The New Rules of Posture: How to Sit, Stand, and Move in the Modern World

by Mary Bond

Book Overview

Un manual para entender la mejor forma de vivir dentro del cuerpo humano en un mundo sedentario - Contiene ejercicios de autoayuda e informaci n de ergonom a para ayudarnos a corregir patrones de... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594771243
• ISBN13: 9781594771248
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Healing Arts Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.9" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A Useful Tool for Every Body

The New Rules of Posture: How to Sit, Stand, and Move by Mary Bond is a must read if you're interested in increasing your somatic awareness of your body in motion. Hoorah! finally someone writes about the body as a moving entity and not as a stable unit moving just one joint at a time. Posture for Bond is not about standing still and sticking your chest out, but about how you move is number one of the new rules. Bond writes, "your posture is the product of the ongoing perceptual activities through which you orient yourself to your world." Bond's goal is to make readers more aware of opening the body up to the world. The entire book focuses on the action of walking to gain an understanding of what Bond calls open stabilization and open orientation. These terms of Bond's encourage movement without unnecessarily tensing muscles in the body that over time develops fascial adhesions and ultimately leads to restricted movement and decreased range of motion. Fascial adhesions where two or more fascia stick together can occur in a variety of locations because fascia, the connective tissue in the body, is everywhere. In fact Bond writes that if everything in our bodies were taken away fascia would maintain a recognizable human form. Things can get pretty complicated when posture is theorized as dynamic, but Bond is clear and precise. She divides her book into four sections: awareness, stability, orientation, and motion. Each section builds on the next. Threaded through each section are Bond's six zones of the body: breathing muscles, abdomen, pelvic floor, hands, feet and head. Bond states that all six regions are connected anatomically and unnecessary tension in any one of them causes a reaction in all of them. To help guide the reader to change bodily habits, Bond uses explorations throughout the book. For example she writes, "stand comfortably as though you are waiting in line for movie tickets. Then take a step forward toward the ticket window. Notice which leg took the step." In this exploration entitled, "your best foot" Bond's point is that because the spine accommodates the habits you have with your legs, if you have a strong preference for one leg over the other it could cause misalignment all the way up to your jaw. Throughout the book are fascinating facts and relationships in the body that if nothing else will help you to reconceive of your bodily connections. For example, Bond writes losing too much carbon dioxide by breathing too quickly can cause everything from depression to low back pain; she cautions against tightening the sacrum because it prevents your feet from meeting the ground successfully; and ,warns against performing the same movement over and over again. Why? Because repetition without staying aware of bodily signals diminishes our consciousness. All in all The New Rules of Posture enhances our consciousness and is a book to go back to again and again each time with a deeper understanding of the moving body.

The New Rules of Posture

I found this book, The New Rules of Posture, extremely helpful and accessible. The text is crisp and moves along nicely. In addressing the quasi-intangible subject of posture, an author could easily tend toward the abstract and miss the opportunity to provide substantial answers; conversely, detailed analysis of the human body's myriad and complex patterns, movements and compensations could, in the wrong hands, bog. Luckily--rather, skillfully--Mary Bond successfully dances the edge--exquisitely combining light-hearted, sometimes playful imagery with just the right amount of intellectual detail to elicit keen interest and assure that her corrective suggestions, while artfully applied, are sound and rooted in science. I also appreciated the comprehensive cross-referencing that allowed me to navigate quickly topics of primary interest before my cover-to-cover read.

Body awareness to the max!!!!!!

OH MY GOSH!!!! This book has answered so many questions for me. When I was growing up, my Mom always told me to stand up straight. Try as I might, I never was able to. Once I got older, I was told by doctors that I had a pelvis that tilted back (I know, too much information). What they didn't tell me was I could change the tilt!!!!! For the first time in my life, I can now stand up straight and have the proper curve in my back!!! The book has helped me with several other aspects that I wasn't aware of...how when you walk you're actually supposed to be pushing off with the toes of the foot that is in back (it makes walking easier, I was a heel walker). I'm only on Ch 4 (breathing) but I feel this book is worth it's weight in gold!!!!!

Clearly written manual for how to move in daily life

Easy to understand and enjoyable to read. Certified Advanced Rolfer Mary Bond has written the manual that my Rolfing clients have been asking for. I bought 10 of them, and my clients are enjoying them very much. But you don't have to know anything about Rolfing to benefit from this book. It is written for the common person, however there is plenty of juice for bodyworkers, yoga practitioners, doctors, etc. Find gems such as how to sit correctly in those awful car seats, a whole chapter on breating, and what the "core" of the body really means. Mary Bond also has an excellent free online article called "Smart Sitting." Karin Edwards, Certified Rolfer

Nails the topic

Mary Bond has transformed the work of Rolf and Godard into a manual for health and well being for living in the twenty first century. Comprehensive, readable, usable, non-preachy, ingenious. This book will become a milestone in the evolution of somatic thought. You will not be disappointed. Cheers.