Product Description

A manual for understanding the anatomical and emotional components of posture in order to heal chronic pain

• Contains self-help exercises and ergonomics information to help correct unhealthy movement patterns

• Teaches how to adopt suitable posture in the modern sedentary world

Many people cause their own back and body pain through their everyday bad postural and movement habits. Many sense that their poor posture is probably the root of the problem, but they are unable to change long-standing habits.

In The New Rules of Posture, Mary Bond approaches postural changes from the inside out. She explains that healthy posture comes from a new sense we can learn to feel, not by training our muscles into an ideal shape. Drawing from 35 years of helping people improve their bodies, she shows how habitual movement patterns and emotional factors lead to unhealthy posture. She contends that posture is the physical action we take to orient ourselves in relation to situations, emotions, and people; in order to improve our posture, we need to examine both our physical postural traits and the self-expression that underlies the way we sit, stand, and move. The way we walk, she says, is our body’s signature.

Bond identifies the key anatomical features that impact alignment, particularly in light of our modern sedentary lives, and proposes six zones that help create postural changes: the pelvic floor, the breathing muscles, the abdomen, the hands, the feet, and the head. She offers self-help exercises that enable healthy function in each zone as well as information on basic ergonomics and case histories to inspire us to think about our own habitual movements. This book is a resource for Pilates, yoga, and dance instructors as well as healthcare professionals in educating people about postural self-care so they can relieve chronic pain and enjoy all life activities with greater ease.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32942 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-29
• Released on: 2006-12-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781594771248
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
“Few things are as overlooked and yet absolutely critical to our health and well being as our posture. Mary Bond offers information, stories and tools for learning how to stand and move with ease and elegance.”
(Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D, PT, author of 30 Essential Yoga Poses )

“The New Rules of Posture is a good adjunct to bodywork of all kinds, from chiro­practic and osteopathy to Pilates and yoga. Read it thoroughly, let it soak into your experience--your body will thank you.”
(Thomas Myers, author of Anatomy Trains  )

“Mary Bond’s talent and expertise extended my professional dance career until age 52! Anyone who suffers from body dysfunction and pain must read her book. Actually, it should be mandatory reading for all institutions offering anatomy, kinesiology, and medical courses.”
(Bonnie Oda Homsey, Former member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, and Artistic Director of American Repertory Dance Company )

“I have long searched for a book that addresses the human body as a whole, and with clarity, guidance, and completeness. This book is a multi-faceted gem offering all of that and much more--I highly recommend it to teachers of movement and to anyone eager to learn how to become a better occupant of their body.”
(Marie-José Blom-Lawrence, Pilates Specialist and Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Department of Dance, Southern California Loyola Marymount University )

“At last, at any level of knowledge of the body and movement, everyone will have the joy of a discovery that can profoundly change our relationship to ourselves, to others and to the beauty of the world.”
(Hubert Godard, Ph.D., Professor of Movement and Research, University of Paris )

"Recommended for anyone interested in the anatomical and emotional aspects of the movement of one’s body."
(Dede Archer, Library Journal, Feb 15, 2007 )

From the Back Cover

HEALTH / EXERCISE

“The New Rules of Posture is a good adjunct to bodywork of all kinds, from chiro­practic and osteopathy to Pilates and yoga. Read it thoroughly, let it soak into your experience--your body will thank you.”
--Thomas Myers, author of Anatomy Trains

“Few things are as overlooked and yet absolutely critical to our health and well-being as our posture. Mary Bond offers information, stories, and tools for learning how to stand and move with ease and elegance."
--Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., PT, author of 30 Essential Yoga Poses

Many people cause their own back and body pain through their everyday bad postural and movement habits. Many sense that their poor posture is probably the root of the problem, but they are unable to change long-standing habits.

In The New Rules of Posture, Mary Bond approaches postural changes from the inside out. She explains that healthy posture comes from a new sense we can learn to feel, not by training our muscles into an ideal shape. Drawing from thirty-five years of helping people improve their bodies, she shows how habitual movement patterns and emotional factors lead to unhealthy posture. She contends that posture is the physical action we take to orient ourselves in relation to situations, emotions, and people; in order to improve our posture, we need to examine both our physical postural traits and the self-expression that underlies the way we sit, stand, and move. The way we walk, she says, is our body’s signature.

Bond identifies the key anatomical features that impact alignment, particularly in light of our modern sedentary lives, and proposes six zones that help create postural changes: the pelvic floor, the breathing muscles, the abdomen, the hands, the feet, and the head. She offers self-help exercises that enable healthy function in each zone as well as information on basic ergonomics and case histories to inspire us to think about our own habitual movements. This book also is a resource for Pilates, yoga, and dance instructors as well as healthcare professionals in educating people about postural self-care so they can relieve chronic pain and enjoy all life activities with greater ease.

MARY BOND has a Master’s degree in dance from UCLA and trained with Dr. Ida P. Rolf as a Structural Integration practitioner. She is a movement instructor at the Rolf Institute and teaches movement workshops nationally. The author of Balancing Your Body, she has also published articles in numerous health and fitness magazines. She lives in California.

About the Author
Mary Bond has a Master’s degree in dance from UCLA and trained with Dr. Ida P. Rolf as a Structural Integration practitioner. She is a movement instructor at the Rolf Institute and teaches movement workshops nationally. The author of Balancing Your Body, she has also published articles in numerous health and fitness magazines. She lives in California.

Customer Reviews

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!!!!!

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.

Brilliant!
This wonderful, rich manual is far more than it sounds. It offers integrated, palpable core process understanding and practice that will work for anyone. The writing is relaxed, human and deeply knowledgable (I feel her background not only as a Rolfer but as dancer) - grace throughout. The information is fundamental for all movement (and sitting!) An essential book.