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Posture is hard
Jun. 11th, 2010 09:53 pmI was never castigated as a child, as I hear some children are (mostly in they style of some old victorian governess), to have better posture. As I consider it now, I doubt such authorities would actually teach me to have my best posture, but they might have taught me a right posture.
It is easy for me to hunch my upper back over, sometimes it feels good like leaning in to focus more intently on some small bit of work in front of me, sometimes it is just lazy. It is easy for me slouch my lower back and curl my tailbone under and sag down to some point of lowest energy in my chair. Sometimes I imagine that the ideal chair would allow me to do this but in a shape that was somehow good for me.
Sitting up takes work. Sitting up for a long time takes endurance. When I really think about putting my body into what I imagine good posture is supposed to be like I tense some little muscles in my lower back that within a minute are complaining that they're obviously not built to hold my 200 lb body in that position - at which point I give up and relax back into the slouch until I think about it again.
From what little seated meditation practice instruction I've had, and some principles from yoga, it seems like there ought to be a neutral low-energy upright position that doesn't involve being held there by little muscles. OR, my little muscles are atrophied from a lifetime of laziness and ought to be developed.
In the last week I've done an unusual amount of walking around without a backpack. That is what got me thinking about this enough to write it up. When carrying the weight of a backpack (an extra 10-20 lb probably) I'm thinking more about carrying that weight than carrying myself. When I finally get the chance to walk and just walk, I notice that it feels different to curl my lower back in various ways and it feels different to carry my shoulders at different positions. I'm still not sure what "right" is, but I sometimes I notice that something is wrong and I try something else and something else until I find something better.
I feel like my internal metrics are pretty sloppy. I don't know if I'm straight up or leaning. I'm imagining a magical medical future where some real-time MRI-like device embedded in a chair analyzes the stresses on my cartilage and muscles and teaches me a best position for my body as it is now and trains me to work for a better position by strengthening a few muscles here and there. That'd be cool. Until then I'll have to work on paying attention to my own body (often a good skill) and maybe look for tips here and there.
It is easy for me to hunch my upper back over, sometimes it feels good like leaning in to focus more intently on some small bit of work in front of me, sometimes it is just lazy. It is easy for me slouch my lower back and curl my tailbone under and sag down to some point of lowest energy in my chair. Sometimes I imagine that the ideal chair would allow me to do this but in a shape that was somehow good for me.
Sitting up takes work. Sitting up for a long time takes endurance. When I really think about putting my body into what I imagine good posture is supposed to be like I tense some little muscles in my lower back that within a minute are complaining that they're obviously not built to hold my 200 lb body in that position - at which point I give up and relax back into the slouch until I think about it again.
From what little seated meditation practice instruction I've had, and some principles from yoga, it seems like there ought to be a neutral low-energy upright position that doesn't involve being held there by little muscles. OR, my little muscles are atrophied from a lifetime of laziness and ought to be developed.
In the last week I've done an unusual amount of walking around without a backpack. That is what got me thinking about this enough to write it up. When carrying the weight of a backpack (an extra 10-20 lb probably) I'm thinking more about carrying that weight than carrying myself. When I finally get the chance to walk and just walk, I notice that it feels different to curl my lower back in various ways and it feels different to carry my shoulders at different positions. I'm still not sure what "right" is, but I sometimes I notice that something is wrong and I try something else and something else until I find something better.
I feel like my internal metrics are pretty sloppy. I don't know if I'm straight up or leaning. I'm imagining a magical medical future where some real-time MRI-like device embedded in a chair analyzes the stresses on my cartilage and muscles and teaches me a best position for my body as it is now and trains me to work for a better position by strengthening a few muscles here and there. That'd be cool. Until then I'll have to work on paying attention to my own body (often a good skill) and maybe look for tips here and there.
