Applied Alexander Technique Blog

Hello my friends,

Thanks for stopping by to say hi. I feel the need to take a break from news about back pain and tell you about a baby giraffe that was recently born at the world-famous San Diego Zoo.

You might think that this story is about Giraffes because I'm an Alexander teacher. After all, we deal with the poise of heads on top of necks. They are graceful and they have amazingly long necks that have only 7 vertebrae - just like us. Did you know that?

The truth is, I've always liked animals and Giraffe have always fascinated me. I went to high school in San Diego and visited the Zoo frequently.

Giraffes are so big and so shy. They are gentle creatures with huge eyes, the longest eyelashes imaginable, and incredibly powerful, fast legs. Here are fascinating facts about Giraffes.

On a recent visit to San Diego, I went to the Zoo with a friend and we saw the Giraffes. I don't know if it was Debbie the Giraffe who gave birth shortly thereafter, or another one, but it is an amazing process to witness.

Here's a video. I can't believe the baby falls six feet as it's born, and survives.

The American Society for the Alexander Technique announced:

A clinical trial published in the British Medical Journal show Alexander Technique lessons are effective and provide long-term benefit.

As reported by the British Medical Journal on August 19, 2008, back pain sufferers who took 24 lessons in the Alexander Technique had 85% less back pain, one year after the study began. The number of days in pain fell to only three per month, vs. 21 days in pain in the control group. The average number of activities limited by back pain had fallen by 42%. Six lessons followed by exercise were about 70% as effective as 24 lessons.

There were zero adverse effects by any of the participants who received Alexander Technique lessons.

Click here to download a copy of the press release in PDF format.

Or read it here, online.

Continue reading " Study Results Show 85% Reduction in Back Pain " »

Good morning my friends!

We have news again, about back pain and the Alexander Technique.

Dr. Peter Gott writes a nationally syndicated column for United Media. Today's column is about low back pain and alternative methods for treating it.

Dr. Gott responds to a reader with sciatica and low back pain. He admires his reader's desire to avoid surgery and suggests several methods for non-surgical intervention. He correctly identifies the Alexander Technique in terms of postural issues, noting that it deals with the spine, and refers to the head, neck, and back relationship. However, he didn't discuss the significant implications of a recent study on low back pain, long-term relief, and the Alexander Technique.

I'm writing to call a very recent, large scale study on low-back pain and the Alexander Technique to Dr. Gott's attention. The British Medical Journal published research on August 19, 2008, titled "Randomised controlled trial of Alexander technique lessons, exercise, and massage (ATEAM) for chronic and recurrent back pain." This was a large-scale study with 579 participants, one of the few to show long-term relief from back pain.

The Pittsburg-Post Gazette quotes the study on September 11, 2008:

"...out of 579 subjects with lower back pain, the 144 who took 24 lessons in the Alexander Technique had an average 48 percent reduction in their Roland disability score, and an 86 percent reduction in their days of pain compared with the control group of 144 subjects, who had no intervention."

That's only 3 days in pain per month compared to 21 days in pain per month for the control group.

Click here to download a copy of the study directly, in PDF format.

These is a significant study and I encourage Dr. Gott to write about it!

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Dana Ben-Yehuda is the Media Spokesperson for the American Society for the Alexander Technique. Download the AmSAT Press Kit by clicking here.

Contact her for further information or interviews, at:
dbenyehuda@comcast.net
650-964-4308

Hello friends,

With all the talk about the ATEAM study about Alexander Technique and back pain, are you left behind in the dust wondering what the heck the Alexander Technique is, anyway? And how does it work and what are the principles upon which it is based?

I just knew you'd say you couldn't wait to hear more. Here is the answer for you, nice and easy and all wrapped up in a nutshell. Aren't you just a wee bit curious? Read on, and I'll speak about golfing and being centered.

I'll even tell you why learning about the principles matters. Promise!

Here are five basic principles of the Technique:

• faulty sensory awareness - this is the sense of where we are in space, called proprioception. Try looking in the mirror; are you surprised to see imbalances that you do not feel? Our inner sense can be tuned up again so it gives a truer picture.

• force of habit - you can learn to change poor postural habits to positive ones and put this force to work for you in a very good way

• the primary control – that the head-neck relationship is of primary importance in coordinating the use of the entire psycho-physical being

• inhibition – to refrain from doing. Here's an example:

the idea of sitting down often triggers an automatic response to tighten the back of the neck and retract the head. You can learn not to compress your spine by not contracting your head and neck. Are you automatically trying it as you read this? It's not easy, is it. That's faulty sensory awareness (see above).

• direction – consciously directing the body with our thought

Why does any of this matter?

Continue reading " What is the Alexander Technique? " »