Let's Learn English! Topic: Body Positions! 🧘🧍‍♀️🧎 (Lesson Only)

Well hello everyone. Welcome to this English lesson about body

positions. As human beings we do a lot more than just sit and

stand. There's a lot of different ways we position our

body as we go through the day depending on what we're doing.

In this English lesson I'll look at about 30 different body

positions that we use during the day and at night. Uh some

are very very common and some are only used in special

circumstances. But I thought it would be worth while because

these are all very common words and phrases that we use in

normal English conversations. So once again welcome to this

English lesson about body positions. I think it's going

to be a fun lesson. Crouch. So we'll start with this one. Uh

when you crouch you kind of get down in a position like this

man. And you might think this looks like squat. Because it

kind of does look like squat. These are the same. When you

crouch down you make yourself a lot shorter by going by bending

your legs. If you've ever played video games especially

the video games that we call first person shooters sometimes

in the video game you will crouch because you want to hide

from the enemy. So whenever you crouch you get down just like

this man is doing. So that you are not as tall. You bend your

legs and you crouch. And again you might be wondering what's

the between crouch and squat. Well not a lot. It is the same

position. So this person is squatting. This is a squat. We

can squat as well. It is the same position as crouching. But

we also use this when we talk about exercise. Sometimes

people go to the gym and they will do squats at the gym. They

will get weights and then while they're holding the weights

they will go into this position and then they stand up again to

work out their leg muscles. So the first two body positions

crouch and squat very much the same. Here's a very familiar

one. At least it should be familiar to you. Probably the

two basic body positions are sit and stand. Sit is what you

do when you are on a chair or on a couch. Sometimes it's nice

to sit and relax. Um this is a very common body position in my

part of the world you might actually sit on the ground that

might be more common or you might sit on a cushion or you

might sit in a chair sit on a chair or sit on a couch. Uh all

of those are valid ways to describe sitting. This guy by

the way is sitting cross legged. But I think in American

English they say cross legged. But anyways he has one leg over

the other. I'll talk about cross legged a bit more. Uh it

with another body position. So stand is what you do when you

are not sitting before you walk and when you're done walking

you usually in a standing position. Um this is something

you can describe a person by saying this person is standing.

You can tell someone to stand by just saying stand or stand

up. But probably the two most common positions sit and stand.

The rest of the positions I talk about will be less common

to you but still quite common in the English language. On all

fours or on your hands and knees. This is a common

position when you lose a contact lens. If you're someone

who wears contact lenses and one falls out you'll often go

on all fours or you'll go on your hands and knees to look

for that contact lens. I think this person is actually doing

an exercise but when I saw this picture I like to imagine that

he's on all fours because he lost a contact lens and he

trying to find it. Or maybe he's on his hands and knees

looking for something that he dropped. Something very very

small. By the way when you're my age if you go down on all

fours it's hard to get back up again. And sometimes this makes

my knees hurt. So I try not to drop things on the floor very

often. But definitely if you drop something on the floor and

you need to get down close to the floor to see it. You might

go down on all fours or you might go down on your hands and

knees. By the way you don't need the word down in there.

You can just say go on all fours or go on your hands and

knees but it sounds better to me. It describes the action

better. To kneel. So when you kneel you put both knees on the

ground or just one knee on the ground. It doesn't have to be

both. People kneel for a variety of reasons. I know that

when we take a family photo sometimes people will kneel in

the front row and sit in the second row on a chair and stand

in the back row. So let me that again. If you have a lot of

people in one place and you need to take a picture of 20 or

thirty people sometimes people in the front row will kneel.

They'll go down on their knees. They will kneel. The people in

the second row will sit on chairs and the people in the

third row will stand. Um sometimes depending on your

religion as well. You may pray in this position. You might

kneel to pray if you are a religious person and that's one

of your practices. Uh you might have a prayer mat and you might

kneel on that mat in order to pray. So kneeling when you go

down on both knees or just one knee. You can kneel on one knee

as well. Um and you're further down than crouching definitely.

And this is an interesting one. This person is kneeling. But in

the world of sports we have a description of this position.

When we are in this position we say that you can take a knee.

This person is taking a knee. I can tell people on a team. Hey

take a knee. I'm go to talk. Sometimes if people on a sports

team are protesting if they are concerned that there is racism

in their sport or they have a concern they might take a knee

during the national anthem. And that would mean they go in this

position instead of standing. I'm not going to get into the

controversy surrounding that. But certainly if you see

someone in this position you could say this person is

kneeling or you can say this person is taking a knee. So

going down On one knee.

