Let’s talk posture. Ugh, right? That word usually conjures images of stern teachers, nagging reminders to "sit up straight!", and a vague sense of guilt as you inevitably slump back into your comfy-but-crumpled positions. What if I told you the secret to better posture isn’t about trying harder or mustering forced willpower? It’s actually about being physically lazy!

Hear me out.

That slouch you sink into after a long Zoom call? The head-forward phone posture? The classic "I’m exhausted, just let me melt into this chair" pose? That’s the hard work. That’s your muscles overcompensating because your skeleton isn't doing its primary job: supporting you efficiently.

Slumping, collapsing, or locking yourself into a stiff “upright” , that stuff takes work. It’s like holding up a tent with spaghetti poles and then using all your energy to stop it falling over. No thanks.

Good posture, the kind we explore in the Alexander Technique, isn’t about sitting bolt upright or standing to attention like a soldier. It’s about using your whole self in a smart, efficient way, letting your skeleton take the load so your muscles don’t have to do all the heavy lifting. The key is support, not from effort, but from the ground.

Think about it. Your skeleton is this amazing, weight-bearing structure designed to channel support. When it’s supported well – head balanced easily on top of the spine, spine supported by the pelvis, pelvis resting squarely on your sit bones when sitting – something magical happens. You start channelling free energy from the ground up. Yep, physics is your posture's pal.

This magic is called gravity. Not in the way you usually think about it, as a force that just pulls you down, but in the way Albert Einstein showed us it really worked. It’s basically the earth pushing back up against you when you stand or sit on it. I appreciate that may be counterintuitive if you've always thought of gravity as simply pulling you down, but it's more nuanced than that. The contact you feel under your feet is the ground pushing up into you, not you down onto the floor. You can measure it with an accelerometer app on your phone (go ahead, download one), and it will measure 9.8ms² of upwards acceleration, or 1G as it's more commonly called here on earth. 1G, 1 Earth Gravity.

When your bones are aligned reasonably well, this accelerating force travels cleanly up through your feet (or sit bones), through your legs and pelvis, up your spine, and right to the top of your head. Your muscles don't have to fight gravity and hold you up against your own collapsing structure, they subtly move you to keep re-finding that upwards support. They can chill out, just doing their subtle dynamic dance like movement, not the exhausting work of being permanent scaffolding. You no more need to fight gravity than a fish needs to fight water. You use it to your advantage. That means less tension, less fatigue, and more energy left for… you know, living your life. 

When you slump at your desk or crane your neck at your phone, you're actually working harder than you need to. Muscles are straining to do what your bones were built for. It's inefficient. It's tiring. And honestly, it's just too much effort.

So, yeah. I’m too lazy to do bad posture.

Give me balance, ease, and support over effort any day. That’s the sweet spot the Alexander Technique helps you find, where your body works with gravity, not against it.

It’s not about sitting “correctly” or holding yourself rigid. It’s about letting go of habits that get in your way, and rediscovering the natural poise you were born with. Posture becomes less of a “thing to do” and more of a natural outcome of using yourself well. You will be balanced and supported in much the same way as you are being breathed.

How do you justify all that extra effort to yourself? I'll tell you. It's familiar, it's Stockholm Syndrome. Or habit gravity as it's sometime called. Don't mistake the mentally familiar with physical comfort. It’s inefficient. It’s tiring. It’s work.

• Your neck muscles are straining to hold your heavy head forward? Work.
• Your lower back is clenched because you're sitting on your tailbone instead of your sit bones? Work.
• Your shoulders are hunched up around your ears trying to "support" your sinking chest? SO. MUCH. WORK.

Good posture, poise, Alexander Technique style, is about getting out of your own way and letting the ground support you. It’s about releasing unnecessary tension and allowing your spine to lengthen naturally. It’s about efficiency through a relaxed and present mind as a new habit.

It’s the lazy way, without the guilt, as a teenage client put it to me recently.

 Honestly, constantly holding yourself in a slump or a rigid "military posture" is exhausting. It drains your energy, creates aches and pains, and makes everything feel harder than it needs to be. Who has time for that?

The Alexander Technique teaches us to notice those unhelpful habits (like pulling the head back and down to "sit straight", which just creates more tension!) and gently inhibit them. Instead of doing posture, we learn to undo the interference that stops our natural, easy support from kicking in.

You’re not trying to sit up straight. You’re simply allowing your structure to receive the support the ground is already offering. You’re letting physics do the heavy lifting. That’s the lazy, efficient, and frankly, smarter way to inhabit your body.

So next time you feel yourself collapsing, don't beat yourself up. Just think: "I'm way too lazy for all that extra muscular effort. Let the bones do their job!" Give yourself permission to receive the free support from below. Your energy levels (and your back/neck/shoulders) will thank you.

What un-lazy posture habit are you ready to ditch?