Body position

“ The position which they adopt is that into which the body falls when it ceases to be braced by strong muscular support. The muscular system is here so weakly developed and so toneless that the posture is determined by the bony structure and its ligamentous attachments. ”

“ Retaining the same position as in last exercise, move the upper part of the body to the right a few times, then a few times to the left, after each movement returning to the upright position. Then move in the same manner from right to left, alternately. Study and you will readily understand the nature of these movements, which not only benefit the lungs, but impart grace and suppleness to the body. ”

“ The patient being still upon the ground, face down, and maintaining all the while your position astride the body, grasp the points of the shoulders by the clothing, or, if the body be naked, thrust your fingers into the armpits, clasping your thumbs under the points of the shoulders, and raise the chest as high as you can without lifting the head quite off the ground and hold it long enough to slowly count three. ”

“ Necessity and experience teach an animal to adapt its postures and motions to the position of the centre of gravity of his body. When a man stands, the line of direction of his weight must fall within the base formed by his feet. ”

“ IT is a novel proposition that the position of the head in respect to the body or of the shoulders in reference to the back, that the carriage of the whole body in walking and the attitude of a person in conversation, should be governed in an important measure by the form of the cranium. It will also, doubtless, be regarded as a bold assertion to say that all these positions and attitudes and even the gait of individuals are largely modified, even in many instances controlled, by the normal position of the eyes in respect to the cranium. ”

“ HOW WE STAND ERECT.—The joints play so easily, and the center of gravity in the body is so far above the foot, that the skeleton can not of itself hold our bodies upright. Thus it requires the action of many muscles to maintain this position. ”

“ For, as I have already indicated when distinguishing the head from other parts of the body, it is undeniable that the spiritual expression of the form is restricted to the face and the pose and movement of the whole, to the general mien, which is pre-eminently eloquent by virtue of the arms, hands, and position of the legs. ”

“ We should stand correctly in order that the organs of the body—heart, lungs, stomach, liver, and kidneys—may have room and be in position to do their work well. We should stand erect, chin in, chest high, abdomen flat, and with the weight of the body resting on the balls of the feet. ”

“ Lean far back, then bend forward and touch the floor with the right hand, without bending the knees, as far in front of the body as possible. Raise the body to original posture, reverse position of arms, and repeat the exercise. Inhale while leaning backward and changing position of arms, exhale while bending forward. ”

“ When sitting, keep the body erect, or lean back slightly, resting the shoulders, rather than the spinal column, against any substance excepting [Pg 805] feathers, changing the limbs from time to time to any easy position. If tired, and one can consistently “loll,” recline to one side, resting the cheek upon the hand. If one is very tired, and desires to “rest fast,” sit with the feet and hands crossed or arms folded.
A CONSUMPTIVE POSITION.
If you lie crooked in bed, do it on the side. ”

“ With the arms at the sides and the feet side by side and touching, bring the hands in a circular movement to a vertical position over the head, and lock the thumbs. Keeping the knees straight and the thumbs locked, bend forward, letting the hands touch the ground if possible, and then bring the body and hands again to the vertical position. ”

“ Lying on the back, raise the body from the lying to the sitting position with the hands placed upon the back of the neck. Repeat ten to twenty times three times a day, gradually increasing the number. ”

“ At these times he will throw his body into almost every conceivable posture—twisting, turning, bending, stooping, the arms down, forward, back, and over his head, the muscles of the limbs and entire body flexed almost to the point of tremor, the fingers spread, and the muscles rigidly tensed. ”

“ Formation of Habits.—The co-ordination of the two limbs is after all only a small portion of walking. The body must be held erect, the curve of {230} the spine must be managed so that the center of gravity is kept well within the base, and gluteal and femoral and calf muscles must all be co-ordinated with one another. ”

“ Its peculiar characteristic is that the feet are no more active than any other part of the body; arms, shoulders, abdomen, head—all the parts and every muscle are set in motion, sometimes including even the eyes and the tongue. ”

“ The junction time of dawn and twilight, when all nature becomes calm. Take help of nature. Take the easiest posture in sitting. Have the three parts straight—the ribs, the shoulders, and the head—leaving the spine free and straight, no leaning backwards or forwards. Then mentally hold the body as perfect, part by part. ”

“ To stand well, therefore, one should stand upright; the chest well expanded so as to bring all parts into co-ordination and establish a true centrality in the body. In a certain sense, there seems to be an axis of the body by which it rests easily upon one foot while the other leg and hip are perfectly free. The body is also perfectly free to pivot and to pass the weight to the other foot. ”

“ But the moving body, ever tending to fall, needs constant support, if it is to move in a true horizontal line. ‘What, then,’ he asked himself, ‘will give constant support to a moving body?’ And his answer was ‘Human legs!’ That was the discovery that immortalised his name! ”

“ He sees each person directly from the front as he approaches, and his glance travels rapidly from feet to head. In this rapid glance he notes the gait, attitude, presence of flat feet, lameness, stiffness at ankle, knee, or hip, malformations of the body, observes the neck for goitre, muscular development, scars, enlarged glands, texture of skin, and finally as the immigrant comes up face to face, the examiner notes abnormalities of the features, eruptions, scars, paralysis, expression, etc. ”

“ The head should be upright, easy, and capable of free motion, right, left, up, or down, without affecting the body. The body must be kept erect and square to the front, having the breast projected, and the stomach retracted, though not so as to injure either freedom of respiration or ease of attitude. ”

“ Your head is set logically on your neck, and your neck is correctly placed on your spine, and your legs and arms are properly attached to your torso—your entire body, anatomically speaking, is hinged, hung, supported, developed as the ideal body should be. ”

