How to Sit Balanced from Side to Side.

You’re sitting at the computer surfing the net, and for some reason you have come across this blog post.  And you may be wondering, “Balanced side to side really…What does that mean?”  And to your question (if indeed you are asking it) I would ask you, “Are your legs crossed?  Are you leaning on one elbow or the other?  Where is your mouse? What is your computer screen’s relationship to the keyboard? When you are thinking do you tilt your head?  Do you rotate the spine towards your office mate when she is speaking?”  The answers to these many questions, might let you know just how dominant one side of your body is, and they might bring certain imbalances and asymmetries to your conscious awareness.

But wait is symmetry what we are looking for? I have been teaching pilates and movement for so many years, and I have yet to see the perfectly balanced, symmetrical body that I spent so much time learning about…I also find it interesting that we ask our body to be symmetrical, yet our viscera (organs/guts) are not symmetrical at all.  So again what do I mean when I say, “How to sit balanced from side to side.”

Imagine this:  A person is at the computer for hours at a time.  As the body gets tired he starts to lean his left elbow on his armrest, which allows his ribcage to shift to the left.  This also means that there might be more weight in the left side of the pelvis.  Now what does his body do to counteract this shift of the ribcage?  He might tilt his head to the right, and he might also rotate his ribcage to the right just slightly (mostly to see the computer screen) and there might even be a little extra weight in the right foot.  Now imagine being in this position for a long time…What might happen? 

What can we do to prevent this kind of melting?  How can we find a balanced posture without stiffening?

First, when sitting, think about posture and weight distribution through out the entire body.  Distribute the weight evenly through the floor, and lengthen the head to the ceiling….and then every time you notice what might seem to be the inevitable melting (however it may manifest), redistribute the weight and reach your head to the ceiling again, and again, and yet again.

Secondly, add movement to your life at the desk.  Set a timer and every 45 minutes in your chair at your desk do the following workout.  Egg timers that are really loud work the best!  And every time your egg timer rings find this video, and move in your chair.

What do you notice?  Does the melting happen less?  Does your spine feel better?  We want to know…How do you feel?

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, PMA-CPT

Director of Instruction at The Pilates Studio

4 ways to use Pilates to Learn How to Sit

As we continue our “Learning to Sit” series, let’s first look back to where we’ve been.  We’ve talked about how to sit with a readiness for movement, and we’ve talked about how to sit to avoid pain.  This week, I want to outline a workout series that will open up fascial tight spots that might make it impossible to find the longest axis of the spine.  This workout uses segmental spinal movement to find length in the front of the body, so that in sitting the body isn’t pulled forward away from the longest center. 

My suggestion is to take the foam roller to work, and if you happen to be at a desk for any length of time, do this workout.  It’s a great way to avoid the shoulder and neck tension that often comes with computer work, and it is also a great way to keep your body moving for many years to come. 

Watch the video, and then let me know how this workout might make it into your busy life.

1.     Flexion and extension over the foam roller – This exercise lengthens the spine and stretches the front of the body.  The foam roller helps open the breastbone, which will allow the ribcage to support the spine a little bit better.

2.     Psoas Stretch with foam roller under pelvis – Now that you have opened the fascia that runs along the front of the breastbone and thoracic spine.  Try opening the fascia that runs along the front of the Lumbar spine with a Psoas stretch

3.     Bridge with feet on the foam roller – With the front of the spine open, we want to continue by opening the back of the spine.  To do this use the segmental movement of the spine to lengthen the tissue that runs up and down the back.  With the foam roller under the feet, not only are you strengthening your hamstrings, but you are also giving your spine more room for movement

4.     Bridge with Rotation – Maybe as you were doing the bridge your found some chunks in the spine.  You know those moments when the entire concept “vertebra by vertebra” is lost on your spine and basically seven vertebrae hit the ground all at once.  Sometimes adding rotation to the spine allows the vertebrae that feel stuck to loosen and separate from each other.

Have fun, and let me know how it goes

Katrina Hawley C.M.A., PMA_CPT

Director of Instruction at The Pilates Studio

Using Pilates to Learn How to Sit when sitting causes pain

Last week we started a series of blog posts about learning how to sit.  As we continue the series I am finding some humor in the fact that as a culture that sits for more of its day than most, it seems funny to me that we are a culture that doesn’t know how to sit.  I find myself thinking, "I remember when I learned how to sit."  The funny part is that I was 25 years old not 6 months old, and ironically I learned how to sit by moving not sitting.  This is why ultimately as we continue to sit without knowing how to sit eventually the act of sitting begins to cause pain.  This pain can manifest in our low back, our neck, our shoulders, our hips, and even our knees and feet.    When someone talks to me about pain in sitting I look for a few things.  I wonder how long is the axis?  I look at each vertebra and see if one is “sticking out” more than others.  I look to see if the knees are even or below the hips, and I look to see if the pelvis is stacked and tall.   I look to see what compressive forces are acting on the spine.  I look for bones that are stacked.  Why do I look for these things?  Because it is in my experience that pain when sitting is often caused by compressive forces (gravity) acting on the spine.  And if these forces can be spread throughout the myofascial system, pain dissipates.

