Colin Gordon on Posture

My pal Colin - from Edinburgh Deep Tissue Massage - has posted a superb new piece in his series on posture:

Improving your posture Pt2

Excellent ideas which I will steal when I come to write a future article on the dangers of sitting too much.

One of the quickest ways of getting big improvements is to target the hip flexors and superficial fascia of the pelvis. Tight hip flexors inhibit the glutes, hip extensors, and through our largely sedentary life styles are one of the big contributors to disrupting our posture and this is also a big issue in athletic performance where the glutes are the powerhouse of so many activities. This inhibition of the glutes makes it difficult to recruit them to pull the pelvis posteriorly and back into balance. The anterior tilt also makes it difficult to recruit the musculature of the lower abdominals so you can see why when you are asked to bring your pelvis back to neutral by contracting both these groups it is possible to do but difficult to hold and as such simply trying to strengthen either of them may be a challenge for some and even for those who can still isn’t going to cut it since there is still a downward pull on the pelvis.

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Dry January

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking part in "Dry January". I didn't make a big song and dance about it, but I decided to go for a calendar month or so with no alcohol. A few people have asked me about my experience, so here are a few points. Why take a break from drinking? Alcohol is an interesting topic. As a drug it is widely accepted in society, central to so much of our socialising and leisure. There seem to be lots of health benefits - so we are told - yet there are also a lot of problems in terms of health, relationships and lifestyle that come from drinking. Over a few years I'd begun to become aware and then concerned that I was drinking too much and too regularly. I am in a busy and stressful job and sometimes a glass of wine after work to relax is really helpful. But over time, one glass became two. Two glasses became ....I might as well finish the bottle. A habit got established....and was starting to get too e...

So where have I been?

You will have noticed that this blog has been quiet for a while.... There are a few reasons for that, reasons that I thought I'd list here: WORK - my day job has been incredibly busy and stressful this year. Working 10-14 hour days the last thing on my mind when I got home was putting something on here. FACEBOOK/TWITTER - I suppose I've been using other channels to do some of what I used to do here. Quick fire posts pointing to interesting studies or news etc tend to get posted to Twitter (@chrishighcock) or to the Facebook Hillfit group http://www.facebook.com/groups/263083947097000/ REASSESSMENT - I've found myself less comfortable with some of the positions I've taken in the past. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by some of the things I've promoted. I'm not Paleo or low carb. I think Tabata and intervals are misunderstood and misapplied. I cannot really claim to be HIT. I find myselfunable honestly to post things on here and pretend that I am some sort o...

Taking up space for a brief update

I've a couple of posts in draft that I will get up soon - an update / reflection on Dry January and some thoughts on the scheduling benefits of short workouts if your life is busy. Before that though, I am pointing to something else. However, I wanted to highlight something that is coming this weekend that I've been involved in. Amber Rogers (Gokaleo and author of Taking Up Space ) has been pulling together a bundle of books from various authors with a common theme, one that I've been pushing here recently. Keep it simple, avoid the hype, be patient, be consistent and flee the gurus. I've talked before about how we get obsessed with pushing for more and more, when enough is OK. I've given my view that so much of the health and fitness internet world is more like a gnostic religion than something that will benefit your life. There are other voices out there saying similar things and I'll be pointing to a bundle of books later this week ...

Conditioning Research

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