfully try to correct posture. It’s a short clip that demonstrates the right way and wrong way to avoid hunching.
A Perfect Posture is a Moving Posture
Posted by admin on Feb 5, 2009
“The Perfect Posture Is A Moving Posture”, says Yoga expert Rodney Yee. As soon as I heard this, I said, “You hit the nail on the head”. So many people (myself included) spend hours and hours every day sitting in chairs, but people really need to understand how to use their chairs so they don’t end up with bad posture.
Active sitting is not the easiest thing to describe, but Rodney does a great job.
Shoulder Exercises to Improve Posture : Shoulder Exercises: Chest Pops
Posted by admin on Feb 2, 2009
There are so many different experts on posture correction, but often times they contradict one another. The Alexander Technique teaches how to release excess muscle tension, yet this video teaches how to pull your back in.
If you ask me, I’ll follow the Alexander Technique every time.
Duration : 0:1:30
When It Comes to Posture Correction Products, Do Designers Really Know What They Are Doing?
Posted by admin on Dec 16, 2008
In October of 2007, Austria’s national design award „Adolf Loos Staatspreis Design” awarded at the ergonomic posture correction garment in the first place in their design competition.
I have some pretty strong opinions about the role of product design in their correcting posture, so I read with interest the details of this thin undergarment. The Ergoskin orthopaedic vest gives biofeedback, which is designed to help people remember to have a good posture. Posture alarms are nothing new, inventors and designers have been trying for years to fix people’s bad posture with all sorts of gadgets.
The thing that sets this one apart is that it uses a nano technology in order to achieve the same end. Tiny sensors and pistons in the fabric are able to communicate to the wearer with tiny mechanical impulses to the surface of the skin.
Although the technology in this product is pretty exciting, I think that the design brief could have been stronger. However it may serve some purpose in collecting data en masse. I have written more about my opinions on this product as a comment on this page.
I think that it is pretty ironic that third place for the competition was awarded to a chair design which looked wonderful but had a seat that sloped backwards (a feature that I strongly believe encourages poor posture). With these two products you could drive a person insane ☺
The Seat Of The Problem
Posted by admin on Nov 21, 2008
As soon as every child goes to school they are forced to sit in a chair – she (or he) has no choice. The children do not like sitting down for more than a few moments, as the chair itself is very uncomfortable and is not suited to their natural posture. The main reason for this is that the horizontal part of the chair which takes most of the weight of the body, is sloping backwards. The children have no choice but to tense many of their muscles to maintain their natural upright posture. She does not like this feeling at all and within minutes will try to stand up or wander off. The teacher who often has more than thirty children to cope with, cannot keep his eye on this many children unless they are at their desks and, since the teacher’s main responsibility is for the safety of all these children, he, or she will insist that they remain on their chairs. Still not liking the sense of ‘falling backwards’ that the chair produces, nearly all children tilt forwards by raising the back legs off the floor thus producing the effect of sitting on a chair that now slopes forward. In this position the child can maintain his posture effortlessly.