Tips to Improve Your Sitting Posture

1.Revise Your Idea of ‘Good’ Posture

The majority of people have an idea of what good posture is and if I ask them to demonstrate will put in a lot of effort to haul themselves up into a position that is held, usually over arched in their lower back with their shoulders pulled back. Sitting is dynamic. There is soft springy tone and there is also movement.

2. Find Your Sit bones

These two bones (if you are siting now you could put your hands under your bum to find them), are the bottom of your pelvis. The pelvis consists of two bones connected at the back with joints at the sacrum, and at the front by a cartilaginous joint, the pubic symphysis. These two bones are like your feet in standing, they support you.

Notice what happens to your sit bones if you collapse into a slump; and what happens if you haul yourself up into an overarched posture.

3. Rocking on Your Sit Bones

Now you have located your sit bones, play with rocking forward and back on them. Allow your whole torso to come along for the ride. See if you can find a place where you are easily balanced.

4. The Balance of Your Head

Your head is heavy. Around 5kg for an adult human head, really well designed to carry your clever brain. Your body is also really well designed to support this weight. You don’t need to pull or push with your neck muscles just let your head be easily balanced up away from your sit bones.

5. Soften

Now you have found a better relationship between your sit bones and head. See where you can soften. Note there is a difference between soften and collapse. Back to point number 1, we want a soft springy tone so sitting can be a balanced, poised and easy activity.

Photo by Federica Campanaro on Unsplash

What Do I Mean By Posture?

Often when we think of posture we think of something held in a certain position. In fact the word posture is derived from the Latin verb ‘ponere’ meaning to put or place and from the noun ‘positura’ meaning position so it’s not really surprising.

However in the late 16th century when the word came to England it was used to denote the relative position of one thing to another.

Using the word posture in this latter way for me is better (although still not a perfect description), as it creates the idea of the possibility of movement. Posture can then be used to describe a snapshot of any movement from sitting, standing to running, pole vaulting, pirouetting or playing the piano. And this snapshot is the only still you can have. Our bodies are constantly in movement, the smallest of moments even, as our heart beats, our blood flows and our body breathes. In order to create an idea of good posture however we can tend to stiffen, tense and hold our breathe often before collapsing again. Or maybe have no awareness at all apart from discomfort or pain.

The idea of the relative position of parts however can be used in anything we do and doesn’t have to be stiff and held, not floppy and unresponsive either, just alert, lively, balanced, poised and responsive.

Stress and back pain

My pupils often tell me that their back pain (or knee pain, neck pain, shoulder pain), gets worse when they are stressed.

Its the way they tell me that interests me like, often it's a surprise that there is even this connection. It's like they kind of know it but don't know it and don't quite understand it and certainly don't know what to do about it. Which of course is why they have come to see me.

However what they usually want is to just get rid of the pain; and the stress well that's about "my busy job", "my boss", "my kids"...

Of course there are many things that life throws our way. Some things we can change to make our lives easier, others not. You can change your job but it's not so easy to get your kids adopted!!

There is however another option, that the stress is in fact is your response to the situation and you can therefore learn to change it. And if the pain is worse when you are stressed then maybe you will change that too.

So that is what we work with with The Alexander Technique. We learn a tool to help us react in a different way and that is what can change the pain.

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor Frankl - Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor.