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There are a lot of people out there with a lot to say about how you should move. Yoga teachers, functional trainers, martial artists, even Alexander technique teachers like me. And if you’ve never been in pain, or you’re not somebody who moves for a living, you probably think that this kind of movement overthinking has nothing to do with you. But you’d be wrong.
To illustrate this point, I’d like to ask you to sit down, or if you’re already doing so, just stand up quickly and sit down again. I’ll wait…
Done? Good. While it’s still fresh in your mind, what was the process of sitting down like? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably “it didn’t feel like anything”. If you think harder about it, there’s likely a vague blank space in your mind at some point, or maybe for the entirety of the movement from standing to sitting. If you try it again you’ll probably find the same thing. Or you’ll find that the act of sitting suddenly feels horribly complicated. That it’s difficult to maintain your balance or you actually get ‘stuck’ at some point during the movement.
This may well be the first time anybody has ever asked you to think about this movement. Perhaps any movement, and this is is also probably why the topic of movement feels like it has nothing to do with you. After all, you can move. You do so everyday in a variety of ways…
