New research has shone light onto a possible cause of some of our unhelpful postural and movement habits. Dr Rajal Cohen and her team found that simply the anticipation of making a movement caused people to put their head out of alignment with the rest of their body [1]. The research illustrates a common tendency to over-focus on the desired end result (in this instance walking towards something in order to put an object down), without sufficient awareness or interest in what we might be doing to ourselves in the process of achieving our goal. This undesirable tendency (‘end-gaining’) is something we can learn to recognise and diminish through Alexander Technique lessons.

The Alexander Technique was developed during many months and years of dedicated and careful experimentation. It was the solution to a very personal, career-threatening problem – the loss of FM Alexander’s voice. The practical, thoughtful method that Alexander discovered, allowed him to overcome the persistent hoarseness that had plagued his life as a theatre actor.

Today people take Alexander lessons for a wide range of reasons covering areas as diverse as health, sports, music and business. Because of its fundamental nature – encompassing how we react, think, move and even breathe – the Alexander Technique can be applied in any activity, allowing greater choice, freedom and ease in everyday life.

Clinical trials have demonstrated that one-to-one Alexander lessons with STAT-registered teachers can lead to long-term reduction in persistent back and neck pain, as well as enabling people with Parkinson’s to minimise the effects of their condition on their daily lives. The Alexander Technique has been taught for many years in music and drama colleges, enabling students to improve their performance, and avoid anxiety and injury. It is now being taught in some schools to help children to ‘learn how to learn’, and Alexander lessons are also increasingly being taken up in business and in sports.

So how can one approach be applied across such diverse fields? How does the Alexander Technique actually work? FM Alexander first developed the method (the practice) and later sought to understand and explain the theory behind it. He was clearly ahead of his time, being one of the first in the Western world to recognise that mind and body are inseparable – this concept is beginning to be more widely accepted in our stubbornly dualistic world, but mostly we don’t get beyond simply acknowledging that there is some kind of link between mind and body. Alexander also recognised that the way we do everything that we do in life (our ‘use’) profoundly affects our long-term functioning – something that biomechanist, Katy Bowman eloquently writes about today. And Alexander’s method relies on our potential for fundamental change – and this potential has been borne out in more recent decades by neuroscience’s recognition of brain plasticity. Research by Tim Cacciatore and colleagues has demonstrated that training in the Alexander Technique leads to improved postural and overall muscle tone, movement coordination, flexibility and balance.

The latest research by Dr Cohen’s team is very welcome as it clearly supports Alexander’s belief that mind and body are indeed inseparable. The study found that just the thought of moving caused an anticipatory negative effect on posture. Furthermore this effect was more pronounced in those participants who were found to be least able to consciously prevent themselves from reacting to a test stimulus; and it was also worse in those who generally tended to be less ‘present’ (mindful).

Learning the Alexander Technique involves developing greater self-awareness and more conscious choice over how we respond in any situation. This skill of conscious (intentional) inhibition enables us to prevent unwanted habits, and thereby to access our inherent movement coordination, balance and posture that would otherwise tend to be hampered by such habits. Alexander work helps us remain more present and embodied. It enables us to avoid the tendency described in Dr Cohen’s research of continually ‘jumping ahead of ourselves and living in the future’.

Reference

1. Baer JL, Vasavada A, Cohen RG. Neck posture is influenced by anticipation of stepping. Human Movement Science 2019;64:108–122.