“ And if we are to move the muscles must be contracted. And it is, of course, obvious that only those muscles can be set in action which are, according to the immediate situation of the body, free to move. ”

“ But when walking, the center of each half body is in the center of each leg, for by each step one leg makes the whole body must throw itself upon the center of the other leg, or else the body would tumble over. ”

“ We may see in our own bodies how each limb serves another. The feet bear the whole body, and the eyes lead the feet, and the hands prepare the sustenance. Soon will the head lie down, if the feet bear it not ”

“ When you are perfectly calm and relaxed, seat yourself cross-legged, assuming any posture that comes easiest to you, with head, neck and chest held in a straight line and the weight of the upper parts of the body resting on ribs. ”

“ Unhappily there are but few parents and teachers who have ever formed any definite conception of the importance of proper early training, and that simply because they never understood its importance; nor is it possible that they ever should, until they have some knowledge of the structure and functions of the body which they have to train and develope. We propose, therefore, in this chapter, to give a general idea of the structure and functions of the spine, as well as a brief description of some of the curvatures to which it is subject.
The distinctive character of man is the erect posture. ”

“ You can use any large book of no value,—say a large law book,—and you will find that the effort to retain it on the head will secure a perfectly balanced, accurate movement of all the muscles of the body. Whatever weight is employed, let it be carried upon the top of the head, holding the chin close to the neck, thirty minutes in the morning, and about the same time before lying down at night. ”

“ Your leg posts are designed to serve as a flexible pedestal for your body. Your ability to shift your weight from one foot to the other easily without losing your balance suggests associated capability of your mind to keep your judgment in balance. ”

“ The muscles may be trained into the habit of keeping the shoulders straight or letting them droop; those of the back, to keep the body well up on the hips, or to let it sag; those of locomotion, to give us a light, springy step, or to allow a shuffling carriage; those of speech, to give us a clear-cut, accurate articulation, or a careless, halting one; and those of the face, to give us a cheerful cast of countenance, or a glum and morose expression.
Habit a Modification of Brain Tissue.—But the nervous tissue is the most sensitive and easily molded of all bodily tissues. ”

“ The great group of the voluntary, or bone-moving muscles, which move "with the will" and are under our direct control, may be divided roughly into two divisions—those that move the trunk, or body proper, and run, for the most part, lengthwise of it; and those that move the limbs. ”

“ The whole hand is brought, by the motion of the arm, to touch one part of the face or body; it is then moved, so as to touch another part, and, with the frequent succession of the simple feelings of touch, in these parts, is associated the feeling of the intervening length, derived from the sensations that accompanied the progressive contraction of the arm. ”

“ Trying to control the mind, a certain posture is necessary. Any posture in which the person can sit easily — that is the posture for that person. As a rule, you will find that the spinal column must be left free. ”

“ No animal but man ever lies upon its back unless it is dead. Furthermore, the dorsal position puts tendons, nerves and muscles on a stretch, while the flexed lateral position puts these in a more or less relaxed position, which is most favorable to rest. ”

“ As to posture in bed, the experience of men in general is, that the most comfortable posture and the most hygienic one is to lie upon the side. The right side is to be preferred to the left because in this position, the heart being on the upper side, is not embarrassed in its free movement by the superincumbent lung tissue. ”

“ The body ought, on no account, to be placed in a crooked posture; as it impedes the circulation of the blood, and pre-disposes the system to swoonings, or apoplectic fits. Lying on the back is equally improper ”

“ For if anything be obvious to introspection it is that the degree of strength of our muscular contractions is completely revealed to us by afferent feelings coming from the muscles themselves and their insertions, from the vicinity of the joints, and from the general fixation of the larynx, chest, face, and body, in the phenomenon of effort, objectively considered. ”

“ Movements of different parts of the organism in relation to each other, are the first presented in consciousness. These, produced by the action of the muscles, necessitate reactions upon consciousness in the shape of sensations of muscular tension. Consequently, each stretching-out or drawing-in of a limb, is originally known as a series of muscular tensions, varying in intensity as the position of the limb changes. ”

“ In the human body they are found in great numbers in connection with the nerves of the hand, also in those of the foot. Why should they not be in the feet? Let us remember the rythmical structure of the human body, particularly the feet, and it becomes clear why they are there; the ecstatic dances of the enthusiasts and the not-sinking of somnambulists in water or their ability to use the soles of their feet as organs of perception and the ancient art of healing by the soles of the feet—all these facts explain the mystery. ”

“ Roll the upper part of your body around, with the waist line acting as a pivot. Let your head fall and roll around as you shift the torso to different positions. Do not force your head around—simply relax your neck and let gravity pull it around as your body moves. ”

“ If we imagine an addition of dimensions to the head, we shall immediately conceive it would only deform—if to the hands or feet, we are sensible of something gross and ungenteel—if to the whole lengths of the arms, we feel they would be dangling and awkward—if, by an addition of length or breadth to the body, we know it would appear heavy and clumsy—there remains then only the neck, with the legs and thighs to speak of ”

“ When those running up the front of the body contract, they naturally bend the back, and pull the head and shoulders forward and downward. Or, as when you spring up and catch the branch of a tree or a horizontal bar with your hands, these same muscles will pull the lower part of the body and legs upward, so that you can climb into the tree. ”

“ But is the upright position altogether natural, even to man? He uses it in moving from place to place, but still standing is a fatiguing position, and one which can only be maintained for a limited time, and by the aid of muscular contraction. The vertebrate column does not pass through the axis of the head so as to maintain it in like equilibrium with other limbs. ”