Another question I was recently asked by one of my fighters was, “I want to sit on the floor to meditate, but how can I meditate if I’m not comfortable?” What a great question!
Sitting on the ground is very good for the body, but people with Parkinson’s struggle with this. Their bodies are so tight, so they rarely sit on the ground. It becomes a vicious cycle.
I realize not everyone can safely lower themselves to the ground. (See last week’s blog post on proper sitting in a chair) While my wish is for everyone to regularly get up and down off the ground, I know that it just isn’t possible, especially as we age.
For those who can get to the ground, if you are stiff, it makes floor sitting very uncomfortable and creates bad posture that is harmful to your lumbar spine.
However, I have a simple solution for sitting on the floor correctly! Don’t risk hurting your back. It’s easy to modify. Yogis have been doing this for hundreds of years, and you may have been suggested this strategy in an adaptive yoga or Pilates class.
The good news is that it doesn’t take much practice to reverse this cycle and dramatically improve both your comfort and attitude about sitting on the ground.
Here are the steps for safely sitting on the floor:
- We start with alignment like we did with sitting in a chair.
- If you can, safely lower yourself to the ground. If you feel like you need to lean back to support yourself to sit, or if you grab your knees and pull yourself into an upright position, you are sitting behind your “sit bones” (ischial tuberosity, or the boney knobs under your bum). This means your hips and low back are really tight.
- You should be able to sit up straight with your ears lined up over your shoulders and hips. In the correct position your natural spinal curves will support you and this allows room for your lungs to expand.
- To align yourself correctly (like chair sitting), evenly sit on your “Sit Bones” and your pubic bone (at the front of your pelvis). This will form a triangle.
- Can’t get into that position? No worries! The next steps will correct this.
- If you sit behind your sit bones, you’ll create a rounded spine and tucked tailbone. This creates all sorts of back and hip problems.
- To sit correctly in the “triangle” pose, you’ll need PROPS.
- Pictured below, my client is using step risers to prop him up. You can see that one riser wasn’t enough. Even two risers were not enough. But when we used three risers, he was starting to line up.
- Everybody is different depending on their level of tightness. Pictured is a competitive athlete. He has a very tight back and hips, and has trouble sitting on the ground. The steps allow him to sit up straight and not put pressure on his lumbar spine.
With Parkinson’s it is really difficult to sit straight because of extreme muscle tightness through the back and spine. And because we spend so much time sitting in chairs, it’s not appealing to sit on the ground. So we don’t do it, and soon after we are unable to do it.
In the photos below you’ll see an example of the cross-legged pose before and after using steps for meditation/yoga. This is a great way to improve your hip external rotation.
With these steps you’ll now be able relax in your meditation session without hurting your back!
I recommend starting in small sessions to build up your back strength. The goal is to lengthen tight muscles and create enough muscle endurance to get rid of the risers and be able to sit for a longer time.
Great questions everyone!
- 💜 Coach Kimberly