M. Dahlen wrote:
'The person who started this thread said it should be about "any of the problems we might have that are assocated with poor posture." Wow. Seems to me the list is endless. I suspect osteoporosis, ADD, carpal tunnel, maybe even planters warts'
... that'd be 'plantar warts' - on the soles of the feet, I think.
' and the general fatigue syndrome relate to posture.'
... do you mean 'Chronic Fatigue Syndrome' (CFS)? I've had it for six years now (which is why it's taken me so long to catch up with your post), so I can tell you confidently that while poor posture does not
cause CFS,
good posture can help noticeably in relieving the symptoms, in particular both the fatigue and the frequently associated Fibromyalgia (FM) - unpredictable, severe pain in muscles and connective tissues (eg ligaments & tendons), occurring anywhere throughout the body.
'If you stand such that your spinal vertebrae stack in alignment then gravity holds you up (making every movement a weight-bearing exercise), releasing the muscles (saving energy), increasing circulation, and just making a person more comfortable.'
Spot on!
'The scary thing is that nobody is writing about this in any of the so-called "health" magazines, and nobody is doing research.'
I've seen some cautious posture advice on the "Men's Health" website, and also in their printed magazine; but nothing to make readers really sit up (!) and take notice as they need to. Of course, most of their readers are (at least in their wishes) more dedicated to getting and keeping fit than the average person who uses the PC for more than an hour a day. If they do go to the gym, one can hope they at least get basic instruction from the trainers in proper (weight-lifting and weight machine) techniques, and that
will help with their posture. On the flipside, it only takes five minutes of slouching to do a lot of bad, which undermines any good done elsewhere.
'I suspect that's because there's no money in fixing posture: no drugs, no gadgets to sell. But it doesn't even take much work: in my experience, after doing Esther Gokhale's course and reading her book, I would do the exercises just a little and get big benefits. It's like my body was just waiting to "do the right thing". Comments?
No, it doesn't, does it?
I've not seen Gokhale's materials, but I have benefitted greatly from a book I picked up about three years back (on the discount table!) at Dymock's Bookstore - "The Vance Stance", by Vance Bonner (Workman Publishing, NY, 1993) ISBN 156305-311-X. It's illustrated profusely and well, and the explanations on why you should take the trouble to learn to
stand correctly are simple, clear and sensible. From the minute I started to learn her techniques, I have gained considerable relief. Those techniques have also helped reduce the pain I have from an old sporting injury, which effectively destroyed the cartilage on the inside of my left knee. If I have to stand for more than 30 seconds, I take care to "assume the position"!
From the jacket blurb: "Teaching Balanced Alignment, a way of positioning yourself in space that enables you to move with more grace and power, Vance Bonner shows you how to work
with gravity instead of
against it to reshape your body and reverse the constricting postural habits of a lifetime. The Vance Stance and its program of Thirty-Four Movements will eliminate, step by step, (*) the causes of chronic joint and muscle pain while greatly increasing your body's flexibility. With knees unlocked, ankles unfrozen and spine fully lengthened, you will experience a dramatic new sense of limberness, energy and overall well-being."
With one small change, I fully endorse those statements. That change would be to insert the phrase "some of" before the words "the causes" at the point I marked (*) above. As I've said, I don't believe the Vance Stance, or Balanced Alignment, or any similar techniques, including Alexander Technique, can eliminate the causes of the FM pain experienced by many CFS sufferers. To the best of my knowledge, those causes lie in dysfunctions of the hindbrain. Yet I have found her work extremely useful in reducing the severity of those FM pains.
I can't comment on "rolfing". I thought it had to do with walking around in a trench coat on three legs, wobbling a board of masonite and singing "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" ...
but apparently it has
nothing to do with Rolf Harris. Considering the comments about rolfing made earlier in this thread, perhaps I should investigate further.
The other thing I've found helps with the knee cartilage problem is to take
glucosamine and chondroitin twice daily. It seems to help actually rebuild the cartilage a little, which is all it takes to stop the 'bone on bone' grinding I otherwise have, and thus most of the pain there.
Well, this reply has taken me two sessions to put together, one at 3pm yesterday, and the other just now, at 1am. That's what CFS will do for you ...
... so I could really do with any good ideas!
Yahya
