The Alexander Technique

Huda Khalid AlRouqi

Professor Nikolaas Tinbergen, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine

This story of perceptiveness, of intelligence, and of persistence shown by a man without any medical training, is one of the true epics of medical research and practice.

Who is Alexander

Frederick Matthias

Alexander

(20 January 1869 – 10 October 1955) was an Australian actor who developed the educational process that is today called the Alexander Technique.

Alexander was born into a poor family in Wynyard, Tasmania. He was the eldest of eight children. As a child he was weak and sickly, and suffered from continual breathing problems (asthma).

He was to ill to attend school and was kept at home. In 1870 he began to show an interest in the theatre. He learn from Shakespeare how to recite his favorite speeches.

In 1885 his family suffered financial problem which lead Alexander to look for a regular job instead of theatre. He mange with time to save money and after his family’s fortunes had revived, he moved to Melbourne and started his acting lessons.

As his popularity began to grow and he was called upon more and more to give his one-man show, he began to suffer from a complaint that seemed utterly disastrous for an actor - he lost his voice.

His voice problem began to get worse. He tried all the usual remedies of doctor’s prescriptions and throat medicine with various voice teachers and the only cure was complete rest.

The technique started when Alexander decided to watch himself preforming in front of the mirror, because the problem only appeared when he preforms.

He noticed that while he spoke normally nothing much happened, but that just before he began to recite he did three things:

He tensed his neck causing his head to go back.He tightened his throat muscles.He took a short deep breath.

He found that even when he spoke normally he was still doing these three things but on a much smaller scale, he just hadn’t been able to see it before.

He decided that he would take it one step at a time, beginning with the neck tensing because he found he could control this and this is where he made the discovery that was to lead to the Alexander Technique. 

He found that if he didn’t tense his neck and stopped trying to correct the other two faults they disappeared on their own.

By not doing he managed to do.

What he had to learn to do was not to do. He knew that if he put his head up and forward he could maintain his acting voice indefinitely. All he has to do was not to tense anything.

He used mirrors to make sure he was doing exactly what he wanted to.

By observing himself he realized that when he thought he was putting his head up and forwards he was actually not doing that. He was still pulling it back.

Putting it all together

He had learnt from observation:

1 - Inhabiting the immediate response to speak and thus stopping the habit to source.

2 - Consciously projecting the primary control directions for the improved 'used of self’ which were: letting the neck be free, letting the head go forwards and up, and allowing the back to lengthen and widen.

3 - To continue these directions even while speaking.

4 - Just at the moment of speaking stopping again to reconsider the decision, allowing the freedom not to speak or to do something else.

The Primary Control

Alexander rightly observed that the relationship between the head, neck and torso affects the whole body.

If the head and neck are properly aligned with the back, then the whole body naturally follows into a relaxed, natural posture.

Who can benefit from it?

muscle fatigue

migraine

depression

high blood pressure

stress-related disorders including ulcers, eating disorder and digestion problems

circulatory problems

backache problems

respiratory problems

speech defects

“Suitable candidates”

People who want to learn it in the hope it will alleviate a specific condition or complaint.

People who want to learn it to help improve a particular thing they do with their bodies, like dancers or musicians.

People who want to learn it for general interest.

Freeing yourself

EXERCISE

Quick exercise to see how body shape can affect respiratory problems:

1 Scrunch yourself up as tight and as tense as you can, pull your head down into your body and shorten and tense your neck, clench your fists with your arms pressed tightly across your chest. Now take the deepest breath you can and see how long you can hold it. Let it out and say ‘ahhh’ as you do so.

2 Now let go of all that tension, allow your body to lengthen and widen, head up and out, arms loosely by your side, smile. Now take the deepest breath you can and hold it. Let it out and say ‘ahhh’ as you do so.

3 compare the two results. In 1 the deep breath is nowhere as deep as in 2, and the time you can hold that deep breath is much shorter. Also, in 2 the ‘ahhh’ is deeper, richer, more resonate than in 1.

