Thursday, July 7, 2016

Modern furniture leads to modern posture?

I recently stumbled across the Gokhale Method.
“Most pain can be attributed to how we hold ourselves and how we move. Since we aren't born with a user’s manual, we rely on our culture to guide us.
About a century ago, our culture took a wrong turn.”
- http://gokhalemethod.com/gokhale-method
She seems to have some good points about there being evidence that people of modern western culture have a different posture than our ancestors or modern third world cultures.  I wonder though, if it is not so much our culture as our furniture.

Sit on the hardest surface you can find. Start sitting with your spine in an s curve, your shoulders relaxed and slightly forward.  Feel the discomfort of the surface, feel most of your weight on two little hip bone points.  Now shift to Gokhale’s recommended posture, roll your hips so your tail bone is sticking out behind you, and pull your shoulders straight and your spine tall.  Feel the discomfort of the surface under you.  Feel how the pressure has been relieved by being distributed over the leg instead of over one little point.

Modern furniture is made for modern posture, and reinforces modern posture.

Yet another reason to consider replacing my "ergonomic" office chair with a wooden bench, but I don't think I'll be buying the stretchsit cushion or balancing her special pillow on my head (if I want that kind of exercise, our ancestors taught young ladies to balance books up there.)

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