To stoop down. Sometimes you have to bend over a little bit.

When you stoop down or when you stoop by the way this word is

less common. I don't use this word very often. Um so when you

stoop down it means your head and shoulders are forward a

little bit. If you go through a door that's not very tall you

sometimes have to stoop down to walk through the door. You have

to kind of lean your head and your shoulders Forward in order

to step down. Um so we had this when I was younger. We lived in

an older house and if you were tall you had to stoop down to

get through the door. So that is the body position or action

you would need to take in order to get into the house. This is

something students sometimes do. They will slouch. Let me

say that again so you understand the pronunciation.

They will slouch. When you slouch in a chair you do not

sit upright. You slide down in the chair like this person is

doing. You don't use the chair properly. When students in a

class aren't interested sometimes they will slouch. And

eventually sometimes they'll fall asleep. But that's rare.

But yes when you slouch you sit in a chair and then when you

slide down so that you're in this position. We would say

that you are slouching. Um often teachers will say don't

slouch. Uh or teachers will say sit up straight. Stop

slouching. Uh because slouching shows disinterest. It shows

that you don't really care about the clasp. Sometimes our

kids will do this as well at the supper table. They will

slouch or they will tip their chair. That's not really a body

position but I should have had a slide for that. They will tip

their chair back on two legs. So it's similar to slouching.

It's considered a bad use of a chair. So the opposite of

slouch is to sit straight up. This gentleman he is sitting

straight up but he could also be sitting straight up with his

back against his chair. So the back of the chair he could put

his I'm trying to move the right hand here. He could sit

further back and we would still say he is sitting straight up.

But when you sit straight up your back is straight. You're

not slouching or leaning forward. It's just a good way

to sit. And then we have of course bend over. Sometimes you

drop something. Sometimes you need to pick something up. And

in order to do that you need to bend over. When you bend over

you lean the top part of your body your upper body forward.

By the way I should explain that for a sec. Everything

above your belt we call the upper body everything below the

belt is called the lower body. So when you have oh you might

hear this with a sports player. He has an upper body injury. Or

he has a lower body injury. So upper body everything above

your belt or above your waist and lower body before. When you

bend over you bend your upper body over and then you pick

something up or you put something down. Uh or maybe I

don't not sure what this lady's doing. Maybe she dropped her

groceries. And she needs to bend over and over to in order

to pick them up again. This is when you can hurt your back

when you bend over. Or if you do it improperly. So to sit

cross legged I'm going to keep saying legged I think this is

the British pronunciation. When you sit cross legged you sit

like this. You sit on the ground and you cross your legs.

You can sit cross legged on a couch I guess. But usually for

me I think as a teacher when I see people sitting cross legged

it's usually at lunch or maybe during a class the teacher says

you know just sit in a circle and read the current book or

read a so students will sit cross legged in order to do

that. Again I think the American pronunciation might be

cross legged but I say legged cross legged. I by the way I

asked all my colleagues all the colleagues I could find

yesterday. Do you say cross legged or cross legged? And

most of them said cross legged and then some started to doubt

themselves. So but we're going to go with cross legged.

To curl up in a ball. So this is a position that's related to

emotion. When someone's feeling a lot of negative emotions if

someone's feeling sad feeling depressed. They might lay in

bed during the day or at night and they might curl up in a

ball. When someone gets injured they might curl up in a ball if

someone is in pain. They might curl up in a ball. So you can

see this person is putting their body into the smallest

form that we can and it looks a little bit like a ball. Um many

many years ago I had a kidney stone. A kidney stone is a

sharp pain in your kidney. Uh and so was in pain and so I was

curled up in a ball. Um so it's a very common description.

Someone who is very sad. Someone who is very upset.

Someone who is in pain might curl up in a ball. Um they

might try to be more comfortable by doing that. Uh

to lean over. So lean is interesting because you can

lean against a wall. But when you lean over it generally

means like this. So you can lean over to talk to someone.

If Jen and I were sitting in a movie theater I can lean over

and ask her a question. I can lean over and ask one of my

kids a question if they're sitting beside me. So that's

moving the upper body this way. In this picture the man and

woman are both leaning over towards each other. Um Instead

of lean. So this person you can lean against a wall. You can

lean forward. You can lean backwards. Um you can lean to

from side to side. But it simply means that you are

either moving your upper body or you are against something.

