**This book was reviewed for The Experiment via Netgalley
Fraser’s Stack Your Bones evolved out of the author’s work with Structural Integration, a type of bodywork that focuses on manipulating body tissues to realign and strengthen the body’s framework, leading to improved flexibility and resilience. Fraser says, among other benefits, these 100 snack-size ‘meditations/exercises’ will help:
*cultivate and maintain comfortable, healthy body alignment and posture.
*improve muscle coordination and overall movement patterns
*improve body awareness and proprioception
*heal and transform muscle and posture patterns in the body that cause discomfort
There are four distinct parts, looking at different aspects. Structure teaches you about your body, natural posture, and how things work together. Basic Movement covers how to move your body easily and with more fluidity and grace, as well as how to begin really unknotting some of the movement (and posture) patterns you hold. Approach takes a look at how things such as digestion and diet affect the body and it’s framework, cultivating an attunement to the subtleties of your body and learning to do body scans, as well as to be gentle and efficient in tending to your body. I found the ‘Floss your fascia’ exercise neat, and quite useful. The last section, Contemplations, looks at how emotions and human tendency can affect our bodies, and how to gently work out emotional blocks, and we carry our experiences. Thinking of the body in dendrochronology terms appealed to the anthropologist in me for sure!
The exercises can be taken in any order. I found them to be fun, and many gave me new ways of thinking about my body, and of hopefully beginning to correct serious hip issues. My hips cant to the side, with the right sitting higher than the left. Not good at all! I loved that she used the words sitz bones. It made me laugh every single time I read it.
????? Highly recommended