Welcome to Week 3 of Shape Up Saturday, where you get a little tidbit to work into your daily routine. My goal, as always, is to help everyone achieve a better version of themselves, one small change at a time. Today we’re talking about posture and how to start improving it.
Stop and observe yourself right now. How are you sitting? (Or standing, lying down… whatever.) Chances are your head is jutted past your shoulders as you read on your laptop, tablet, smartphone, what-have-you.
Like this good man here.
Do you know how much weight you’re supporting right now? The average human head weighs somewhere between 8-12 pounds, but when you’re leaning forward the pressure increases so it’s more like you’re holding up 32 pounds… OR MORE.
That’s some incredibly inefficient weightlifting. Look at the strain on the neck, back, and shoulders of the man in the center and on the right. All that pointless work is probably going to do a number on the jaw too. You’re also decreasing your ability to take oxygen in easily, and there’s no easier way to get stupider than to deprive the brain of oxygen, right?
Forward head syndrome. Ow.
The truth is that in this Age of Technology we all use bad posture at least sometimes. We NEED to stop abusing our skeletal structure, though, because bad posture begets pain with begets tension which begets even worse posture, and so on.
The most obvious way to stop the pain is to just stop sitting like that. I know that we’re creatures of habit, though, so that’s going to take some time.
In the meantime, while you’re on the road towards practicing better posture, let’s look at another example of painful posture.
Sometimes, in an effort to not push our heads forward, we simply slide them back, like so:
This good man is probably experiencing a great deal of pain standing like this!
While you may not exaggerate as much as this guy, I HAVE seen this show up a lot. I find that teaching correct posture is much easier when we talk about LIFTING the head.
And that lift comes from the bump behind your earlobes, called the mastoid process.
Behold, the mastoid process.
The head FLOATS above the shoulders, just as the ribcage should float over the hips. The neck shouldn’t have to strain to hold the head up, and when we focus on gently floating the head up (starting with the mastoid process), we are well on our way towards better posture.
Of course, previous postural abuse to our body may have tightened muscles, making it difficult to achieve easy, effortless good posture.
One way to start relieving the pain is to use the stretch I demonstrated last week.
Another is to stretch the chest:
Collarbone lifted! Note the position of the ears over the shoulders.
If your shoulders are/have been injured or you’re just too tight to do the stretch clasping your hands, you can still get a nice stretch by sitting tall on your bed/couch/floor and reaching your arms behind you in a low V, walking the fingers back until you get a nice stretch through the chest/shoulders/biceps.
Here’s one last exercise you can add into your stoplight-sitting routine: the cervical nod. It’s a simple nod of the head.
The skull should feel like it’s sliding easily up and down – the less you strain to do this, the better.
Behold, another ridiculous Vine clip:
Note how soft the muscles in my neck are – no strain.
So that’s it for this week’s post. I just feel silly making these Vines, but if you find them helpful, I’ll keep making them.
Just for you.
Yes you.
So what are you hoping I’ll talk about next week?
Welcome to Week 2 of Shape Up Saturday! This week we’re talking about letting go of all that ridiculous tension in the neck and shoulders.
Out of all the strange and painful things that people unconsciously do to their bodies, I find the stress in the neck and shoulders to be the most interesting. Nobody wants to have all that tension up there. And yet when we’re trying so hard to do a plank, drive in crazy traffic, or spend a few hours on Facebook on the computer writing or studying, our neck and shoulders get tight and we mess up our posture.
Why do we keep hurting ourselves like this?
My opinion (freely and frequently stated during my Pilates classes) is that we have all this energy constantly running through our bodies. Even if you don’t feel particularly energetic, the potential for energy is still there. Anytime we tighten a muscle we’re directing a small amount of that energy to a particular part of our body.
The problem is that we don’t always use our energy efficiently. That plank you were holding? The work should have been more like this:
Shoulder tension can’t save you now!
