Steve Palazzolo
PGA Professional, Philadelphia Section
In this short explanation, you will have a movement sequence able to be performed of any person of any age. It starts with the founder's position. Although there are many variations of this position, this is the base position taught by Dr. Eric Goodman.
The posterior chain is the support structure of your body that is the main determining factor in being in pain or living a life free of pain. Posterior chain including the heels, calves, hamstrings, back, and shoulders. When we perform the founder's position properly, there are more muscles activated than any other action or position you could perform. This is why it works so well!
In order to understand this position, we must first understand this concept that follows.
- Sit down casually as you normally would.
- Place your thumb on your lowermost rib and your pinky finger on your hip bone.
- Pull your hand away and check the distance from thumb to pinky. Probably a few inches.
- Now, sit tall with your core engaged and repeat steps 2 and 3. This distance probably increased slightly.
- Now, stand tall with good posture and check the same distance! It should be considerably longer!
*To understand what distance I mean, this demonstration below may help. This is a photo taken from Eric Goodman's breathing demonstration on his Tedx Talk. I highly recommend watching Eric Goodman's Ted Talk.
This is why sitting wrecks the body! The space in the front of your body is limited, shortening the back of the body, significantly weakening the posterior chain.
Now, let's take a look at the founder's position and sequence that follows. The founder's position in the first and last picture can be performed for longer periods. However, if you perform the whole sequence, each position requires only 10-20 seconds.
In order to strengthen the back of the body, we must lengthen the front of the body. Here is the founder's position. This position has helped elderly get out of pain, olympians to perform at the highest level with little room for injury, or your average joe who simply JUST WANTS TO LIVE PAIN FREE! Here, your knees are either directly over or behind your ankles. Your hips/butt shoot straight back to provide a balance for the exercise. As your hips extend backward, feel as though a string is pulling your chest forward and upward. Notice my hips are well behind my knees. Your hands extend towards the sky while your shoulder blades pull back and down. Your gaze should be forward. With every breath, your chest extends upward as your hips pull back. With every exhale, try to maintain the new position achieved on the inhale!
Next, our hips and hands pull apart from each other. The furthest your hands have ever been from your hips. Hands and chest go forward as hips pull backward. Gaze remains forward.
Next, relax all the way as your hands touch the floor. Relax and allow your head and neck to fall towards the ground. Make sure your hips stay behind your knees. It is easy for your hips to come forward here!
Before coming back to founder's position, find a straight back as you rest your hands on your knees. Come up slowly as your hands touch your knees.
When you feel comfortable, come to this variation of founder's with your hands pulling straight down your hips. Every muscle in your body should be engaged in this position. Arms angle straight down your back while shoulder blades are pulled back and down.
Now, after feeling what the founder's position has to offer, we must understand a few ideas. Your problem started LONG before your pain came about. Pain DOES NOT mean that your problem started at the concurrent time. It is the way in which we move throughout our day that will get us out of pain. Check out my first article describing beginner ways to move and how I overcame 3 MAJOR injuries in under 4 years to rid myself of pain forever.
So, try the founder's position or this sequence a few times throughout your day to keep yourself out of pain. Good luck! If you have any questions, please reply if something isn't exactly clear or you are finding trouble getting into these positions. :P