Hi, Reader,

A long time ago I endured multiple musculoskeletal conditions that caused me pain and clipped my ability to do what I really wanted to do.

I wasn't so much into doctors at the time (and tend to stay that way now when feasible) but did try among other things, chiropractors, acupuncturists, Alexander technique teachers and yoga and Pilates classes.

There's Posture and There's Posture

That era of my healing life taught me something key: There's posture and there's posture.

In other words, there's more to posture than yanking yourself up when you hear your mother's voice in your head yelling "Stand up straight! Don't be a slouch!"

Way more.

That time opened up a world of somatic approaches for me.

One of the biggest themes that's still alive and well in me today is that gadgets, furniture set ups and even exercise, while sometimes useful, can also be limiting.

Outside In Approaches to Posture, Pain and Ergonomics

I like to offer a balanced view of things (rather than tell you that everything except what I do is wrong) so here are my top my favorite benefits of using outside-in techniques for improving posture and getting out of pain:

• Properly set up ergonomic furniture can help position your joints in neutral. With joints in neutral, the surrounding muscles more easily relax their chronic tension.
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• Exercise can help balance the work of muscles so that you can do more with less pain.
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  For example, when you sit all day, your quads get tight and your hamstrings may weaken. Strengthening hamstrings can help change that dynamic so that the two muscles work together, which preserves and increases valuable hip extension action. This can help the low back, too.
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Including a somatic approach to posture improvement also helps with neutral joint positioning, chronic muscle tension release and restoring muscle balance and physical functioning.
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(CAVAET: For long lasting results with restoring muscle imbalance and physical functioning, strength training with good form is a must. Notice I say with good form. Somatics can help a lot with this.)
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What is Somatics?

In fact, though I loved creative movement when I started down this road, I wasn’t particularly excited about strength training.
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But using what I knew about the living body and movement as a sign of life, I adapted and now I love it.

Great news for my health, as the CDC, the WHO and others recommend regular exercise for adults: 150 minutes of aerobics and two strength training sessions per week, as a starting baseline for good health.

These days, I use many tools to keep myself healthy, happy and in good postural alignment.

Strength training is a must, like I’ve already mentioned. So is walking regularly.

Somatic techniques allows me to sense into my joints, muscles, movement and organs. This eases tension and pain, and lets me further cultivate movement as a whole body experience. It definitely increases my motivation to do "have to" type exercise like strength training.

I also combine somatics with journaling and art to help me better understand where my pain arises from and how it changed from my last somatic session.

This serves as a guide when choosing what to do next as well as when talking about my posture or pain with others.

Here’s an image of my shoulder pain from years ago (now resolved.)

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Yours in mixing somatics with mainstream methods for a more enjoyable healing and posture improvement experience,

P.S. If you'd like a taste of somatics for chronic pain, check out my book: How to Move the Pain Out of Your Body. ​ You'll learn my gentle, but effective holistic healing foundation for pain release. You'll then apply the foundation to a starter corrective exercise program typically given by PTs, yoga or Pilates instructors and the like.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anne Asher is certified by American Council on Exercise as a personal trainer and health coach. She has 25+ years experience using movement and body alignment techniques to help people feel better both physically and mentally. For over a decade, Anne was also an award winning health journalist for a large website owned and operated by the New York Times Company. Her "beat" was spine and chronic pain management.

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