DW Dance

REORGANISE YOUR LIFE
The obvious point of reorganisation is to put things within easy reach. But don’t overdo this – put a few lightweight, regularly used items just out of
reach as an excuse to try out the exercises above and let yourself enjoy the new feeling of being longer and leaner.

Finally, if you have to reach for something behind you, make sure that the whole of your body goes round with you. Do not try and twist the upper
half of your body by tensing your knees and legs and corkscrewing your spine.
CHAPTER 8
EYE CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
THE PROBLEM
Stiff neck, fatigue, boredom, lack of energy, lethargy, rainy days and Mondays get you down all week?

THE EXERCISES
Exercise 1:
Stand and find an inanimate object at around eye level to focus on. Keeping focused on this object all the time, start moving your head around very slowly and in all sorts of movements, while keeping your feet where they are. For example, you might explore leaning your head backwards so that you
are looking down the length of your nose as you drop back, bending your knees to stay balanced.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

Important: do not pull on your left side and be careful not to let your dominant knee go in towards the centre line as you return to the upright.
Repeat these movements, reaching to your left.

THE PRINCIPLE
When we reach for something it is easy to tense up and go for it. This is entirely counterproductive. By stopping and thinking, you enjoy the full,
released length of your arms and your body remains relaxed, energised and your muscles retain their full suppleness and length.

Rock climbers understand this better than most. When balanced on a tiny foothold and stretching towards a handhold which seems at first to be out of reach, relaxing the shoulder allows the climber to gain the hold. Tightening up the shoulder, arm and hand would have the effect of shortening the climber’s reach.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

Extend your right arm towards the object, an imaginary string leading your fingers towards it. Your shoulder remains relaxed and down – the more your muscles release and your shoulder drops, the longer your reach becomes. Most people simply do not believe this until they have tried it. Once you feel that your arm has extended to its fullest amount, then, and only then, begin to gently lean into the movement.

Now, check where those sit bones are. They should both still be in contact with the chair. The likelihood is that the area around your left sit bone has begun to tighten and rise.

Think of relaxing and dropping this area as you gently lean towards your
object.

Both sit bones keep contact with the chair and you are relaxing the sides
of your torso. Your reach increases. You are increasing the length between
your right fingertips and your left sit bone. Think of the arm movement coming from the whole of your back and not just from your shoulder. You pay out the movement like acmeasuring tape extending from a reel.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

THE EXERCISE
This may seem a very simple, everyday thing to do but follow the exercise slowly and gently and you will see an immediate benefit.

From a sitting position, you are going to be reaching for something just out of reach on your right. Your body will continue to face forwards.

Find a suitable office chair so you can sit and feel the contact of the seat with your sit bones. Your feet should be flat on the floor, the chair and floor fully supporting you (as in Chapter 5).

Your hands drop down by your sides, arms and shoulders relaxed, string taking head and neck upwards so your spine is lengthening. Letting your eyes lead, gently turn your head to the right to look for the object you want to pick up.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

CHAPTER 7
REACH FOR THE STAPLER
THE PROBLEM
Middle and low back ache? Pain and stiffness in arms and shoulders?

When we reach and stretch from a sitting position, we can inadvertently put a tremendous strain on our middle and lower back, particularly if the movement is repeated during the course of the day. This, of course, is common when we are sitting at a desk, reaching for the phone, that urgent memo or the coffee cup on the far side of the keyboard.

This is a classic example of how a simple action can cause damage because we do it repeatedly, without thought.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

REORGANISE YOUR LIFE
To help you feel secure when getting in and out of a chair, make sure it is not going to move when you sit down – restrict those castors. Most importantly of all, don’t sit in it too long. Visit the water-cooler more often!

If you work at a computer, most machines have an alarm which can be set to chime gently every half hour, reminding you to get up and move around. You will be astonished at how easy it is to let two chimes slip by in quick succession without getting up. Failing that, invest in a egg timer – think free-range and move!

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

With the sit bones fully supported by the chair, and your feet supported by the floor, we are perfectly balanced. We don’t need to spring into action by getting chin, legs, arms and shoulders involved, simply to lean forward.

Sitting is as much to do with the head as the bottom – remember that the head weighs around five kilograms. Leaning forward is a matter of adjusting your weight slightly and letting gravity do the work. Throughout, we allow the spine to work as one unit, carrying the head and body forward without undue effort.

When we get into a chair in a thoughtless and disorganised way, using our back instead of our legs, we stay like that and so retain bad posture. When we get out of the chair in an unbalanced and disorganised way, we are using our spines when we should be using our legs to carry our weight up into standing position.

The job of standing and sitting down should be done by the legs, not the spine, which should remain at ease throughout.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

THE PRINCIPLE
Sitting is not passive. Most of us have developed a range of bad habits associated with sitting, or getting in and out of a chair. The primary bad habit is beginning an action by pulling the head back and tightening the neck.

Having established a balanced sitting posture (as in Chapter 5), learning to move forward in a comfortable, balanced manner provides a foundation for a whole range of further activities.

Unless we’re conscious of the way in which we do this, leaning forward falls into the classic stimulus-response pattern; our work is there in  front of us and we react by reaching towards it without thinking about how we are getting there. Result – we are using far more effort than we need to for something which is a simple, repetitive and everyday part of our lives.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

Keep dropping your tailbone as you stand, with your weight predominantly in your heels.

Sitting down into the chair reverses the process! Think of it as a kind of interrupted squat – the chair being the interruption.

As soon as your bottom reaches the chair seat, let yourself be fully supported again by the chair and the floor. Now you are sitting comfortably again.

Exercise 3:
Try standing up with your eyes shut. You will be much more aware of keeping your balance as you move, a key factor in good posture. Take note of how you moved. Using these observations, try standing again with your eyes open, incorporating the more secure, and therefore balanced way you moved when you had your eyes shut.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture

Exercise 2:
Standing up from sitting couldn’t be simpler but, of course, it could be simpler than we make it.

Sit on the chair as before. Be particularly conscious of the balance of your head on your neck, the chair supporting your torso and the floor under your feet. Think of the undersides of your feet. Although you will be using the whole underside (except the arches) to bear your weight as you stand, most of the weight – around 60 per cent – will be in your heels.

Now move nearer to the edge of your seat and bring your feet back until your heels fall in a line just behind your knees. Think through the activity ahead. From sitting to standing requires that you remain balanced all the time and that you go through the process of standing up by leaving one supporting object (the chair) in favour of giving all your weight to the other (the floor).

Think of your forehead being magnetised forwards. Rocking on your sit bones, allow your torso to drift gently forwards until it is sufficiently over your heels for you to straighten your legs easily into the standing position. You’ll know by now that a common mistake is to start the movement by tightening your neck, pulling back the head and thrusting the chin forward, as though coming up for air. Check that this isn’t happening as it can be extraordinarily difficult to resist. Without this tension, you feel light and buoyant as your head leads you forward and upwards.

Taken from : The Busy Body - Stress Free Posture