Good Posture Is Not What You Think

Article Summary

Many people think good posture means holding themselves in a particular position—shoulders back, chest lifted, and spine straight. Moshe Feldenkrais saw posture differently. In his view, posture is not a position to achieve but an expression of how well we organize ourselves for movement and action. When we focus on appearance or try to satisfy an internalized image of what “good posture” should look like, we often create unnecessary tension and effort. The Feldenkrais Method® helps people become aware of these habits and discover more efficient, comfortable, and adaptable ways to move. As organization improves, posture often improves naturally as a result.

The Myth of Good Posture

Most of us grew up hearing the same advice.

“Stand up straight.”

“Pull your shoulders back.”

“Sit up.”

“Don’t slouch.”

The message was clear: there is a correct posture, and if we could only learn to maintain it, everything would somehow be better.

Yet when we look closely, that assumption begins to fall apart.

Try a simple experiment. Pull your shoulders back. Lift your chest. Tighten your stomach. Straighten your spine. Now hold it.

How long before you begin to feel effort creeping in? How long before your breathing becomes restricted? How long before you start thinking about stopping?

What many people call good posture is actually a form of posing. It is a position maintained through effort rather than a way of organizing yourself that supports movement. It may look impressive for a moment, but the longer you try to maintain it, the more obvious its limitations become.

Life is not static. You are not a statue. You are a living, moving human being whose breathing, balance, vision, and nervous system are constantly making subtle adjustments. A posture that requires continuous effort eventually interferes with those adjustments. The more rigidly you hold yourself, the less available you become for movement.

Whose Posture Is It, Anyway?

Moshe Feldenkrais observed something fascinating. Many people are not actually trying to stand comfortably. They are trying to stand correctly.

And those are not the same thing.

When people decide to improve their posture, they rarely look for greater ease, freedom, or efficiency. Instead, they reach for an image. They pull their shoulders back, lift the chest, tighten the abdomen, and straighten the spine. In other words, they attempt to become the person they were told they should be.

That image may come from a parent who constantly reminded them to sit up straight. It may come from a teacher, a coach, a military officer, or perhaps a formidable nun. It may come from any authority figure whose approval became associated with how they carried themselves.

Over time, those messages become internalized. The external authority becomes an internal authority, though not one we consciously chose.

Years later, we may find ourselves standing in front of a mirror trying to satisfy a standard that is no longer serving us and may never have been our own.

The nervous system does not organize itself around ideals. It organizes itself around function. A posture built to gain approval is often full of unnecessary effort because it is organized around appearance rather than action.

The question is no longer:

Am I standing correctly?

The more useful question becomes:

Am I organized in a way that allows me to breathe, move, balance, and act easily?

What Is That Posture Good For?

When I teach workshops and classes, I often ask a simple question.

Suppose we adopt what many people think of as ideal posture: chest lifted, shoulders back, spine straight, everything neatly held in place.

Now ask:

What is that posture good for?

Can you embrace your lover?

Can you comfort a frightened child?

Can you enjoy a good meal?

Can you prepare a meal?

Can you bend down to tie your shoes?

Can you take a leisurely walk?

Can you look up at the stars?

Can you laugh?

Can you dance?

The question is not whether the posture looks impressive. The question is whether it serves life.

Most people quickly discover that the posture they have been trying to achieve is surprisingly limited. It is excellent for standing still and looking proper. Beyond that, its usefulness begins to diminish rather quickly.

Every behavior is useful in some context. A rigid posture may be perfectly suited for a military inspection, posing for a formal portrait, or perhaps auditioning for a role in Downton Abbey.

But most of us are not spending our lives doing any of those things.

We are living.

We are moving.

We are relating to other people.

A posture that interferes with those activities may look correct while functioning poorly.

Moshe Feldenkrais Had a Different View

Moshe Feldenkrais approached posture from a completely different direction.

In The Elusive Obvious, he wrote:

“Life is movement. Without movement life is unthinkable.”

If life is movement, then posture cannot be separated from movement.

The question is not:

“What position should I hold?”

The question is:

“How am I organizing myself for action?”

A person who appears to have excellent posture but cannot bend, turn, reach, breathe, or adapt comfortably is not functioning optimally. On the other hand, a person who can move freely, breathe easily, and respond appropriately to changing circumstances often appears naturally upright without trying to be.

For Moshe, posture was never primarily about appearance. It was about function.

The Origins of Acture

Moshe Feldenkrais believed that our conventional understanding of posture was fundamentally incomplete.

Posture refers to position. It suggests something static—how a person holds themselves at a particular moment.

But Moshe was far more interested in action than position.

