Sitting is Standing!

What I hear you cry, that’s madness!

Well if you move in a balanced way your feet don’t really change in going from standing to sitting.

Most people come out of balance from standing to sitting, they either move forward on their feet, back on their feet or even on the insides or outsides. In most cases then the legs will tense as you come off balance and as you are all joined up so will the back and the neck tense in response!

(Note: neck free, head balancing in a forwards and up direction, back lengthening, knees forward and away over feet but not further than the toes).

What tends to happen if you move into sitting as if still standing evenly on your feet you end up using much less muscle tension, your joints of the ankles, knees and hips move at the same time. Your hips go back in space, your neck will be freer and your knees will tend to go forward and away over you feet. In effect your body is lengthening in activity rather than pulling, pushing and squashing itself. Your neuromuscular system will work this out if you leave everything alone, trust your body wants to balance and say ‘I’m still standing’ as you move into the chair, you really don’t need to work out how to do it .

Also note this is not dissimilar to how a toddler moves. See the similarity between these two pictures?

I can show exactly what I mean in one of my workshops, classes or one to one sessions:

www.alexandertechniquebrighton.com