How can you breath properly if you’re tense and scrunched up?

When anything is pointed out our only idea is to go from wrong to right, in spite of the fact that it has taken us years to get wrong: we try to get right in a moment.

F M Alexander

Misconception

Inhibitions - in Alexander terminology means stopping and thinking before making a movement.

It’s a tiny pause before you move while you consider the value of the movement

Conscious projection - It is a conscious instruction to yourself before you make a movement and while you are making it.

‘let the neck be free, let the head go forwards and up, allow the back to lengthen and widen.’

Conscious projection is a thought; not a movement of any sort.

You think it, you don’t do it. You are letting and allowing.

Primary control - The head should be directed up and forwards.

First: up is not a place, it is a direction. It is the direction that the top of the spine happens to pointing in.

• Standing

• SittingHead

The Ceiling

when you are:

• LyingHead

The head of the bed.

when you are:

• Crawling

Head

The wall in front of

you.

when you are:

Second: direction the head forwards does not mean you thrust it forwards. Forwards again is a direction. You tilt your head, where it balances on top of the spine (between the ears, not the top of the neck), until it it directed forwards.

The two parts of the Technique

What we are doing and the way we are doing it

First,  find the habits, find how we do them and check what they are doing to us.

HABITS

be aware and observe yourself:

Standing: see if you stand on one leg more than the other, or you’re equally balanced on both legs?

If you equally balanced try moving over by putting more weight on one leg than the other, then reverse. Whichever position feels more comfortable will indicate your habit.

Are you standing on your heels or more on the balls of the feet?

“indicate leaning forward or backward”

Standing on the inner or outer side of your feet?

Are the knees Locked with excess tension or over relaxed so that they are bent?

Change

The best use of ourselves

Second, replace the habits, find new ways to do and then enjoy experiencing our new poise and gracefulness in movement.

Practice

Are you aligned?

EXERCISE

Find yourself an area of blank wall. you should be wearing light clothes or no clothing on at all, and be barefoot.

Stand with your back to the wall and position your feet so that they are 45 cm (18inches) apart with your heels 5 cm (2inches) out from the wall.

‘you can measure and mark on the floor those two measurements’

At first, don’t touch the wall at all. Then relax and let yourself lean gently back against the wall.

If you are well aligned your shoulder blades and buttocks will touch the wall all at the same time. 

If one shoulder blade touches before another, then you are slightly twisted or one-sided. If your buttocks touch first, you are holding your pelvis too far back. If your shoulders touch first, you are holding your pelvis too far forwards. 

Improve your standing

Feet could be at a 45- degree angle with about nine inches between them. 

When standing for long periods, it’s helpful to place one foot slightly behind the other, with the weight of the body resting chiefly in the rare foot. 

Hips Should be allowed to go back as far as possible without altering the balance and without deliberately throwing the body forward.

Tripod of the foot.

1st point is the heel.2nd is the ball.3rd is situated at the beginning of the little toe.

It’s well known by engineers that an object needs at least three points of contact to be stable; so if we are only standing on tow of the three points we will be less balanced and consequently many more muscles will be tense trying to maintain the body’s equilibrium.

Most people walk with their eyes looking down at their feet. This leads the head to drop forwards, and the neck and back follow until we have the often seen position - Modern human.

Puppets

When you walk imagine the string attached to the top of your head pulling you up, holding and supporting you. It is not a movement; it is an imagining, a reprograming.

Monkey Position

Semi Supine Position

“There is no such thing as a right position, but there is such thing as a right direction.”

F. M. Alexander

THINKING , really matter!

Thank you for listening

Referrences

The Alexander Technique Workbook Your Personal Program for Health, Poise and Fitness by Richard Brennan 1992.

Teach yourself the Alexander Technique by Richard Craze 1996.

change your posture change your life how the power of the alexander technique can combat back by Richard Brennan 2012.

The Alexander Technique Solutions for Back Problems video lesson by Deborah Caplan.