You have approximately 206 bones in your body. Although they are somewhat porous, they do possess a bit of weight. Their weight is in constant interplay with gravity. Without reflex and the activity of the muscles we would not be able to maintain our uprightness. Our muscles offer balance and support for the weight of the bones.

You could say that all day long our muscles are dealing with the weight of our bones as they respond to gravity. Often we think of movement as occurring first in the muscles, but I believe that in a well coordinated system the muscles should respond after the movement is initiated in our joints. Our skeletons, with all their amazing joints, are designed for movement. The muscles can either (ideally) support movement or (not so ideally) prevent it from happening. If we are too tense through our musculature we are inhibiting free joint movement.

The bones of our skeleton provide shape and support for the body, as well as protection for our organs. I encourage you to consider your muscles as a suit worn over your bones. You don't want that suit to be too tight or over tensed, because that will restrict your movement. Think of wearing a shirt or jacket that is too tight and attempting to reach up above you for something. Or wearing jeans that are tight and squatting down to pick something up.

If we are over-tensed in our muscles then we are essentially in a state of over-preparation, and we are seriously reducing our chances of responding freely to any given stimulus. With all this extra, unconscious tension, we are already in a state of reacting, rather than allowing for a conscious, reasoned response to occur through an uninterfered-with system. Extra tension equals extra weight through the system, and this causes us to work much harder to support ourselves and our bones than is necessary.

I would like to encourage you to find ways to be more economical in your use of your muscles. Throughout your day, challenge yourself to notice your areas or patterns of excess tension and muscular effort, where your muscles may be over-working around your bones and joints. Do you lock your knees? Tense your jaw or forehead? Do you tighten in your pecs, under your arms or on top of your shoulders? Suck in your stomach? How are your arms? Get really familiar with the habitual areas in which you store excess muscular tension, and see what happens if you can let go of it.