Listen and subscribe on your favorite platform, or listen below.

Yoga teacher Jenni Rawlings and Exercise Science professor Travis Pollen are joined by Todd Hargrove to discuss the controversial topic of posture and alignment in the yoga, movement, and fitness worlds. Todd is a Feldenkrais practitioner, Rolfer, former attorney, author of the books A Guide to Better Movement and Playing With Movement, and more.

Points of discussion include:

What do the terms “posture” and “alignment” mean?
What does society’s idea of “good posture” look like?
The distinction between seeing posture through societal vs. biomechanical lenses
Does research support the widespread claim that bad posture has a causal link with pain?
Does research support the widespread claim that bad posture can negatively impact health?
How is viewing the human body like a machine unhelpful?
Movement variability vs. the belief that there is “one right way” to move
What does the importance of movement variability suggest about the field of ergonomics?
What types of exercises can help with low back pain?
Why do we tend to hear about anterior pelvic tilt and forward head posture as examples of bad posture so frequently in the yoga world?
The difference between external and internal cues and why they matter for yoga/movement teachers
What sorts of factors influence our habitual posture?
Why do some areas of the body seem to be more common sites of pain than others?
In what contexts could attempting to change one’s posture be helpful?
…And much, much more!