Language Matters: Posture vs. Pose

What’s the difference between a posture and a pose? Until last week, I’d never considered it, but according to Russian sports scientist, Dr. Nicholas Romanov, the difference is critical. 

Dr. Romanov is most famous for his life’s work in biomechanics that he calls, Pose Method. While its principles are universal, his most notable contribution is demonstrating a movement standard for running. 

Simply put it has three components:

1. The Pose. This is a universal figure four-type position that all runners pass through in their gate. 
2. The Fall. This is the natural forward progress that occurs via gravity when the center of mass is in front of the base of support. Running is an act of controlled falling. 
3. The Pull. What differentiates falling (on your face) and running is the pull of the foot from the ground, which creates the leg cycle of the running gait. 

My friend Carl Paoli recently hosted Dr. Romanov on his show, The Freestyle Way Podcast. The topic of pose vs. posture came up naturally with the slip of the tongue. Carl mistakenly referred to the pose namesake element as a “posture” and Dr. Romanov corrected him. 

“The difference between a posture and a pose is intent,” he said.

“When a snake is coiled up like this, you know his intent.” I was struck and inspired by this word play with how much agency is build inside of the word pose. 

It’s very well possible to assume many positions in your movement without intent. I think we both know how beneficial having specific, sometimes dramatic intent in order to accomplish the things we’d like to accomplish physically. 

Show me your intent, movers.