Don`t Move A Muscle -- Until You Learn How To Do It Right.

April 09, 1986|By Tara Bennet-Goleman. From American Health magazine via Washington Post Writers Group.

Close your eyes and imagine your body stripped down to its underlying muscles. Now watch yourself in action: As you sit, stand, climb, bend, walk, a corps of muscles contracts and flexes, endlessly synchronized in a harmonious dance. Even an action as simple as standing requires the split-second tensing and relaxing of muscles that keep your bony framework erect and balanced.

But how you move your muscles can make the difference between feeling stiff and tense or relaxed and energetic. Most crucial are your movement habits, those repeated patterns you rarely notice--until, finally, abused muscles sound a painful distress signal.

There`s a great store of accumulated wisdom about how to read, diagnose and remedy movement habits that build muscle tension. But they all share a central insight: Movement habits make a subtle but critical difference in a person`s energy and well-being.

``A major problem is that we use extra muscles unnecessarily,`` says body worker Gail Fries of Amherst, Mass. ``Or we move so the muscles that should provide primary support aren`t able to, putting tremendous strain on the wrong muscles.``

``The ideal way to move is to keep your body as relaxed as possible,``

says San Francisco body worker Roy Bonney. ``For example, when sitting or standing, let your body be supported by the muscles and skeleton below, rather than by the straining of muscles from above. If your head is square atop your spine, it will be held effortlessly. If it`s extended forward, your neck and shoulder muscles must contract to support it.`` Awareness of movement habits is the first step.

Stand tall: What could be simpler than standing? Yet to a body worker`s trained eye, that position is fraught with subtle tension. One good system for finding the best relationship between your upright body and gravity is the Alexander technique. Its instructors emphasize finding the optimal

relationship between spine, neck and skull. But it`s subtle. The idea is to let your thoughts gently guide your body into more fluid and poised moves.

The mental formula they use as a suggestion to your body: Neck free, head up, back lengthening and widening, and shoulders spread. You don`t actually make these movements--it`s just a suggestion to your body.

Sit square on your ``sit bones``: There`s something to Mom`s old admonition to ``sit up straight.`` The spine is never really straight--it has permanent curves that were never meant to straighten out--but you don`t want to exaggerate those curves. The idea is to lengthen the spine as much as possible, within natural limits.

You should sit square on your ``sit bones,`` not slumped backward on your tailbone, the bottom of the spine. Find your ``sit bones``--the two bony protuberances in your buttocks--and balance your weight evenly on these. With your head centered along a center line of the body, imagine your head resting on an upright rod. Now imagine a sky hook--running from your head to the balloon above--lengthening and freeing your neck. Let your feet rest easily, flat on the floor.


If while sitting at your desk you reach for something, try to keep your weight on your ``sit bones`` and bend from your pelvis, leading the bend with the top of your head. Bend with your whole spine, keeping it as long as possible during the bend.

Walk--with the sky hook and ``tail``: Of all our everyday moves, perhaps none embodies our movement quirks as does the simple act of walking. Here again, use the sky hook and the ``growing tail`` as gentle reminders. Think of your spine lengthening, your head leading your torso upward as your weight ascends.

As you walk, your toes should point straight ahead; your shoulders should hang down to leave your neck free of tension.

Lift with your legs: As you prepare to lift something heavy, your body is likely to overprepare by bracing all its muscles. Two signs to watch for:

tightening your neck and holding your breath. No matter how heavy the weight, none of this is necessary.

The basics of a safe lift are determined by simple physics. Keep the object as close to your center of gravity as possible. The more you extend your back and arms from your belly and the more you bend over, the greater the load on your spine.

Get as close to the object as you can, preferably with your feet on either side of it--instead of behind it--and your knees apart. Place one foot ahead of the other, so it`s already placed where you`ll take your first step. Keep your back straight through the whole lift, and use your knees to bend and straighten up. Hold the object between your legs, not out front, and use your leg muscles--not your back and arms--to lift. --