What Is Good Posture? (Patrons)
This lesson is best after exploring Essential Lessons for Easier Sitting, and/or Grounding for Liftoff.
Standing, chair-seated, and transitioning between. Experience for yourself Moshe Feldenkrais's three-part answer to his lesson title: 1) Good posture is synonymous with the greatest potential for action. 2) Whether we're standing, sitting, or anywhere in between, in good posture our bones (not our muscles) must continuously counteract gravity, leaving our musculature free for action. 3) Posture improves spontaneously when we eliminate superfluous efforts in the sit-stand-sit transition, as we become more sensitive to the physics and neurology of that function. A 5-minute talk begins the recording. Demonstrations and principles are in the Clarifications and Curiosities tabs.
Before you begin read this for practical tips and your responsibilities, and check out Comfort & Configuration below.
Recorded live in a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) class, this lesson is copyright Nick Strauss-Klein, for personal use only.
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- Comfort & Configuration
- Clarifications
- Curiosities
- Context
- Related Lessons
- Source
While taught in my own words, this lesson comes directly from Moshe Feldenkrais’s 1972 book Awareness Through Movement. Logged in donors will see more information on sources I used and changes I made here:
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This lesson is #1 of 12 in Moshe Feldenkrais’s 1972 book Awareness Through Movement. The Feldenkrais Project has a collection of lessons from this source.
It also appears as the final lesson in our Grounding for Liftoff course.
It was recorded during our Patrons Quarterly video call of August, 2023, but we highly recommend studying from the audio version above since it’s been edited for better clarity, flow, and sound quality.
Moshe Feldenkrais made this lesson #1 in the book he wrote to introduce his method to the masses, but it isn’t taught often in public classes. His writing is difficult to parse, and the movements themselves are at first difficult for most people to do and understand.
On the surface, Feldenkrais’s titular question, and this lesson’s means of answering it, don’t seem to line up. Though it begins by exploring the length and uprightness of standing and sitting, why is it that Feldenkrais spends the whole second half of the lesson exploring the transition back and forth between chair-seated and standing, in a lesson he calls “What Is Good Posture?”
In short, the sit-stand-sit transition affords us opportunities to reduce superfluous efforts and make sensory distinctions about the details of a healthier, more dynamic posture. Posture should never be thought of as static since we’re always moving (even breathing counts, since it disturbs our center of gravity). Our potential to move freely and easily in any direction without hesitation is a biological imperative.
By becoming far more sensitive and efficient in the dynamic transition between sitting and standing, we can learn to sense and shed the habits we’ve accrued that interfere with a more natural way of supporting ourselves while upright.
The details
In his long introduction and several discussions throughout, Feldenkrais expounds on the principles at work in the lesson. I summarized many of them in the audio recording. Here are those principles, and more. The full chapter is worth a read for even more information.
- What is good posture? “Good upright posture is that from which a minimum muscular effort will move the body with equal ease in any desired direction.” Notice that Feldenkrais’s definition isn’t a description of a position. Instead it focuses on efficiency and potential for dynamic movement.
- We may have been told to stand “straight,” but consciously trying to achieve that can’t be maintained without continuous mental and physical effort. Anything necessary, urgent, or interesting will distract us.
- What’s more, “straight” isn’t even precise, since even in an ideal state almost none of our bones align vertically with gravity. And some folks’ structures will never allow them to stand very “straight,” due to injuries or how they were born. Yet they can learn to functional as well in gravity as anyone else, with efficiency, grace, and power.
- So, “Any posture is acceptable as long as it does not conflict with the law of nature, which is that the skeletal structure should counteract the pull of gravity, leaving the muscles free for movement.”
- It follows that poor posture is when muscles do job of the skeleton, holding us up against gravity. In that state they’re wasting energy, preoccupied, and unavailable to do what they’re meant for: moving our bodies!
