term solution. The wrong concept of a problem leads to seeking the wrong solution. In many cases, athletes experiencing difficulties with technique or repetitive injury do have poor posture. A poorly aligned body uses inappropriate muscle activity to move resulting in mechanically inefficient movement of the joints. However, it is wrong to assume that posture is to blame. The assumption that the problem can be corrected by strengthening the weaker muscles through exercise is misguided. This superficial approach ignores the cause and simply tries to correct the symptom.

Our body is shaped by how we use it. Habit determines use and subsequent condition of musc

Good posture is seen to have many advantages. From an aesthetic point of view it can enhance image, sending out the right signals (body language). For an athlete it is seen to be essential. But what is a good posture? We recognise poor posture when we see it, as it is evident in the majority of adults regardless of athletic ability. But just to confuse the matter, people with an ideal ‘plumb-line’ posture can also have poor movement patterns. This is because it is not the shape that is important but how it is maintained. An apparent ‘good’ posture can be achieved with totally inappropriate muscular activity.

The distinguished physiologist Charles Sherrington once described our systems for maintaining posture as the ‘most uncertain and untrustworthy of all’. This is not encouraging when all corrective methods for improving posture rely on the very systems that are the cause of the problem. The fact that posture can deteriorate suggests the fallibility of the controlling mechanisms. The conventional definition of good posture is the correct alignment of body parts supported by the right amount of muscle tension. This view has led to the development of exercises to tone up postural muscles diagnosed as weak in order to achieve the ideal shape. Attaining good posture then became an end in itself. However, these methods do not go deep enough to address the cause and are consequently based on a partial understanding of the condition. Posture is the manifestation of attitude and not simply a matter of muscle tone. Every pathway from the brain leads eventually to a muscle.

Our state of mind therefore influences every move and muscle action, to put it another way - we are what we think. A sports commentator may use the phrases, ‘their heads have dropped’ or ‘the spring has gone from their step’ to describe the losing side. In contrast the winning side will have ‘their heads held high’ or be ‘walking tall’. It is no accident that many phrases used to describe attitude are bodily in nature, such as ‘stiff necked’ and ‘spineless’. Words used to express physical attributes, such as ‘balanced’ and ‘centered’, are also suitable to describe character. ‘Attitude’ also applies to both. Non-Verbal Communication is an established branch of the behavioural sciences used extensively by the police and in the business community. We make many subconscious movements and gestures allowing others to read our thoughts or anticipate our actions.

Looking Good

Although poor posture is regarded by many to be a factor in performance, conventional exercises developed to address the problem fail to recognise the cause and cannot therefore offer a long-term solution. The wrong concept of a problem leads to seeking the wrong solution. In many cases, athletes experiencing difficulties with technique or repetitive injury do have poor posture. A poorly aligned body uses inappropriate muscle activity to move resulting in mechanically inefficient movement of the joints. However, it is wrong to assume that posture is to blame. The assumption that the problem can be corrected by strengthening the weaker muscles through exercise is misguided. This superficial approach ignores the cause and simply tries to correct the symptom.

Our body is shaped by how we use it. Habit determines use and subsequent condition of muscl

once described our systems for maintaining posture as the ‘most uncertain and untrustworthy of all’. This is not encouraging when all corrective methods for improving posture rely on the very systems that are the cause of the problem. The fact that posture can deteriorate suggests the fallibility of the controlling mechanisms. The conventional definition of good posture is the correct alignment of body parts supported by the right amount of muscle tension. This view has led to the development of exercises to tone up postural muscles diagnosed as weak in order to achieve the ideal shape. Attaining good posture then became an end in itself. However, these methods do not go deep enough to address the cause and are consequently based on a partial understanding of the condition. Posture is the manifestation of attitude and not simply a matter of muscle tone. Every pathway from the brain leads eventually to a muscle.

Our state of mind therefore influences every move and muscle action, to put it another way - we are what we think. A sports commentator may use the phrases, ‘their heads have dropped’ or ‘the spring has gone from their step’ to describe the losing side. In contrast the winning side will have ‘their heads held high’ or be ‘walking tall’. It is no accident that many phrases used to describe attitude are bodily in nature, such as ‘stiff necked’ and ‘spineless’. Words used to express physical attributes, such as ‘balanced’ and ‘centered’, are also suitable to describe character. ‘Attitude’ also applies to both. Non-Verbal Communication is an established branch of the behavioural sciences used extensively by the police and in the business community. We make many subconscious movements and gestures allowing others to read our thoughts or anticipate our actions.

Looking Good

Although poor posture is regarded by many to be a factor in performance, conventional exercises developed to address the problem fail to recognise the cause and cannot therefore offer a long-term solution. The wrong concept of a problem leads to seeking the wrong solution. In many cases, athletes experiencing difficulties with technique or repetitive injury do have poor posture. A poorly aligned body uses inappropriate muscle activity to move resulting in mechanically inefficient movement of the joints. However, it is wrong to assume that posture is to blame. The assumption that the problem can be corrected by strengthening the weaker muscles through exercise is misguided. This superficial approach ignores the cause and simply tries to correct the symptom.

