A newly discovered letter has confirmed that Virginia Woolf had lessons with FM Alexander. The letter – written by Walter Carrington, one of the most influential teachers to have trained with FM Alexander – provides few details.

Much more is known about the lessons taken by Virginia’s husband Leonard, partly thanks to Virginia’s own writings about his experience.

Walter Carrington’s letter, written in October 1968, gives a tantilizing glimpse of Virginia Woolf’s lessons nonetheless:

Leonard brought Virginia to Ashley Place [FM Alexander’s teaching practice] for quite a number of lessons but how far she felt herself to be helped I do not know. They were both on friendly terms with F. M. and I remember discussing printing with Leonard in the waiting room while V. was having a lesson.

A detailed analysis by Regina Stratil of the Woolfs’ interactions with FM Alexander suggests that Virginia visited his practice around the autumn of 1937.

Leonard himself went to see FM Alexander around June 1937 on the recommendation of George Bernard Shaw. His reason for going was to help deal with a hand tremor which had afflicted him since infancy. The effect of Alexander’s lessons on Leonard was remarkable; for example, Virginia wrote in her diary entry of July 1937 that,

L. [Leonard] is trembling less & less – can drink his coffee steady – & has, at 56, cured a disease that has, I guess, moulded his life wrongly since he was 5. All his shyness, his suffering from society, his sharpness, & definiteness, might have been smoothed. I mean by this something mostly superficial, but possibly constricting underneath also.

FM Alexander had similar striking effects on others in the Woolfs’ circle during the 1930s. For example, the novelist and writer Aldous Huxley himself wrote much later that

This, as I know by experience, is an exceedingly valuable technique. For not only does one have to become aware of the data of organic reality (to the exclusion of the insane life of phantasy); one also, in the process of practising this awareness, makes it possible for the physical organism to function as it ought to function, thus improving the general state of physical and mental health.

Huxley’s wife Maria also wrote in a letter of February 1936,

He [Alexander] certainly has made a new and unrecognizable person of Aldous, not physically only but mentally and therefore morally. Or rather, he has brought out, actively, all we, Aldous’s best friends, know never came out either in the novels or with strangers.

Huxley’s experience of lessons with FM Alexander in the 1930s affected him profoundly for the rest of his life. For example, the character ‘Miller’ in his novel Eyeless in Gaza (1936) is loosely based on Alexander, and his book Ends and Means (1937) was inspired by the Technique.

References

All quotations in the text are from:

Regina Stratil, ‘Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s lessons with F. M. Alexander’, Poise, Vol. 2 (2024), article POI024JE1.14. Downloadable from:
https://mouritz.org/journal/articles/POI024JE1.14

The Mind in Movement Lab at the University of Idaho has just released a short video detailing some of its work. The lab’s principle investigator, Professor Rajal Cohen, has in recent years led some of the most groundbreaking and fascinating research into the Alexander Technique.

This most recent video references the lab’s research into the Alexander Technique, and how it contributes to the scientists’ understanding of poise. The video also gives details of a intriguing new line of enquiry into how dancers’ own poise could be transmitted through touch. They ask,

does a dancer’s poise – their state of balanced muscular tension and readiness – translate through touch, affecting the coordination and emotional state of their dance partner? Imagine the possibilities! This research, using swing dance as a unique lens, could reveal a hidden aspect of touch with possible benefits to everything from parenting to coaching to medical care.

Watch this space for further information on their research findings!

The Alexander Technique is all about improving how you function in daily life by ‘using’ yourself better in activity. And the movement from sitting to standing is commonly used by Alexander Technique teachers to help guide their clients towards better use. There is a lot to take in to find ease and balance in this movement – for example, allowing length through the torso and freedom in the major joints. You can even read up on the physics behind this deceptively simple movement.

Sit-to-stand is also the perfect opportunity outside of Alexander lessons to practise the skills you’ve been developing. And yet this begs the question:

How might we be motivated to stand up from a seated position in the first place, given that so many people’s working lives involve so much sitting for extended periods?

One answer lies in the current mission of Dr Paul Batman, a leading exercise physiologist and expert on the health hazards of sedentary behaviour. Personally, I think that once you understand his core message that ‘every movement counts’, you’ll be highly motivated to rise from your chair much more frequently than perhaps you do right now.

