Primal Primer 3 (Modality)
The supple sapien spent large proportions of time upright, seated in ground positions, and with intermittent bouts of triple extension (hip, knee, & ankle) during intense activity. Due to mixed lifestyles of migration, hunting, gathering, and play, our ancestors used and evolved their bodies to prefer active states of motion and posture. Modern life has long departed us from more actionable states to favoring a C-shaped (head over knees in slouched computer viewing) low energy posture, as we hunt and gather exclusively in digital Amazons. This new form goes completely against the grain of our long established biomechanics, resulting in pain and stiffness from contracted muscles of low back and hip flexors, and weakness from under active / stretched out abdominals and glutes. The upper body’s now hunched position often results in neck and shoulder pain (tight chest and upper traps, while weak and under active upper back), causing headaches, stiffness, and difficulty breathing through reduced thoracic mobility.
What Is Kinetic Chain Alignment?
Your kinetic chain is defined as interrelated groups of body segments connecting nerves, muscle, bone, and joints all in a state of reciprocal balance. Kinetic chain alignment restores the body to an efficient state of balance and readiness, mimicking postures of the past.
Consequence of Bad Posture
Over time, accumulation of sitting and maladaptive exercise solidify into a constant state of dysregulation, imbalance and subsequent compensation.
- Performance – Limited force production capabilities while placing unnecessary strain on muscle, joints, and connective tissues; often resulting in overuse (chronic) and catastrophic (acute) injuries.
- Pain – Unnatural tightness and overly stretched reciprocal muscles resulting from C-Shaped posture is evident through chronic low level pain and tightness most of us attribute to aging.
- Circulatory System – The human body circulates life fluid (blood, lymph, nutrients, & cerebral spinal fluid) all through an elegant and extensive network of hoses that pump mechanically through heart, lung, and body. It is easy to understand how a kink in this system’s many hoses (which are affected by bone and muscle states) can affect systemic health.
~Cave Implementation~
Realigning your kinetic chain is not a simple or quick fix, as root cause is the accumulation of many hours of time under tension in the wrongest of ways. However, there are a few ways to reverse out the kinks, and train out habits of poor posture:
- Walking – 10,000 steps everyday. Walking is the antidote to the dreaded C-Shape position. Be sure to look forward and to horizons when taking steps.
- Seated – Limit seated time with standing desks, mobility snacking, or using the Kinetic Chain Alignment Meditation.
- Yoga – There are many beneficial yoga poses in flow Vinyasa types; Yoga strengthens, stabilizing, stretches, mobilizes, and calms nervous system allowing for healing.
- BW Strength Training – Under strict form, body weight strength training can reactivate many dormant muscles groups and restore balance through strength.
- Kinetic Chain Alignment Meditation – Align your body from feet to head (earth to sky) for an optimal neutral position of balanced readiness.
- Standing posture check: feet forward under the knees (knees oriented over the second toe from the big one). Without shoes, grip the ground with “bear” feet (squeezing the ground lightly between the large and small toe tripoded by heel).
- Hips directly over the knees (hips being your center of gravity). Attempt to level the hips with the deck. Common postural fault from excessive sitting is anterior pelvic tilt (try rotating top of hips back and down).
- Activate core and glutes by bracing (think flexing like you’re about to take a punch).
- Pull the shoulders down and back (packing). Hands beside hips hanging natural.
- Head is above the body, not in front. Neck is tall with chin slightly inward. Take a few breaths to relax into stacked bones and neutrality of form.
