Help for correct sitting posture with 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!
"Better to lie down and walk than to sit and stand" is, according to an old saying, the recipe for good posture. However, this time-honoured wisdom does not seem to have made its way into the office world yet. In common opinion, companies where people spend more time lying down and walking than sitting or standing are generally seen as less serious. Yet anyone who has spent a few years in a regular "desk job" knows the pain in the back all too well. Tension in the shoulders and neck, pain in the lower back, heavy legs or even tingling fingers after work are well-known occupational complaints. And everyone knows the long-term consequences too, at least by hearsay: a slipped disc, varicose veins or even thrombosis.
The great sitting marathon from school desk to retirement
Germany's major health insurers have already recognised the problem and offer back training, posture courses or lessons with exercises for the workplace to help prevent what has become a widespread complaint (and probably also to save on treatment costs). After all, with the "computerisation" of many professions, more and more people are sitting down at work. And this naturally does not start only in working life – from the very first year at school, the chair is the foundation of all work. Six and three-quarter hours a day are spent sitting, followed by homework and tutoring in the afternoon; with the eight-year grammar school system, the time pupils spend on their backsides has certainly not become any shorter. At universities, the switch to the international Bachelor's and Master's system has made the ability to sit for long periods more necessary than ever, and the effects are already becoming clearly visible there too.
Where there is a symptom, demand for a cure or relief soon follows. The sports institutes of most major universities offer back training, back health or balancing sports programmes in which male and female students can do something good for their backs. The wide range of flexible office chairs on the market also speaks volumes: sitting has become the main issue. Of course, a good office chair can help reduce the risk to your back. But is there more that can be done?
MINIMISING BACK STRAIN IN FOUR STEPS
Paying attention to the following four points already helps a great deal. For example, a break is not only the nicest part of the working day, but in this context also the healthiest. It is not only concentration that suffers from constant mental strain, but the muscles as well. So every 30 to 60 minutes at the latest, it is time for a short break – which should, of course, be spent moving around. Just walking around the office a little is enough to get your system going and activate muscles that have not been moving up to that point. Secondly, movement is also important after work. Anyone who sits all day should make sure to find the right balance and do some exercise. The rule is: anything that gets the whole body moving is better, so swimming is more suitable than chess, for example, and badminton is better than billiards.
Thirdly, in certain cases, targeted muscle training can help protect the intervertebral discs. However, because lifting weights incorrectly does more harm than good, it is advisable to seek guidance from a doctor and a trainer. And of course, your office chair must be adjusted correctly. The basic rule is: the seat height should be set so that the hip joints are about one or two finger widths higher than the knees. In turn, these should be positioned at a 90-degree angle above the ankle joints, says the expert. Michael Luschmann has run his own practice in Weilheim since 1985, where he helps people with physical therapy based on the “Feldenkrais Method.”
The Feldenkrais Method
Named after its founder, the physicist and scientist Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais (1904 – 1984), the Feldenkrais Method is less a form of therapy and more a learning method that gives the learner an active role. Inspired by a knee injury, Moshé Feldenkrais began exploring the connection between the functions of human movement and the way we think and act as early as the 1950s. Its aim is to expand freedom of movement – in keeping with the credo: “If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want.” Feldenkrais is based on the understanding that the human musculoskeletal system is capable of far more than one might assume. To explain with an example: Feldenkrais offers different ways of looking to the right or to the left. In itself a trivial matter, you might think. At the beginning, you practise moving the eye muscles as well, then the neck or the head together with the shoulder, and finally initiating the turn from the hips. The individual movement sequences lead from one to the next – the basis is always what is possible without effort. Unlike yoga or Pilates, Feldenkrais has no spiritual component.
An alternative approach that offers an unusual perspective on the subject of “back problems”, as an interview in practice shows. For example, when Michael Luschmann talks about his work, he avoids the term “patient” altogether. Nor does he dwell for long on the usual clinical pictures, preferring instead to focus directly on the interconnections within the body – and starts straight away with the basics. Sitting, says Michael Luschmann, is first and foremost a matter of definition. After all, you can sit on the floor just as well as on a chair. “But there is a difference,” he explains. “On a chair I have at least two supporting surfaces: the floor, the seat surface and, where applicable, the backrest.” Because without such a supporting surface, sitting would not be possible. “According to the laws of physics, the skeleton requires a counterforce, whether in movement, when lifting, lying down or sitting.” And he adds with a mischievous smile: “Just try lifting a weight while floating in water…” The body is a systemic structure that moves dynamically and therefore depends on a passive surface. So much for the basics – which give the seat surface far more importance than one might think. An interesting starting point for a few questions to the “Assistant Trainer of the Feldenkrais Method”, born in 1959.
The interview with Michael Luschmann
hjh OFFICE: What can you actually do wrong when sitting?
Michael Luschmann: The right seat height is an important factor, as is 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 sit bones – they are part of the pelvis and look a bit like runners – as the name suggests, they are meant for sitting. Not doing so can be a mistake. But slouching in your chair from time to time is just as fine as sitting upright. The ideal sitting posture is a position from which I can move effortlessly in all directions. That is what makes sitting on the sit bones so important. They have a small contact area, so I need very little effort to change my position. For example, to reach for the telephone receiver, take a sheet of paper from the drawer or sort documents on the desk . If I slouch in the chair while doing this, I increase the contact area and demand more effort from the body. Naturally, that tires the body to a much greater extent.
Does anyone actually know how to sit properly?