In short, there’s a brilliant synergy to be had here. The alarming research into sedentary behaviour which Dr Batman highlights can provide a strong motivation to get up and move around regularly. Then, every time you do so, you can playfully improve your coordination in line with the principles of the Alexander Technique.

It’s a win-win.

Sitting down IS risky

Let’s be clear on the research. What is striking is that we know sitting for long periods is a serious risk factor for everyone, regardless of whether you exercise regularly. In other words, you can be both fit and unhealthy – an ‘active couch potato’ who is damaging their health despite going to the gym three or four times a week.

Dr Batman identifies 12 key consequences of prolonged sedentary behaviour. Here’s my summary of the many downsides:

The solution?: ‘Sit, stand, stroll, repeat’

Dr Batman explains that ‘the root of all sedentary problems lies in the lack of daily muscle contractile activity’, and that in contrast, ‘multiple bouts of muscle contractions throughout the day provide a strong health stimulus’ (ibid.). In his words,

Muscle contractions recruit motor units and can engage many thousands of muscle fibres in a single contraction that activate mitochondria, decrease blood sugar levels, remove fat from the blood, increase blood flow to active areas, release anti-inflammatory molecules and strengthen the functioning of the innate immune system.

Ibid.

Dr Batman therefore advocates a kind of interval training: going from a seated to standing position anywhere between 30 and 50 times a day. That equates to standing up and going for a short walk at least every half an hour. He explains in a podcast,

I think the theory and the philosophy behind it is that [when] we go from a seated position to a standing position, we double the number of METs [‘Metabolic equivalents’ – a measure of how much oxygen is consumed while sitting at rest], so we’re doubly increasing the energy expenditure to start with. From sitting to standing recruits a hundred muscles or more: that’s significant. The number of neural pathways that are opened up in that simple movement is also significant, and the cellular involvement is massive. So we never underestimate the fact that we move from a seated to a standing position – it’s a transitional movement that our body is designed to do. …

I think that a lot of chronic diseases can be related back to two things: […]  one is a little enzyme called an LPL enzyme, and its job is to vacuum the fat out of the blood, and the other one is the mitochondria […] and mitochondria goes into distress. So, if we were to sit for 30 minutes […], the bad news is that my LPL enzyme will probably go to sleep after 20 minutes, and then I will probably have a greater proportion of free fatty acids within my vascular system because of not moving. Now, I can go to the gym after this, and that LPL enzyme will still be dormant. I have to get up and move around and do those multiple contractions throughout the day in order for that to make a significant change.

And this is what I think we have to realise: […] that there are problems specific to sedentary behaviour that cannot be attenuated by the gym, and the fact is our lifestyle has changed so much that our body is now maladapting to this new environment.

https://www.andrewmay.com/podcasts/68-the-science-of-chronic-cardio-too-much-floppy-dorsal-fin-syndrome-too-little-and-minimum-effective-dose-just-right-dr-paul-batman/ (from 28:19)

Going further

This blog post has focused on the synergistic boost to wellbeing created when an Alexandrian ‘sit-to-stand’ is combined with doing so regularly throughout the day. This ‘double benefit’ can form a strong motivation to combine the Alexandrian mindset with this specific activity for positive overall health outcomes.

However, improved quality and frequency of ‘sit-to-stand’ should not be seen in isolation. It is part of a wider lifestyle challenge identified by Dr Batman to incorporate more movement at every opportunity during the day. In this regard, all light-to-moderate intensity activities can be viewed as healthful: for example, domestic chores, home maintenance, gardening and active travel.

What is more, we can also learn to employ the Alexander Technique in all such activities to enhance our wellbeing still further.

Finally, if you’re interested in exploring this topic, I recommend reading why Dr Batman admits to enjoying doing the housework. It’s a funny take on what is an incredibly important message.

Among healthcare professionals, the Alexander Technique is recognised as helping people with hypermobility. More information on this is available on the hypermobility page of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique.

For a very personal view, you might like to watch the following video created by Jess Albertine, which has just been released. Jess has hypermobility and is an Alexander Technique teacher, and she has many years of experience living with it and helping others.

