Playing with Posture in France
Want to improve your posture?
Here are a few things I’ve done over the past year that have helped a lot. I like to play with these while running, so these are especially fun to do while moving.
Spinal Awareness – (From the) Bottom Up!
Great for awareness of the entire spine, floor to ceiling.
- Contract the anus a few times so that you are really awa˝re of the area around the low spine (just above the anus is the coccyx, then the sacrum and then the rest of the spine rises up into the neck and skull).
- Then starting from the bottom, inhale and imagine that the air you are inhaling is gently moving up your spine and that it expands and lifts your spine as it moves up. Invite your spine to float up, as if you were lighter than air, following the movement of air and spine with your awareness, upwards from coccyx to crown. Notice how the spine gently lifts and unfolds and the body opens.
- Do this a few times, following the movement, noticing the movement in the body each time.d. Now notice as much of the spinal area as you can, coccyx to crown (bone, muscle, skin, etc).
- Use this exercise to help you relax your spine and back and to be more aware of them and their position. This exercise is also a great way to start focusing on your spine before you do any of the other exercises below.
Spinal Tube
This exercise is great for aligning the whole spine.
- This is super simple. Imagine that your spine is a tube. As you inhale, imagine that your breath is gently flowing down your spine, and that the whole tube is lengthening, flowing down, relaxing, expanding and opening as the air floods through.
- Let the breath smooth out any kinks in the tube, and allow the back to relax, loosening all of the back muscles as it goes. This is an air massage. It feels great!
- Do this for a few breaths or until you feel un-kinked.
- This is great to do while moving, especially exercising, and if you do it while running, for instance, you can play with improving your gait at the same time (better posture = easier stride).
Spinal Tube with Navel Hold
This one is great for abdominal and low back awareness. Also, strengthens the abdominals. This one is for those of you that like challenges.
- Once you get good at the above practice, add a gentle drawing in (pulling in) of the navel towards the spine. Keep breathing and relaxing at the same time!
- This practice is actually a bit tricky, because you want to relax the back as much as possible and at the same time keep the abdomen contracted. The dichotomy creates an interesting challenge for the mind and the body.
- Again, be gentle. The point here is not force. The point is awareness, so notice your body and how it reacts to this interplay of relaxation and gentle contraction.
Hip Space
This exercise allows more room between the thighs for the pelvis to move, so that great pelvic alignment is easy to find.
- Stand comfortably, feet hip width apart.
- Staying upright (without leaning the upper body forward), bend your knees and lower your body straight down towards the ground a few inches (a very shallow squat)
- Soften your whole pelvic area, especially your buttock and hip muscles by imagining that you are made of melting butter!
- Standing like this, your pelvis has more room to move. Loosen it up a bit and enjoy this increased freedom by rocking the base of your pelvis gently back and forth, moving your pubic bone and coccyx (the bony mound at the bottom front of your pelvis above your genitals and in back, the seat bones at the base of your spine).
- Drop your sit bone, your coccyx bone at the bottom of your spine, down towards the ground, straightening your low back and letting your your pelvic bone move forward as your spine straightens.
- Keeping your pelvis in this new position slowly and gently straighten your knees feeling what a straighter lower back feels like.
- Feel which parts of your back, buttocks, hips, thighs, knees, etc feel tight or restricted in this position. If you feel fairly comfortable, take a few steps, again feeling for restrictions.
- If you feel really comfortable walk around feeling into this position, reminding your body what this feels like, and how to move in this position. Let this be gentle, fluid and dynamic. The point here is not to force anything. The point is to gain awareness, to notice the body.
Enjoy!,
Elena
What exercises do you do that improve your posture?