My husband, who has long had a mess of back problems, is all into the Alexander technique lately. Which means he’s often futzing with the position of my head. Apparently I’m holding it wrong.
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If you bounce around the Internet, you’ll find we’re all doing pretty much everything wrong. Standing, sitting, walking – all wrong. Seems a bit much, but I have to admit my neck is pretty much killing me all the time – thus the futzing – so I’d better adjust my attitude.
There’s many a supposedly correct postural system out there: the Alexander technique, Feldenkrais method and the Mitzvah technique. Are they magical?
One thing they all appear to have in common, if I’m getting it, is the idea that motion should be fluid through the body but instead tends to get stuck in areas where there’s tension. This can lead to general discomfort (which, in my case leads to whining). Should I align?
What the experts say
“When we’re three, we have a natural coordination. Because of our environments, by the age of five or six we acquire bad habits. These can cause tendonitis, repetitive strain, carpal tunnel, neck ache, backache, shoulder problems, scoliosis. Most people are very stiff. When we’re sitting at the computer, most of us are misaligned and overusing our arms, not using them as extensions of the back. We don’t do body alignment. We do re-education of psycho-physical coordination, which involves thinking [when active].”
HOWARD BOCKNER, certified teacher, Alexander technique, Toronto
“There are two basic bad postures. One is the military posture, where people pull their shoulders back and chest up, putting pressure on the discs of the lower back and throwing weight onto the balls of the feet. When the rib cage is rigid, the forces that go through the body as you walk get stuck, putting pressure on vulnerable areas. This also cuts off breathing. The other bad posture is the slouch. That can affect the vertebrae and discs, and the nerves that go down to the hands, which can cause tingling and numbness. It can also cause degeneration of the vertebrae. Pressure on the lower vertebrae can cause sciatica. There’s no such thing as a healthy straight spine. The spine is meant to have curves.”
MARION HARRIS, director, Feldenkrais Centre, Toronto
“When the body isn’t aligned correctly, problems begin: slouching, musculoskeletal issues, stiffness, decreased mobility, balance and coordination. It can cause chronic pain, headaches, migraine. Lifestyle has a tremendous influence on alignment. Repetitive activities, carrying heavy backpacks, trauma, slouching, crossing the legs or using a cellphone in specific ways can throw us off. The Mitzvah technique is based on our body’s self-corrective mechanism. When it’s working, the spine lengthens, the chest expands, the neck is free and the head rebalances itself, which stimulates deep breathing and reduces stress buildup.”
SUSAN GREEN, certified Mitzvah teacher, Toronto
“I don’t feel body alignment is important. Everybody has their own self-alignment based on their pelvic incidence [the relationship of the spine and pelvis]. This angle dictates a person’s ‘normal alignment,’ which is individualized. There are conditions that cause people to be malaligned, such as scoliosis, kyphosis, spondylolisthesis and some neurological conditions, but this is a different situation from what people normally face.”
STEPHEN LEWIS, orthopaedic surgeon, Toronto
“I’m doing a lot of the same exercises with my personal trainer that they call ‘posture exercises’ in the Alexander technique. There doesn’t appear to be anything special about that system. It claims to fix ailments like tendonitis, kyphosis (a fancy word for slumped-forward posture) and scoliosis. But tendonitis is the irritation of a tendon. So a physiotherapy routine with light weights will treat tendonitis as well. The only thing that will help your back pain is strengthening and conditioning. If the Alexander technique teaches you that, it can be as valuable as a personal trainer.”
JOEL FINKELSTEIN, orthopaedic surgeon, Toronto