I’ve summarized below some of the main points of her video below:

• There is a spectrum of hypermobility disorders which also includes Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
• There are different tissues in the body, such as bones and muscles. One type of tissue is connective tissue which includes cartilage, ligaments, tendons and fascia.
• Hypermobility is a connective tissue disorder. The protein that builds connective tissue is collagen, and in people with hypermobility the DNA structural instructions for how to build collagen is different to other people’s.
• With the right teacher, the Alexander Technique can help. Ask questions of your Alexander Technique instructor to see whether they have experience working with hypermobile people.
• Finally, hypermobility is possibly the only diagnosis that fundamentally changes how Alexander technique teachers work with their students.

The final point is important, and so here is part of Jess’s explanation of that below:

So the fundamental differences in working with a hypermobile person versus someone who’s not hypermobile is in ‘how do we direct’? [See here for my guide to Alexander Technique Direction]

Instead of directing for lengthening and going away from the core, I find that my best use of myself comes from directing in. That basically creates reassurance on a neurological level, on a muscular level – that I’m not going to come apart, I’m okay, here’s that connection, I have that softness and connection between my neck and my head, between my ears and behind my nose, and that actually creates the secondary effect of lengthening and widening.

So the way that I think of it is this: with hypermobility we’ve got some prerequisites that we need to first get a handle on. Before we can think about letting go at all, we need to first stick with connection and safety and reassurance. So, my main directions that I use and that I also use with students who are hypermobile (and frankly also I find this really helpful with students who have anxiety as well) is to talk with connection language.

I was presenting the Alexander Technique again to musicians in Bucharest this month (more of this amazing programme here). A question that came up several times after the hands-on work was,

‘How can I find this [release, poise, relaxation, ease, coordination etc] again on my own?’

The answer is simple – but not easy. Simply speaking, most people have spent years cultivating habits of reaction and tension. Unconscious though they may be, these habits are nonetheless ‘thinking’ patterns involving the whole nervous system. The answer, therefore – and I don’t mean to be glib here – is that if you thought your way into tension, you can think your way out of it. This is not easy work, but there is a roadmap for it, and this is the Alexander Technique.

The Alexander Technique is therefore not exercises, nor stretching, nor strength training, nor poses. It is how you think in relation to the stimuli around you; how you react or don’t react to the stressors that can cause mental or physical tension. It is also about how you undo a lifetime of such reactions; in short, how you climb out of the hole that you’ve dug for yourself.

In a way, the Alexander Technique is a big ask. And yet – even taking a few tentative steps down the path can result in a powerful sense of liberation from self-imposed limitations: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

To bring this point home, I recently read Mike Masterman’s account of his Alexander Technique lessons with Margaret Goldie, a first generation teacher who worked with FM Alexander. It is a salutary reminder of the importance of thinking vs feeling, and not putting the cart before the horse:

Lesson 3: Thursday 17th February 1994

“And how are you?” Miss Goldie asked as she indicated the chair with her hand. Although this seemed a relatively innocuous question I sidestepped it. I plunged headlong into the deep and told her I had been thinking about what she had been saying about the liveliness of my back, but how was I to notice the difference in my back if, as she had instructed me in my last lesson, I was not able to use my feeling sense.

This unleashed a fearsome broadside regarding the unwise course of using one’s feeling sense to verify a change. “This work is not about being made to feel good. It is serious and there are plenty of people going around feeling good who are in a terrible state. What good is that? All you are wanting is a nice pat on the back to reassure you that you are doing the right thing.

As the broadside continued I realised I was becoming more and more fixed as I stood in front of the chair. The lesson had not begun auspiciously! “But there must be some kind of feedback system through the body that will let me know when my back is released,” I ventured.

“How does your back release?” she asked.

“When my neck is free,” I replied confidently.

“And how does your neck become free?”

“With a thought.”

“Yes,” she said. “With a thought and that is what you use. I don’t know how you have managed to become so stiff and fixed. Now you can sit in the chair.”

Mike Masterman, ‘Lessons with Miss Goldie (part 2)’, STATNews pp.22-9, p.22.

To understand better the prioritization of thinking over feeling, you can read the following.

The Alexander Technique (AT) is about how we look after ourselves in the face of the stimuli around us, and reversibility is a useful framework for seeing how we are getting on in that endeavour. Simply speaking, reversibility is the ability to reverse or ‘undo’ a particular movement at any moment along the way.

