
I'll Tell You What is Causing Pain for Almost Everyone in the Western World - twelch
http://chrishugh.blogspot.com/2010/09/article-improve-your-posture-and-reduce.html
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stretchwithme
I feel posture just aggravates existing muscular problems. Its good to
understand the mechanisms that cause and perpetuate these problems.

There's the muscle sheaths that have stiffened by the lack of use of the full
range of motion and the constant deposition of collagen, which literally glues
the sheath to itself. This tight sheath can impair blood flow to a muscle,
especially when the muscle is contracted for a long time. The contracting
muscle presses out against a tight sheath. Blood takes the path of least
resistance.

That lack of healthy blood flow can cause the sarcomeres, the contractile unit
of muscle, to get stuck in their contracted position. This is how a muscle
gets tight and actually shorter.

When a muscle gets very stiff, a trigger point can develop. A trigger point is
just an area where many sarcomeres are tight. We certainly notice trigger
points, but the muscle gradually hardens for a while before a trigger point
develops.

The hard muscles are shorter and thicker and this makes manipulating the
sheath to break up the collagen much harder. But if the muscle is softened
first, it can be done.

Massage is how you soften the muscle and get the sarcomeres in it functioning
again. Massage pushes depleted blood out and then new blood is pulled in from
the capillaries.

But there's still one other factor and that is the way muscles communicate
with each other to accomplish work. When one muscle is engaged, other muscles
receive nerve signals to help. And if there is a trigger point in one muscle,
other muscles are engaged via the nerves.

When trying to sit for a long time, tight muscles may be pulling you in one
direction, requiring other muscles to have to work constantly to keep you
upright. This is why maintaining a natural posture can be difficult. It ought
to be something you don't have to struggle to do.

So you may have a tense muscles but it may be another muscle that is the root
cause. All of the muscles need to considered and massaged in a systematic way.

~~~
joe_the_user
Bingo!

Excellent point... "Stand-up straight" as advice is simply too simple.

Still, I think your good advice from Trigger Point therapy should be
supplemented with some information from the Alexander technique.

You see, original article begin correctly in saying that "bones don't get
tired, muscle get tired". _If_ someone could stand or sit without muscular
tension, they _could_ avoid getting or aggravating trigger points.

BUT....

It's just that at point of being in distress, people just don't know how to do
that. And there really isn't an easy instruction set that will tell most
people how to do that because... trigger points and habitual misalignment
causes people's sense of their bodily position itself to be distorted.
Specifically, when your muscle is habitually shorted, it "feels" to the person
like that muscle where it should be. So a person who say is told to
"straighten their back" will do by tensing another muscle to fight _against_
their habitually shortened muscle. And so in practice, as you observe,
"posture doesn't help".

Still solution to people's misuse of themselves _also_ has include something
like a "hands-on retraining" of the body so the muscles and nerve learn
together what "upright" actually means.

I'd link to Wikipedia on the Alexander technique but the article has gotten so
crufty it's an embarrassment... Still, retraining of "use of the self" is an
important compliment to any massage.

~~~
stretchwithme
I think a lot of the problems are caused by shoes, chairs and toilets. We more
fully exercised our range of motion every day before all of these things that
made our lives easier and stiffer.

~~~
joe_the_user
Yes, these things "cause" plenty of problems. But not by themselves - our
unconscious adaptation to them is part of the mix as well. The pace of modern
life also comes in.

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ryanwaggoner
This would have been about 20x as useful with pictures or videos to illustrate
what the author is talking about.

~~~
tremendo
Conditioning Research just posted about posture
[http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2010/09/posture.htm...](http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2010/09/posture.html)

It shows a couple of videos and mentions the Gokhale Method
<http://www.egwellness.com/gokhale-method> and Ageless Spine by Kathleen
Porter <http://www.agelessspine.com/book.htm> also links to previous posts
with further discussion like the Asian squat, and images/videos

You might find it useful

[edited to add] These direct links from CR should be more relevant
[http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/posture-
fun...](http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/posture-functional-
training-and-b-squat.html)
[http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/posture-
age...](http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/posture-ageless-
spine.html) [http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/esther-
gokh...](http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/esther-gokhale.html)

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nix
_Muscles Get Tired, Bones Don't._

This is simply incorrect, as are most of the conclusions that follow from it.
Basically, many muscles can trade off individual contractile fibers to remain
under tension all day without perceived tiredness.

You are not a stack of blocks and you can hurt yourself by pretending that you
are. Your body includes tensile as well as compressive structures and the
whole thing is tied together with a control system. You are not meant to stand
up without reflex muscle contraction! (You also aren't meant to sit or stand
in one position for very long, but that's a longer discussion).

I trained as an Alexander Technique Teacher, but for the technically inclined
I'd recommend reading Moshe Feldenkrais's _Awareness Through Movement_ as an
antidote to this way of thinking. See _Understanding Balance_ by Tristan
Roberts for more detailed information about postural reflexes.

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gruseom
The trouble with advice like this:

    
    
      Stick your butt out [...] Stick out your chest
      and fill up your lungs. Now tuck in your chin [...]
    

is that people interpret it to mean they should apply force to correct their
habitual posture, which is like trying to bend something rigid back into
place: it compounds the problem. Of course it's hard and often painful to do
this, so we almost never keep it up (barring some sort of military regimen),
which is probably a good thing.

