Help with correct sitting posture through the Feldenkrais method
- Tense? It's all a question of balance!
- The Feldenkrais method
- The interview with Michael Luschmann
Tense? It's all a question of balance!
According to popular wisdom, “It’s better to lie and walk than sit and stand” is the recipe for good posture. However, the time-honored knowledge does not seem to have penetrated into the world of offices yet. According to popular opinion, companies in which people lie and walk rather than sit or stand are more likely to be viewed as dubious. Anyone who has had a regular “sitting job” for a few years knows the cross with the cross. Tension in the shoulder and neck area, pain in the lower back, heavy legs or even furry fingers after work are well-known occupational diseases. Everyone knows the long-term consequences, at least from hearsay: herniated discs, varicose veins or even thrombosis.
The big sitting from school desk to retirement
The major German health insurance companies have already recognized the problem as such and are offering back schools, posture courses or exercise lessons workplace to prevent a widespread disease (and probably also to save treatment costs). Finally, due to the “computerization” of many professions, more and more people are sitting at work. And of course not just in working life - from the first grade onwards, all work is based on the chair. We sit for six and three quarters of an hour a day, with homework and tutoring in the afternoon; The eight-tier high school system hasn't necessarily reduced the amount of time students spend on the seat of their pants. Thanks to the switch to the international bachelor's and master's system, there is more demand than ever at universities and the consequences are already clearly visible.
Because where there is a symptom, there is a demand for healing or relief. The sports institutes of most large universities offer back schools, back health or compensatory sports in which students can do something for their backs. The variety of flexible office chairs on the market also speaks for itself: sitting has become the main thing. Of course a good one can Office chair help to defuse the “back” risk area. But is there more?
RISK MINIMIZATION FOR THE BACK IN FOUR STEPS
Paying attention to the following four points helps a lot. For example, the break is not only the best part of work, but in this context also the healthiest part. Because not only does concentration suffer from the constant mental strain, but so does the muscles. A short break is therefore recommended every 30 to 60 minutes at the latest - which should of course be spent moving. A little wandering around the office is enough to give the system a little boost and activate muscles that were previously inactive. Secondly, exercise is important even after work. If you sit all day, you should definitely find a suitable balance and do some exercise. The following applies: Anything that moves the whole body wins: for example, swimming is better than chess and badminton is better than billiards.
Thirdly, in certain cases, targeted muscle training can help protect the intervertebral discs. Since lifting weights improperly does more harm than good to the body, the advice of a doctor and trainer is recommended. And then of course the office chair must be optimally adjusted. The basic rule is: The seat height should be chosen so that the hip joints are about one or two finger widths higher than the knees. Their position should be 90 degrees above the ankle joints – says the expert. Michael Luschmann has been running his own practice in Weilheim since 1985, where he helps people with physical therapy using the “Feldenkrais method”.
The Feldenkrais method
Named after its founder, the physicist and natural scientist Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais (1904 – 1984), the Feldenkrais method is less a therapy procedure than a learning method that gives the learner an active role. Inspired by a knee injury, Moshé Feldenkrais began researching the connections between the functions of human movement and the way we think and act in the 1950s. Its goal is to expand freedom of movement - according to the credo: "If you know what you're doing, you can do whatever you want." Feldenkrais is based on the knowledge that the human musculoskeletal system is capable of much more than one would assume. Explained with an example: Feldenkrais provides different options for looking to the right or to the left. A banal matter in itself, one might think. At the beginning you practice additionally moving the eye muscles, the neck or head with the shoulder and finally initiating the rotation from the hip. The individual movement sequences lead from one to the other - the basis is always what is possible without strength. In contrast to yoga or Pilates, Feldenkrais has no spiritual component.
An alternative teaching that provides an unusual perspective on the topic of “back problems”, as an interview in practice shows. For example, when Michael Luschmann talks about his work, he avoids the term “patient” entirely. He also doesn't spend long on the common clinical pictures, but rather concentrates on the connections in the body - and gets started with the basics. Sitting, says Michael Luschmann, is first of all a matter of definition. After all, you can sit on the floor just as you can on a chair. “But there is a difference,” he explains. “On a chair I have at least two support surfaces: the floor, the seat and, if necessary, the backrest.” Because without such a support surface, sitting is not possible. “According to physics, the skeleton requires a counterforce, when moving as well as when lifting, lying down or sitting.” And adds mischievously: “Try lifting a weight while floating in the water…” The body is a systemic structure that moves dynamically and is therefore dependent on a passive surface. So much for the basics - which gives the seat far more importance than expected. An interesting starting point for a few questions to the “assistant trainer of the Feldenkrais method” who was born in 1959.
The interview with Michael Luschmann
buerostuhl24: What can you actually do wrong when sitting?
Michael Luschmann: The right seat height is an important factor and the ideal position of the knee joints in relation to the hips and ankles. All of this has to be right in order to sit optimally on the sitting legs - which are part of the pelvis and look a bit like runners. As the name suggests, they are intended for sitting. Not doing this can be a mistake. Lounging in a chair every now and then is just as okay as sitting upright. The ideal sitting posture is one from which I can move effortlessly in all directions. This is what makes sitting on your sitting legs so important. They have a small contact surface, so I don't need much force to change my position. For example, to pick up the telephone, to get a paper from the drawer or documents on the Desk to sort. If I lounge in the chair, I increase the surface area and demand more strength from my body. This of course tires the body to a much greater extent.
Does anyone actually know how to sit properly?