While this may seem like a simple – even pointless – idea, it conceals a skillset. In the words of Todd Hargrove, reversibility implies

the ability to move in ANY direction with a minimum of hesitation or preparation. In other words, if you can go back where you came from, you could probably go in any other direction as well. [Moshé] Feldenkrais considered this quality of preparedness to move anywhere as the ultimate goal of movement training, an ideal state of affairs which represents the highest level of physical organization.

Although reversibility is not a term in the AT lexicon, it is relevant. One example is its similarity to the ‘crossroads’ FM Alexander explained when tackling unwanted habits: to go on and gain an end, do nothing at all, or do something different (you can see my cartoon explanation of this here).

More than that, however, I think reversibility brings to light aspects of AT which other concepts cannot. This applies in particular to insights from modern movement science. This article will therefore look at three aspects which demonstrate how useful a framework it is, these being:

• Reversibility and reduced tension
• Reversibility and psychological freedom
• Reversibility and balanced movement

Reversibility and reduced tension

Moshé Feldenkrais wrote that a ‘too-strong wish for the aim often causes internal tension’ (1972/1990 p.82). This is similar to the AT concept of ‘end-gaining’ which AT seeks to overcome.

In this regard, reversing a movement presents us with an opportunity. It helps us observe the introduction of unwanted tension into an activity we’re focused on.

For example,

I’m sitting on a bicycle, about to set off. As I lift one foot to the pedal I notice that I’ve hunched my shoulders. If I bring my foot back onto the ground, can I now un-hunch my shoulders? What if I repeat this movement a few times – doing and ‘undoing’ it – so that I ‘see’ in my mind’s eye the pattern of tension in my shoulders that I keep introducing?

The kind of reversibility described can go alongside the actual work of AT, which is the attempt to inhibit an unnecessary reaction to a stimulus. In fact, AT practitioners will often work in this way. For example, they might guide a seated client into hinging forward at the hip joints, check any unnecessary tension in the neck, and then guide them back again – repeating the process several times.

Another example – one that is almost universal it seems – is the tendency to hold one’s breath (or breathe shallowly) while working at a screen. The term ‘screen apnea’ has been coined to describe it, and it’s been the subject of a recent NPR podcast.

Similarly, then, can I ‘see’ the phenomenon of screen apnea take place as I begin to work at a screen? Can I do it, and undo it, a few times, noticing as I do the overall pattern of tension that I’ve associated with this activity? Again, reversibility in this situation prepares the ground for being able to find a way to prevent such reactions in future.

Reversibility and psychological freedom

Embodied cognition describes how our thinking is shaped by the state or configuration of our bodies. For example, a well-tested and surprising finding is that consumers tend to purchase more when they’re pushing around supermarket trolleys with parallel handles, compared to pushing trolleys with horizontal handles (retailers interested in their bottom line – take note). The reason given is that the former tend to activate arm flexor muscles and the latter arm extensor muscles.

Given such effects, playing with reversibility is bound to affect our psychological state by loosening the hold that a particular stimulus has on us. For example, you might try

I’m reaching for the cookie jar, and now I’m not.
I’m reaching for my smartphone, and now I’m not.

In a psychological sense, if we cannot reverse an action, then we are simply compelled to do it. The sources of that compulsion are various: (perceived) necessity, habit, addiction, fear, social pressure, responsibility, obligation and so on.

In contrast, reversibility implies that we are not after all compelled. It means that we have psychological freedom in relation to the stimulus. Whilst time cannot be reversed (unless you know something I don’t), I do think reversibility changes our experience of time. In this way, it is similar to the AT principle of non-doing. The author Robert Poynton gives us a flavour of this:

By designing pauses for yourself, you have a hand in crafting how you experience time. This weakens the sense that your life is governed by an external, mechanical beat, set by someone else (or by a device) and allows you to move at a rhythm that is more your own.

Poynton, R. (2019)

The emphasis in AT is on pausing, not reversing, in the face of a stimulus, but both seem to open up greater psychological freedom. Research has detailed the greater feelings of control and self-efficacy that can flow from the AT process. Here is a very personal example:  

the Alexander Technique made me aware for the first time of how I was reacting to life. It gave me a choice. By refusing to tighten my shoulders, for example, I no longer felt so crushed by the world … As a result, I felt better and gradually I no longer felt a victim at the mercy of random black thoughts or moods. As I continued to feel better, so my responses to the world became lighter and less circumscribed and I felt myself to be on a positive feedback loop rather than a negative one.

