Posture: Pain & Its Prevention: If It's Broke, Patch It!

What"s Posture Got To Do With Anything?

The word ‘posture’ is gathering a following and is becoming more widely used nowadays. People are more aware that they should ‘sit up straight’ and ‘pull those shoulders back’…

…But has anyone ever told you how to do it? (With over 600 muscles in your body, it simply isn’t possible to control them consciously and it would be futile to attempt to do so, would it not?)

Now, while posture isn't the be-all and end-all, it is very much foundational to good health.

Like the house that was built on the sand, a body with a compromised posture is paying the price beneath the surface.

As Plato said:

“Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it."

Learn about the wisdom of the body that built it's house on the rock on Upward Spiral's blog: 'Posture: Pain and it's Prevention' .

Friday

If It's Broke, Patch It!

If you're familiar with The Egoscue Method and functional fitness, you may already be aware of what's called 'The Patch'.

The Patch is an absolutely great way to put your body through a full range of motion and have great fun at the same time! Now, you may not have one of these in your back garden - not many of us have...but that doesn't mean you can't get creative!

All you need to do is find a few objects that you can leap over, crawl under and scuttle across ;>) Just watch kids at play (if they actually get out that is...they're doing it less and less nowadays, which will be the subject of a future post or two), and you'll see how they improvise on the go.

Here's Egoscue's latest video, with Pete Egoscue talking about how The Patch came into being.

The black & white footage that you saw in that video was of an Eastern European (I think Polish) Olympic Weight Lifting Team from around the early 1960's.

Notice how much of their training actually involved lifting weights? Very little.

That's because, like Egoscue, they recognised that the body functions as a unit and it needs to be trained in all areas, in all planes of motion.

If you're wondering what 'planes of motion' are, I'll let you know in a future post.

For now, have a great weekend and make sure you get out and get some movement!

Matt

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