By request: Alexander Technique

[cvb]

in a previous thread I had mentioned Alexander Technique (actually in quite a few previous threads !) and got a request to elaborate more, in a separate thread - so prepare yourselves for a few posts to set the scene.

First-off some background on me:

I started doing Alexander Technique after I ruptured by cruciate ligament in my right knee and had a few ops to sort it out. At the end I had a stable joint, but felt very vulnerable, unbalanced, and crooked. This is just generally, round and about, but was affecting my riding too.

Some time before the accident I had done a workship (not ridden) with Joni Bentley as I was in the north of england at the time, and so was she, and it looked interesting ! But this was a one-off.

I have since had lessons on a regular basis, though with a few breaks, with a few AT people, mainly as I've moved - from Kingston, to Sweden, and then to Scotland.

And yes I did deal with my original issues, but also had an unexpected bonus. I had been getting migraines on quite a frequent basis - shut-yourself-in-a-dark-room-for-a-day type migraines. I already knew my "triggers" but still couldn't manage them completely. Since starting AT the migraines have diminished both in frequency and intensity - and in a sustained way.

When I have had breaks, eg when moving it takes time to settle in and find a new teacher - I have found that some things slide (posture etc) and eg the migraine starts to come back - but never to the original level. i.e. I have got a long term effect, but also find I need to go and "top up" on AT.

 

[cvb]

what is AT ? where can I get more info ?

so: Alexander Technique is about how you use yourself. Its not an exercise class. It is about posture, but its also about how what you think affects your way of moving (or indeed not moving).

from "Changing The Way You Work: The Alexander Technique":

"The Alexander Technique is a method that works to change (movement) habits in our everyday activities. It is a simple and practical method for improving ease and freedom of movement, balance, support and coordination. The technique teaches the use of the appropriate amount of effort for a particular activity, giving you more energy for all your activities. It is not a series of treatments or exercises, but rather a reeducation of the mind and body. The Alexander Technique is a method which helps a person discover a new balance in the body by releasing unnecessary tension. It can be applied to sitting, lying down, standing, walking, lifting, and other daily activities..."

There's two professional bodies

STAT: http://www.stat.org.uk/
ATI: http://www.ati-net.com/

there are also other websites e.g.
http://www.alexandertechnique.com/

and books etc.

 

[cvb]

less is more

one of the key themes for me is that when we TRY to do things, rather than just doing them, we often end up with all sorts of weird things going on with brain and body.

A classic riding example is when people get worried on a horse and try to stay on, they tense, closing up all the angles -hip etc - curling up - and actually increasingly[/] the liklihood that they WILL fill off !

You may also be aware of a theory that says your brain can't cope with negatives. So if you focus on "don't fall off, don't fall off, don't fall off" .... what your brain heres and interprets is "...fall off, fall off, fall off...." !! Not sure I'm convinced about the explanation, but you see the results quite often

I'm also basically in favour of an easy life. If I can as good or better result by doing less, why do more ? And in fact, in most cases, doing less will mean I am making it easier for the horse to work with and balance me, so the end result WILL be better.

We start with quite a good balance when we're small, and then gradually we get an overlay of expectations and opinions (stand up straight ! hold your stomach in ! look up !) which start to affect our good natural balance (or should that be "infect" ??!). To try and restore some of the natural ability and balance we have, we need to quieten down the overlay we have added - by "doing less".

Also, in "trying" we tend to focus on the "end" rather than the mean whereby we will achieve that end. (AT calls this end-gaining). I personally have decided that I DO care what style I achieve something in - because if I achieve it in good style, the result is normally good ! So what that some people can do dressage, jumping and so on by ignoring all the "rules" - I can't. If I don't have a good walk, I don't get a good trot - and so on.

There's a total quality saying that its not about doing the right things, its about doing things right.

 

[cvb]

action follows intent

one final post before I go and do some real work

When you go along to an AT session, you do a lot of inhibiting of your initial reactions. (You need, and will develop, good self awareness)

For example, if someone says to you "please sit down", almost by the time the last word has come out of their mouth your body is already preparing for the action. So even if you don't actually then sit, you've created all sorts of tension ready to sit.

