I have had chronic back and neck pain for years now, and have tried chiropractors, massage, working out etc to little avail. I began lessons in the Alexander technique a couple of months ago, and I'll say it's been a game-changer. Basically, the method combines kinaesthetic education through soft touch and positioning, with learning a process of interrupting postural habits. By building awareness of a neutral state they call Primary Control, Alexander teachers show you how to stop yourself when you habitually start crunching down. The Primary Control is the relation between the head, neck, and back. When it is properly activated, the neck floats forward and up without muscles being strained in an attempt to "pull it up".
If you think about it, straining to achieve proper posture is a contradiction, since muscle strain signifies contraction rather than expansion. Yet learning how to allow muscles to extend is a more esoteric process than flexing, since postural sets are felt to be "natural" regardless of imbalances. That is, there's no map inside your brain of what a biomechanically optimal human posture is, just a series of habitual positions that feel comfortable. Alexander Technique helps you replace this ad hoc body map with one informed by science. Best of all, once you learn it you don't have to keep going back for lessons really. I mean, you can go back to focus on some set of movements, like I'm planning to have a few lessons focusing on posture at the computer and piano, but once you have a good handle on how to trigger the primary control when you know you're about to do something that causes pain, you can be your own Alexander teacher. So good shit for back pain, yea
Oh, and it's been really useful for the body language side of game as well... And they know it, apparently my teacher taught Neil Strauss lol
If you think about it, straining to achieve proper posture is a contradiction, since muscle strain signifies contraction rather than expansion. Yet learning how to allow muscles to extend is a more esoteric process than flexing, since postural sets are felt to be "natural" regardless of imbalances. That is, there's no map inside your brain of what a biomechanically optimal human posture is, just a series of habitual positions that feel comfortable. Alexander Technique helps you replace this ad hoc body map with one informed by science. Best of all, once you learn it you don't have to keep going back for lessons really. I mean, you can go back to focus on some set of movements, like I'm planning to have a few lessons focusing on posture at the computer and piano, but once you have a good handle on how to trigger the primary control when you know you're about to do something that causes pain, you can be your own Alexander teacher. So good shit for back pain, yea
Oh, and it's been really useful for the body language side of game as well... And they know it, apparently my teacher taught Neil Strauss lol