Move With Ease

by Rajal Cohen, AmSat Certified teacher of the Alexander Technique

Beyond Ergonomics

As our society becomes increasingly mechanized, more and more people are suffering from repetitive strain injuries. From debilitating carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, to the chronic neck pain that everyone who works at a computer takes for granted, we are all showing the effects.

So-called “ergonomic” office equipment is a booming business, yet many people spend big bucks on fancy office furniture without significantly reducing their level of daily discomfort.

Why is this?

Well, sometimes it is because the products are useless. I have seen many products advertised as “ergonomic” which just plain aren’t. Most consumers don’t know enough about basic principles of movement to make informed choices. Reading “ergonomic” on a tool or furniture box is about as useful as reading “natural” on a food label. Nobody regulates who can make that claim or what it means.

On the other hand, there are a number of aids out there that really can make your life easier – if you know how to use them. Remember, they are just tools to help you change, they are not the change itself. The most ergonomic environment in the world will not make as much difference as changing the way you think.

We have grown accustomed to thinking of ourselves as if our bodies were machines, and our minds completely separate. We see illustrations that show our hearts as engines, our lungs as bellows, our brains as computers, and our joints as hinges. These metaphors are fine as far as they go, but they are fundamentally misleading.

We have more in common with a houseplant than we do with a machine.
As living beings, we have the miraculous ability to constantly repair and recreate ourselves. We have an amazing network of organs and systems that work together to keep the whole in balance. Much of it happens without our even thinking about it.

As humans, of course, we are a little different from other living things. Being human means we can override our instincts, override pain and discomfort, override hunger and thirst and fear – all in service of a consciously chosen goal. This is a tremendous benefit. Civilization would not exist without this ability.

We also have tremendous potential to invent new movements. If you watch those deer browsing in your yard, you will probably not be able to distinguish one from another by its movement. The deer is moving in an instinctual way, which is the most efficient way possible for a deer to move, and which is pretty much the same as the way every other deer moves. If you want to go with mechanical metaphors, you could say it is “hard wired”. People are much less that way. We learn how to move. We may sit or stand a certain way because that’s how our parents did, or because we think it looks good, or because we don’t want to be noticed…. there are all sorts of influences on how we learn to move, and “because that is the most natural, graceful and efficient way for a human to move” is unlikely to play a large part.

What I am saying, in essence, is that one effect of our ability to make choices about how we move is that we frequently choose badly. Having chosen poorly (and often unconsciously) we then come to believe that whatever movement patterns we have settled into are “natural” and “instinctive”. We mistake habitual for natural.
If you have sat hunched over at your desk for twenty years, or if you always jut your chin forward to walk, or if you habitually raise your shoulder every time you move your arm, then that is your habit, and it is what feels “natural” to you. Simply readjusting your computer screen won’t change that.

To truly improve the way we move, it is necessary to step back and question our assumptions about what is “natural”. Sometimes learning about the mechanics of body movement (“Here is where your leg bends, here is where your lungs are,”) can make a big difference. Sometimes watching a movement in the mirror can provide surprising new information. (“I had no idea I was doing that!”) And sometimes a quiet hand on the shoulder can help us become aware of excess tension.

When we learn to recognize our habits and to stop doing them, we can recover a more natural, easy, and pleasant way of moving. We become better able to notice when a work situation is set up poorly, and we are more likely to benefit from ergonomic aids. Moving in a more efficient manner, learning new skills becomes easier, and old skills can become more refined.