It’s Not About Sitting, It’s Not About Standing, It’s About Varying Movement

You know how, in yoga class, we are always talking about neutral pelvis? And about how none of us manage that when we are sitting for long periods of time?

Well, think about it. If you DID sit in neutral pelvis – as Skelina is demonstrating below –

how to sit with a neutral pelvis

– you’d be sitting on your JUNK!

Which is fine for short amounts of time but seriously? Not gonna be comfortable for a long stretch. ESPECIALLY not for men. ESPECIALLY not on a bicycle!

It’s a natural instinct for us to tuck to take pressure off our junk! – for sitting and definitely cycling! So we tend to end up sitting like this:

sitting on a tucked pelvis
Here’s the thing:

ONE POSITION IS NOT BETTER THAN THE OTHERS, IT’S MORE ABOUT VARYING THE POSITIONING OF YOUR PELVIS.

Ideally you’d have an equal split between neutral, posterior and anterior tilt. The reason we emphasize sticking your bum out is because we spend so much time sitting instead of moving, so that even when we move, we often end up in posterior tilt in a lot of our movements.

Moving is the key. Standing all day at your desk is NOT better than sitting all day. Variety is what bodies like.

SO, WHAT’S THE SOLUTION THEN?

Move more in varying types of movement.

Maybe not quite like this (Skelina is such a showoff):

acroyoga

But change up the activities that you do.

Find more natural movements, change the positions that you sit in.

vary how you sit

And remember that just because you cycle/run doesn’t mean that you don’t need to walk! Cycling and running tighten up our frontlines, which are already tight from all that sitting.

Walking lengthens your frontline, and if you are swinging your arms right (from the shoulder joint, with thumbs pointing forward, NOT swinging arms across your body) then you will loosen up your chest muscles and shoulder girdle better than pretty much any other exercise could do.

Walking really is the best natural movement!

Written By Nadine Farlie