Postural Deviations

May 14, 2008 by jleeger.

Hi!

It’s been a while…I’ve been really busy with school and work.  One more week of finals and that’s over!

One of the things that is constantly at the top of my mind is the concept of good posture.  We train posture constantly in Bagua.  “Structure” is the key to our art.  If the skeleton is out of alignment, you lose energy at each little weak link in the chain, resulting in powerless movement.  You’ll also get snapped like a whip anytime someone executes a move on you.

Just have George do Pi Quan on you, and you’ll see what I mean.  Your arm might be solid as rock, but your shoulder is a little too forward, so it’s a little compromised, as are the opposing muscles on your back, and so on down the chain to the ground.  The effect builds as it goes through the body, until you crumble to the ground like a bag of bones.

The muscles are what hold the body in correct posture or “structure.”  If the muscles are pulling the bones out of balance, or not providing enough stability in certain areas, your structure is compromised, so is your ability to create, transfer, or absorb force or power.

I just wanted to make a comment about this, without going into excruciating detail.  There is an excellent overview of the most common postural deviations on exrx.net, here - http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Posture.html#anchor3102554

I highly recommend checking yourself frequently for any of these deviations, and then making the necessary corrections in your training to correct them.  Your Bagua and strength conditioning, not to mention your body’s muscles, joints, and nervous system, will thank you!

Josh

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