What can the Alexander Technique do for you?

The Alexander Technique is hard to define accurately. It can be viewed as a method to work out and resolve problems with the body. People commonly bemoan problems such as their lack of co-ordination, excess tension, or back pain, and attribute these as inevitable outcomes of the aging process or work-related symptoms. But a working knowledge of the Technique can bring about changes in movement. It teaches one about the true dynamism of the body. Students of the technique learn to bring about these changes by integrating mind and movement.

We have unconscious habits of movement that, over time, conspire against us. We move with more tension than necessary. We leap out of chairs and use the armrests as leverage, or climb stairs like they required monumental effort. The problem with using excessive force in performing movements is that the body comes to associate this as the basic minimal force required to perform that very action. Over time the extra effort will become habitual, but the negative effects will manifests themselves through pain and discomfort. We blame our problems on activities we do - running, tennis, computer work - but it is not these activities themselves which cause problems, but the way in which they are performed.

How can the Alexander Technique help?

So what exactly do Alexander Technique lessons do for you? An Alexander Technique teacher can help you to examine the way you use yourself, and show you how the way you move contributes to physical problems such as poor posture, back and neck pain, RSI, breathing difficulties or underperformance in activities such as music or sport. An Alexander Technique teacher focusses on your whole use of your self and guides you, using gentle movements, to move in a freer way.

One of the tenets of the Technique is that the relationship between the head, neck and back is of utmost importance. Any excessive muscular tension impacts on the natural length of the spine by compressing it, impinging on the motor nerves that travel out of the spine, resulting in localised pain in areas like the low back, neck and wrist. The Alexander Technique teaches you to move in a way that encourages lengthening of the spine, in a way that nature intended.

The natural poise is apparent in young children. Toddlers in action demonstrate this best, walking freely, balancing the weight of their head easily with skill and poise. With the exception of birth defects, this is how we all began, but that sense of ease in movement was one we lost over time.

The Alexander Technique will teach you to remove harmful habits, and restore your original poise by heightening your sense of self awareness and using your thought process to bring about a new way of moving. You are learning something that is inherent in your body. The Technique shows you how to tap on your body's internal resources, and to move without strain. You will learn how your body works, how to make it work for you, and feel a sense of general lightness in movement.

Perhaps another way of looking at the Technique is that it is not something to learn, as much as a process of unlearning. It is a way to release unnecessary muscular tension, which had accumulated over a lifetime. This accumulation of tension begins soon after childhood and a prolonged build-up can lead to later problems such as back pain, migraines and sciatica.

Vast amounts of money are spent each year in treating the symptoms of these illnesses, but not the cause. With the correct education, however, the causes of these illnesses can be identified and sufferers can move in a way that avoids strain.

Lessons in the Alexander Technique will give you an awareness of balance, posture and co-ordination in every activity.

What happens in a lesson?

So what goes on in an Alexander Technique lesson? There are various aspects, but one of the things a teacher will almost certainly do is to guide you in your everyday movements in a way that allows your back to lengthen and widen, instead of compressing. He or she will do this using his or her hands. Hands-on work is a critical component in your lesson; against this backdrop, you come to realise how your normal habitual movements may actually do harm over a prolonged period.

Alexander Technique lessons will help you practise inhibition - in life there is always a stimulus and usually an immediate response, and the Alexander Technique will show you how to insert a little space of conscious awareness and thought. The messages that you insert within that moment, learnt from your Alexander lessons, are called 'directions' and are mainly concerned with the manner of co-ordinating your head-neck and body. The successful application of these will result in ease of movement - activities can be carried out with a minimum of effort and tension.

About FM Alexander

F. Matthias Alexander, for whom the Technique is named after, was an actor who found his vocal health and general presence faltering, sometimes during mid-performance of his recitations. Doctors prescribed rest, but his immediate return to work after prolonged periods of work produced the same result and this led him to believe it must be something he was doing to himself while he was in activity that was causing his problems, and not his recitations themselves. With the use of mirrors, he studied his movements to gain an objective viewpoint, and contrasting this with what he felt subjectively. Through careful observation, Alexander discovered a discrepancy between what he believed he was doing and what he was actually doing. His kinaesthetic sense told him one thing about his stature; the mirrors told him otherwise. He realised that while his movements felt normal, the habitual actions he was performing was causing him to lose his voice.

Alexander devised a teaching method, the Alexander Technique, specifically designed to recalibrate the kinaesthetic sense, and to bring it into line with our conscious intention. For anyone who would like to know more about the way they function in everyday life, Alexander Technique lessons are an eye opener.

The Alexander Technique has helped musicians, performers and athletes address underperformance. But the benefits extend to us all. It will help you discover ease of movement and develop habits of movement.