The following video is a series of exercises that I have found to help elongate the spine.  Try it.  See what you think.

Thanks to flickr and caseorganic on flickr

The first exercise in the video is simply adding length to your spine by balancing the tension in the myofascial system.  I have learned from Tom Myers to look at the body as a tensegrity structure.  What does that mean?  I see a body with bones that are suspended between different fascial tensions.  Very much like the picture to the right.   In it the sticks are suspended by the tension forces.  Which is the feeling that the first exercise is helping you find.  You want to imagine each vertebra suspended by balanced tension of the muscles and tendons.

Thanks to flickr and Rwike77

Then you want to start moving the vertebra.  When you keep the tension balanced, the rest of the body can now begin to move in both flexion and extension in the sagittal plane, and in lateral flexion in the coronal plane.  In these exercises, I like to think about the spine as taffy that is warming; that as you bend it back and forth, and side to side the spine is getting gooier and gooier. 

And then finally I like to replace the tension in the spine to keep the posture that the exercises just created.

Have fun!  And join us next week when we use Pilates to learn how to sit balanced front to back

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, PMA-CPT

Director of Instruction at The Pilates Studio 

Using Pilates to Learn How to Sit Ready to Move

This morning, I was working with a client that asked me, “How can I improve my sitting posture?”  While I saw it as a fabulous question, I also found myself a little perplexed…When I first started learning and teaching Pilates, I didn’t think about my posture too much.  I was busy learning exercises, and learning how to teach exercises, and then something magical happened. (not really, it simply happened without my conscious awareness). I was sitting in a class once and I noticed, “Woh my posture is really good right now…and it’s not even hard to sit up straight.”  Imagine that a person who had been moving all of her life finally learned how to sit. Imagine my surprise that finally I became conscious of my posture when it was okay, and not when it was awful and causing pain…

This was a few years ago, and it left me with a dilemma.  I was not sure what exercises helped me to find this balanced posture.  I had no codified way to tell someone to practice posture because it happened to me unconsciously when I was learning movement.  It happened to me when I was getting stronger and it happened to me when I was trying to learn EVERY Pilates Exercise not just my favorites.  Since then, I have been on many pseudo scientific journeys with clients at The Pilates Studio.  I say pseudo scientific because in movement theory there is a scientific base for choices that are made.  I work from a strong base of biomechanical knowledge, myofascial relationships, and movement study, but I am convinced that the double blind causation studies are detrimental to the complex system and variables that are human movement.   SO in a pseudo scientific ways I have explored improving posture with people.  And like any double blind experiment I could say, the results are varied, but why don’t you try this or this or this….

What constitutes ”BAD” posture?

For the record, bad posture is a phrase I don’t like, but if I write about improving posture I like to name what it is I would like to improve.  Off the top of my head and for the purpose of the next few blog posts, I have thought of four things to observe.

1.     Is this posture movement ready?

2.    Does the posture cause pain?

3.    Is the posture balanced from front to back?

4.    Is the posture balanced from inside to outside?

The lovely thing about this list is that it is ever changing.  Tomorrow it could be a list of six things, and yesterday it might have only been three.  Just another way that working with posture is a malleable endeavor.  Like my list posture is an ever-changing event subject to many variables in our lives.

For the purposes of this blog post we are going to talk about #1.  Is this posture movement ready?

How to sit ready for movement

When you are sitting, can you quickly get up and get a cup of tea?  Do you have to think about standing up? How easy is it to get out of your car? Do you have access to the muscles in your legs?  Movement ready posture in my mind is sitting with the ability to stand instantly and easily. Movement ready posture is the ability to move efficiently from a sitting position inside a car to standing position outside of a car.  I have found the following physioball workouts to be the best and most fun way to practice. 

What I like about them is the progression.

Step I:  Sit on the ball, sometimes this is the practice in and of itself.  There is proprioceptive challenge, and you must keep your feet grounded

Step 2: Start bouncing on the ball.  Keep your feet grounded.  Your heels should be like roots into the floor.

Step 3: Bounce to Stand.  When you are comfortable bouncing on the ball without fear of falling, Simply start bouncing, bounce higher and then a little higher until you bounce your way to standing

Step 4: Now we’re getting tricky.  Make sure you are really secure with Step III, then bounce your way to standing…wait for it…on one foot.

Step 5: is the most challenging in this series and it provides quite a balance challenge.  Be sure to watch the video before you try this.  It’s important to have a mental picture of this.  You stand beside the ball and lift the leg closest to the ball, then sit on the ball and slide across the ball.  Then plant the opposite foot in the ground on the other side of the ball.  Repeat and be sure to enjoy the wobbles.

Enjoy this first of four how to sit workouts.  Next week we’ll learn how to sit when sitting causes pain

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, CPT-PMA

Director of Instruction at The Pilates Studio

The next two videos illustrate steps 1-5