Here’s another video to help you get started with relaxed, comfortable standing. Standing is a bit more challenging to learn than sitting, so take it easy and practice for shorter amounts of time, until it feels more natural. It should feel strange at first!
Sometimes when people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them that I teach posture classes to relieve back pain, they say, “Oh, I don’t have back pain.” Actually, I didn’t think I had back pain either! When I first met Jean Couch, author of The Runner’s Yoga Book, and started studying with her, it was because I wanted to look better. I was afraid of ending up all hunched over like so many older people I saw around me.
But after studying with Jean for a while, I realized that I was getting more and more comfortable sitting at my computer working. I hadn’t realized that the nagging, achy feeling I had at the end of my workday was actually back pain! That is, until it went away! I had been “putting up with” the discomfort because I assumed it was normal, and that there was nothing I could do about it. Have you ever felt that way?
I also became much more comfortable driving, and noticed that I was also more alert when commuting. Again, I would never have said I had “back pain”, but the discomfort I felt when driving or flying on a plane was taking a toll on my energy and well-being. There was also the pain I felt when washing dishes or chopping vegetables.
A lot of discomfort or pain is believed to be “just part of getting older”. Do you really want to accept that? Or can you envision growing old with grace and ease, feeling comfortable in your body and staying active? This is possible!
So, do you have back pain? Here are some questions to consider:
1. Do you squirm with discomfort when sitting at the computer or at lectures or classes?
2. Does driving for long distances or flying on a plane leave you feeling strained and exhausted?
3. Have you eliminated things you love to do because of pain or discomfort (traveling, sports, socializing)?
4. Can you sit in a chair as long as you want, or do you have to get up several times an hour to avoid pain?
5. Can you walk several miles without paying for it afterwards?
Now, some of you KNOW you have back pain. Sometimes there’s no question about it. But I find there are a lot of people who just put up with a low level of pain or discomfort on a daily basis – because they don’t believe they can do anything about it.
The Balance Method can help you with this! How would you like to learn simple postural guidelines that you can practice anywhere, anytime to reduce or eliminate your pain? What would your life be like if you knew what to do to prevent or relieve your pain, wherever you are? We see people in many countries throughout the world that have elegant posture and pain-free bodies. They stay straight and active into their old age.
This is possible for all of us. We all were In Balance as children (up until age 3), and then most of us in the U.S. lost our natural posture. Come to a 2-Hour Balance workshop to learn more about this, see some fabulous slides of Balanced people, and learn how to sit pain-free!
© 2011 Dana K. Davis
Do you experience neck pain or tension? Does your neck get tight and limit your movement? Many students who come to my classes experience neck pain, as well as headaches and restricted range-of-motion. This can be miserable and lead you to tense up even more to try to avoid triggering the pain cycle again.
In the past few months I’ve written about tension headaches and Forward Head position (FHP). I mentioned that the cause of the head and shoulders moving forward is the pelvis moving too far forward. The farther forward your pelvis is in sitting, standing and walking, the farther forward your head, neck and shoulders will have to move to compensate for this. As the head moves forward, it effectively “weighs” more, and the pressure on the neck muscles increases dramatically.
If you’ve had injuries or accidents like I have (whiplashes), then you have another layer on top of the posture problem. What can you do to feel better?
Help on the Way
To start with, you can begin to practice aligning yourself in Balance. I’ve written about this in previous posts, but now I have a new video that you can watch to help you learn to sit in Balance. To see the video, check out my previous post from March 18, 2011. If you begin to sit this way whenever you can remember, this will be a big help. You’ll stop causing your head and shoulders to be pushed forward.
Then you’ll need to do some stretches for the neck and shoulders to help them gradually move back. This will help relieve the strain you may feel in your neck. One of these is called the “W” stretch.
To do this, sit as in the video mentioned above. Relax your shoulders. Draw each shoulder back and down without lifting your chest. Bend your elbows and bring your hands out to the side and up to about shoulder level, making the letter “W” with your arms. Make sure to relax your back. Now, use your abdominals to resist your chest lifting up, and gently press your arms back a bit behind you. Be gentle and don’t force this. You should feel stretching in front of your shoulders and toning in back, near your shoulder blades. Hold for 30 seconds or so, and release.
A Few Other Tips for a Healthy Neck
Don’t do “neck rolls” (rolling your head in a circle as an exercise). This is tough on the neck, and can trigger headaches in those with injuries or a history of neck pain.
Try this instead: gently drop the head to the right – toward your right shoulder. Relax both shoulders down away from your ears. Let the weight of your head stretch your neck. After 30-60 seconds, gently roll your head forward and back it up to vertical again. Then repeat on the other side. See how you feel after doing this exercise. If you feel fine, you might decide to do this daily to help stretch your neck. It’s important when doing any neck exercises to be GENTLE. Don’t force anything.
