Dear Mr. Furey,

I’m not sure that I buy into this idea that you can get stronger by sitting or standing in a specific posture and holding for long periods of time. How does not moving make you stronger when everyone says you gotta move?

Darren D. Aire

Dear Darren,

In gymnastics, someone who is not good at pull-ups or handstands is taught to hang from a bar or get into a handstand against a wall and hold for time.

The longer the gymnast can hold these positions, the stronger he or she gets, because it’s the muscles as well as the tendons and fascia that get stronger when you hold without moving.

When it comes to standing postures, for the most part you are not moving externally – but you are moving in a big way internally. Once again, the tendons and fascia are playing a larger role, one that is almost non-existent when you train with external movement only.

While standing still you learn to move from the inside out, and later on, when you move your limbs, you are more connected than you were previously.

Additionally, most external forms of exercise deplete your energy whereas standing still or holding postures increases it. This is easy to test and verify by getting into a stance and looking straight ahead, without moving, for five minutes.

There’s much more to the story, and benefits galore, when you take the time to explore what really happens to you energetically when you “hold your ground.”

For more on this, look into my Power Postures course. It will probably make a believer out of you.

Matt Furey