Upright

Upright: Optimal Posture for Wellness and Public SpeakingBy Adam Karnov

Everyone wants Upright posture.
But how do you do it?
And how do you stick with it?Are you a public speaker who wants effective help with stance so that you can walk onstage and present with great confidence and body language?This little manual teaches all of the above using the easy and intuitive principles from my book, The Karnov Method ™.Those who have applied this method have noticed increased:• Strength
• Balance
• Height
• Confidence
• Easefulness of Breathing
• Comfort____________________________Disclaimer: The Karnov Method ™ is aligned with general knowledge in human biomechanics and physiology. That said, no promises can be made about providing pain relief or resolving any medical issues as it does not constitute medical advice.____________________________The Karnov Method ™The key to being Upright is understanding these 3 things:1. Keep your torso vertical
2. Your legs are for propulsion
3. Your arms are for balance____________________________1: Keep your torso verticalYour torso is the trunk of your body, from the bottom of your spine to your head.Think of the torso as a cylinder with a spine at its center. The spine is thickest and heaviest at the base and gradually thinner and lighter towards the top.To keep this cylinder vertical, the foundation must be strong.Engage all the muscles around the thick vertebrae at the base of your spine, especially your lower abdominals. Notice that your pelvis comes forwards and upwards, your belly comes upwards and inwards, and your glutes come upwards and inwards.

This simple image depicts the direction to orient all the muscles around the bottom of the cylinder so that you hold it up and create a foundation for the rest of your torso above. This is the key to your Upright posture.If these muscles at the base of the cylinder are unengaged, your pelvis and glutes will droop down and back and your belly will jut out. The weight of your upper body on this unstable foundation will cause discomfort and imbalance.Instead, with these muscles active at the base, the higher parts of your torso, where the vertebrae grow smaller and lighter, have a sturdy foundation below and can most easily rise Upright on top of it.Notice that you might be an inch taller, and your lungs have more room to breathe than when the base of your torso is unengaged.Now you know how to stand up straight, but how do you keep this posture while walking?____________________________2. Your legs are for propulsionOnce the base of your torso is engaged and strengthened, the energy of your legs can be fully used to transport your vertical torso. With a firm core, the junction between the legs and the torso gains torque and the legs transfer their work into the cylinder efficiently.If the base of your torso is not engaged, the energy of the legs will twist the torso and the arms from side to side.This will decrease the efficiency with which your legs transport your torso and also further compromise your torso’s verticality.In The Karnov Method ™, the key to the proper use of the legs, and the proper angle of foot strike for that matter, doesn't include any special consideration of how to angle or time the use of the legs or feet. Instead, the key to their proper use is to use your core muscles to hold up the base of your spine!Whatever the legs need to do to propel your torso is what they will naturally do. They will constantly respond to the terrain in whatever way makes sense. All you have to consciously stay focused on in The Karnov Method ™, is supporting the base of your torso, with your core muscles holding it up.With a strong foundation in your core, your legs are free to do what they're good at: walking you around!____________________________3. Your arms are for balanceWhen walking, the purpose of your arms is not to assist the legs in their propulsion by actively pumping forward and backward and twisting from side to side.As common a sight as it is, arms twisting to and fro, in a seeming attempt to help the torso move forward, are a side-effect of an unengaged base, and are only making it more difficult for the cylinder to stay Upright.Instead, the purpose of the arms is to help keep the torso vertical, by hanging in gravity as counterweights to any imbalance caused by the work of the legs or the slope of the ground below.Once your torso is Upright, let go of the arms, from the shoulders to the hands. No need to worry anymore, about how and where to hold the shoulders. As long as you standing tall, you can just let them go.Once again, in The Karnov Method ™, the key to the proper use of the arms does not include any special determination of how to swing them or how to coordinate them with the movement of the legs. Instead, the key is still how you support the base of your torso! With a vertical torso, the arms will naturally do what they need to do to keep you balanced, so long as you let them go.When the arms are relaxed, they will respond to your feet and fall into whatever position they need to balance the torso over uneven ground.If the ground is flat, passive arms gently sway beside the body as they react to the slight imbalance created between each footstep.When walking uphill, passive arms sway less, and when walking downhill, passive arms sway more.No matter the terrain, you can remain comfortably vertical and balanced, as long as you let your arms go with gravity. You might have to take smaller steps depending on the slope, but you do not need to break your vertical posture and compromise your balance.With your arms at rest and the core of your torso engaged, your legs will walk you around with Upright posture no matter where you are.

• Adam Karnov