A Few Helpful Things if Your Neck Hurts
I’ve had success using homeopathic arnica ointment on my neck. It is very soothing when my neck has been tight and sore.
I have also used a hot/cold pack that is sold to go around the knee. I bought it at a pharmacy, and you put the pack in water that has just boiled and soak it for 7 minutes. Then the pack slips into a sleeve that you can wrap around your neck and secure with velcro. The warmth can be a great relief to tight, sore neck muscles.
If your neck hurts, try sitting in Balance, doing some gentle neck stretches, or using the arnica ointment or hot pack. Let me know how this works for you! For upcoming workshops and classes to improve your posture and reduce pain, visit www.sonomabodybalance.com.
© 2011 Dana K. Davis
Check out this video which will show you how to sit pain-free. This should make some of my previous blog posts more clear. Try it out and let me know how it works for you!
© 2011 Dana K. Davis
You’ve seen it before: kids sitting down texting, with their heads slumped way forward, hanging in front of their spines. It’s becoming more and more common due to our typical American “out of Balance” posture combined with the amount of time we spend sitting and looking at some sort of electronic screen. 1
The typical American sitting posture
What’s the Problem?
The technical name for it is Forward Head Posture, and it is associated with headaches, neck and shoulder pain, muscle spasms, excessive upper back curve (thoracic kyphosis), nerve compression and fatigue. It’s easy to get into a repetitive cycle of pain, spasm and more pain. As we age, these symptoms can get worse.
For every inch that the head moves forward, it has the effect of adding 10 pounds of perceived weight. So, if your head weighs 12 pounds and moves forward 2 inches, it’s as if your head now weighs 32 pounds! The muscles of your neck and upper back will have a constant added strain in this position. These chronically contracted muscles become oxygen-starved and can develop a build-up of toxic waste products due to a lack of circulation.
What’s Causing this Epidemic?
It’s widely believed that the amount of time Americans spend sitting at desks is a cause of Forward Head Posture (FHP). Incorrect ergonomics can also play a part here.
One chiropractor has referred to FHP as “text neck” after seeing more and more young patients with degenerative changes in the neck due to too much texting with the head forward (Dean Fishman, DC). He says that “Because the demographic of people ages 13-27 is one of the largest groups of texters, we can expect to see a large increase of medical and chiropractic conditions within the next decade.”2
One thing that I don’t see mentioned in most articles on posture is that there are populations of people who sit a lot in less developed countries, and these people stay in healthy alignment, with elongated spines, ease of movement and flexibility well into their old age. Noelle Perez-Christiaens and Jean Couch have studied these people extensively, and have done decades of research on the characteristics of healthy posture.
Sitting in the typical American posture tends to lead you down the road to misalignment and pain. I’m referring to the alternating cycle of trying to “sit up straight” using muscle tension (which is exhausting) and then when the muscles tire, collapsing – ending up with FHP.
So How Can You Get Your Head Back in Alignment?
What can you do about this? You can follow the example of Balanced cultures from around the world, and of children under 3 years old, who have naturally aligned posture. It’s an instinct we all have as children, but we lose it as we learn by imitation from those around us in our culture.
What’s most important is to sit on your sitz bones. You may think you know this already, but everywhere I go I see people sitting with a tucked pelvis – sitting on their backs rather than their butts. I go into a lot more detail on this in my article from December 2009 “10 Tips for Pain-Free Sitting” (http://www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog/2009/12/).
If you find yourself in this “out of Balance” position, pull your feet under your chair, bend forward from your hip joints (not your waist), lift your pelvis up and move it to the back of the chair. Of course, this is pretty difficult on a deep couch. I’d recommend trying a simple folding chair to start with – one with a fairly flat seat.
The head moves forward when the pelvis moves forward. So, to get the head to move back, you must start with getting the pelvis back underneath your spine. Then you can begin to “rebuild” the spine from the base up, lengthening your lower back by releasing your front ribs down. Allow the vertebrae to stack on top of each other like blocks, rather than tilting them back at angles by lifting your chest.
Finally, you can work with the shoulders, neck and head. Draw each shoulder back and down, pulling your shoulder blades down your back. Tuck your chin in towards your throat and give the back of your neck a stretch. Then relax. Remember not to “hold” the position for more than a minute or so, because chronic muscle contraction leads to oxygen deprivation of the muscles, as mentioned above.
Doing some simple stretches and movements on a regular basis can also help increase circulation in areas that are tightly held habitually. Try simply raising your arms slowly in front of you, then overhead; then lower them out to the sides and back as you return to where you started, with your arms at your sides. These arm circles can help to loosen up tight areas, increasing range-of-motion and circulation.
I will be going over more exercises and stretches to realign the neck, shoulders and head in my upcoming workshops in the East Bay and in Petaluma in March. For more information, visit www.sonomabodybalance.com/html/workshops.html.
