Have you been bending your back for long hours on your phone, computer screen, or book? Improper posture can cause severe problems like a rounded upper back, bent neck, or hunched shoulders. Also, you will complain a lot about back aches, neck aches, and headaches. If you struggle with harmful body tension and want to feel extra relaxed and comfy in your daily habits, the subtle way is the Alexander Technique. Unlike physiotherapy exercises, the methodology helps you identify harmful tensions and reactions to develop self-care that enhances your performance and deter injuries in drama, sports, music, pregnancy, and childbirth.

Alexander Technique Definition

The Alexander methodology or technique entails a one-on-one session between a teacher and a student. The teacher re-educates the student on enhanced posture and movements, which helps relaxation and prevent health problems stemming from harmful habits. The methodology identifies unhealthy or inefficient habits of locomotion and accumulated unwanted tension, which hinders the capacity to move quickly in the way the human body is designed.

During these sessions, you learn to know your body and the correct postural mechanisms for enhanced posture and movement. The practice can relieve unwanted tension and eradicate problems like neck pain, backache, and other muscle problems. You learn how to use the right amount of effort on a particular activity, giving you extra energy for your daily undertakings.

Primary Principals of the Methodology

The Alexander practice has fundamental principles whose primary focus is the following:

  • The fashion in which your locomotion, sitting, and standing affects body functions.
  • How your head, neck, and spinal cord integrate for optimal body functionality.
  • Ways to become more self-aware or mindful of your daily habits to make adjustments and reap the benefits.
  • The body and mind collaborate to influence each other constantly.

Experts who understand the technique argue that health conditions like headaches, back pain, and other chronic pains stemming from the misuse of muscles cause uneven weight distribution when standing, moving, or sitting.

The Alexander practice helps unlearn these harmful habits, achieve stability, and acquire your original body alignment.

Areas Benefiting from the Alexander Practice

Most people utilize excessive force during movement, causing nerve, muscle, and joint damage. The Alexander methodology comes in as it emphasizes ease and freedom of movement using minimum energy and force. The technique re-educates you on changes in postural arrays and even redistribution of muscle work around the body. The circumstances under which you should attend sessions for this technique are:

  • Stress management.
  • Enhanced confidence.
  • Sporting routine.
  • Backache management.
  • Posture and balance.

The approach primarily aims at making you mindful of your thoughts and movements, habits you engage in daily.

You can apply the Alexander methodology when sitting. Most people sit in particular postures, like having their legs crossed. Although this is a common habit, the Alexander approach recommends sitting with both feet on the surface and having your torso above the pelvis for optimum comfort. If you want to sit in the appropriate posture, follow the following steps:

  • Move your hips backward and knees forward.
  • Smoothly lower yourself down to the seat.
  • Do not involve the lower back or neck in the sitting.
  • If your back and neck are stiff, stand up again and try to sit afresh.

On the issue of standing, people have their unique standing postures, with the common one being exerting all your weight on a single leg. The pose is unhealthy because it strains the muscles on one leg, causing injuries. However, when you start practicing the Alexander methodology, you learn to evenly balance your weight on two legs, enabling you to stand without creating harmful muscle tension. Your teacher will recommend the following steps when standing:

  • If you are seated, move your feet closer to the body.
  • Use your hip joints to hinge forward, the section where the top of your thighs attach to the hip.
  • Smoothly exert pressure on the foot and push it off the ground or floor.
  • Stand gradually without exerting extra strain on the back and neck.

Another area you can practice the methodology is during movements or walking. Walking with your chin, pelvis, or stomach forward is wrong, and you should consider the Alexander approach lessons to correct the habits. Your teacher will re-educate you on moving with ease, with your neck loose, head raised, and forward to help open and lengthen your back for comfortable and effortless walking.

Learning the Alexander Approach

The Alexander methodology involves a teacher and student in a face-to-face class. The sessions happen in a studio or a clinic and last for half to three-quarters an hour. The teacher will instruct you to wear loose clothing for easy movement.

First, the teacher checks if you have an existing habit that exacerbates your condition by observing the walking, sitting, or standing to guide you on better balance and reduce unwanted tension. The teacher notices or monitors your movements, evaluates muscle tone variations and coordination, and passes on nonverbal messages using hand contact.

Once they have identified the problem, the teacher uses hand contact to guide your movements, release unwanted muscle tension and help achieve an enhanced relationship between the neck, spinal cord, and head. When you habitually restrict ease or freedom of movement in these areas, you develop a stiff and short spine which causes discomfort. The Alexander approach can gradually eliminate the problem.

However, you must attend at least 20 classes weekly to learn these basic techniques. During these sessions, the teacher utilizes hand contact to do the following:

  • Focus your attention where it needed.
  • Obtain immediate feedback.
  • Enhance musculoskeletal usage.
  • Enhance the performance of activities.
  • Be mindful and release harmful neck, spine, or head tension.
  • Enhance axial muscle nature and coordination.
  • Allow for spine lengthening.

Classes are not the same for all students. They are based on your unique needs noticed by the teacher, the integral approach, and your limits. When practicing the methodology, teachers recommend lying on the back with the head reinforced, legs bent, and feet flat on the supporting surface.

