Side Bending
Saturday, May 21st, 2011
How to Bend – 4 Tips on Bending Based on the Alexander Technique
Are you reluctant to reach for something on the floor? Do you feel pain when you bend? Do you want to feel stronger and more stable as you bend? Your problem may be related more to how you bend than to your physical condition. Bending far enough to touch the floor is something you should be able to do your entire life. These four tips can help you bend with greater ease, stability and strength. They can also help you reduce the pain of bending and increase your bending range and flexibility. They are based on the Alexander Technique, a method for improving your understanding of posture and movement. Learning the Alexander Technique generally requires more than reading an article, but these four tips can help you improve the way you bend.
1. Leave your heels on the floor as you bend.
This is the most important rule when bending. No matter how far toward the floor you bend, you still need to support your full weight. Picking your heels up makes it harder to support your weight so it is important to leave your feet fully on the floor as you bend. Before you bend, notice how your feet feel on the floor and try to let them feel the same way during the entire bending movement.
2. Bend at the knees and hip joints, not the waist.
Bending at the knees and hips offers a much greater range of motion than bending at the waist and will also give you more power. Bending at the waist will leave you in a weaker position. To find your hip joints, march in place and notice where your legs attach to your torso. Those are your hip joints. When you bend, you will use your knees and your hip joints.
3. Look at the floor.
When you bend, look at the floor. The reason for this is difficult to explain but you will find that looking at the floor as you bend makes bending easier. You can discover this yourself by bending while you look at a wall. You will find that looking at the floor makes bending easier.
4. Don’t reach too far with your arms.
Bend far enough so that you can easily reach what you are trying to retrieve. Reaching too far can cause you to pull your heels off the floor and distorts your back, making you feel weaker.
To recap, when bending:
1. Leave your heels on the floor as you bend.
2. Bend at the knees and hip joints, not the waist.
3. Look at the floor.
4. Don’t reach too far with your arms.
Take a few minutes to experiment and practice these tips so that you can understand and use them effectively. Depending on your fitness level, they can have a dramatic effect. Bending is an important quality of life skill. Properly bending far enough to touch the floor every day as part of normal activity will help you be able to bend for the rest of your life.
About the Author
Leland Vall, M.AmSAT is a certified Alexander Technique instructor based in New York. He is the author of
The Secret to Using Your Body
and he teaches individuals and groups how to improve posture, as well as move, sit, and stand with greater ease and strength. Find out how to feel better every day and for the rest of your life at
www.freeyourneck.com
|
|
Electric Side Bending Iron by Ibex – 220 volt $276.18 |
|
|
Delphos Bending Company Side Table Maple Bent Wood Mid Century Modern $49.99 |
|
|
Guitar side bending techniques luthier video DVD $24.95 |
|
|
Side Bending Machine Drawings by LCT $26.00 |
|
|
Vintage Photo Old Man bending over Kitty cat w Great tail dog & lady to the side $11.99 |
|
|
USA MASSACHUSETTS POSTCARD 1978 WIND DRIVEN WAVES BENDING BEACH GRASS SOUTH SIDE $6.49 |
|
|
GUITAR SIDE BENDING MACHINE NO HEAT BLANKET $325.00 |
|
|
Heated Side Bending Machine $359.95 |
|
|
Blues Creek Guitars 6 by 34 inch guitar heat blanker for side bending $160.00 |
|
|
Blues Creek Guitars guitar side bending blanket controller $30.00 |
|
|
Blues Creek Guitars 6 by 34 inch guitar side bending blanket $160.00 |
|
|
Blues Creek Guitars 6 by 36 inch guitar side bending blanket $165.00 |
|
|
Tapco Bending Brake Side Winder Coil Feeder 10776 $389.99 |
|
|
Fox Stlye GUITAR SIDE BENDING MACHINE COMPLETE $570.00 |
|
|
BLUES CREEK GUITAR SIDE BENDING MACHINE Weissenborn $525.00 |
|
|
BLUES CREEK GUITAR SIDE BENDING MACHINE 240 Vac $499.00 |
|
|
GUITAR SIDE BENDING MACHINE LUTHIER $465.00 |
|
|
BLUES CREEK GUITAR SIDE BENDING MACHINE COMPLETE $550.00 |
|
|
STEEL RODS FOR UNIVERSAL SIDE BENDING MACHINE FORMS $27.00 |
|
|
BLUES CREEK GUITAR SIDE BENDING MACHINE COMPLETE $570.00 |
|
|
BLUES CREEK GUITAR SIDE BENDING MACHINE LUTHIER $465.00 |
|
|
Man washing before prayers, Kapitan Kling Mosque, Penang, Malaysia, Southeast Photo Mugs Man washing before prayers, Kapitan Kling Mosque, Penang, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Asia…. |
|
|
Plate-bending rolls at John Brown a Co. Ltd, Clydebank, 1901 Photo Mugs The John Brown a Co. Ltd Shipbuilding and Engineering Works at Clydebank showing workers using plate-bending rolls at the side of the Platers Machine Shed in the East Yard….. |
|
|
Plate-bending rolls at John Brown a Co. Ltd, Clydebank, 1901 Photo Mugs The John Brown a Co. Ltd Shipbuilding and Engineering Works at Clydebank showing workers using the 35ft plate-bending rolls at the side of the Platers Machine Shed in the East Yard….. |
|
|
Felknor Ventures 82506 Topsy Turvy Upside-Down Tomato Planter $2.68 Ingenious tomato planter turns gardening upside down! Thanks to a whole new direction in growing tomatoes, your crop will be bigger, better tasting, healthier, and easier to grow than ever before. You can water, feed, trim and harvest without bending or kneeling–and since your crop is upside down and will never touch the ground, staking, caging, bacteria, ground rotting, fungus and small animals … |
|
|
Unger 92134 36-Inch Nifty Nabber Pick-Up Tool with Aluminum Handle $15.95 The Unger 36-inch nifty nabber pick-up tool with aluminum handle makes it easy to pick up items from the ground or off shelves by squeezing the handle to wrap the claw around an object. It can hold objects as tiny as a penny or as heavy as 8 pounds. The rubber overmolded steel fingers provide gripping power without damaging objects…. |
|
|
Klein 11055 Klein-Kurve Wire Stripper/Cutter, Blue $15.32 The Klein Tools Klein-Kurve Wire Stripper and Cutter handles 10-18 AWG Solid Wire and 12-20 AWG Stranded Wire. It features wire looping and bending holes, a strong-gripping serrated nose to easily shape or pull wire, and a closure lock for easy storage. A coil spring lets you quickly open this tool, and the curved handles with double-dipped comfort grips give you the flexibility to reach tight are… |
|
|
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World $2.99 … |