The TuneUp Program

None of us will play standing all of the time so we need to be able to adapt everything that we've learned so far to a sitting posture. We also have to reprogram our nueromuscular system to abandon the bad habits of a lifetime and sit in a way that supports the natural curve of the spine.

This exercise will help you find a new way to sit.

• Sit on a firm chair, high enough so that your knees are lower than your hips.
• Keeping your upper body still rotate your pelvis forward to increase the curve in your lumbar spine (low back) so that you’re weight is on the front of your ileum (the part of the pelvic bone that you sit on).
• Again keeping your upper body still, rock back onto the back of your ileum.
• Roll your pelvis back and forth and focus your awareness on the lower vertebrae and the sacrum, let the muscles around there soften and all the bony structures move comfortably.
• Repeat this for a while until you are comfortable with it.

If the postural muscles at the front of your pelvis are not strong enough to hold you up then muscles in your back will have too much work to do and will soon fatigue. Squats are a great exercise to increase the tone in your hip flexors and the modified sit up exercise will tone your abdominal muscles. There are a number of products on the market that claim to strengthen these important postural muscles, yoga and Pilates are also good options.
When you re comfortable with the sitting exercise above take it a step further.

• Start on the front of your ileum. As you rock back your lumbar spine will straighten, follow the flexion of these vertebrae one by one up your spine until your whole back is flexed and your chin is tucked in to your neck.
• Then rock your pelvis forward again and straighten your spine, one vertebrae at a time from the bottom up.
• Repeat

This may take a bit longer, especially if your back is a bit stiff anyway. Apply all of the relaxation and focused awareness skills to any areas that aren t flowing so easily and persevere. This is the best exercise for back pain that I've ever seen. It removes much of the strain from the small lumbar muscles that are constantly stressed keeping the spine stable.
Grab you're guitar again. You now face a number of challenges.

• Getting the guitar at the right height.
• Being able to see it without bending your spine over.
• Do you cross your legs?
• Which leg do you rest it on?
• Do you use a strap?

Every position you take will cause some strain on your body and the best solution will be different for everyone. This is why you learn a variety of skills here, you need to adapt them to your own body, your guitar, your style of playing. I will make one rule though:
Any sitting position needs to support your upper body to allow the hands most efficient access to your guitar.
Here are some other points to remember before you move on to developing a comfortable sitting position.

• Having your guitar on a strap allows you to sit in a way that supports your spine, not your guitar, this is great for acoustic guitars but more difficult with the more heavy electric guitars and obviously not possible for classical players. The main advantage here is that you can sit with your hips flexed below 90˚.
• A footstool under your right foot will lift your leg and get your guitar high enough. Having your knee up though will shorten the hip flexors, rotate the femur slightly and create tension in the lower pelvis. It is important to allow the footstool to take the weight of your leg, keep your lower abdomen and legs as relaxed as possible, lean your abdomen forward into your guitar and make sure that your sitting on the front of your ileum.
• Avoid sitting with your legs crossed for too long, it will bring one side of your pelvis up and straight away the spine is not straight. It also strains the joints and muscles of the pelvic girdle.
• Look at the ergonomics of your practice area. An armless office chair is a good option, you can adjust the height and some allow you to push the back rest forward. A music stand is essential, make sure that the light is OK, you get enough rest breaks and you're not practicing for too long.