A New Educational Program to Improve Posture and Quality of Life Among Students by Means of the Feldenkrais Method and a New Program: MAP-Motion and Posture

Abstract

Newborns possess a natural ability for correct body posture, but most of us lose this ability to the extent of causing damage and consequently a decline in quality of life. Damage can be manifested in pain (mainly in the back), decline in functioning, and damage to emotional aspects of life. To examine the nature of the connection between body posture and quality of life by focusing on the question of whether and how practicing the well-known Feldenkrais method or the unknown Motion and Posture (MAP) method improves quality of life and body posture. The study was conducted among 243 students. An educational program for correct posture was conducted with physical exercises derived from both the Feldenkrais method and the new MAP method. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, and the tools utilized were two questionnaires, a digital inclinometer, Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and a metric tape measure. A positive trend of improvement was found both in the participants’ quality of life and posture. The qualitative measurement found a connection between improvement in quality of life and improvement in posture. The participants in the MAP program had an advantage over the participants in the Feldenkrais program. The innovation of the present study is in presenting the importance of posture for quality of life. This study is a new construct for understanding quality of life as a synergy between emotional and physical aspects that draws on improving posture by means of the Feldenkrais and MAP methods.