Our normal operating mode is from thought to action.

As a lot of us horsey folk know, there is an important element in achieving good results - and its missing from this flow. Intent.

Action should follow intent. So first I think "I'm going to sit down" and instead of just collapsing into the chair, I will be clear on my intent. Actually a riding example would be easier here - as the intent is about the "how" - what direction, speed etc. I'm going to ride to K, across the diagonal, with some extended strides of trot.

If I miss this element, I will communicate clearly to my horse and will just sort of end up at K somehow.

One of my recent breakthoughs was about a further element of this process. "Consent".

In AT lessons I'd be stood there - had the thought, had the intent, but was inhibiting my knee-jerk reaction to move. So how do you get from "inhibit" to "action". Well thats consent. And thats important for riding too....

... I am going to do something with my horse. The preparation phase is about the thought, intent, consent. Only when I have these three will I then get the action. So - I am riding towards B along the long side and am going to make a 20m circle. So that the thought. Now I have the intent - and communicate that intent to my horse (half-halt, adjust my position to position the horse to move off the track). Horse reacts to my intent (gives their consent) and in the meantime I am also ready - then we get the action

(Yep - I know strictly speaking a half-halt is an action - but its NOT an action leading directly to the 20m circle - so allow me some artistic licence !).

Om - better go do some work now I'll leave you to mull this over as I probably won't post over the weekend.

 

[virtuallyhorses]

Originally posted by cvb

In AT lessons I'd be stood there - had the thought, had the intent, but was inhibiting my knee-jerk reaction to move. So how do you get from "inhibit" to "action". Well thats consent. .

I'm still lost about what you 'do' at an Alexander Technique session. So in the example above are you in 1-1 'lessons' and get instructions? Why do you inhibit? Once you've 'stopped' moving then what?

This was also what I found frustrating about the book - lots of descriptions about what it can do for you, where it came from etc but not what it is....? OK so now we've identified that I'm an 'action' person

I think the other thing I picked up from the book was that it looked 'unrealistic' to me - people sitting properly on chairs instead of slouched on the sofa Do you find that you can practically incorporate these ideas into your life or how does it work? Do you use the ideas like a 'rehab' programme or does it change everything you do?

Many questions I know
Thank you for taking the time to tell us about it.

 

[cvb]

so what do you actually DO..... ?

most of my AT sessions have been one-to-one, and most of these have been unmounted.

These sessions are about how you "use" yourself. AT talks a lot about neck and head as the primary point at which we affect use. Tho' this may sound over-simplistic, it is amazing how working on this one small area affects the whole of your posture.

Just how you use your eyes and where you look - for example - has a big impact on how you turn. This is something that a recent clinic I attended (Peggy Cummings) showed has a direct impact on the contact through the reins (whether it feels hard and harsh or soft and giving).

So what happens in a session ? (based on my own experience) normally half will be working on movement, and half will be "table work". The movement part often uses the simple movement of sitting down and standing up as a mirror for movement and use. Tho this is a simple movement, it something we all do, everyday. (Also bear in mind its useful for posting/rising trot !). But you may also work against a wall or standing free on "monkey position' or walk or... It may sound crazy that you can spend 20 sessions or more simply working on sitting down, but believe me it works ! I've also worked on shoulders and hands in sessions (i.e. its not all sitting/standing).

Table work allows the trainer to work directly on your posture and also work on how you "direct' yourself. This work also focuses on your awareness and connection with yourself. Again, may sound very wishy washy in text but makes an awful lot of sense.

In both cases the trainer will work with their hands on you to help you learn how to use yourself differently. Its a very passive, non-aggressive approach and its amazing how someone simply putting their hands on e.g. a shoulder can adjust your posture.

So there is a mix of working on mind-set/attitude and physical adjustment. After a session with my first trainer I used to come out feeling stretched/taller, looser, and more aligned - like someone had taken all the kinks out. You can actually feel yourself 'grow' when you're being worked on.