Physiotherapy differs from the Alexander approach because it aims to strengthen, elevate, and stretch aerobic capabilities and enhance motor control using supervised exercises. The Alexander methodology educates you on self-awareness and releasing harmful body tension.

Exercises Involved in the Alexander Methodology or Technique

The exercises you should expect in your package are:

  • Strengthening.
  • Stretching and marshaling.
  • Relearning balance, motor control, and coordination.
  • Cardiovascular exercises.
  • Tailored exercises that you can practice from home.
  • Deep belly and lumbar paraspinal muscle rehabilitation exercises.
  • Activity charge exercises.
  • Follow up classes.

The Alexander Approach Schedule

When you walk into your preferred clinic for an Alexander session, your teacher will start with the cardiovascular exercise warm-up, which lasts approximately five minutes. You will then stretch the primary muscles before beginning a series of customized exercises. You perform ten activities, each lasting for two minutes. If you want to understand the exercises you will perform in your sessions, talk to the physiotherapist who referred you to the teacher.

After the exercises, you will have time to cool down and another five minutes for light aerobics. The teacher will then give you time to relax, and you will join a group discussion.

Risks of the Technique

The Alexander approach is a safe treatment with zero health risks for several individuals. Your teacher only makes gentle hand contact, and no stimulation is involved. Nevertheless, the methodology is unsuitable for particular individuals, particularly those with spinal injuries or slipped discs. If you have a spinal cord injury, you should see a medical specialist, not an Alexander approach teacher.

Finally, it would help if you understood that your teacher is not a medical practitioner and should not prescribe any medication. If your condition requires a medical expert, do not take any advice from your teacher.

Advantages of the Alexander Approach

Having harmful tension in the body can result in unpleasant symptoms and hamper your productivity or capacity to engage in daily activities. Unsurprisingly, people of all ages and levels of physical fitness seek the Alexander practice. Many students seeking these classes suffer shoulder, neck, and back pain. Others are performers who want to enhance the quality of their daily movements, whether singing, dancing, or acting.

You will benefit from the classes if you are a musician, actor, or athlete seeking relief from injuries and want to enhance your performance. With the Alexander approach, you will experience pain reduction and better understand your work instruments. The technique teaches you better ways to practice your art or sport, which improves overall performance and expression.

Similarly, when diagnosed with chronic back and neck pain, you should talk to a teacher if all modalities have failed. The various exercises in the practice will relieve bodily or emotional pain. You learn how to identify or spot warning signs and address them before the pain becomes extreme and interferes with your daily activities.

Besides, if you are seeking improved posture, learning the technique's key principles can help you attain your objectives. You not only practice good posture during class, but your teacher will also show you other methods you can apply at home and modifications you must make to your movements.

Moreover, when you have Parkinson’s, the sessions can be of excellent value. The primary principles taught in the lessons about standing, sitting, walking, and talking give you self-empowerment.

Yoga teachers emphasize the need for the clients to be in good shape, but they still overdo or exert excessive effort, which causes tension in the body. However, when these professionals work with Alexander approach teachers, they better understand the head, neck, and backbone connection, improving their experience. Also, the skills acquired during these sessions can be incorporated into their yoga classes, improving their students' experiences too.

The Alexander approach is highly suitable for individuals who sit behind a computer screen for long hours. If your work involves sitting on a chair the entire day, you will likely develop back and neck pain. Taking the Alexander approach gives you knowledge on better sitting techniques to help you care for your body and mind the entire time you are seated. The symptoms you were experiencing because of your sitting posture will be eliminated, improving productivity and life enjoyment.

The approach offers several benefits, but the most rewarding is the understanding you develop of the power you have over your lifestyle choices. You learn that you can eliminate all your ingrained habits and develop mindfulness, improving your quality of life. Nevertheless, not every clinic or teacher will help you maximize the technique's benefits. It would help if you found the right teacher for your classes.

Choosing an Alexander Approach Teacher

The country has several Alexander Technique teachers, most of whom are members of professional societies. The primary societies of the technique have a list of approved teachers you can find online. Besides, you can ask friends or family members who have tried the approach before for recommendations. However, even after you have a list of teachers, you must be the judge as a potential student.

How do you select a teacher that will help you attain your objectives?

Inquire about the teacher’s training and be ready for test sessions to determine if the teacher is appropriate for you. If your locality has multiple teachers, you want to have a minimum of two classes with them to make an informed decision.

Also, you want to check if the teacher is certified to offer the Alexander approach courses. A certified teacher has completed three years of training under the Alexander approach. These societies provide trainees with detailed training to equip them with the skills they need to help students. Not all teachers have formal training and certification. You will come across experienced teachers who are members of professional societies but have no formal training. It is up to you to pick the teacher you feel will help you attain your goal.

Find an Experienced Torrance Acupuncturist Near Me

If you realize that your body holds unwanted tension or your posture fails, you should explore the Alexander approach or technique. A few minutes of exercise daily can improve your posture and movement and relax your muscles. If you are interested in the practice in Torrance, CA, Trinity Acupuncture can help. Call us today at 310-371-1777 to schedule a meeting.