- Much of our standing is organized by an older, lower level of our nervous system than our voluntary musculature. But unlike the animals who stand entirely like that, relying on instinct to stand (the experience of their species), we are a lot more adaptable. We rely more on the experience of the individual, thus we learn to stand in a unique way. Often we accumulate inefficient habits.
- We are learning to sense and reduce superfluous efforts so we can rely more on the ancient wisdom of the lower parts of our nervous system in sitting, standing, and transitioning between the two. When we’re well-organized and our center of gravity is over our base of support, then the reflex to straighten our legs (from the lower levels of our nervous system) takes over, simply and efficiently.
- But if we have poor posture, if we’re resisting gravity with our muscles instead of our bones, the natural reflex to simply unfold ourselves into standing is muted. This is true whether we’ve accumulated unnoticed habits of excess effort, or we’re trying hard with voluntary muscles. (So don’t try hard in this lesson!)
- “Anything that tends to lessen the sensitivity of the power of discrimination will slow down response to stimuli.” In other words, if we can’t sense the availability of the standing reflex when it is stimulated, we’ll override it with volition or habit, both of which are less efficient.
- Whenever we sense fewer details, we only make corrections when the need is “more urgent and requires more muscular effort.” We don’t notice slight changes. Our movements become coarser. We try harder, and override the most natural way of moving in all sorts of activities.
- So our goal in this lesson is to reduce superfluous effort and thus increase our sensitivity.
- How did our movements become coarse? What diminishes our sensitivity? Physical or emotional pain is “one of the original causes.” “Pain that undermines confidence in the body and self is the main cause of deviations from the ideal posture. Pain of this kind reduces the individual’s value in his own eyes.”
- In my words, pain shrinks our self-image, diminishing the range of our thoughts, feelings, movements, and sensitivity to stimuli. In this state “nervous tension rises,” Feldenkrais says, reducing sensitivity even more, so we don’t notice even large deviations from ideal positions, and we must do more and more postural work with muscles. In this way “Control may become so much distorted that while we think we are doing nothing we are in fact straining muscles needlessly.”
Usually in Feldenkrais, when we tip the pelvis side to side in seated we invite the spine to sidebend to counter it. And usually, when we roll the pelvis forward and backward, we invite the spine to arch and round.
This lesson is different: we’re asked not to arch, not to round, and not to sidebend the spine. Rather the spine, head, and pelvis all stay aligned as we tip on our sitbones in most of the seated and sit-to-stand movements.
After you do the lesson the first time:
1) Watch the class discussion from after this audio recorded, which includes a video demonstration from a student with commentary from Nick. She finds her way through several common confusions which are helpful to see. Eventually the movements become very clear.
Logged in Patrons can link to this clip from Patrons Quarterly Conference Zoom event right here:
2) Watch the following amazing videos as you continue to practice this learning. They are not full teachings of the lesson, but rather reference videos to help you understand and embody this learning.
- What Is Good Posture? – Great explanations from my colleague Andrew Gibbons, plus constant video examples so you can see these ideas at work.
- A Look Inside the IOPS Sit-to-Stand Curriculum – See Moshe Feldenkrais demonstrate these concepts with a one-to-one student! Watch Feldenkrais Trainer Jeff Haller teach these concepts in a workshop.
- What Is Good Posture? Part 2 – Andrew’s addendum, plus additional visual examples.
You won’t need a mat, but you’ll need two chairs. You’ll sit on one, which can be a chair or stool, for much of the lesson. It should be level, non-rolling, and tall enough that your hip are at least a little higher than your knees.
It should also be firm enough to feel your sitbones clearly when seated upright at the front edge of the chair. If the surface feels too hard you may want to put a layer or two of bath towel on it.
Often a simple kitchen or dining room chair works, perhaps with a large book on top of it if you need the height.
Chair #2 only needs to be non-rolling and have a chair back that you can rest your hands or arms on.