And driving? Sitting at the computer? If you think about it, hunching your shoulders does nothing. Those jerks that cut you off and those trolls on Huffington Post feel nothing when you tense your shoulders. You are the only one that feels that pain.
IT DOES YOU NO GOOD. Your stomach doesn’t get stronger from tensing your shoulders – in fact, it makes it harder to properly target the correct muscles for whatever you’re doing. You’re taking this beautiful skeletal structure and unnecessarily lifting it up.
So let’s transfer that somewhere a little more useful… like our abdominals. We want the energy to go into the muscles that can actually help us with our task, and we want to send the bad feelings away from us completely. Right? Right.
So.
I took it upon myself to set up a Vine account yesterday when it occurred to me that Vine would actually be a useful tool for quickly showing the proper positioning for the exercises I’ll be recommending throughout my Shape Up Saturday series. Because I’m awesome I asked my husband to video me demonstrating this neck stretch – and because I’m lazy you’ll see me with no makeup. Yep.
So here it is. Try this the next time you’re sitting at a stoplight or waiting for a webpage to load:
In case using Vine was a terrible idea and I totally wasted my time and dignity posting that clip and you can’t view it, I’ll post pictures:
Sitting tall, exhale chin to chest (it’s less about tucking the chin to the chest and more about lengthening the neck while you’re down there):
Inhale and roll head to one side, nose pointing forward, neck long.
Exhale and roll head back down to the chest, still keeping the neck long.
Inhale and roll head to the other side. The more you lengthen the neck the better the stretch will be.
Repeat until the light turns green. I know this is a super simple stretch, but we all need to decrease the load on our shoulders, whether we’re writers, readers, or candlestick makers.
Did you try it? How do you feel? Did the Vine clip work for you? If you want me to cover a topic, let me know!
Have you been pregnant? Yes? Cool. This post may be very helpful for recovering from pregnancy, even if it’s been years since you waddled your last waddle. If you haven’t been pregnant, guess what? This post is STILL for you. Don’t run away so quickly.
I’m kicking off my Shape Up Saturday series by talking about our core. This is something I CONSTANTLY talk about in my classes, so I’m sure I have a lot to say, but I’ll keep this as concise as possible.
Okay. So.
Our core can get soft and weak for so many reasons. To name just a few: pregnancy, busy schedules back injuries that require weeks/months of rest, or maybe, just maybe, the computer chair is getting more attention than the yoga mat. Whatever our reason, it’s likely that the weak core will lead to back pain, neck pain, back pain, shoulder/neck pain, back pain, back pain, and other pains. All this pain can lead to damaged vertebrae, tense muscles, and crummy sleep.
And who wants to hurt all the time?
One way we try to fix a weak core is with crunches or sit ups. But if we are pregnant, postnatal, overweight, or even a body builder, we can end up with this:
Diastasis Recti – not cool
Diastatis Recti again – still not cool
That’s a Diastasis Recti. This occurs when the rectus abdominis, which is commonly known as the ‘six pack’ that everyone’s always trying to attain, splits. The abdominals as a collective muscle group can’t function well if it maintains this split.
You can determine if you have a split by lying down on your back and with your knees bent. Place your fingertips in the umbilicus and lift your head (not the shoulders) a few times as you press slightly deeper. Feel for the edges of the rectus muscles coming up. The number of fingers that fit in the space between the edges tells you how wide the separation is. A half a finger width indicates no diastasis. A finger or greater indicates there is one.
So what do you do? Suck your stomach in?
Abso-freaking-lutely NOT. Sucking your stomach in restricts your air flow (your diaphragm can’t move around properly in there), your ribcage, shoulders, and neck take on TONS of tension that they just don’t deserve, you don’t engage your deepest (and most helpful) abdominal muscles, the transverse abdominis, and that’s Just. Not Comfortable. Save sucking in your stomach for those 10 uncomfortable seconds you have to squeeze past someone to get to your seat at Thanksgiving dinner.
What you do instead is start by relaxing your stomach, and breathing.
