Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
« Training, not treatment | Main | Owning up »
Bending
Back injuries often happen when bending to pick something up or when reaching, so it may be helpful if we look at some practical considerations. But it's fairly certain that most of us don't give any thought to 'how' we bend any more than how we would to make a cup of tea; we do it automatically.
As in the case with most things in life, it's not 'what' we do that causes strain, but 'how' we do it; where one typist can type all day without strain in the wrists, another will have difficulties and can end up with inflammation and pain. One uses far more effort than the other to do the simple tapping of a sensitive electronic keyboard.
Toddler bending* Note equal weight in front and behind the line of balance.
Gravity is working away the whole time so we need to ensure we are in good balance all the time whether we're standing straight or bending to pick something up and being a biped (standing on two feet) means we need to take special care. If we watch a toddler bending, they do so by bending at their knees as well as their hips. The key is for our overall weight to be spread evenly over our point of balance which is our feet. By bending forwards from our hips puts our body forwards of our balance. To help avoid getting off balance it's important that we also bend at our knees.
As our posture habits often involve slouching, stooping or stiffening that can affect the way we move, it would be helpful if we were able to address our overall posture problems by having some lessons in the Alexander Technique. The improved co-ordination, balance and freedom in our joints will help us in all our activities from desk work to playing golf. If we are going to bend without straining in the way we normally might, we need to firstly bring our attention to what we're doing otherwise our habits will govern the movement and we'll do the same old stiffening as usual and cause unnecessary strain.
When bending, firstly stop for a second to ensure you are in balance before you bend or pick up any extra weight as to not do so would cause excessive strain on our body. Come as close as you can to what you’re bending down towards, but ‘inhibit first, to allow you time to think tall and come up to your full height. Stand at your full height and free your neck by letting your head roll forwards on the top of your spine (let it teeter); look down at the thing you are bending towards and avoid pulling your head backwards as you bend. Then allow your knees and hips to bend at the same time. We need to bend forwards at our hips as well as bending our knees, otherwise we will create unnecessary strain. We should move rather as a child goes into a deep squat by keeping her feet flat on the floor. We may not go down as far as the floor, but even bending a small amount will be helped if we flex our knees and hips at the same time and to a similar degree.
If we are going right down to the floor, we may be more stable if we space our feet out a little with one foot slightly in advance of the other and turned slightly outwards. This is similar to a fencing lunge stance, but to a lesser degree. If need be, we can place a hand on a table, chair or fence to steady us. When bending, it’s important that we ‘inhibit’ first then free our neck as this will affect the fluidity of movement and your balance. And when we return to standing from being bent, we should think of leading with our head and to lengthen and widen in stature. A typical harmful way of bending would be if we were to stiffen our hips and knees so that they don’t bend, and then stoop downwards by arching our back in a curve. This creates a squashing effect inside of us, compresses our spine and discs, and could lead to a trapped nerve, and damage to the efficient working of our spine. It puts us off balance and causes excessive strain throughout our body.
When picking things up, we should be as close to the object as possible and if it’s heavy, hold it close to our body before rising to stand. Again free our neck, send our head upwards so we lengthen as we return to standing.
Main tip: Remember to bend your knees.
*Photo - me aged 3