Hatton, D. (2015)

Reversibility and balanced movement

Finally, reversibility is a useful test of how balanced we are when we’re moving.

Certain movements are never going to be truly reversible (in the sense of being able to stop and reverse at any moment). These are typically ballistic ‘thrown’ movements which begin with a burst of muscle activity for acceleration, continue under their own momentum, and then sometimes end with a burst of muscle activity for deceleration. Examples of these non-reversible movements include jumping, running, hitting or doing a forward roll. Try reversing a jump half-way – it can’t be done!

In contrast, reversibility will always be possible for movements which involve very little momentum, as long as our centre of mass stays above our base of support (for example, our two feet). Think, for example, of the refined movement of a Tai Chi grand master who will pause or change direction instantaneously. Scientists describe such low-momentum movements as ‘quasistatic’ because all forces inside and outside the body remain approximately balanced throughout.

We can term such movements ‘balanced movements’, and what’s relevant here is that there is an argument for incorporating them more often into our everyday activities, i.e.:

Given the devastating risks of falls in old age, developing balanced movement for more of the time we’re on the planet is a crucial skill. Not only that, balanced movements result in less stress and wear-and-tear on our bodies. Unlike momentum-based movements, they are intrinsically smooth because no sudden forces are applied from inside or outside the body.

As mentioned above, reversibility can be the test of our success in balanced movement. I’ve included three great examples to practise below: walking up and down stairs, everyday walking and standing up from a chair.

Activity 1: Walking up and down stairs

Walking up and down stairs is one of the best tests of balanced movement because it is slow enough to become almost entirely momentum-free. For most people, this activity is definitely not a balanced one, and so to reduce the risk of falls, we should encourage everyone to develop this skill.

Therefore, next time you have to go upstairs, test out your skill in a fun way. See whether you can pause at any moment, carry on, or reverse your movement.

Walking downstairs in this way is also possible. It is a little more challenging because it involves ‘eccentric’ contraction. However, this means that walking downstairs also has other health benefits compared to going upstairs.

Activity 2: Everyday walking

Next, there’s everyday walking on a flat surface. Efficient walking uses momentum – most obviously in the way each leg swings forward – but for walking to be well balanced, our centre of mass must remain well within the base of support of the standing leg (we spend around 40% of our time on one leg while walking). For this to happen, we mustn’t collapse or incline the torso forwards, and our weight may need to stay back a little further than most people are used to. If you explore reversibility while walking, you’ll find this to be the case.

With reversibility, you can practise the walking cycle while remaining entirely balanced. First, slow down your walking so that you can pause at any moment. Once you’ve paused on your standing leg, now lightly move your free leg forwards and backwards a few times as follows:

foot in front (flat on the ground and not taking any weight)
toes behind (not taking any weight)
foot in front (not taking any weight)
toes behind (not taking any weight)
foot in front (not taking any weight)

– and then push off slowly from your standing leg to carry on walking. The similarity with salsa dancing is entirely coincidental.

Activity 3: Standing up from a chair

Is it possible to stand up from a chair using very little momentum?

The following very short video compares someone using a momentum-based strategy on the left with someone using a balanced movement (≈ zero momentum) strategy on the right. On the left, there is a sudden increase in foot force and forward velocity. On the right, there is a continuous smooth matching of contact forces in real time.

One way we can tell that we are watching a balanced movement is that, if the movement/ video were reversed, it would still look natural. Reversing the movement of the individual on the left would look decidedly odd; however, the individual on the right would look like someone sitting down in a slow and balanced way.

The advantages of a balanced movement strategy in this situation are pretty obvious. We are taking care of our musculoskeletal system by preventing a sudden drop into the chair or an exaggerated lurch out of it. It means we can stay in balance no matter the height of the chair, or even if there isn’t one (in which case we’d just end up squatting). And if for some reason we’ve misjudged the height of the chair, there will be no sudden shocks to the system.

Conclusion: Connection between reversibility and AT

In the video accompanying the final activity described above, the participant on the left had not had AT training, and the participant on the right had had extensive AT training. The video therefore demonstrates the links between AT, balanced movement and reversibility.

