The New Rules of Posture: How to Sit, Stand, and Move in the Modern World

I was always a bit skeptical of all these vaguely new age-y fitness books. Then I reluctantly started doing Yoga after a car accident a few years back. Long story short, yoga really helped me a lot, so after that I read some books like these. I'm still a bit skeptical of these books, but it turns out some of these people are onto something - like the author of this book. Buy it. It's great. If you've been injured and you read it, there's a decent chance it'll help you recover better once you're done healing if you're anything like me.A lot of the fitness field of late is nonsense about chakras and auras and whatnot that seems to be making it up as it goes along, but this book is the real deal. It has exercises and activities that work, it promotes bodily awareness and wonderful insight into ergonomics through real-life examples. No chakras (OK, a little about chakras, I think) or auras or Mayan 2012 anything here. The author is a dance instructor with a Master's degree who really seems to have a way with explaining this stuff and how to be more aware of your body. She is also very aware of anatomy and the book often has good pictures to show what she's talking about and which muscles are involved. Most importantly, her methods work.I was running slower than usual and I wasn't doing very well on my squat. No clue why. Then I read this book. I realized that after an ankle sprain a few months ago, I'd still been holding on to the rails on stairs, ramps, etc even though the ankle on that side had healed. I consciously altered that behavior. Before, I hadn't even realized it.Back to adding weight to my squat and jogging up and down the stairs (I didn't even notice I'd stopped doing that!). The closest analogy I can come up with is when I teach kids reading skills and they have that "uh-huh" moment where they finally comprehend what they read as they do it. That's how I felt after reading this and started to think about how I sit and stand and walk as I do it and how I could make it better. The wall exercise was really interesting in demonstrating the pelvic floor. This book teaches you body awareness skills. Simple, but really quite profound stuff.Highly recommended to anyone who likes to stay fit. Helpful in setting up office ergonomics, too.

Wonderful warm and accessible education on integrating the whole body for improved heallth

I can't believe I only found this book now. I struggled with back pain and posture problems for many years despite being an athletic, gym-going, healthy-weight guy in his 30's. I did searches on Amazon and tried so many things -- Alexander technique, Feldenkrais, yoga, somatic meditation, and much more. I picked up bits and pieces which seemed to help, but I couldn't find anything that explained *all* the components of good posture and how they all fit together.Finally, while researching books on Rolfing, I found this book. I just finished reading it and it is literally the holy grail of posture. Finally, someone is actually explaining *all* aspects of posture, not in a handwavy new-agey way but with plenty of references to scientific papers... but also admitting and embracing fully how much posture is related to emotions and attitudes. It explains the theory but is also chock-full of exercises for both discovery and practice. And this knowledge is so vitally important and can affect so many aspects of your life, it deserves to be read by *everyone*, seriously.When I was trying to understand my back pain, one of the first books I came to was the top result on Amazon for "back pain", specifically "8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back" by Esther Gokhale. Not only did that book not help, but it actually made things *worse* (e.g. her advice to center weight over the heels, or to breathe more with chest and less with belly, both of are terrible and contradict what Mary Bond teaches, and don't even get me started on Gokhale's truly bizarre "kidney bean" standing which actually left me in pain for a week). It really bothers me that Gokhale's book is currently ranked #4,000 while Bond's is ranked #30,000.If you're reading this review, buy this book -- if you read it and practice the exercises, it will literally change your life.

Did anybody else notice the gratuitous type-os?Just me? I have the Kindle version of this book, and at one point there are several paragraphs where the text becomes literally unreadable. I wish I was exaggerating. A mistake here or there I can understand, but there were so many that it made me reconsider the integrity of the entire book. I have to trust it will help me based on all the positive reviews... but I have never seen anything like this is a book before, especially one I had to pay money for.

This book is unbelievable. The information about opening the pelvic diamond & sitting into your pelvis alone is worth thousands of dollars to me. I discovered in therapy years ago that I was clenching this area from anxiety but now I understand exactly what I was doing and how to fix it. You will be amazed at the results from practicing Mary's techniques - I use them for sitting (long hrs at work), running, commuting, meetings (poise) - every day it gets a little better & easier. The amazing thing about this book is that it's NEW INFORMATION. I'm very inquisitive & do a lot of research/reading - I still can't believe that I haven't heard any of this before. My posture is getting so much better & best of all it's EASY. I bought a shoulder brace a few months to try to force my shoulders back but I'll never use it again -- no need -- when you get the pelvis & TA right, the shoulders do what they're supposed to do naturally. I really can't say enough about this book. It has changed my life. THANK YOU MARY!

I found many answers which I could not find in other books. Details that are important are well explained. I have recommended it to other people as well.JB

This is a book that people who are involved in teaching people exercise or movement should read and that anyone should read who would like to keep themselves in good shape or get themselves in better shape. I am impressed by how much it has helped me to learn to move more freely and easily.

I'm a massage therapist and this is such a useful book, both as a practitioner and to use on myself. It's easy to understand and really does make one aware of how to have the right posture for wellbeing and aiming for painfree.

One of the best books ever written on the body and how it functions and how we can work with it for optimum vitality and mobility. I had the privilege of meeting and having treatments with Mary Bond. I have her book and continue to work with it. I also found her DVD "Heal Your Posture" an exceptionally helpful and instructive workshop. This book was a gift for someone getting into performance.

Just what I wanted, perfect condition and a little cheaper, very pleased.

Thanks so much. I used to be in so much pain. Applied your principles and they worked.