In his teachings he drew upon the Hebrew concept of Akshar, a state of readiness or preparedness for action. When teaching in English, he coined the word Acture as a counterpart to posture.

The distinction is subtle but profound.

Posture asks:

How are you holding yourself?

Acture asks:

How available are you for action?

A person may appear perfectly upright and yet be poorly prepared for movement. Another may appear less formal and yet be capable of moving freely in any direction without hesitation or preparation.

For Moshe, this readiness for action was a far more meaningful measure of human functioning than any idealized posture.

Organization for Action

Moshe described good posture as the ability to move in any direction without preparation.

Think about that for a moment.

Most people define posture by appearance. Moshe defined it by possibility.

If I must first rearrange myself before I can move, then I am not fully available for action. If I need to brace myself before turning, reaching, bending, or stepping, then something in my organization is limiting my options.

Good posture is not a shape.

It is readiness. It is the ability to respond. It is the ability to move where you want to move when you want to move there.

A cat resting on a windowsill demonstrates this beautifully. It may appear completely relaxed, yet in an instant it can leap, twist, stretch, or run. It does not need to prepare itself because it is already organized for action.

This is very different from the rigid uprightness that many people associate with posture.

One is a position.

The other is a capacity.

And it is that capacity that the Feldenkrais Method® seeks to develop.

Awareness Comes Before Change

In Awareness Through Movement®, Moshe Feldenkrais repeatedly returned to a simple principle:

You cannot change what you are unaware of.

Most people do not realize how much effort they use simply trying to maintain what they believe is good posture. They hold the chest, tighten the lower back, grip the shoulders, and lock the knees. These habits become so familiar that they disappear from awareness.

The first step is not correcting them. The first step is noticing them.

When you become aware of unnecessary effort, you gain options. And when you gain options, change becomes possible.

A Simple Experiment

Sit comfortably near the front edge of a chair.

How are you sitting?

Don’t make any corrections. Just notice.

Is your back rounded or straight?

Where are you looking? Toward the floor? Out toward the horizon?

How are you breathing?

Now try the following.

Lower your head and bring your chin a little closer to your chest.

Then lift your head and look out toward the horizon.

Do this several times, slowly and comfortably.

Now lower your head again and interlace your hands behind your head. Make sure your hands are supporting the back of your head, not your neck.

Let your elbows hang forward and allow the weight of your arms to gently carry your head downward.

Very slowly begin to lift your head. As you do, allow your elbows to open out to the sides.

Then lower your head again and let the elbows come forward.

Repeat this movement 10 to 15 times.

As you lower your head, let the air leave your lungs.

As you lift your head, allow the air to come in naturally.

Move slowly. There is nothing to achieve. Simply notice what happens.

Then stop and rest for a moment.

Now stand up.

Do you notice anything different?

Does your chest feel more open?

Does your back feel longer?

Do you feel taller without trying to stand taller?

Has your breathing changed?

This is only a tiny glimpse of a Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement® lesson.

Imagine exploring many variations like this for thirty or forty minutes.

Imagine what becomes possible when you stop trying to hold yourself correctly and begin learning how to organize yourself more effectively.

Experiencing Acture

One of the things I notice repeatedly in both my classes and private lessons is that people often leave in a very different state than the one in which they arrived.

They frequently describe feeling relaxed, yet energized. Calm, yet alert. Comfortable, yet ready to do something.

This is not the heaviness that sometimes follows relaxation exercises, nor is it the driven feeling that often accompanies motivation or excitement.

Instead, there is a sense of readiness. A feeling that action is available.

People stand up and find themselves more comfortable, more balanced, more grounded, and lengthened at the same time, and more and more ready to move forward.

They don’t feel a need to rush. They don’t feel compelled to do anything in particular. And yet they often report feeling ready to do almost anything.

To me, this is one of the most interesting expressions of what Moshe Feldenkrais was pointing toward with the idea of Acture.

When unnecessary effort is reduced, when movement becomes better organized, and when the nervous system is no longer occupied maintaining habitual tension, your potential becomes available.

That state of relaxed readiness is something many students recognize immediately, even if they have never heard the word Acture before.

From Posturing to Possibility

The goal is not perfect posture. The goal is to become more available for life.

When you move with less unnecessary effort, posture often improves as a side effect. Breathing becomes easier. Balance becomes more reliable. Movement becomes more fluid.

You stop trying to look upright and begin organizing yourself in a way that naturally supports action.

That shift—from holding yourself to organizing yourself—is one of the most important insights the Feldenkrais Method® offers.

And it changes far more than posture.

References

Feldenkrais, Moshe. Awareness Through Movement.

Feldenkrais, Moshe. The Elusive Obvious.