At least everyone knew it once. A baby develops the shape of its skeleton through movement in gravity. The joint sockets, for example, or the alignment of the ribs are largely influenced by attempts to move in space through balance. There is practically nothing else you do all day long other than consciously find the form of movement that is economical. You then forget this ability to move consciously over the course of your life – at least in the industrialized world. Almost no one sits on the floor anymore, so you would have to consciously move the pelvis in a variety of ways, for example. But we use furniture, which atrophies perception, mobility and presence for balance.
What are the consequences?
These could have the following effects:
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tension
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Shortening and atrophy of the muscles
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Normal wear and tear
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Immobility of the hip joints
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Osteoarthritis...
Really, muscle loss?
Naturally. The ideal position for a muscle is neutral. This gives the muscle the opportunity to lengthen and contract. A muscle that is shortened for eight hours a day loses the ability to lengthen and vice versa. This causes it to waste away – what I don’t use, I lose.
How many people come to your practice to prevent problems like this?
In fact, most people only come when they have a problem. However, in contrast to classic physiotherapy, the Feldenkrais method is more of a preventative measure. Where the focus is otherwise on symptomatic treatment, for us it is fundamentally about the connections in the body. This also affects the treatment. In contrast to the classic medical-therapeutic approach of relieving or eliminating pain, the Feldenkrais method has more of an educational background. It's about improving living conditions. To do this, it is important to move better; to learn to focus one's perception on oneself and to make optimal use of one's own resources. So we start where nothing hurts and restore movement sequences. This is also a big difference in terms of perception. Because in this way the attention is diverted away from the pain, or better: from the problem.
So they teach the ideal movement?
Unfortunately, in my opinion, there is no such thing. But there is something that I call your “own movement signature”. That's why at the beginning of treatment we first observe people doing the activities they usually do. For example, we have the librarian show us how to take a book from the shelf and, if necessary, show him alternative ways of doing this. This may avoid the movement that caused the pain. Every person moves differently, so everyone has to be treated differently. We simply create optimal movement sequences for the person. And we accept that the symptom that someone came to us with will disappear as a result. As a “side effect” so to speak (laughs).
So the healing effect is more of an indirect one?
Correct! There is a fundamentally different philosophy behind it. When most people come to treatment, they want to return to the condition they were in before the problem began. But that would certainly be doubtful, because that's how the problem arose. So something has to change so that the problem can disappear - and not come back at some point.
Is there the ideal office chair?
It is definitely good if the chair has a certain degree of mobility. A height-adjustable seat, for example. It doesn't hurt if the backrest can be adjusted individually. But I also have to know that the human skeleton is always more flexible than any chair in the world. Accordingly, it is better if the skeleton can adapt to the chair and not the other way around. A baby can sleep anywhere: on the mother's arm, on the floor... because it is so soft and well organized. So it doesn't hurt to sit on a simple wooden chair for a change. Because of comfortable chairs we lose elasticity and movement.
Is there a widespread disease called “sitting damage” – or to put it another way: Was everything better in the past when there were more jobs that didn’t require desk work?
Every job requires optimal movement sequences, regardless of whether it involves sitting, standing or driving. Of course, there are jobs that require more attention to one's own body: for professional climbers, for example, the issue of "balance" is much more important than for someone who can sit in a chair and normally cannot fall out. In my experience, carpenters also have a fairly optimal movement sequence well into old age, after all, they have to balance on roof beams all their lives. But a lot of things have also gotten better: many materials in construction have become lighter and wear-and-tear damage among workers is less common.
Do you have a Feldenkrais exercise for all sedentary people that they could use to learn to sit more optimally?
Clear. The aim of the lesson should be to initially make you sit more comfortably. To do this, you first need to perceive your own body. How do I sit? How can I perceive the pelvis while sitting? Which side of the pool has more contact or weight with the seat? How do the feet contact the ground? Which part of the back allows me to put the most body weight on the backrest? In the upper part? But rather the lower back? And then it is important to notice your own breathing: Where am I breathing? More up, towards the neck? Or rather down, into the stomach? After these questions have been consciously clarified, you have a certain idea of how you actually sit.
Indeed. And now?
I would now ask that you sit further forward, towards the edge. And now I would ask the same questions. With one deviation, namely with the question of the difference from before. How do I have to hold myself now? How long could I stay in this position? Minutes? Hours? In other words: Am I sitting comfortably? Now it would be time to reach under the left hip with your left hand and find the left seat bone. You can feel this small, skid-like part of the pool quite well. And then do the same with the right hand.
Oh, those are the sitting bones...!
(grins) Exactly! You will now be aware of them and can do a lot with this knowledge. For example, you could carefully shift the weight over the right seat bone, then over the left. You can then repeat the movement and perhaps combine it into a circular movement at some point. This can all be done very conveniently while you're working; you can make phone calls, type a text, read emails... while you're doing the exercise. And if that's good for you, you can at some point start to see your sitting legs as "feet" and use them to "walk" over the edge of the chair - back and forth. Then your back moves and you learn a lot about your own movement sequences. Which is the actual path to optimal sitting.
ABOUT MICHAEL LUSCHMANN
Michael Luschmann, born in 1959, has had professional experience in the physical therapy field since 1980. He has been running his own practice in the upper town of Weilheim since 1985 and has been working with his wife Doris Luschmann since 1993. Through training as a Feldenkrais educator in Switzerland from 1990 to 1993, he acquired the title of “Feldenkrais teacher”. Since 2000 he has been teaching supervision groups for Feldenkrais teachers in Germany, England and Italy, and since 2010 as “International Assistant Trainer of the Feldenkrais Method”. More information: www.praxislushmann.de.