 Don't Just Support Your Head, Lift it!
People have transported loads on their head for a long, long time. To prevent damage, the body needs to be balanced, stable and vertical. People who carry this way (70% of body weight or more), are known for their exceptional posture habits. Anything less would cause injury and disability.
To carry with this stability they drop their shoulders and lift their head - like the action of the PostureJac. It becomes normal to them. Their body and mind conforms to strong and straight. It transfers the weight efficiently through the bones to the ground with minimized stress.
A typical head weighs 10 - 14 pounds. You can support it or lift it with your spine. Active lifting involves the whole body, contributing to conditioning and strength. Passive support contributes to sagging and postural decline.
Your body can learn to retain this kind of natural-feeling  .
posture too. This active lifting action can make you feel taller as you learn to elevate your head instead of just supporting it
"Gravity is the therapist." ...Ida Rolf
Vertical posture holds the whole body in a dynamic balance, sustained by gravity. Architect Buckminister Fuller used the term "tensegrity" for his famous structural designs like these that seem to defy gravity. (photo courtesy of Andy Payne, LIFT Architects). Changing the balance of tension affects the shape.
Highly respected for his analysis of living anatomy, Thomas Myers, author of Anatomy Trains, uses tensegrity to explain how interconnecting forces in our bodies allow for efficient structure, movement and transfer of forces. Functional tensegrity in good posture includes gravity to hold everything in a synergy through an axis around the spine. It allows our body to move and protect our organs without collapsing or  crushing injuries. It minimizes the load on each component; especially the spine.
Poor posture causes unbalanced horizontal forces and loading on the spine. It changes the alignment and shape, and pulls the center of gravity forward. Sagging, bending, compression, stressed muscles and fascia all affect movement and structure. It also changes the size and shape of the body cavity, creating stress on organs, nerves and blood vessels.
Prolonged poor posture means prolonged stress and eventually damage. Injury can create scar tissue which may limit the extent of recovery. Intervention is best at a young age when new habits develop more readily, but people of all ages can find relief from being drawn back toward vertical posture. View examples in the Applications section.
To make it last and feel natural, your body and mind may need time to adjust. Muscle memory is built from frequent repetitions and sustained action. Tightness needs to release and strength must build.
Find out how the PostureJac can help.
This page offers explanations, demonstrations and models of the unique lifting action prompted by the PostureJac. See how it works with gravity to promote spinal lift, vertical posture and tensegrity in the body.
Please browse through this page and check out the video demonstrations.
"My PostureJac arrived just after I had finished a six-hour drive in a small rented car. Slipping on the PostureJac to give it a try, I pulled my shoulder muscles down into a relieving stretch, and automatically 'jacked' my spine up back into its normal length. Now, when I come home from long plane trips, PostureJac gets a workout before I do.
PostureJac is a well-designed piece of equipment, that can be used for different exercises, but the primary one is in my opinion the best and most unique: using downward pressure on the shoulders to create upward movement in the thoraco-lumbar spine. PostureJac has an immediate 'why didn't I think of this?' feel to it, restoring length and freedom to a compressed spine when you don't have access to competent individualized bodywork."
Thomas Myers, Author of Anatomy Trains (Elsevier 2001, 2009), www.anatomytrains.com
|
The Spinal Lift