If you find the sit-to-stand practice later in the lesson difficult:
- Try having your feet a little closer to you in seated than is described: rather than your heels under your knees, you might have the front of your feet under your knees.
- Sit on a taller chair. Later you can try it with progressively lower chairs.
- See the Related Lessons tab for preparatory study ideas, then return to this lesson.
- Or work through Essential Lessons for Easier Sitting and/or Grounding for Liftoff, then return.
Got a question for Nick, or a thought about this lesson?
Use the comments section below! Public comments build our community and help search engines find us.
A while back, as I was considering which ATM book lesson to record next, I received this email from a listener about this lesson, as it appears in Feldenkrais’s book.
I find it inspiring – maybe you will too! I’m sharing it with Ann’s permission:
I just loved your words when I read it the the 1st time an your age !! I am 64 and learnt so much from Nick that I really feel besser.
I am still in hospital – 2 month now – the bed is terrible, but I can handle this with my Feldenkrais.
All my doctors know this by now.
I’ve just experienced this special ‘Feldenkrais moment’ – finding a wonderful sensation out of the tiniest movement.
It’s hot and humid outside and I’m standing at my window looking at a group of beautiful trees, letting thoughts come and go while swinging gently back and forth. And there is your question that caught my attention when I did ‘What is Good Posture’ yesterday:
‘Do your shoulders change as you move front and back, the collarbones ……. your ribs?’
So I listen closely to these parts of my body and feel the sensation of my bones reorganizing themselves nicely, the same with my right wrist, my thighs, my lower legs and the soft gliding in my ankles.
Afterwards I’m perfectly balanced and I love the feeling of my toes touching the ground.
This is definitely my favorite lesson.
I can think about this one whenever and where ever I am.
I’ve never had any problems getting up in the morning since I’ve learned from this lesson how to do it.
It became totally me – how to get up from bed, the floor, a chair, so easily and without any thought about it.
‘ The dynamic link between standing and sitting’ (Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement, S.78)
What a wise man – thanks to Nick I can understand what he meant
This lesson is precious feldenkrais gold! I wish that teachers would work more on developing vertical lessons — they can convey something important, not better than the horizontal ones, but valuable for those who want to progress. Thank you for taking it on for us.
love this idea – seems like a challenge for Nick now!
In this lesson I remember that you tended to explain in words more than you did in images. I loved how we did the actions and then you spoke in the middle. Of course it was nice to get the background at the beginning but as a person of movement I always simply want to jump in and move first.
I found the moving and relaxing into a particular space (about 3/4 of the way in) was really helpful. It seemed to pinpoint a place from which to grow.
All in all, this is a fabulous lesson one in which I will be thinking of all day!
This lesson fascinated and delighted me (like I learned a new trick) and seems directly applicable to my everyday movement. The “real-time” feedback you provide based on the observations of the class, helps me to understand the position and movement Feldenkrais intended. The brief introduction gave me context and increased the value of the lesson for me.
I found I needed to have my feet a little closer to my body than directly under my knees, to get collected and feel powerful as I stood up.
Great! I’ve highlighted that adaptation (feet closer to body) in the Comfort & Configuration tab above.
Regarding the foot “behind” the knees: I experienced the same issue, partly because my lower legs and feet “jump” back when I lean forward. Still, I’m puzzled about which part of my foot is the best spot for liftoff. Sometimes it seems to be somewhere in my forefoot (similar to the part I would use for a jump), and other times I find that pushing through my heels does the trick. Some of Nick’s ATMs and workshops that focus on the heels have clarified some of these connections. However, I’m still curious about my weight-bearing spots and their relation to getting up and pushing through.
Years ago, I found a series of ATMs where the feet are pulled behind the buttocks, and your weight is pushed down between your big and second toes. Pushing your heels towards your head rotates your pelvis and moves your knees forward and down to the floor… — It was a challenging lesson, but I loved it. It helped me a lot after some troubled times with my knees and my walking. Does anyone know the name of that lesson? I would love to find and explore it again.
