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Lanier wrote in part: all day we are all leaning forward many >hours. You all know that after a long car ride, when we step out of the >car we can't stand up straight. Our back muscles are crying for relief, >which we can get by ever so slightly, leaning BACKWARD for a few >seconds. So, my theory is that we need to do are HYPEREXTENSION >exercises, leaning backward! The way I do it is by laying on the floor >and lifting my legs and upper body, in other words, hyperextension >exercises. Some doctors will tell you not to do this, and you should use >caution. But if you ask a doctor of physical medicine, he will tell you >that this is exactly what we need to do to releive the tension in our >backs that has built up all day while we are leaning forwad. >My wife tells me that what I am doing is a form of yoga. Streching >muscles to relieve tension. I am not a very good writer, or typist, so I >hope you can make sense of what I am trying to say. I will probably >think of some more thing on this subject but for now I am "out of here". prevention is less painfull. you are accurate in noting that slumping posture is a major cause of hyperextension. hyper-extension is not what your exercise is doing, however. the lifting of the leg or legs and especially the legs and upper torso in what the athletic coaches called the rocking chair exercise is contracting the back muscles. the effort to do this is the same as sitting up straight. this is pulling our back into it's natural shape and position. lifting (or holding one's head in leaning forward posture) requires these muscles to be strong and tensioned to hold the back bones properly straight. properly strraight is not straight lineal - the discs are symmetrical when the lower-mid back is forward of the tail-bones and the upper back. the marine at attention is exaggerating this curve and tensioning shoulders back and head back with chin in. that posture held for as long as possible without pain (that is significant pain) is equivalent to your version of the rocking chair - which has the added effort of making the legs go up and down as well as the upper torso going up and down as does the base bow of the old rocking chair. sitttiong up straight with head held high for 15 minutes after sitting or driving or riding will prevent the flabbiness and the pain of poor posture - just by using good posture. lift with that back curved in also. you will not tend to distort and rupture a disc. tafn, ron Ronald Vetter 1936, dz PD 1984, carbidopa/levodopa, Mirapex, selegiline [log in to unmask] Ridgecrest, California http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~rfvetter