Results tagged “back” from Hilary King's Blog

I went to this year's Conference for STAT Recognised Alexander Technique Teachers, held at Sussex University. It was a lively and informative event, with a good range of workshops, lectures and discussion about teaching the Alexander Technique. Issues to do with the structure and running of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique, STAT, were also debated in depth at the AGM.

The Annual Memorial Lecture this year was given by Vivien Mackie and was titled 'Doing Only What is Necessary, and Taking the Time it Takes'. This was a fascinating and amusing account of Mackie's experience of learning the cello with Pablo Casals, which eventually led her into training to be an Alexander Technique teacher and how she applied this learning over forty or so years of playing music and teaching the AT, mainly but not exclusively, to musicians.

The conference also offered us a time to mix and exchange work and ideas with other AT teachers. It was good to see the Technique being used quite naturally in a range of different ways - sitting through lectures, having a drink at the bar or, as in the photo,  to see a young teacher using the lying down procedure to look after his tired back during a walk through the parkland.


When the Alexander Technique becomes a way of life and is used like this, outside lessons as well as in them, then it really becomes a valuable and effective tool that we can use to look after ourselves.

If you would like to find out more about Alexander Technique lessons in Stoke Newington, North London, you may contact me here.

Some people manage to retain their good body use into adulthood, without ever having an Alexander Technique lesson. However, most adults lose the free and often graceful movements that we had as children and often end up rather 'crumpled', with a variety of aches and pains. One of the joys of having Alexander lessons is that we can often regain - or find - some of the co-ordination and freedom of movement that is more natural to our bodies. 

Butterfield Green N16
www.shakespeareneighbourhood.org.uk

There was a bulb planting session held at Butterfield Green in which bluebells, daffodils and crocuses were added to this increasingly interesting green space. The local community have been instrumental in creating changes there and have even planted an orchard.

When you are involved in activities such as planting, digging and general garden work, remember what you have learnt in Alexander lessons, think about your use and give yourself directions. If you remind yourself not to pull your head back and freely hinge forwards from your hip joints, adapting the monkey position, you will look after yourself and avoid the back pain that so often happens after bending and digging.

Equally, take care when you have to look up and reach up to prune trees and bushes.  Make sure you allow your neck to freely maintain as much length as you can and undo any contracted muscles, once you have finished.

Enjoy your gardening and planting and look forward to a beautiful spring that you can enjoy, along with all the insects and other species that will appreciate having another food source early in the year.

It's nearly holiday time and some people may think that they don't need to 'do' the Alexander Technique over the holidays, because they will be relaxed anyway. This is an unhelpful way to look at the Technique, which is far more than just 'relaxation'. If we forget to include the A/T during our everyday activities, it is so easy to slip backwards into our old habits.

However, if you keep being aware of your use and continue practising the lying down procedure over the holiday, your use may even improve and you may become more free and easy in your movements than you have been for some time. Reward yourself!

For those of you who are visiting warmer climes, remember that you can often lie down outdoors when you need to, or just choose to. 

The photo was taken in the New Forest, where this man lay down in semi-supine to ease his back pain. He'd only had a couple of lessons and was perhaps not lying with the ideal height of support under his head but it was good to see the Lying Down Procedure being used so naturally, in such a beautiful setting.

An osteopath told me that some patients come to her because they have hurt their backs when sneezing and coughing. So, as winter approaches, yet more people may find their way to her door, unless they find a way of avoiding this problem to begin with, perhaps through looking after their backs by having Alexander Technique lessons.

One of the main reasons that this type of back problem can happen, is that when we hold ourselves in a fixed manner, with contracted muscles and habitual tension in the lower back, the lumbar region, this tightness will be increased by the spasms of coughing and sneezing. This will obviously be more exaggerated if you have a long bout of coughing. The jolting can jar or strain the muscles, sometimes even damaging an intervertebral disc, causing great pain.
 
However, if we learn to unlock our hips, knees and ankles so that they can bend and, ideally, allow our back to be freely lengthening, the muscles are able to respond more elastically as our ribs expand and contract with the sneezing. In this way, the jolt can be softened and ripples through us, rather than straining us. This way of sneezing and coughing can also be helpful for people after having abdominal surgery, possibly with the addition of holding the abdomen during the sneeze.

The more able you are to have a free neck and back, the more resilient your muscles will be. Even if you have not had Alexander Lessons and learned how to do this, you can help protect your back if you remember to

Bend your knees
When you cough and sneeze

This small child is alert and poised, with her back freely lengthening, quite naturally.  Her head is balanced on her neck in such a way that all her muscles are able to work freely and in co-ordination, so that the heavy weight of her head is transferred evenly right through her body, onto her sitting bones.

If the child is able to maintain this free and easy poise as she grows up, she will be fortunate. Most of us started out life with a similar, natural but unconscious, postural alignment but most of us lose it over time. Many people start Alexander lessons in order to improve their posture and reduce back pain.

In Alexander Technique lessons we can begin to reclaim this birthright, by learning to maintain our poise and increase our freedom of movement, through making conscious choices about the way we use ourselves during all our activities. Sometimes, we even feel younger again.