THE SOLUTION: NATURALLY-ALIGNED BONES!
We all know what’s wrong with THIS picture on the right . .
Collapsed Skeleton
We see people standing like this all the time. Maybe you, yourself, spend time in a similar state of collapse.
Not only does this not look very good, it doesn’t feel very good. That’s why many of us work so hard to pull ourselves “up straight” in just the way that we’ve all been taught.
Over-corrected Stance
Like this picture on the left . . .
This is the familiar “tuck-the-butt, suck-in-the-belly, lift-your-chest, lift-your-chin” stance that our society-at-large currently believes is what “good posture” looks like. Standing (or sitting) with the chest lifted up this way causes the back to arch (i.e., compresses the spine) and requires constant muscular effort. Even though this is unnatural, and is a mostly modern adaptation, it goes unquestioned by most exercise and fitness trainers, including many yoga and Pilates teachers, and by parents, teachers, doctors and other health professionals.
How can this possibly be?
Because, until very recently, we just haven’t known that this “correction” to slouching is incorrect! Overly concerned about muscles, as if they existed as a system unto themselves, we haven’t closely studied the skeletal alignment of all healthy toddlers in the world or of those people who have aged with elongated spines and flexible joints as the baseline standard for what the human body’s NATURAL design actually is. Muscles and bones together form the “musculoskeletal system” that functions properly as an inseparable interplay of aligned bones and elastic muscles.
Aligned Skeleton
Both of the postures pictured above contribute to most of the back pain and a host of other pain and joint problems experienced by millions of people today.
The Solution
When people learn how to stand, sit, bend, walk—even sleep— with a long, open and relaxed spine, like the one pictured on the right, many of these problems begin to resolve themselves and often disappear for good.
An examination of each of the bodies and their matching skeletons, above, reveals that only one pair has weight-bearing joints (yellow dots) that align along the vertical axis of gravity (“plumb line”). More and more people are discovering that when they re-learn how to align their bones in this natural way, a host of pain problems and other health concerns are improved, and in many cases, completely resolved. This is because efforting muscles are now able to relax, internal organs function efficiently and the spine is elongated on not compressed, which places pressure on the spinal cord and disrupts the nervous system.