Okay. Um students will often lean against their lockers when

they are standing in the hallway at school. Um sometimes

I will lean on the counter in the kitchen while I'm talking

to Jen. So to lean is simply to put your body in a knot You're

still standing but you're touching something. There,

that's a good way to describe lean, I think. On tiptoes. So

sometimes you can't see because the people in front of you are

really tall and you want to try to be taller. In order to do

that you might go on your tiptoes. You might go on

tiptoes. So that's when you have your foot flat on the

ground and you just go up on your toes. This person is

standing on their tiptoes. Um little kids often stand on

their tiptoes. When they're trying to see something they

will go up on their tiptoes. In order to see it. Uh it's it's

kind of an interesting word isn't it? Um let's look up the

official meaning. Meaning of tiptoes. So it says so to walk

directly and carefully on one's toes raised to keep one's

weight up and to be taller. Interestingly enough when you

tiptoe it also means to walk quietly. Okay so when you stand

on your tiptoes it looks like this. When you walk on your

tiptoes it usually means you're trying to walk in a way where

you're really really quiet. Uh I don't like it when tall

people stand in front of me if I go somewhere so not not not

enjoyable I am of average height so I'm not short but I'm

not tall I think I'm five foot 10 and a half in Canada we

measure in feet and inches when we talk about height. I know

we're a weird country so to lie. So notice this is the verb

lie. When you lie so where it means you are like this. You

are prone on the ground. You are flat on the ground. I

shouldn't use prone because that usually means face down.

Um in English though and I'm really bad at this. I often use

the verb lay. Which is incorrect but I still use it. I

will say I'm going to lay down. I should technically say lie. I

can lay my phone on my desk. And when I go in this body

position I'm going I will use the verb lie. So when you lie

you are not standing or sitting and sometimes you're sleeping.

Sometimes you're just doing this. You're just looking at

the clouds because it's fun to lie in the grasp and look at

the clouds. Um when you are prone it generally means that

you are lying with your face down or you're basically the

front of your body against the ground or a mattress. Um when

you are in the fetal position you are usually curled up in a

ball on your side. We call this the fetal position because it's

like how babies are in the mother's womb. I guess that's

probably where it comes from. Um so this person is in the

fetal position. Some people sleep in the fetal position.

But sometimes people are in the fetal position again because

they might be in pain. Uh they might be sad or depressed. They

might just be in the fetal position because of how they

are feeling. Sometimes we lie face down or we lie on our

stomach. So when you lie on you should say lie on your stomach.

Sorry that's a mistake. We should have that in there. So

you can lie face down. Or you can lie on your stomach. Um

this is how some people sleep. I will sleep like this a little

bit sometimes. If I'm having trouble sleeping. And if I'm

tossing and turning. When you toss and turn it means you

can't fall asleep on your back. You can't can't fall asleep on

your side. So you try different positions. Sometimes I will lie

on my stomach. So but we we sometimes say lie face down or

lie on your stomach. Sorry for the mistake there. Lie on your

stomach. Sometimes you lie on your back. And sometimes you

lie on your side. Notice this is a little different than the

fetal position. This person is definitely curled up in a ball.

Whereas this person is a little more relaxed right? So you can

lie on your side. Um I usually lie on my side when I sleep.

But sometimes my I have my arm under my pillow and under my

head and then it will fall asleep so not always the best

way to sleep because it's not fun when you're do you know

what I mean when I say my arm falls asleep you know when your

arm gets all tingly or your leg gets all tingly because of how

you're sitting we say that it has fallen asleep. So sometimes

my arm will fall asleep and then it'll be all like and feel

funny. Bow. So sometimes you bow. In some country you bow

out of respect or it's a greeting. In some places you

bow at the end of a play. If I was an actor in a play when the

play is over I might come out and bow. Um so it is a position

where you lean forward slightly. Um you might have

your hands at your sides. Um but you will come out and bow.

Generally bowing in North America is after a performance

of some kind. Someone might play the piano for a large

audience. And when they're done they might stand up and bow. As

the audience is applauding they might bow. Um but yes in some

places it is culturally significant to bow to people.

It's something you do out of respect or greeting. There's

another pronunciation but it means something else and that's

bow. I can wear bow in my hair. Although men don't usually wear

bows in their hair. But this is a bow. I shouldn't confuse you.

