I have good posture when I write. Honestly, I do. I sit up straight in my chair, I don't slouch over the keyboard or laptop, I prop my mouse arm on my chair's arm rest. I'm an ergonomically sound writer.
Or so I thought until I injured my right shoulder girdle muscles three weeks ago at a fitness convention. Writing became an exercise in pain, the injured muscles seizing up and spasming when I wrote. I became hyperconscious of my posture and found it wasn't perfect like I'd thought.
With a book and short story deadline looming and a month of Group X classes scheduled to teach, I couldn't afford to take weeks off from writing or teaching to recover. I also didn't want to go spend a fortune at the doctor's to be told: "Don't write and don't exercise and don't teach classes." (By the way, don't try this at home. Seek medical advice when you have an injury).
As an exercise specialist, I designed a program of exercises to strengthen and stretch my shoulder girdle. And I pushed my desk chair aside and am having a ball--literally--using a stability ball (a giant inflated ball used in exercise classes) as a chair. Being that it's round, it forces me to sit up straight if I don't want to roll off backwards. And when I pause and think, I find bouncing up and down on the ball to be pleasantly meditative.
Stability balls: not just for exercise anymore.
Or so I thought until I injured my right shoulder girdle muscles three weeks ago at a fitness convention. Writing became an exercise in pain, the injured muscles seizing up and spasming when I wrote. I became hyperconscious of my posture and found it wasn't perfect like I'd thought.
With a book and short story deadline looming and a month of Group X classes scheduled to teach, I couldn't afford to take weeks off from writing or teaching to recover. I also didn't want to go spend a fortune at the doctor's to be told: "Don't write and don't exercise and don't teach classes." (By the way, don't try this at home. Seek medical advice when you have an injury).
As an exercise specialist, I designed a program of exercises to strengthen and stretch my shoulder girdle. And I pushed my desk chair aside and am having a ball--literally--using a stability ball (a giant inflated ball used in exercise classes) as a chair. Being that it's round, it forces me to sit up straight if I don't want to roll off backwards. And when I pause and think, I find bouncing up and down on the ball to be pleasantly meditative.
Stability balls: not just for exercise anymore.
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