You will learn to sit, sleep, stand, walk and
bend in ways that protect and strengthen your
bones and muscles, in ways for which the body was designed.
- Sitting will be comfortable, either with a backrest when you place your back in therapeutic traction (stretchsitting) or without a backrest, when you stack your spine on a well-positioned, anteverted pelvis (stacksitting).
- Sleeping will be comfortable and provide hours of restorative traction, whether lying on your back or side (stretchlying).
- Standing will be a resting position for most of the muscles of the body with the weight-bearing bones vertically stacked over the heels (tallstanding).
- A retroverted pelvis leads to tense back muscles or slumping.
- An anteverted pelvis facilitates healthy posture.
- Bending will involve hinging at the hip rather than the waist, exercising the long back muscles and sparing the spinal discs and ligaments (hip-hinging).
- Actions that challenge spinal structures, such as carrying or twisting, will use particular muscles of the abdomen and back (inner corset) to protect the spine.
- Walking will be a series of smooth forward propulsions, challenging the muscles of the lower body and sparing the weight-bearing joints throughout the body (glidewalking).
In relearning these everyday actions, you will reposition and reshape your shoulders, arms, neck, torso, hips, legs and feet the way they were designed to be. You will develop a high level of confidence in and sense of control over your well-being.
- Because of the emphasis on lengthening and decompressing the spine, you will remove some for the stresses that cause disc
degeneration and certain arthritic changes. A compressed spine is especially prone to injury with spinal distortion. Decompressed discs remain healthy even with moderate spinal distortion. - If your back and chest are tight and/or your abdominal muscles are flaccid, your resting breathing action will be mainly in the belly.
- When your back and pectoral muscles are relaxed and your abdominal muscles have good tone, your resting breathing action will be primarily in the back and chest.
- Because you are using your muscles and sparing your joints, you will be less prone to injury and joint degeneration.
- Because you will spend so many hours a day decompressing your spine through gentle “traction,” you may grow by as much as an inch in height.
- Because for the emphasis on correct stacking and alignment, you will increase the deposition of bone where needed and help to prevent osteoporosis.
- Because your muscles can relax at rest, your circulation improves. This enables your system to efficiently nourish and heal your tissues and clear waste products.
- Because of altered alignment, your breathing mechanism will change, with more action in the rib cage. Over time, this allows for greater lung capacity, improved processing of oxygen and extra energy.
Once you have learned the basic principles, you integrate them into all positions and movements. Your everyday activities will once again become therapeutic.
