Many people cause their own back and body pain through their everyday bad postural and movement habits. Many sense that their poor posture is probably the root of the problem, but they are unable to change long-standing habits.

In The New Rules of Posture, Mary Bond approaches postural changes from the inside out. She explains that healthy posture comes from a new sense we can learn to feel, not by training our muscles into an ideal shape. Drawing from 35 years of helping people improve their bodies, she shows how habitual movement patterns and emotional factors lead to unhealthy posture. She contends that posture is the physical action we take to orient ourselves in relation to situations, emotions, and people; in order to improve our posture, we need to examine both our physical postural traits and the self-expression that underlies the way we sit, stand, and move. The way we walk, she says, is our body's signature.

Bond identifies the key anatomical features that impact alignment, particularly in light of our modern sedentary lives, and proposes six zones that help create postural changes: the pelvic floor, the breathing muscles, the abdomen, the hands, the feet, and the head. She offers self-help exercises that enable healthy function in each zone as well as information on basic ergonomics and case histories to inspire us to think about our own habitual movements. This book is a resource for Pilates, yoga, and dance instructors as well as healthcare professionals in educating people about postural self-care so they can relieve chronic pain and enjoy all life activities with greater ease.

Auteur

Mary Bond has a Master's degree in dance from UCLA and trained with Dr. Ida P. Rolf as a Structural Integration practitioner. She is a movement instructor at the Rolf Institute and teaches movement workshops nationally. The author of Balancing Your Body and The New Rules of Posture, she has also published articles in numerous health and fitness magazines. She lives in California.

Contenu

Foreword by Leon Chaitow, N.D., D.O.

Preface

Introduction: What Are the New Rules of Posture?

PART ONE: AWARENESS

Your Conscious Body
Your Body's Internet

PART TWO: STABILITY

The Root of Posture
Healthy Breathing
Core Connections

PART THREE: ORIENTATION

Your Heart's Messengers
1. Footprints
2. Facing the World

PART FOUR: MOTION

Healthy Walking
Articulate Living

Afterword: Explore the New Rules of Posture, Together

Appendix: Therapeutic Resources for Healthy Posture

Bibliography

Index

EXPLORATIONS AND PRACTICES

YOUR CONSCIOUS BODY

Your Neutral Breath
A Stressful Moment
Simple Pleasure
Walking Inventory
Your Best Foot
Heel Strike
Pelvic Mobility
Arm Swing
Spinal Mobility
Head and Neck
Stabilizing Actions

YOUR BODY'S INTERNET

Postural Sway
Fascial Continuity
Sacroiliac Rocking
Holistic Impact
Counterrotation of Pelvis and Chest
Curling and Arching

THE ROOT OF POSTURE

Pelvis Palpation
The Pelvic Floor Diamond
The Anal Triangle
Slouching
Supported Sitting
Bending Over
Perceptual Fine Tuning
Smart Reclining

HEALTHY BREATHING

Quiet Breathing
Active Breathing
Global Breathing Awareness
Breathing in Your Back
Inhaling Beauty
Exhaling Surrender
The Spaciousness and Weight of Breathing
Breathing in Gravity
Slowing Your Breath with Sound
Healthy Breathing, Healthy Posture

CORE CONNECTIONS

Activating Your TA through the Pelvic Floor
Activating Your TA from a Table Position
Activating Your TA Lying Down
A Shortcut to the Inner Corset
Flying Table
Bending Forward and Bending Down
Posture as Relationship

YOUR HEART'S MESSENGERS

A Tour of Your Shoulders
Closing Your Shoulders
Shoulder Expression
Leverage
Shoulder Blade Pulses
Handprints on the Wall
Serratus Shortcut
Seated Sphinx
Reaching
Wall Traction
First Aid for Your "Mouse Arm"
Sacred Touch, Living Touch
Two-way Touching
Lifting Something Heavy

FOOTPRINTS

Self-assessment of Your Feet
Your Foot's Dimple
Relaxing Your Arches
Footprints on the Wall
Opening Your Feet
Alternating Pressure between Forefoot and Heel
Rocking from Stance Foot to Walking Foot
Stepping into Your Whole Heel
Help for Bunions
Aligning Your Legs
Shifting Sands
Sitting to Standing
Pushing the Floor
Sacred Ground

FACING THE WORLD

Jaw and Tongue Tensions
Nose and Palate Tension
Jaw and Inner Ear
Distinguishing Cranium and Face
Narrow Focus and Open Focus
Releasing Eye Tension
Receptive Eyes
Welcoming the World

HEALTHY WALKING

Stop and Go
Wall Traction Enhanced
Flying Table Enhanced
Hip Rotation
Counterrotation
Pelvic Gyroscope
Seated Spine Spirals
Initiating a Step
One Step
One Step with Rotation
Forget About It