Good Bones = the Hardscape = Human Posture

My computer fried last week just as I had taken a week off from work to do so much writing and organization. C'est la vie!  But I'm able to limp along with some auxillary tech help, so here we go......

Overall structural design is what gives a garden its ‘bones’ or framework. When we say a garden has ‘good bones’ we are usually referring to an engaging placement of the solid, more permanent landscaping features.  A successful hardscape of pathways, fences, arbors, water features, trees, or shrubs provides the armature upon which you build and shape the garden with your plantings. These are the things that remain constant even through the dormant seasons.  They define your little paradise, providing interest and contour, until they are utilized again in the spring to function as support for the movement of the garden when those creeping phlox spill over the walls and wisteria climbs up over the arbors.

Just as the garden benefits from having a good structural design, the human body also needs to have a solid and well-placed framework upon which to
 build its shape with muscle. This underlying structure is of course our bony skeleton. The design or arrangement of these bones when displayed in the body is called posture. One of my teachers once defined posture as “the position where movement begins and ends.”  And as with the garden hardscape, our body posture remains supportive even when we are dormant—until it is utilized again to support the movement and function as our muscles are called upon to do work.

Establishing good bones makes it so much easier to develop and maintain a successful garden. And we can all recognize a good garden design/composition when we see one. In a very similar way, maintaining good body posture paves the way for an easier lifestyle by producing healthy joints and pain-free movement. But how many of us can recognize a good postural arrangement?  Just what is it that makes posture good or bad, anyway?   

Creating a garden with good bones means that it is an aesthetically pleasing design; it displays order and a sense of beauty to our eye. Different people are drawn to different types of garden designs, from the formal, symmetrical style to the loose asymmetry of a cottage-style planting. However, a recent study discovered that what people are most attracted to in other people is always symmetry. Symmetrical features in the human form almost always reflect overall health and fitness. Evidently, our perception of order and beauty in the human body is equated with the body’s ability to function efficiently with ease and grace.   And that’s exactly the same standard for qualifying good posture.

Your mother may have told you good posture meant sitting up straight or pulling your shoulders back. You may be old enough to remember walking with a book on your head to practice good posture. And while those things do contribute to developing better positioning, it may not be for the reasons you think. Yes, it does make us look nicer, (and more symmetrical) but remember, the way we look is only a reflection of our health and fitness. I’d like you to start thinking of posture in a different way—not in terms of image, but rather in terms of function.

I don’t really like using the terms “good” and “bad” where human posture is concerned. Those terms imply a value or virtue. And while there is value in maintaining good posture, here the term relates to biomechanical efficiency. Good posture is the position that lets your body move without strain. Bad posture would then be any position that puts strain on the muscles and thus on the joints and sets you up for injury, pain and negative long-term consequences.

And it’s our old friend gravity that dictates whether your body posture is efficient or not. The mechanics of posture consists of balances and counterbalances as our bodies interact with the earth’s gravitational field. Here’s how it works: Remember gravity is the vertical force that draws us toward the center of the earth, exerting a pressure on our bodies of approximately 15 pounds per square inch.  That’s like having a bowling ball or stacked on every square inch of your body!  Every time we stand up we have to push our way up through that gravitational force that’s pushing us down. It is gravity that gives us weight. And we need to support that weight upon the bones of our skeleton—our hardscape, our framework— so that our muscles can be relaxed, unstrained and free to create movement when we ask them to.

Here’s a little test: Take a flower pot filled with dirt and hold it straight out to your side. Notice how it starts to feel heavy; and how quickly your arm begins to get tired because there is nothing underneath it to oppose the force of gravity which is pushing it down. Your shoulder muscles are the only things doing the work of holding your arm up.

 Now hold the pot straight up over your head. It doesn’t feel as heavy anymore, does it? That’s because the weight of the pot is now being supported by the hard structure of the bones in your body from the arm all the way down your body to your feet.

Sitting in your chair as you read this, your body weight is supported against the force of gravity by the hard structure of the furniture underneath you and your muscles can remain relaxed. Now try putting your body in a sitting position without having the chair under you. There is no longer anything holding you up; nothing supporting your body weight against the force of gravity which is pulling you down; Nothing, that is, except the strength of your leg muscles which are not designed for this purpose and which will rapidly tire from the exertion of this exercise. (Like squatting in the garden for a few hours)

In the body, the most important impact of having a good armature is the proper skeletal support so your muscles can remain at ease and your joints are not compressed. Good posture is dependent on keeping our bones in a particular stack to hold up our body weight and keep it solidly supported against the force of gravity. We want the weight of the head (which weighs about the same as a small Boston fern) to be supported by the bones of the neck; and the weight of our arms and torso supported evenly by our spine and hips; and the weight of our hips supported by the bones of our legs and feet. If not, then our muscles have to hold us up and they are not designed to do that. Muscles are designed for movement. As we noted with the chair example, when muscles are using their energy to do the work of supporting the body, they will fatigue quickly without any additional activity.

           OK, so how do we get the bones to line up and remain in an efficient arrangement? Bones cannot move by themselves. Muscles move bones. All muscles work in pairs, or paired groups. And each pair of  muscles controls a joint. When you plant a new tree, if it’s as tall as you are, you most likely will stake it with guy wires on two or even three sides to keep it stable, upright, and growing straight. If one of the ropes is shorter than the others, the tree will lean toward the shorter side. If one rope becomes slack or  breaks, the tree will fall or lean away from that side. It’s all about balance. There   must be equal length and tension between the anchored ropes. Those guy wires imitate how the muscles work to keep your bones and joints in good placement.


          Well, I've got to go to a great party now at the home of a  local artist who removes most of his  furniture and repaints the floor, walls and ceiling  white and displays his art which is fabulous and fun.   Now that I have computer access again I hope to write more frequently.


Later, 'taters.