© 2011 Dana K. Davis
References:
1 For more information on risks of wireless technology, see http://emfsafetynetwork.org/
2“Forward Head Posture Caused by Texting” by Dean Fishman, DC, Dynamic Chiropractic newsletter, April 2010
I meet a lot of people who have been injured doing yoga and are afraid to try it again. Others who have never done yoga may be fearful of the “pretzel” poses that they see on the covers of yoga magazines. I’d like to give you some helpful tips so you can do yoga safely, even if you’ve never tried it before.
1) Warm up before moving to more difficult poses or deep stretches
Don’t start your practice with Uttanasana (a standing forward bend) in a cold room (I pulled my hamstring muscle once doing this!). Instead, you can do a pose that will warm your body up, such as Utkatasana (“chair pose”).
In this pose you stand with your feet about hip distance apart and bend at your hips and knees as if you are sitting in a chair. You can decide how much to bend your knees. Be careful not to lift your chest and overarch your lower back. Let your front ribs descend to keep your back long. Make sure your knees are as wide as your feet, and keep your weight mostly in your heels.
Once you feel warmer (which this pose will definitely do for you!), you can move on to poses that stretch your hamstrings. Sun Salutations are especially good for warming up and stretching the whole body.
For an interesting article about stretching, you can check out: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/flexibility/a/aa022102a.htm
2) Make sure you know the alignment details of a pose when you’re doing it
Don’t just jump into a new pose (especially a difficult one) without some instruction in how to do the pose safely. So if you practice yoga with the help of a book or DVD, you might want to have a live yoga teacher check your alignment when you add a new pose. It’s hard to correct yourself, and a teacher can show you what to focus on and what to avoid. This will help you when you’re practicing at home.
3) Don’t rush your poses
If you move fast, you don’t have time to check your form and can more easily hurt yourself. This is one of the dangers of practicing a fast flow-type class. A “slow flow” or Iyengar style class will be easier to navigate with safe alignment. Iyengar style yoga is usually done slower with an emphasis on alignment.
Yoga is a mind-body discipline rather just a form of exercise. It’s important to be aware of your body when practicing, rather than rushing. Going slower helps you to have more body awareness, which helps to bring you into the present, to relax, and to prevent injuries.
Want More Tips?
In March of 2010 I wrote an article on “How to do Yoga Without Back Pain.” You can go to my blog to find the 5 tips I gave there as guidelines (www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog).
Use these tips to help you stay safe while you’re enjoying your yoga practice. If you’re interested in attending one of my “Yoga for a Healthy Back” classes, you can find the schedule at http://www.sonomabodybalance.com/html/yoga.html.
©2011 Dana K. Davis
Check out these photos from Russia, taken between 1909-1912. Notice the bending at the hip crease, sitting on the sitz bones. Beautiful!
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2
When I was in India in 1988 studying yoga and meditation, I took an intensive meditation course one weekend. We had little squares to sit in on the floor – maybe 2 feet by 2 feet. It was hard to stay in the little square all day without squirming. I got more and more uncomfortable, and my back started hurting. The pain radiated out to more and more parts of my body, until my entire body ached intensely. At that point, all I could do was sit there and cry. I had no idea what to do to get comfortable.
Whether you are a regular meditator or someone who sits on the floor only when you have to, sitting without a chair can pose problems for most people. While this may come naturally to people in some cultures who grow up sitting on the floor, many Americans experience pain and discomfort if they sit without a chair for too long.
Why is it so uncomfortable?
One reason is that in the US, almost everyone has grown up with the typical American posture, which is out of alignment with gravity. That usually leads to a tightening of the hamstring muscles (on the back of your thighs). If you don’t do any stretching, the hamstrings get even tighter. Then when you try to sit on the floor, tight muscles in your legs and hips, as well as your postural habits, lead you to feel squirmy and fatigued, or in pain.
Why Is This Important?
When you are sitting on the floor (or on any surface without back support, such as a bench, bleachers, etc.), most people try to “sit up straight” and tighten their back muscles in the process. Then as they get tired, they end up collapsing and sitting like a “cashew”. This is a dangerous position for the spine, because it compresses the intervertebral discs, as well as the internal organs. It crimps the arteries in your neck which bring blood and oxygen to your brain. This makes you tired. Sitting this way often leads to postural changes which can be difficult to reverse, as you get shorter and curvier.
How to Sit Comfortably
The best way to start is to learn how to sit comfortably in a chair, leaning against the back of it. You can find instructions for this in my blog post entitled “10 Tips for Pain-Free Sitting” (www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog/2009/12/). The next step is to learn how to sit forward on a chair, without back support. I teach this in my Balance Your Body courses. Then you can learn some stretches for your hamstrings and hips to open up those areas in preparation for sitting on the floor.