Our body is shaped by how we use it. Habit determines use and subsequent condition of musc

not go deep enough to address the cause and are consequently based on a partial understanding of the condition. Posture is the manifestation of attitude and not simply a matter of muscle tone. Every pathway from the brain leads eventually to a muscle.

Our state of mind therefore influences every move and muscle action, to put it another way - we are what we think. A sports commentator may use the phrases, ‘their heads have dropped’ or ‘the spring has gone from their step’ to describe the losing side. In contrast the winning side will have ‘their heads held high’ or be ‘walking tall’. It is no accident that many phrases used to describe attitude are bodily in nature, such as ‘stiff necked’ and ‘spineless’. Words used to express physical attributes, such as ‘balanced’ and ‘centered’, are also suitable to describe character. ‘Attitude’ also applies to both. Non-Verbal Communication is an established branch of the behavioural sciences used extensively by the police and in the business community. We make many subconscious movements and gestures allowing others to read our thoughts or anticipate our actions.

Looking Good

Although poor posture is regarded by many to be a factor in performance, conventional exercises developed to address the problem fail to recognise the cause and cannot therefore offer a long-term solution. The wrong concept of a problem leads to seeking the wrong solution. In many cases, athletes experiencing difficulties with technique or repetitive injury do have poor posture. A poorly aligned body uses inappropriate muscle activity to move resulting in mechanically inefficient movement of the joints. However, it is wrong to assume that posture is to blame. The assumption that the problem can be corrected by strengthening the weaker muscles through exercise is misguided. This superficial approach ignores the cause and simply tries to correct the symptom.

Our body is shaped by how we use it. Habit determines use and subsequent condition of musc

in nature, such as ‘stiff necked’ and ‘spineless’. Words used to express physical attributes, such as ‘balanced’ and ‘centered’, are also suitable to describe character. ‘Attitude’ also applies to both. Non-Verbal Communication is an established branch of the behavioural sciences used extensively by the police and in the business community. We make many subconscious movements and gestures allowing others to read our thoughts or anticipate our actions.

Looking Good

Although poor posture is regarded by many to be a factor in performance, conventional exercises developed to address the problem fail to recognise the cause and cannot therefore offer a long-term solution. The wrong concept of a problem leads to seeking the wrong solution. In many cases, athletes experiencing difficulties with technique or repetitive injury do have poor posture. A poorly aligned body uses inappropriate muscle activity to move resulting in mechanically inefficient movement of the joints. However, it is wrong to assume that posture is to blame. The assumption that the problem can be corrected by strengthening the weaker muscles through exercise is misguided. This superficial approach ignores the cause and simply tries to correct the symptom.

Our body is shaped by how we use it. Habit determines use and subsequent condition of musc

term solution. The wrong concept of a problem leads to seeking the wrong solution. In many cases, athletes experiencing difficulties with technique or repetitive injury do have poor posture. A poorly aligned body uses inappropriate muscle activity to move resulting in mechanically inefficient movement of the joints. However, it is wrong to assume that posture is to blame. The assumption that the problem can be corrected by strengthening the weaker muscles through exercise is misguided. This superficial approach ignores the cause and simply tries to correct the symptom.

Our body is shaped by how we use it. Habit determines use and subsequent condition of muscle; therefore it is the underlying habits that need to change. Poor muscle tone is not the root cause of poor posture; it is the mechanisms that control muscle that are at fault. Attempts to correct posture by exercise achieve, at best, temporary aesthetic results, or complicate the problem by consolidating the poor habits that led to the condition. Trying to correct posture through exercise involves the same faulty patterns guided by a poor sense of body awareness. If we can unknowingly get ourselves into this state, how are we to know the way out of it? I repeat, exercises do not change habits - they re-enforce them!

The initial mistake made by the pioneers of exercises to improve posture was to confuse the outward sign of poise, that is the good posture of gifted individuals, for the desirable goal. Changing the body to look right does not attain poise. Many of the systems designed to improve posture use a number of Alexander’s methods, often without recognition, but have not appreciated the basic principles. It is not possible to take individual precepts from a philosophy and make them work as part of another. These systems advocate exercise to achieve the desired results whilst ignoring the essential step of preventing use of the habits that caused the condition. The methods designed to correct posture are flawed and based on the following misconceptions.

“We can control individual muscles.”

We do not have direct control over individual muscles, only the movement. When we choose to move, the movement is organised by subconscious centres of the brain that do not contain individual muscle actions. Try to contract the biceps muscle without thinking of moving your arm and you can begin to appreciate how it works. What we sense is a feeling associated with that movement and not the muscle. We cannot know if an action lengthens, shortens or even uses a muscle, only that we have performed a movement we associate with the feel of it. One exercise system to improve posture even goes to the extreme of instructing participants to engage the postural muscles in each exercise to twenty-five percent of its strength! This level of control is just not possible. Injury and poor habits may lead to a change in the pattern through repetition of a degraded movement. Following injury, the actions of the muscle to prevent movement of the damaged area or to compensate for temporary loss of mobility become habit. These compensatory measures become part of the permanent pattern and will feel normal. The subconscious and habitual nature of movement combined with a lack of attention to the activity means deviation from the natural pattern may go unnot