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Posture, Muscle Tension and Exercise

Millicent_Bystander

I've had problems with my posture and muscle tension for a long time, and have been reading about how these things affect autistic people more. As I get older I can't get away with sitting awkwardly as much as I used too and I'm finding my desk chair at home virtually impossible. I can't get comfortable in the chair, the slightest difficulty tenses me up so much I sit really stiffly and I've had a painful back for a while. The obvious answer would be to get a new office chair, but where do you start, there are thousands to choose from and the cost of one of those ergonomic chairs is eyewatering.

Being tense all the time is tiring, I'm trying to get back into some exercise, other than walking to help release the tension. I feel good after exercise but at the moment I feel exhausted. Despite knowing I feel good after exercise my tiredness is making changing my routine a bigger struggle and the sensory challenges of changing my clothes, a noisy fitness app, I can't find subtitles yet to turn off the incessent chatter and loud music, the gym is a no-no, I tried it and it takes way too much time to get there and back and the volume even with earplugs is too much.

Sorry for having a bit of a moan, I'm in a rut and feeling frustrated and down, struggling with sensory sensitivities and despite knowing what would help, feeling unable to get on with it.

Would like to know if anyone else has this experience and any advice

Parents

  • I've been fortunate enough to work in this field one way or another for some time.  What people think of as exercise varies from culture to culture.  

    Posture is complicated, the best examples of it are probably toddlers and dancers in my opinion...  Oh, and maybe it's not just the chair but also how one is sitting on it.

    In respect of tension and posture the exercise our body is doing is holding itself up and in a shape versus gravity and atmospheric pressure - not something people necessarily think of as being exercise however if you think about it that is the reality of the physics of the situation.

    In context posture is not just what is being done but how it is being done.

    Depending on what floats your boat there are different "styles" of exercise that address this.

    Some exercises are more "external" e.g. lifting weights or hitting a ball around maybe.

    Things like Pilates, yoga, taichi/qigong (however you like to spell) it are perhaps more "internal" exercise systems.  In these the focus is perhaps more on acquiring skills that enable rearranging of the tensions in the body so that the body is more comfortable to inhabit and more efficient at doing physical work - including maintaining posture, breathing etc....  Pick your teacher and style and maybe try out a few (again often not what is being done but how...) - and be prepared to challenge your ideas about what feels "right" in your body in order to find a way of feeling more comfortable.

    Whatever way you go I would encourage you to think that exercise is not about flogging yourself to death - it is about being able to do more with less effort - OK albeit with putting effort into it while learning how to do so.

    All the best

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  • I've been fortunate enough to work in this field one way or another for some time.  What people think of as exercise varies from culture to culture.  

    Posture is complicated, the best examples of it are probably toddlers and dancers in my opinion...  Oh, and maybe it's not just the chair but also how one is sitting on it.

    In respect of tension and posture the exercise our body is doing is holding itself up and in a shape versus gravity and atmospheric pressure - not something people necessarily think of as being exercise however if you think about it that is the reality of the physics of the situation.

    In context posture is not just what is being done but how it is being done.

    Depending on what floats your boat there are different "styles" of exercise that address this.

    Some exercises are more "external" e.g. lifting weights or hitting a ball around maybe.

    Things like Pilates, yoga, taichi/qigong (however you like to spell) it are perhaps more "internal" exercise systems.  In these the focus is perhaps more on acquiring skills that enable rearranging of the tensions in the body so that the body is more comfortable to inhabit and more efficient at doing physical work - including maintaining posture, breathing etc....  Pick your teacher and style and maybe try out a few (again often not what is being done but how...) - and be prepared to challenge your ideas about what feels "right" in your body in order to find a way of feeling more comfortable.

    Whatever way you go I would encourage you to think that exercise is not about flogging yourself to death - it is about being able to do more with less effort - OK albeit with putting effort into it while learning how to do so.

    All the best

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