It is important to emphasize, however, that AT does not focus directly on reversibility or even balance. Reversibility is instead a by-product of AT processes, and scientists investigating AT have instead researched areas such as the effects of AT on the adaptability of muscle tone.

Nevertheless, I suggest knowledge of the phenomenon of reversibility is power. As I hope I’ve demonstrated above, it represents a helpful framework for both clarifying AT concepts and testing out how our journey down the AT path is going.

Further reading

Cacciatore, T. and Johnson, P., ‘The Physics of Sit-to-Stand’ https://alexandertechniquescience.com/biomechanics/the-physics-of-sit-to-stand/. Accessed 7 Jul 2024.

Feldenkrais, M. (1972, 1991) Awareness Through Movement: Easy-To-Do Health Exercises to Improve Your Posture, Vision, Imagination, and Personal Awareness. London: Thorsons.

Hatton, D. ‘Where are your emotions?’ https://daskahatton.co.uk/articles-about-complementary-therapy/2015/03/where-are-your-emotions. Accessed Mar 2023.

Poynton, R. (2019) Do pause: You are not a to-do list. London: The Do Book Company.

Some preliminary research has been conducted into the effects of the Alexander Technique (AT) on singing. Acoustic analysis of a single female voice recorded improvements in vocal quality (the so-called ‘ringing’ tone), vocal clarity (the harmonic-to-noise ratio, where noise indicates qualities such as raspiness or breathiness) and intonation. Measurements of vibrato and respiratory noise were less conclusive.

The research was conducted with one singer whose voice was analysed before and after 15 AT sessions which took place over 35 days. The AT sessions were kept deliberately simple, and involved only hands-on lying down – or ‘semi-supine’ – work.

In an interview, Michele Capalbo, who conducted the research, noted that:

There is a boost in that ringing area – enhancement of the overtones, richness of the overtones, ‘singer formant boost’, whatever you want to call it – right in that area [which makes] classical singers ring out and be heard over an orchestra – that got a boost. Over time, the volume increased but that was not immediate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLQBJ-RYb_A

Earlier studies into the effects of AT on voice were first conducted in the 1970s, but very little research has been conducted since. However, recent advances in software and technology have made this kind of research more practical and affordable.

Michele Capalbo is a professional opera singer and AT teacher based in Canada. She is currently working on a book which compiles current perspectives from AT teachers who specialize in working with singers.

You can read further details of her research on the Alexander Studies Online website, and attend her online workshop for singers in October this year.

Some of the best Alexander Technique (AT) books are available to borrow from public libraries in the UK. If they’re in the library catalogue but not on the shelves, you can usually order them for free and they will be obtained for you from the wider library network.

Below is my list of recommended reading for clients. Every book I’ve included is available to borrow through Bristol public libraries.

If you read just one book, try the first one on the list. It’s one of the best introductions you’ll find, and there are three copies available at Bristol libraries.

Enjoy!

Pedro de Alcantara (2021) The Alexander technique : a skill for life

This is one of the best introductions to AT and is now in its second edition. It is concise, full of illustrations and the author conveys his own personal insights which makes the book relatable. You may not agree with everything Pedro writes, but it’s a stimulating and playful read.

The book covers the emotional impact of AT in a unique way. I really enjoyed his approach to this topic, and so I included an extract in a recent blog post.

Missy Vineyard (2007) How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live

This book is a really innovative and deep dive into AT. It includes ‘case studies’ of students so that you get a feel for how the Technique begins to change their perceptions and their lives. Although it includes a lot of illustrations, it is also quite ‘wordy’ and so will need time to try out the explorations it suggests.

It also has some unique insights into the pitfalls of learning, one of which I have included here because it’s so helpful!

FM Alexander (1932, 2018) The Use of the Self

This is the classic text written by the originator of AT, FM Alexander, four decades after he began teaching his method. It is the shortest of his four books, and includes a description of his own vocal troubles and how he overcame them in the famous chapter “Evolution of a Technique”.

This 2018 edition of the book includes a new introduction written by Anthony Kingsley, a well-known practitioner and teacher trainer based in London.

Angela Bradshaw (2014) Be in balance : be the best you can be!

Angela Bradshaw’s simple guide explores AT principles in a fun but clear way. Its many cartoon illustrations mean that it would be a good introduction to AT for young people as well.