That’s right. Just breathe for a second.
And now take a look at this picture:
A well-explained picture – note the direction each of the muscles move, especially the transverse abdominis.
As I mentioned earlier, the transverse abdominis is the deepest of the abdominal muscles, and can help heal diastasis recti. Below is a simple exercise to heal the split, called transverse pulses.
If you don’t have diastasis recti, this is still an important exercise to use when doing nearly any other exercise, as it will help properly support the spine. Try it and see if you can sense your abdominals better (you should also feel more relaxed!)
Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, place your hands on your belly.
And that’s it! Sometimes you can’t find that deep awareness of the transverse until you’ve done a set or so. Having a good relationship with our bodies take time and attention, but it’s worth it.
Tell me how you feel after trying this! Also, let me know what part of the body you’d like to strengthen/stretch/relax next.
So having a baby really takes away your free time, doesn’t it? Roz is nearly 3 months old, and my writing output has been… sad. Very sad. In addition to teaching dance and Pilates approximately 30 hours a week, there’s just too many diapers to change. Too much spit-up to clean up. Too many sleepless nights. Too many moments that she’s smiling at me and I Must. Take. Picture.
She’s a fantastic cuddler.
I’d planned on having my novel ready for WorldCon, but – well, HA! That didn’t happen, and I have to be okay with that.
But really, who couldn’t be okay spending all day with someone like this?
So it is what it is.
Life happened.
I’m just going to go and enjoy my time. I met tons of awesome people last year, and I think this year’s going to be just as great. And, you know, if someone’s interested in a partially finished middle-grade underwater fantasy with mermaids, dragons, witches, and narwhal horns, well, they can come talk to me.
in other news, I made a sale to Fireside! (Like, over a month ago. My friends on Facebook heard about it, so there’s that. But we’ve already gone over the baby thing.) I’m very pleased to have a story with this magazine. Brian White, the editor, is great to work with and there are tons of fantastic writers also appearing this year in Fireside. My issue isn’t coming out until March 2014, but I’m okay to wait. There’s always more writing to do and other stories to sell.
And diapers to change.
As a final note, I’m starting a wellness feature on my blog because I absolutely LOVE Pilates and what it’s done for me and my students, and I think everyone can benefit from Pilates, especially with all the time we spend reading on our computers, tablets, and smartphones. I’ll be talking about posture, the proper way to engage muscles and hold positions, and short, sweet ways to strengthen your body as well as different relaxation techniques.
ALL FOR THE PRICE OF ZERO DOLLARS. Because this is a blog, and you get it for free.
Unless you wanted to pay me. I’m sure one of these days I’ll link Paypal to this blog or something.
Well, that’s it. I’ve got writing to do while Roz sleeps. If you see me at WorldCon, come say hello! It’s highly likely you’ll see Roz wearing a steampunk hat or something else equally precious.
With getting ready for Baby Cherry and the increase of time spent teaching and attending dance competitions lately, I have not only neglected to post much here, but I didn’t even mention I sold my story, “Opportunity on a Dusty Road,” to Azure Keep Quarterly two weeks ago. It’s a story that was inspired by an event when Merrit and I were moving from Idaho to Texas about a year and a half ago. I waited about a year to write the story, and it turned out about as fun and light as I’d planned it. I’m glad it found a good home at AKQ.
The story should be published sometime in June/July, so I’ll update when it comes out.
I also discovered tonight that Penumbra published my guest blog back at the end of March! I talk about how my love for reading and writing speculative fiction started. Here’s the link if you want to check it out:
http://penumbraezine.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-moment-with-dantzel-cherry.html
Check out the awesome cover for Penumbra’s February 2013 issue! My story, “The Business is Dying,” along with 6 other zombie-tastic stories, will be available this Friday, February 1st. It’ll be available in all formats (PDF, ePUB, PRC, and Mobi)
It’s crazy that this is finally happening.
Dantzel Cherry 