Uh and then on the feminine side there's something called a

curtsy. Um generally we see more bows than curtsies now.

Curtsies are becoming less common. If I go and see a play

and if there are men and women in the play at the end of the

play they will all come out in bow. Sometimes the women will

curtsy. Um if you go and see a dance recital or if you go

watch a dance you're probably more likely to see women

courtesy or girls courtsy at the end but I think bowing has

become much more common in North America. But this is

called a courtsy where you bend slightly at the knees and if

you're wearing a dress or skirt you kind of hold it a little

bit. Bob the Canadian's not an expert on how to curtsy but I

have seen it. And so we talk about raise your hand. This is

a little more of an action but it's also a body position. The

action is raising your hand. The body position is to sit

there with your hand up waiting for the teacher to call on you.

Um so when you have when you have a class and you say to the

students does anyone know the answer? They will raise their

hand to indicate that they know the answer. That is a common

way for people in North American classrooms to indicate

that they have an answer for the teacher and probably around

the world as well. Sometimes you stand with your hands on

your hips. This can be comfortable. This can be to

show defiance. This can show that you're serious about

something. Sometimes if you watch sports the coach will

stand on the sidelines with their hands on their hips. So

your hands are then actually right on your hips. I sometimes

stand this way because it's just comfortable. But this

person just looks happy to stand with their hands on their

hips. But it's certainly another body position. Um which

has no real meaning. But yeah sometime I notice it a lot with

sports. Uh coaches often stand with their hands on their hips

on the sidelines. Headstand. So we have headstand and

handstand. I'm sure you can figure out the difference. A

headstand is when you invert your body. So you are now the

opposite of normal. Your head is towards the ground. Uh and

your feet are up in the air. That's how we would describe

it. Your head is on the ground. Your feet are up in the air.

And you balance on your head. So this is a headstand. You

will see people do headstands sometimes if you go and watch

gymnastics. Uh or you might just see people doing it for

fun at the beach. If you are physically fit and able to. You

might do a headstand. And if you're really strong you might

do a handstand. I don't recommend doing handstands this

close to the edge. I'm pretty sure this picture is Photoshop.

Cuz noone in the right mind would do a handstand that close

to the edge of the water. Um but definitely this is a

headstand and this is a handstand. Um I Used to be able

to do both. I probably could still do a headstand. But I'd

have to do it against the wall. And I think if I tried to do a

handstand that wouldn't work. And I used to be able to walk

on my hands when I was younger. Maybe that should be my new

year's resolution to get in good enough shape that I can do

a headstand and a handstand again. Although when you do a

headstand all the blood rushes to your head. And it makes you

feel funny. So sometimes hear this phrase in a police show.

You'll hear them say up against the car spread eagle. That

means that your legs are apart and your arms are apart. So you

are spreading out your legs and spreading out your arms. Police

officers often have people spread eagle so they can pat

them down to look for weapons or other things they shouldn't

have. But if you do watch Canadian or American TV or

British TV when they arrest someone they might say get him

up against the car. Spread eagle. Um let's search him for

whatever they need to search for. And then we have a the

word straddle. Straddle is when your legs are on both sides of

something. So this person is sitting backwards on a chair.

We would say he is straddling the chair. When you ride a

horse you straddle the horse. When you ride a bike you

technically straddle the bike. We don't use that word to talk

about cycling. But technically anytime your legs are on both

sides of something you are straddling it. You can straddle

a fence when you climb a fence and if you sit on the top with

one leg on one side and one on the other we would say that you

are straddling the fence. And then there's what's called

hang. When you hang you simply find a bar and you put your

hands on and you hang. I do this. I don't do a lot of chin

ups. Or pull ups. But I do hang from a bar a little bit

everyday just to kind of stretch out this part of my

body. Um it's supposed to be good to hang every once in a

while. Uh it's supposed to be good for your back and good for

your arms and shoulders for sure. And then recline. I do

this everyday. Recline is when you sit and you your upper body

leans back a bit and then your feet are usually up. So this

person is in a chair that's called a recliner. And you can

recline in a chair like that. So you're not sitting straight

up. You're not slouching. You're just tilted back a

little bit. You're leaning back a little bit for comfort. So

this is probably the nicest way to sit when you read a book.

It's nice to in a chair at the end of the day to relax a

little bit. Always fun.