It’s got chapters on some very clear basic anatomy, ‘monkeying around’ (a position of ‘mechanical advantage’ for the body), ‘workplace wellness’ and ‘conscious commuting’.

Michael Bloch (2011) F.M.: The Life Of Frederick Matthias Alexander, Founder of the Alexander Technique

This biography does an impressive job of teasing apart the man from the myth, and is a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in the Alexander Technique.

FM Alexander was born and grew up in northwest Tasmania, a world away from the high echelons of early twentieth century British society he ended up moving amongst. It was an extraordinary transformation for someone who had no formal academic qualifications.

But Alexander’s first career was as an actor, and he was astonishingly successful at ‘playing a part’ when he promoted his Technique. He taught some of the major figures of his day, including the authors George Bernard Shaw and Aldous Huxley, philosopher John Dewey, Chancellor of the Exchequer Stafford Cripps and the Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple.

David Moore (2017) Smart Yoga: Apply the Alexander Technique to Enhance Your Practice, Prevent Injury, and Increase Body Awareness.

As well as providing a good basic introduction to AT, David Moore’s book gives a very practical set of considerations for how to integrate AT with practising yoga. Topics include avoiding injury, anatomical awareness, pain management, neuroplasticity, pregnancy and breathing.

The last section of the book goes into detail regarding around a dozen yoga poses and asanas.

Steven Shaw (2016) The art of swimming: raising your performance with the Alexander Technique

This is the only comprehensive guide to applying AT to swimming. It is also known as ‘the Shaw Method’. Steven Shaw gives practical steps for turning swimming from a largely automatic activity into one where awareness can bring about an efficient use of your whole self and the avoidance of injury.

The main strokes – front crawl, back stroke, breast stroke and butterfly – are broken down into their constituent parts, and explorations include movements that can be done in or out of the water, and with or without a partner.

Malcolm Balk & Andrew Shields (2000) The art of running: with the Alexander Technique.

This book takes the Alexander Technique principles and applies them directly to all aspects of running. Since for most people this is a completely new approach, the book will benefit all runners, whether beginner or advanced.

There are case studies and references to professional athletes throughout. There are chapters on training (including relevant drills), preparing for competitions and how to avoid injuries. The book ends with a very useful checklist (‘running do’s and don’ts’) and an inspired afterword (‘centred running’) by John Woodward who I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the past.

Consider for a moment a top athlete, dancer or musician, and you’ll realise that humans have the potential for incredibly accurate and coordinated movement. But what makes coordinated movement possible in the first place?

Despite being entirely unfamiliar to most people, two aspects of ourselves govern our posture and provide a foundation for all movement and balance. These are postural tone and body schema.

When these are functioning well, humans can reach ever greater heights of performance. But when they are functioning poorly, there are a number of adverse consequences such as muscle tension, malcoordination, poor balance, discomfort, pain and worsening mental health.

This article will define postural tone and body schema and then explore how they influence each other for good or for ill. Lastly, I will look at ways in which we can fine-tune them and so improve the way we function.

Defining postural tone

First, postural tone, or ‘postural muscle tone’, is the ongoing, low-level muscular activity that supports us against gravity and other forces. Postural tone is generated subconsciously, and differs from voluntary muscular activity such as clenching a fist or ‘standing up straight’. Most people are surprised to learn that for most of the time, maintaining a posture requires very low levels of muscle activity: typically between 2 and 5 per cent of the maximum force you might voluntarily apply to a muscle.

Healthy postural tone is fundamental to movement. Too much of it and movement becomes stiff; too little and our bodies collapse against gravity. Two characteristics of healthy postural tone are its adaptability, and its appropriate distribution through the body. Research has shown that individuals vary greatly on these two measures of postural tone.

The quality of postural tone can be adversely impacted by a multitude of factors such as everyday habits, our emotional state, and physical pain or injury. Furthermore, conditions such as camptocormia and Parkinson’s Disease lead to disturbances in postural tone.

Defining body schema

Next, the body schema is our brain’s map of our body parts in space. This internal map is continuously updated with sensory information (tactile, proprioceptive and visual) so that the brain can constantly track how the body is configured. The body schema is essential for planning and executing movement: in short, you can’t move somewhere else unless you know where you currently are.

