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We, in modern society,

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have really forgotten
how to use our bodies.

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And we suffer a lot of aches, and pains,
and dysfunction because of that.

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But the good news is that we can heal

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most of the neck pain,
and the plantar fasciitis,

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and the repetitive stress injuries,
and the back pain that we suffer.

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And we can do it simply
by restoring our primal posture

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and truly natural ways of bending,

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walking, lifting, sitting.

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Here you see two Portuguese horsemen,

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and they are both relaxed,
but they are sitting very differently.

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This guy is slumped,
head forward, shoulders forward;

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and this guy is pretty upright.

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Now, what would most parents tell
their children when sitting like this?

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Sit up straight!

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And he could do it, but it would
take tension in his lower back.

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And he'd probably last a short while,
and then he get tired, maybe sore,

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and he'd go back to slumping.

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So most of us go back and forth
between being upright and tense

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which we think is
good posture, but it isn't,

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and then being relaxed and slumped
which we all know is bad posture.

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What we really want

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is to be upright and relaxed.

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And what it takes
is a well-positioned pelvis.

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This is like your foundation.

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And the easy way to see
the difference in their pelvic positions

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is to imagine that if they have tails.

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Where would you say this guy's tail is?
Under him. He is sitting on it.

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And that guy's tail? Out behind him.

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And for our species, the natural way
to have your tail is out behind you,

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anteverted: behind-behind.

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And if you have that, then your blocks,
your vertebrae, get to stack easily,

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and the muscles get to relax.

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And when you breath now,
your whole back can move,

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and that stimulates circulation.

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It's like a little massage
going on all day,

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and you can heal yourself that way.

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If you sit on your tail,
you've got two bad options.

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This is one, relaxed and slumped,

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and here is the other, upright and tense.

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So if tucking your pelvis
is so problematic,

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how come so many of us do it?

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The answer begins early in life
in the way we are carried

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- you see the tucked pelvis -

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and the way we are parked
in poorly designed baby furniture.

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It's a sad thing, I know!

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(Laughter)

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And then, this is the age

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at which our neural pathways
are getting set

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as to what constitute sitting.

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So we carry those habits into adulthood
where we continue to sit this way.

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Then it doesn't help that most 
of our furniture is poorly designed

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including the ergonomic furniture;

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and that we are instructed
by our fitness experts and so on

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to tuck our pelvis to protect
our spines and so on,

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very unfortunate guidelines.

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So how are we going to return

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to our truly primal posture,

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behind-behind, bones well-stacked?

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The same posture we used to have

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when we were two,
and that our ancestors had.

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I call it a "J-spine" where you see
how the behind is out behind,

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and then the upper lumbar area
is pretty erect and elongated.

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And it's the same posture

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that you find in non-industrial
populations the world over.

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These are the Iban tribesmen
from Borneo in Indonesia.

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And you can see they have
admirable ... well, butts

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(Laughter)

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and even groove in the spine.

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And you can see the shoulders
are prominent, really beautiful.

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So let's begin this journey
back to our primal posture.

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And I'm going to teach you
an exercise I call "stretch sitting".

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You are going to sit with your bottom
well back in your chair,

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and then hinge away from the back rest.

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Place your fists
on the lower border of your rib cage,

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and then gently push back
so as to elongate your lower back.

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And now, grab some place of your chair

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maybe your arm rests
or any other part of your chair,

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and gently push the top of you
away form the bottom of you, like this;

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and now, hitch yourself to the back rest.

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OK, now, ideally the chair would have
some grippy thing mid-back to hold you,

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like you see here;

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or you would have an implement

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like our stretch seat cushion,
or folded towel;

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something with friction
to meet your mid-back

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and actually hold you up.

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Since you don't have
any implement, you might try

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bunching up your fabric
in the back of you,

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and creating a kind of ledge,

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and then hooking yourself there,
and totally relaxing.

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And what you have just done

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is the first baby-step
towards elongating your spine,

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restoring your primal posture,

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and having a pain-free functional life.

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That is our natural heritage.

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Don't settle for anything less!

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(Applause)