A real example - when riding I am stiffer when I try to rotate to the left, ie turn a corner on the left rein. This extends to how I take my right leg back to ask for a turn. When working on the table and talking about this, I was saying it was as if I had less control over that side (especially the hip). My trainer commented that from her observation it was more a different quality. I tended to have strong control of turn on my 'good' side, but a much more sensitive control of the other side. i.e. I was 'shouting' (in a physical sense) when I needed to whisper. The side I thought I had good control off, I have less 'fine' control. This insight has helped me start to work on this uneven-ness I have.

The "exceptions" to a normal AT session are:

- groupwork as part of a Joni Bentley workshop. Joni looked at how our thought process affects our actions, and demo'd how you can change your ridden position, by working on a guinea pig on a saddle horse. Person looked taller, slimmer, more elegant and more 'dressage-y'. This workshop was many years ago so I can't recall all the things we did, but it was enlightening.

- work with a previous AT trainer AND my riding intructor on the horse. This consisted of suggestions for approaches and small adjustments to position, plus hands-on work on both horse and rider. It was mazing to watch the hands-on work on a horse, who has no pre-conceptions or expectations of the approach. It really worked with them too and you can see a difference.

An example of the way a suggestion can help - my riding instructor was riding and doing e.g. half-pass. The At trainer asked her where she was looking/thinking. By adjusting the direction of her "intent" (and hence where she was looking), the half-pass become straighter, truer, better. The rider changed from thinking about the "end" to thinking about the "means whereby" and got a much better end as a result !

So the simple answer is that whilst some of the book pictures may look unrealistic, it IS about changing how you use yourself in everything you do. For example, if I slouch when I'm sitting in the office, I probably slouch when I drive, slouch when I ride, slouch when I watch TV. To change that habit I need to work on ALL the times and places I slouch.

By the way, better posture (which is not "owned" by AT - other approaches also work on this) has big impact on health e.g. if you slouch you impede both your breathing (and hence oxygen etc to muscles) and your digestion (which leads to all sorts of other problems).

One simple change I made when I started AT was purely to eat my dinner at a proper table rather than scrunched up on a sofa.

No-one's perfect, but you can make things better by making really small simple changes.

 

[entreat]

I suffered bad tension headaches in highschool, so did a short course in AT. It was a group thing, and they went through things like how & why to get out of a chair properly & stuff. It was many years ago now, so that's about all I remember.

What I know it that AT helped manage my headaches & i wasn't as tense.

Here's something to play with:
Stand up from your chair. That was farily simple, wasn't it? Now sit back down.
Stand up again, but this time think about your shoulders - do they feel scrunched at all? Repeat & think about the following: Your legs, how far your feet are from the chair, is your head sticking out infront (is it bending from the shoulders??), is your bum sticking out at all, are you leaning forward (shoulders over or past the toes?)... Basically - What are you doing with your body?
Now that you've had a think & a play:
Stand up, but have your knees over the ball of your foot (your legs close to the chair), lift your chin (& look into the distance), and imagine you are lifting yourself out of your chair with string attched to the top of you head.

It's such a simple exercise, but I found that I was getting up from a chair using all the wrong parts of my body (my shoulders, my back!!) instead of leading with my head and pushing up from the body's best foundation - your feet!

Another thing I did was when I looked down (at a computer screen, or book), I would project my head forward & the bend would be coming mostly from my neck. This is bad as the vertebra aren't built for that. I now (try to) keep my neck still, and let my head wobble around on my spine, so when I look down, I'm tucking my chin to my throat, not my chest.

Oops! I wrote WAY more than I was gonna... Sorry!

 

[cvb]

release

also been thinking recently about "release". I attended a clinic (yup, another one) with Leslie Desmond - my reflections can be found here

She was talking about release a lot. But whereas most NH people use release as the reward for doing the right thing, i.e. release follows the action - Leslie was using release to create the action.

Now this rang bells for me because of AT. For example, your trainer may use verbal cues to help you direct your movement e.g. "let the neck be free, to allow the head to move forward and upward"

i.e. in AT the release has to happen before you move, to allow the movement to happen.