One other helpful tip is to use a pillow or some other support to sit on when you’re on the floor. There are various options sold for meditators that can be helpful, such as benches or zafu cushions. Try to sit so that your knees are not way higher than your hips, if you’re sitting cross-legged.
If your back is already hurting, or you’re afraid it might, don’t be afraid to get a chair. In many meditation groups, this is completely acceptable. If you’re at an event, grab a pillow or some other prop to help yourself sit a bit up off the floor.
If you are a regular meditator, you might have practiced just “being” with the pain. While that can be an interesting focus, I prefer not to meditate on my pain unless I have to! If you learn to sit more comfortably, your mind will be free to focus on or be aware of other things besides pain. This could open up a whole new world for you.
So the next time you are meditating or sitting on the floor, try sitting on a prop and see if your back feels more comfortable. Of course, there’s a lot more to this than I can go over in this article, so I’d suggest also reviewing the blog post I mentioned above on pain-free sitting. I’m wishing you peace and comfort in this New Year!
If you’d like some instruction in how to sit on the floor without pain, come to my upcoming workshop on Friday, January 28 – “How to Sit for Meditation Pain-Free”. For more details, visit www.sonomabodybalance.com/html/workshops.html.
©2011 Dana K. Davis
Thanks to Anneli Rufus for her great article about me in the East Bay Express this week (1/5/11)! To check out the article, you can go to:
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/sitting-up-straight-with-dana-davis/Content?oid=2335223
The workshop this Sunday in Berkeley is full, so if you want to get on the waiting list, go ahead and register online at www.sonomabodybalance.com.
When I was 17 I didn’t pay too much attention to the warning to “wear your seat belt.” One day I was driving with a friend, going about 30-35 miles an hour, when she crashed into the car in front of us. Afterwards, when I asked how that big crack in the windshield got there, she said, “That was your head!” I had no memory of it. I developed a huge egg-shaped bump on my forehead and went to the doctor, who found nothing wrong with me.
Later, when I was in India studying yoga & meditation, I was in a bus accident where I broke my front tooth by smashing into a railing in front of me. Then I was rear-ended about 10 years ago. All these accidents didn’t seem to bother me much until shortly after the 3rd one, when I was in a stressful environment. I developed frequent tension headaches which would send me to bed with an aspirin.
I have found that working with the Balance posture method and doing some daily stretches have made a huge difference in the number and severity of my headaches. I’m now at the point where I can back off almost every headache without taking any kind of pain reliever.
Types of Headaches
There are several different types of headaches, including migraines, sinus headaches, cluster headaches and tension headaches. Common causes of headaches can include: lack of sleep, hormone fluctuation, stress, diet, pressure in sinuses, use of pain relievers, sensory overload, perfumes, sleeping position, dehydration, low blood sugar, caffeine withdrawal, and poor posture.
When should you see a doctor for headaches? Check out this resource from Medline if you have concerns (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003024.htm).
How to Prevent Tension Headaches
Tension headaches are often associated with tight neck, head and shoulder muscles. I’ll be addressing these types of headaches here. The above resource from Medline (National Institutes of Health) suggests several ways of preventing headaches, including “Stretching your neck and upper body, especially if your work involves typing or using a computer”, “Learning proper posture“, and “Learning to relax using meditation, deep breathing, yoga, or other techniques”.
Learning healthy posture is extremely important for the health of your entire body, and can help relieve or prevent back pain, neck pain and headaches, as well as reduce muscle tension and fatigue. As you’re reading this right now, check out how you are standing or sitting. Is your back rounded and your head jutting forwards? The more that your head moves forward of your spine, the more work your neck muscles have to do.
Sitting at a computer or driving may be your most challenging positions. For specific tips on healthy sitting and driving posture you can read my blog posts from November, 2009 (“10 Steps to Pain-Free Sitting”) and June, 2010 (“5 Tips for Pain-Free Driving”). The most important thing here is to sit on your sitz bones (ischial tuberosities) and not on your tailbone or sacrum. Think “Sit on your butt, not your back.”
If You Have a Headache Already…
I do neck and shoulder stretches on a daily basis because of my history of whiplashes. This has made a huge difference in my headaches. With a few of these tools I can back off a headache that I feel coming on. One wonderful tool is to lie on your back on the floor and place a tennis ball under your upper back around your shoulder blades or just above them. You can place the ball right where you feel the most tense and take some deep breaths until you feel a release. Then move it to another spot and repeat.
I’m teaching a Headache Relief Workshop next Tuesday, December 7th (visit www.sonomabodybalance.com for details). The holiday season can be a time of extra stress for many people. Take some time to check in with your body, notice your posture and to give your body a little extra attention. You may find that this can be really helpful if you feel a headache coming on.
I’m wishing you Happy and Healthful Holidays!
©2010 Dana K. Davis