On Your Feet!

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Lesson 1: On Your Feet!

How are you standing?

Most of my clients at one time or another will ask me how to stand; in other words, what is the proper posture for standing?

I am not a big proponent of “head here,” “shoulders here,” –type of thinking. Humans are not robots and besides, you can “fix” everything while you’re still but the moment you begin to move your body will fall out of those fixes in favor of its preferred way of biomechanical organization.

I know that over time with training, my clients’ bodies and posture will change so I hesitate to correct too much as I do not want them to apply those corrections that may not be needed in six months.

Rather, I first suggest that they begin to learn to feel their posture and sense its support and efficiency. Here are the steps I teach my newer clients:

1. In a standing posture, feel your feet. Feel the weight in your feet. Does each foot carry the same amount of weight or does one foot feel heavier than the other? If so, can you internally manipulate your body so that the weight is more equal? (Note: shifting your weight is not an internal action).

2. Bring your attention to your Right foot. Is your weight equal between the forefoot and heel? Can you make it so? Now do the same with your Left foot.

3. Go back and forth between steps 1 and 2 until you feel evenly balanced- right foot and left foot, forefoot and heel.

 

That’s it. Simple, right? Although it seems very easy, I challenge you to do this several times a day to see how difficult it really is. Do it when you’re brushing your teeth or washing the dishes, whenever you’re standing and I’m sure you will agree it’s not as easy as it sounds.

If you are in a functional training program, your body and posture will change over time. Using your sense of feel allows this particular exercise to adjust with you.

 

Check back next week for Lesson Two: Adding Legs and Pelvis.