Form and Function

Remember the scene in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels where Michael Cane is teaching Steve Martin how to move his arms, stand, turn, and walk? If you don’t, here … watch this . . .

That scene made me think about form and function and now, the older I get, the more important proper form and function matter to me.

The human body is meant to sit, stand, sleep, and move in certain ways. Any stress to that system leads to injury.

A recent article from MSN talked about good posture as essential for better balance, circulation, respiration, digestion and bladder function. Not to mention it’s shown to improve cognitive ability and enhance our moods.

I’m not perfect. But I’m working on it. We all should. I take video of myself. We all should. I mean …take video of yourself … not of me.

HOW I DO IT

When I sit or stand, I imagine a string attached to the top of my head and pulling me up (or I’m hanging from it).

I stand with my back against a wall and make my heels, shoulder blades, and back of my head touch the wall to remind myself what perfect posture feels like.

I mindfully think about my standing and sitting posture often …and I’ll even add a 1-1-1-5 breathing technique for a little mindfulness, too. That’s 3x 1/2-second breaths in through the nose followed by a 5-second exhale through the mouth.

WHAT ELSE I DO

I take it one step further and I think about my arms, legs, and hands while sitting, working or walking. Have you ever crossed your legs while sitting and when you uncross them your muscles and joints hurt? Or has your arm ever fallen asleep? Have you ever used your mouse for a while or held your phone to your ear and then your hand hurts? This is because you’re not focusing on proper form. If my arm falls asleep, it means I was putting my arm in such a way that I cut off circulation. If I stand up after having my legs crossed and my knee hurts or my foot is asleep, that’s a bad thing. Plus much more…

• Always use a mouse instead of the slide pad on my laptop, but when I do use my slide pad, I hold my hand in the proper “hand at rest” form
• Hold my iPhone with one hand and use my index finger with the other
• Grip my steering wheel at 10 and 2 or 8 and 4
• Hold my coffee mug with 2 hands (three fingers on the handle, other palm under to support)
• Do everything with 2 hands when possible

EXERCISE STRESS IS GOOD STRESS

This isn’t to say we should never put our bodies in uncomfortable positions. That’s the essence of exercise. Stretching. Lifting heavy things. Doing something to failure? These are good when done under control and done with the intent of improving. But just randomly laying on your side in a awkward position or leaning on your elbow at your desk until your neck, hand, or elbow hurts? This isn’t improving anything.

GOOD FORM IS A GREAT IDEA

Think about how you hold your phone? Think about how you look at your phone? About how you walk. How you hold your coffee mug, or lift a tea kettle, or how you use a brook, a rake, or shovel. Or about how you hold a book or sit at Church. We shoudln’t cause ourselves pain when doing nothing, right?

Ergonomic engineers are involved in the design of nearly every product, activity, or environment and they design things to efficiently work with humans and how we move, hold things, and do things. Use things with correct form, and you’ll enjoy them more …and you’ll also help your body.

THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE

Don’t believe me? Go to your local mall and watch people walk? Or sit along the course of a 5K or 10K.  Or, like me, look across the room at home at your kids hunched over like the Hunchback of Notre Dame scrolling on their phones (those kids are full of youth, but long term, you know those hunched iPhone postures will hurt them).

Ryan Seacrest, years ago, talked about “Blackberry neck” and said he would hold his Blackberry awkwardly looking out in front of him at eye-level to avoid looking down and causing neck wrinkles and squinting wrinkles.

The Alexander Technique is simple, really…

• We can improve the quality of our lives by being more mindful of even the most mundane things.
• The Alexander technique is a method of rediscovering natural balance and poise through thinking in activity. It is not an exercise regime.
• All our movements should be gentle, using only the appropriate amount of muscular energy.
• Every thought we have registers somewhere in our muscles, so the way we think about ourselves is a vital element.

In fact, there are companies entirely dedicated to helping people move correctly.

Imagine that. Without massive amounts of exercise and the time commitment and not obsessing over calories, fat, and sugar, simply by moving our bodies as our bodies are designed to move, we can improve our lives in dozens of ways.

Can we do the simple things? The easy things?

We should. Think about every little thing you do and do it right. Little things will make big impacts.