At least everyone knew 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 significantly shaped by attempts to move through space by balancing. It does virtually nothing else all day except consciously work out the form of movement that is economical. Over the course of life, however, this ability for conscious movement is gradually unlearned – at least in the industrialised world. Hardly anyone sits on the floor anymore, even though doing so would require the pelvis to be moved consciously in a wide variety of ways. Instead, we use furniture, which causes our perception, mobility and presence for balance to deteriorate.
What are the consequences?
These can have the following effects:
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Tension
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Shortening and atrophy of the muscles
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Wear and tear
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Immobility of the hip joints
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Osteoarthritis …
Really, muscle loss?
Absolutely. The ideal position for a muscle is a neutral one. This allows the muscle to lengthen and contract. A muscle that is kept shortened for eight hours a day loses its ability to lengthen, and vice versa. As a result, it wastes away – what I don’t use, I lose.
How many people come to your practice to prevent problems like these?
Most people actually only come once they already have a problem. However, unlike traditional physiotherapy, the Feldenkrais method is more preventative in nature. While symptomatic treatment is usually the main focus elsewhere, our approach is fundamentally about the relationships within the body. That also affects the treatment itself. Unlike the classic medical-therapeutic approach of relieving or eliminating pain, the Feldenkrais method has more of an educational background. The aim is to improve people’s living conditions. To do that, it is important to move better; to learn to direct your awareness toward yourself and make the best possible use of your own resources. So we start where nothing hurts and restore movement patterns. That also makes a big difference in terms of perception. Because in this way, attention is diverted away from the pain, or rather: from the problem.
So do you teach the ideal movement?
In my opinion, unfortunately, that does not exist. But there is something I call your “individual movement signature”. That is why, at the start of treatment, we first observe people doing the activity they usually perform. For example, we might ask a librarian to show us how they take a book from the shelf and, if appropriate, show them alternative ways of doing it. This may avoid the movement that caused the pain in the first place. Every person moves differently, so each person must also be treated differently. We simply establish movement patterns that are optimal for that individual. And we gladly accept that the symptom someone came to us with may disappear as a result. As a kind of “side effect”, so to speak (laughs).
So the healing effect is more of an indirect one?
Exactly! There is a fundamentally different philosophy behind it. Most people, when they come for treatment, want to restore the condition they were in before the problem began. But that would certainly be questionable, because that is how the problem arose in the first place. So something has to change in order for the problem to disappear – and not come back again at some point.
Is there such a thing as the ideal office chair?
It is certainly a good thing if the chair offers a certain degree of mobility. A height-adjustable seat, for example. It also does no harm if the backrest can be adjusted individually. But I also need to know that the human skeleton is always more flexible than any chair in the world. So it is better if the skeleton can adapt to the chair, not the other way around. A baby can sleep anywhere: in its mother’s arms, on the floor…, because it is so soft and well organised. So there is no harm in occasionally sitting on a simple wooden chair for a change. Comfortable chairs make us lose elasticity and movement.
Is there such a widespread condition as “sitting damage” – or to put it another way: were things better in the past, when there were more jobs that did not involve desk work?
Every profession requires optimal movement patterns, whether it involves sitting, standing or driving. Of course, there are professions that require more attention to one’s own body: for professional climbers, for example, the issue of “balance” is far more important than for someone who can sit in a chair and would not normally fall out of it. In my experience, carpenters also retain very good movement patterns well into old age, because they spend their whole lives balancing on roof beams. But many things have improved as well: on construction sites, many materials have become lighter and wear-and-tear injuries among workers are less common.
Do you have a Feldenkrais exercise for everyone who sits a lot, one that could help them learn to sit better?
Of course. The aim of the lesson should be to help you sit more comfortably first of all. To do that, you first need to become aware of your own body. How am I sitting? How can I sense my pelvis while sitting? Which side of the pelvis has more contact with, or weight on, the seat? How do my feet make contact with the floor? Which part of my back places most of my body weight against the backrest? The upper part? Or more the lower back? And then it is important to notice your breathing: where am I breathing? More in the upper body, towards the neck? Or lower down, into the abdomen? Once these questions have been consciously clarified, you have at least some idea of how you are actually sitting.
Indeed. And now what?
I would now ask you to move further forward, towards the edge. And now I would ask the same questions. With one difference, namely the question of how this differs from before. How do I have to hold myself now? How long could I remain in this position? Minutes? Hours? In other words: am I sitting comfortably? Now would be the time to reach under your left hip with your left hand and find the left sitting bone. You can feel this small runner-shaped part of the pelvis quite clearly. And then do the same with your right hand.
Ah, those are the sitting bones…!
(grins) Exactly! You become consciously aware of them now and can do quite a lot with that knowledge. For example, you could carefully shift your weight onto the right seat leg, then onto the left. After that, you could repeat the movement and perhaps eventually combine it into a circular motion. You can do all of this very comfortably while working: you can talk on the phone, type a text, read emails… while doing the exercise. And if it feels good, at some point you can start to think of the seat legs as “feet” and use them to “walk” over the edge of the chair – forwards and backwards. Afterwards, your back will have moved and you will have learned a great deal about your own movement patterns. Which is, after all, the real path to better sitting.
ABOUT MICHAEL LUSCHMANN
Michael Luschmann, born in 1959, has had professional experience in the field of physical therapy since 1980. He has run his own practice in the upper part of Weilheim since 1985, and since 1993 he has worked together with his wife Doris Luschmann. Through training as a Feldenkrais teacher in Switzerland from 1990 to 1993, he earned the title of “Feldenkrais teacher”. Since 2000, he has taught supervision groups for Feldenkrais teachers in Germany, England and Italy, and since 2010 as an “International Assistant Trainer of the Feldenkrais Method”. More information: www.praxisluschmann.de.