After the clinic I went home to play with my horse, and "released" into a reinback (from the ground). The reinback was so much straighter, looser and so on.

It strikes me that if you release as a reward, you are often still creating the movement in tension and this will affect the way it is carried out.

I'm still mulling this. On a personal level I know that using what I've learnt from AT creates better movement in myself. But I haven't had a lot of chance to play with it in my horse as she is currently lame But I thought I'd share the thought anyway - just so long as you bear in mind that this is a "thought" not a "conclusion"

 

[Bebe]

I have AT lessons, mounted usually. For me half the lesson is spent sat in my saddle, but the saddle is put on a saddle stand rather than a horse. My instructor leaves me for a few minutes to settle into my usual position and then for the next 30 minutes or so I'm given visualisation tools to use to induce a change in my posture, or my instructor might use a hands-on approach to move me to where I need to be. Some other techniques such as breathing in a certain way, softening my eyes, focusing my energy, etc might be used depending on the problems we're addressing at that particular time.

I have had an unmounted session too as I don't walk correctly, but I still struggle with that!

After the unmounted session I go on to a ridden session. The same techniques are used but in relation to how I'm moving with my horse, how she's moving, etc.

I find the AT lessons to be really useful. I originally started with them as when I rode I collapsed through my left hip. I don't do that anymore, and it's because of the AT lessons.

 

[cvb]

its probably worth saying that most AT teachers, even those who don't SAY that they work with riders, will have a saddle stand and saddle. Its seen as a useful tool when you need to work on people's legs and lower halves.

Just so happens that the venue for my lessons is not my teacher's own place so we don't have all her stuff to play with.

Bebe - does your AT person work directly on your horse too ? That can be amazing to watch, with all sorts of tensions getting released

 

[Bebe]

Cvb, I'm not sure what you mean by does she work directly on my horse? She sometimes prods and pulls me about whilst I'm mounted and she often has exercises for us to do to improve how my horse is going (she's a riding instructor too). Generally though, if she feels there's a problem with my horse she'll do some Bowen on her rather than AT.

 

[Yann]

I've had a few lessons from the same teacher as Bebe and found them very impressive and incredibly useful. Posture is so important and affects what we do in so many ways, conscious and unconscious. I still use quite a few of the visualisations when I'm riding even now, though my main objective was to ensure I was sitting up straight

 

[cvb]

Originally posted by Bebe
Cvb, I'm not sure what you mean by does she work directly on my horse?

Does she put her hands ON the horse ? I watched my first At teacher put hands on my horse's shoulder, and the reaction - the release of tension and change in posture - was amazing !

This was when I was off the horse - probably a good thing or we might have ended up on the floor

 

[Bebe]

No, she saves that kind of thing for the Bowen sessions, I usually have my lesson first and then horsey gets a Bowen treatment afterwards.

 

[galadriel]

Originally posted by virtuallyhorses
it looked 'unrealistic' to me - people sitting properly on chairs instead of slouched on the sofa Do you find that you can practically incorporate these ideas into your life or how does it work?

I don't know about AT, but I do know about incorporating proper posture into daily routines. I have had some guidance from the physios, but a lot of what I do has been entirely for my riding. Among other things, I try not to slouch when sitting at the computer or on the couch--if I can keep my back straight and upright when I'm doing other things, it will come more naturally when I'm riding.

I think if it weren't for the riding, I wouldn't care but it helps my riding, so I do care. Periodically throughout the day I do a sort of self-evaluation--are my shoulders hunched? Is my lower back curved too far? Am I putting my weight in the right places and supporting my torso with the right muscles?

Some of this is new since I started physiotherapy (year & a half ago now), because I learned that I have a tendency to swayback, and I was supporting myself almost entirely from the back--abdomen muscles were near nonexistant. Knowing this has helped me when I check myself to see how I'm sitting; I need to make sure that my pelvis is more upright and that it's held there more with tummy muscles.

Anyway, yes, attention to posture and the health of your body can be incorporated into your daily life with very little intrusion into other spheres.