What's really needed are ways to undo the rigidity. No doubt there are a
variety of these. The most effective I've found is the Alexander Technique, an
early 20th century form of bodywork that remains modestly widespread, i.e.
it's not that popular but you can find teachers in most major cities. It's a
curious, very gentle and non-invasive practice that is somewhat
counterintuitive but in the hands of a good teacher (I tried three, only one
of whom was good) delivers lasting results. I recommend it to anyone who likes
to explore this kind of thing.

~~~
caryme
I highly recommend finding an Alexander teacher as well. I took Alexander
classes through my university (it is common among musicians) with John Henes -
a great Alexander teacher in Evanston, IL if you're in Chicagoland.

One day in class I particularly remember, prof Henes brought a balance board
(one of those round boards on a ball) and asked us to balance on it. He then
pointed out that the way we naturally tried to balance was to force the board
down in reaction to movements. He taught us to instead balance our bodies, and
if we were truly balanced, the board would be too when we stood on it.

~~~
gruseom
Yes, the Alexander Technique is by far best known among musicians and actors,
so much so that for many years it was thought of as an acting practice. (Of
course Alexander himself was an actor and developed his technique while
figuring out why he had lost his voice.) I think this is because these
professions have a lot to do with how body and consciousness work together,
and this is the area in which AT is very practical. To some people that might
sound like gobbledygook, but when your profession depends on it you quickly go
with what's practical.

The teacher I like best (who's in the San Diego area) told me that her dream
was to get more athletes to realize how much they could get out of it.

------
modeless
Where is the science? Show me some studies and experiments. This qualitative
BS is worse than useless.

~~~
jcl
A study has shown that slouching may actually be better than sitting up
straight.

[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article65231...](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article652318.ece)

------
staktrace
For those interested, there's a book on this topic that is excellent and
provides 8 postures improvements (complete with pictures) that will help keep
pain away. [http://www.amazon.com/Steps-Pain-Free-Back-Solutions-
Shoulde...](http://www.amazon.com/Steps-Pain-Free-Back-Solutions-
Shoulder/dp/0979303605) \- there's also an Authors@Google talk by the author
on Youtube (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yYJ4hEYudE>) if you want a taste
before buying the book.

------
richcollins
A third option is leaning back in your chair. I find that I never get tired of
sitting in this position.

~~~
euroclydon
Yeah, but you have to curve your neck forward, which seems to cause it to bear
the weight of your head on a curved portion of the spine rather than a stacked
one.

------
pkaler
This article is not specific enough. I highly recommend finding an Alexander
Technique instructor in your area.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_technique>

A good book I've read on the Alexander Technique is _How You Stand, How You
Move, How You Live_ by Missy Vineyard. <http://www.amazon.com/How-You-Stand-
Move-Live/dp/1600940064>

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niels_olson
Doctor here. Best things you can do are, in order: work out 4 to 5 times a
week, eat real food (not to much, mostly plants), and get a standing desk. If
you like massage, have at it. Brazilians, well, I don't know. The only
Brazilian I know well is an art dealer who advocates Coca Cola as tanning
lotion and has a 30' snake skin on the wall.

------
cilantro
A trick my mom taught me to find a neutral posture: Stand normally. Stick your
arms straight out at your sides, palms facing straight up. Bring your arms
down slowly, letting them rotate naturally.

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z0r
Taking up lifting as a hobby, especially squatting, has done wonders for my
posture (although it is by no means perfect)

~~~
eru
Yes, I am also quite free of back pains since taking up weight lifting. I do
get sore occasionally, but that usually does not hurt.

------
rglullis
"The Masai, most Brazilians, gymnasts (but only when they're actually doing
exercises) and anyone who carries rocks on their heads for a living, have an
upright posture."

Somebody would give a shot at explaining why (most) Brazilians were singled-
out in this example?

~~~
swah
Apparently we carry rocks on our heads for a living?

~~~
aristus
All that capoeira and streetfighting too. Must be hard to do with a pile of
rocks on your head.

------
udfalkso
This excellent book explains many of the same ideas.

[http://www.amazon.com/Steps-Pain-Free-Back-Solutions-
Shoulde...](http://www.amazon.com/Steps-Pain-Free-Back-Solutions-
Shoulder/dp/0979303605)

------
fady
what about aeron chairs? They "suspend" me in a good position, whereas other
chairs cause soreness if I sit for long periods of time.

What I've noticed from years of "sitting jobs", is that you need to keep the
hips, lower back firing/moving. Exercise balls helps a lot. I love siting on
exercise balls, as they keep the hips, lower back engage. While sitting on my
ball and working, I can rotate my hips in any direction, keeping my muscles
stretched/firing. Even those "sitting discs" work well:
[http://www.amazon.com/FitBALL-Seating-
Disc-12-Green/dp/B0011...](http://www.amazon.com/FitBALL-Seating-
Disc-12-Green/dp/B0011YWOSK)

------
jxcole
I thought this article would be about internet explorer 6.

