{"id":35648,"date":"2011-08-04T10:52:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T18:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=35648"},"modified":"2011-08-04T11:14:28","modified_gmt":"2011-08-04T19:14:28","slug":"how-to-sit-comfortably","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=35648","title":{"rendered":"How To Sit Comfortably"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.balanceartscenter.com\/\">Ann Rodiger is an Alexander Technique teacher in New York City<\/a> and the author of <em><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ISBN=160844788X\/alexandertechniqA\/\">How to Sit Your Body at Work: A guide to sitting at your workstation based on the Alexander Technique<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><A HREF=\"http:\/\/bodylearning.buzzsprout.com\/382\/22550-how-alexander-technique-principles-can-help-you-sit-more-comfortably-at-work\">Robert Rickover interviews her<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Robert: &#8220;A lot of people today spend a lot of time sitting. Usually when the topic of sitting comes up, it comes up in the context of <A HREF=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ergonomics\">ergonomics<\/a>, which discusses what kind of chair you&#8217;re sitting in and where to place computer terminals, etc.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ann: &#8220;If they could expand to include the person and how they&#8217;re moving, that would help. I think that people think that the way they are is a given and that they can&#8217;t change themselves.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The three big problems I see the most are back pain, carpal tunnel and headaches. I think they have to do with how they&#8217;re working. People often say that they don&#8217;t have time to think about that, but when they just give themselves a little attention to what they&#8217;re doing, things can change quickly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The place to start is how much can you ease up the pressure on your body, particularly the head and the neck. Can you allow your three-dimensional neck to be easy and then to allow your head to balance on top of your spine?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Technique teachers never advise someone to &#8220;sit up straight&#8221; or to &#8220;stand up straight.&#8221; You can sit up straight and be incredibly tense. This does you more harm than slumping a bit and letting go of that unnecessary tension. <\/p>\n<p>Ann: &#8220;It&#8217;s useful to have a variety of chairs to sit in so you don&#8217;t get stuck and you give yourself recuperation from one chair with something else.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Galen Kranz (an Alexander Technique teacher and a professor of architecture at U.C. Berkeley) wrote the book <em><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Chair-Rethinking-Culture-Body-Design\/dp\/0393046559\">The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design<\/a><\/em>. She recommends sitting in a stool 50% higher than a regular chair.<\/p>\n<p>Ann: &#8220;I like to sit on a high cushion. I can keep my feet on the floor more easily that way. It helps me to stay more upright.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ann Rodiger is an Alexander Technique teacher in New York City and the author of How to Sit Your Body at Work: A guide to sitting at your workstation based on the Alexander Technique. Robert Rickover interviews her. Robert: &#8220;A &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=35648\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10268],"tags":[16394,16831,22370,27342,27343,27344,19784,22190,27345],"class_list":["post-35648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alexander-technique","tag-alexander-technique-teacher","tag-alexander-technique-teachers","tag-c-berkeley","tag-computer-terminals","tag-ergonomics","tag-headaches","tag-robert-rickover","tag-unnecessary-tension","tag-workstation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35658,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35648\/revisions\/35658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}