Find flexibility in the human frame
Dec 10 2009 By Dave Whinyates
Generally speaking, people are unaware of how they engage their mechanisms in everyday activity. There is an unconscious presumption that it does not need to be thought about, that somehow we just “know” how best to do the things we do.
For more than 100 years, teachers of the Alexander Technique have been exposing this fallacy. The truth is that almost everything, if not all, we do is learned. This is obvious in such activities as reading or riding a bicycle, but may not be so obvious to many in terms of sitting in chairs, walking, standing and so on.
When we engage ourselves in activity, it does not necessarily occur to us, especially when learning, what happens when we use more muscular effort than is necessary. The human frame is very flexible. Use more effort than is necessary to lift an arm, say, or take a step and the result is to pull the framework out of shape. Physiological factors then act, through what is essentially a time-saving mechanism, to make us reproduce, next time, what we have just done and we develop a habit of doing too much.
The distortion of the framework results in inefficiency of movement and stress and strain within the mechanical system. This makes daily life much harder than it need be and sets up a situation where, every time we engage in an activity, we are hurting ourselves and laying the ground for the stress to become worse.
The Professional Association of Alexander Teachers trains people to teach the Alexander Technique in accordance with its principles and to the highest standards. As well as teaching private one-to-one lessons and introductory courses, teachers work in colleges and universities to teach the technique to students as part of their curriculum.
A recreational 12–week course is held every term in Birmingham on Thursday evenings for people with previous experience of lessons in the Alexander Technique who wish to take things further. For an application form, contact the PAAT Secretary on 01743 356274 or email rec@paat.org.uk.
* For those who are new to the Alexander Technique, PAAT runs introductory evening classes, as well as offering individual lessons. For details, see the PAAT website at www.paat.org.uk.