I remember a lesson like that from my training but can’t place a name or source. Hoping someone else who reads your comment will recall.
For the feet “jumping” back when you lean forward, are your sitbones right at the edge of the chair? Sometimes that happens when the sitbones are too far back, and weight moves forward onto your thighs as you come forward. Trying a higher chair can also help your learning.
Regarding weight-bearing in the feet as you get up, you can explore this any time you get up from a chair just by very slowly and delicately transitioning through the moment where the weight departs your sitbones entirely. Keep the feet quiet and think of lifting them, as taught in the lesson above. To do this gradually you’ll need to be very hinged at the hips, upper body tilted far forward (tilted not rounded) to counterbalance your sitbones which are tipping forward while sliding backward, just like in the lesson.
For review of weight-bearing of the feet, Activating the Arches and all of the first six lessons of Grounding for Liftoff come to mind. Also search for “heels” in our Search & Filter.
I found this lesson tiring and challenging due to spots of aggravation in my back and ribs. After reading your responses to other people’s comments I wonder if having a higher chair would make a difference. The cues that helped me were the idea of unfolding as I stood up, and describing that Moshe showed the top of his head whenever he stood. This helped me to lean even further forward than I thought I needed to. I didn’t notice a huge difference in using less effort to stand. I couldn’t help but think of employing frog legs to stand my feet on the floor in laying down lessons, and how this was a complete game changer for me and took so much less effort than just trying to bend the knees from flat legs on the floor using my psoas. This lesson didn’t provide that much of a difference for me and perhaps it is my expectation that it could be that significant that is affecting my perspective. Resting between attempts was difficult for me as neither sitting nor standing are particularly resting or relaxing positions for me. I feel that I have missed the transformative experience others found this lesson to be.
This one is very difficult for lots of folks. Sounds like you bumped into many of the reasons I’ve categorized it as one of the most challenging of the 12 ATM book lessons. You may have hit the nail on the head: without an easy rest available in chair-sitting or standing, it may have been impossible to access your brain’s best learning mode.
Feldenkrais made this lesson #1 in his book because of the primary importance of posture, and because the principles he expounds on are relevant throughout all 12 lessons (see the Curiosities tab). But for most people it’s better to approach in another learning context, since it relies on our experience with many other fine details of supporting ourselves.
If you haven’t worked through them yet, you might consider the chair-seated lessons in our Essential Lessons for Easier Sitting. I’ve also placed it at the end of a long course that’s all about finding skeletal support for lifting ourselves up: Grounding for Liftoff.
For weeks now I’ve been building up to this lesson, working through grounding for liftoff. My reason for doing this deep dive is that being upright has become a problem for my nervous system since falling ill, so I’ve found it quite daunting to try any standing or even chair seated lessons. I’ve been in a loop going back and forth between “I want to do this lesson, I can feel in my gut it’ll be a useful one” and “I can’t do it, I’m not ready for it, it’ll be too hard”, so there was not much balance in following my curiosity while also not pushing myself.
Then this morning a light went on in my mind and I suddenly realised “what am I going on about, I can just listen and imagine”. So that’s what I did today, I listened and imagined the whole lesson, familiarizing myself with the ideas, and started playing with the explorations of the first 20 minutes or so at random times when I felt like it. I’ll spend some more time over the coming days safely exploring some of the movements in “micro-sessions”, hopefully to come back soon to physically do the entire lesson. The principles make a lot of sense, and your explanations are very clear. Ofcourse your talks have to be brief in lessons, but I honestly don’t think I’d ever get bored if you were to give an actual lecture
Thanks! Just want to applaud you on your wise and sensitive learning strategy – so much kindness and understanding for yourself! It’s inspiring for my own studies, and I hope for others, too.
We would love to hear how it goes when you “physicalize” the lesson more. Be sure to click through the lesson notes tabs before then, if you haven’t yet.