The Alexander technique can be applied to help you do anything better and easier. Better functioning gives better performance.
A sports coach or music teacher etc. can show you what to do, but if you still can’t do it, what then? Alexander technique rebalances your muscles and links them better to your brain, and suddenly what
seemed impossible becomes possible, even easy.
It is the secret weapon of many top musicians, actors, sports people, celebrities, business people and royalty, enabling them to stay on the top of their form consistently, and look and feel poised and comfortable in any situation.
Finding maximum strength through-good form with Alexander technique in yoga or exercise
I have helped others, as well as myself, to apply the technique to swimming, running, tennis & squash; office work and house work, public speaking and teaching; horsemanship, cycling, surfing; yoga, martial arts, exercise classes and gym work; gardening; guitar, fiddle and cello, recorder, flute and clarinet, both kit and hand drums, piano and singing; lrish dancing, ballet, tango and ballroom; walking up hills, on icy pavements and in heels; driving.
I’m waiting for the next challenge: you tell me what you need to achieve, and together we work out how to use the Alexander technique to bring that about.
People ofter ask whether Alexander technique is like yoga, Pilates or Tai-chi. The answer is yes and no!
Yes in that it is learning mindful movement, which brings in better tone, use and posture.
No in that: although these other methods aim to build strength, poise and flexibility, they can only work with our bodies as they currently are working. So if your yoga/fitness teacher gives an instruction and you cannot do it, or you are not getting the expected results, you probably don’t have access to the right muscles. Alexander technique brings your body into balance, gets the right muscles working, (including bringing the
core muscles into play), and makes us much more conscious of what we are doing with our bodies and minds. Then when we come to yoga /Pilates etc. we will find it easier and more satisfying, and can progress much faster.
Alexander technique gives us the key to good movement patterns, but it is not an exercise regime, we need to move & exercise to apply it! So it is excellent to do some sort of mindful exercise alongside your lessons.
So not: Alexander technique OR yoga / Pilates
It’s: Alexander technique FOR yoga / Pilates
The farm work is going very well now, because I thought I'd have to stop that. It's in early November when you bring the cows into the pens, shovelling the silage to them and scrubbing down their pens so there's an awful lot of twisting, bending, and lifting Initially I was getting very tense, and once I learnt to reduce the tension and stay mindful through it then I can do it fine.
accident that everything started to seize up and lower back pain meant that I couldn't get back on the bike. The Alexander lessons freed up my back again so I could get back to cycling. I'd be a lot more somfortabel on the bike now, more than before, I'd be very aware of where my head is, and allowing my back to be straight. You showed me how the spine was able to support itself, the weight wasn't necessarily always on your hands.
I've gone to different yoga classes before and I'd always have been needing to push myself to have a result NOW. Yesterday, for the first time ever in doing yoga I felt calm, I could hear everything she was saying and I wasn't trying to over extend myself, and I was actually focussing on the breathing. I came away feeling that I hadn't really achived much, but I realised that's fine, because it needs to ease into it. What's made the difference is just allowing it
