A Tactile Solution to Shoulder Tension
/Skin-deep Posture and Movement, Part 2
When you grasp a steering wheel (or anything else) tightly, you’ll feel tension generated from your hands up into your elbows, shoulders, neck and jaw. There are direct myofascial and neural connective trains between the hands and the head. Such muscle chain engagement delimits your steering movements, dulls your perception of the road, and contributes to your aching shoulders. Notice this woman's eye and jaw tension as well as her too tightly gripping hands.
If you hold the steering wheel with the “baby grasp” or Aikido grasp mentioned in my previous post, you’ll handle the wheel with a faster reaction time (because you don’t have to relax your grip before re-directing your tension), and you’ll eliminate any neck and shoulder tensions generated by the overworking of your hands.
“Be touched by what you are touching.”
(p. 132, The New Rules of Posture)
When “the new rules” was first published, I received a lovely message from Melissa Macourek telling me about two videos she had posted on YouTube. Her clips applied the notion of skintelligence to pole dance techniques. By letting the pole touch the hands rather than using the hands only to grip the pole (a change made within the mind's intention), the coordination of the whole body changed, making the relationship with the pole more dynamic and graceful. Those videos are no longer available, but you can watch a different sort of example below. It’s a clip from my DVD, Heal Your Posture.
© 2013 Mary Bond