Dynamic Exercises in Sitting Posture

We did not evolve to be sitting creatures, and certainly not sitting in chairs and staring at a computer screen. Yet so many of us spend so much of our time doing just that, and most of us know that we don’t do it in an optimal way. We don’t need a physical therapist or a mom to tell us that there is something wrong in our sitting posture: we can feel it in our aching backs and sore shoulders and necks (though we may need a professional to point out to us that our so-called repetitive strain injuries are also linked to the way we work at our computers).

The key to improving your sitting posture lies not in the position in which you sit, but in the way you move while you sit.  Not just how you move your hands as you reach for the mouse (though that’s important too) but how you organize your back and move your pelvis, how you breathe, and how you receive the support of the floor through your feet and of the chair through your bottom.

This series of Awareness Through Movement lessons will teach you how. We’ll learn to relax our shoulders and reach easily with our arms, and we’ll also learn a few movements inspired by Sounder Sleep® Day-Tamers® that specifically work to counter the stress most of us experience during our sitting times. Some of the lessons will be in sitting, and some will be mostly on the floor, sitting only at the beginning and end as reference points. We’ll even do some lessons with a table, which you can use with your desk at work.

All lessons will be recorded for review at home, but there will also be time in class to review and/or jot down parts of the lessons that seem especially useful as “awareness breaks” to be practiced during the day.