The body schema includes information such as how long our limbs are, where our joints are, our range of possible movements and how our body parts are configured in relation to each other (e.g. are my legs crossed as I read this?). Part of the job of the body schema is to constrain action so that we don’t try to move in impossible or painful ways.

The body schema is by necessity holistic, or a map of the whole. The reason for this can be understood through a thought experiment involving a creature very different to us which we might call Scatty:

Imagine, for instance, that Scatty’s body consists only of two detached hands capable of independent movement, like the character Thing from the The Addams Family, but in duplicate. Scatty could do much that normally embodied subjects could not. She could rotate each of her parts 360° in a single plane in opposite directions, or simultaneously grab an elephant’s trunk and tail. By contrast, in our case, bodily actions are spatiotemporally constrained by the body itself as an integrated whole—when we move a body part, it will take as long as it does and involve the physical displacements it does, because that part is a part of an integrated whole.

de Vignemont et al., p.10

That said, the body schema is also malleable. First, it must adapt to enduring but slowly changing physical properties such as our size, joint flexibility and muscle strength. And as well as updating in real time to whatever position we’re in, it will even extend beyond our bodies to incorporate tools or vehicles so that we can safely judge their dimensions and effectively exploit their capabilities.

Like postural tone, the body schema is susceptible to unwelcome disturbances. These can be the result of conditions such as anorexia, dystonia or Parkinson’s Disease. Pain and injury will also alter this vital map of ourselves.

Finally, the conscious experience of the body schema is rarely discussed. I have written about it here, however.

The reciprocity of postural tone and body schema

At first glance, postural tone and body schema may seem like quite separate phenomena. However, they are deeply intertwined.

The set of illustrations below exemplifies this by showing how the quality of postural tone in the trapezius muscles could influence the body schema, and vice versa. Full explanations follow.

i) rigid postural tone causing inaccurate body schema.

A chronic contraction of the trapezius muscles causes long-term retraction of the shoulder blades across the back. With a lack of fresh sensory input from positions beyond this retracted state, the extent of the body schema atrophies. Over time, the body schema fails to map the available range of movement at the joints (particularly sternoclavicular and acromioclavicular joints) as well as the available volumetric space across the back and around the arms.

ii) inaccurate body schema causing rigid postural tone.

An inaccuracy in the body schema develops whereby the location of the shoulder girdle joints (sternoclavicular and acromioclavicular) are poorly mapped, along with the potential range of movement at these joints. Lacking detail for how and where to respond freely to internal and external forces, postural tone becomes unnecessarily rigid in the trapezius and other surrounding muscles. The internalization by the brain of cultural notions of good posture (for example, ‘shoulders back’) can be one cause of the initial mismapping by the body schema.

iii) adaptable postural tone causing accurate body schema.

When postural tone is adaptable, sensory input constantly updates the body schema from a wide range of positions. In this case, when the trapezius muscles are able to fully release as well as contract, the body schema is able to accurately map an appropriate range of motion at the sternoclavicular and acromioclavicular joints. With adaptable postural tone, the potential for greater volumetric space for the back and arms is recognized by the body schema.

iv) accurate body schema causing adaptable postural tone.

When the body schema is accurate, it maps in detail the location of joints, the dimensions of body parts and an appropriate range of movement for them. Being able to refer to this detailed map means that postural tone can adapt precisely and efficiently to the forces acting on the body. In this example, if the body schema accurately maps the location of and range of movement at the joints of the shoulder girdle, as well as the potential volumetric space for the back and arms, then postural tone can adapt in precise ways by exploiting those freedoms.

Improving postural tone and body schema

According to a recent scientific model, the Alexander Technique fine-tunes both postural tone and the body schema through intentional and attentional processes. Here’s a simplified version of the model:

The exact mechanisms are not known, but verbal and hands-on guidance are likely to have a beneficial effect on postural tone and the body schema. For example, on the one hand, Alexander Technique teachers will often help their students become aware of the location of joints and the range of movement available. This is likely to impact the body schema. On the other hand, Alexander Technique teachers seek to enable their students to ‘do less’ which is likely to reduce patterns of tension and create more adaptable postural tone.

Finally, one of the key skills of the Alexander Technique is Direction. Directions are self-instructions for restoring movement and coordination and are explored at length here. For now, it is interesting to note that different Alexandrian Directions tend to emphasize either postural tone or body schema. Below are some examples.

Emphasizing adaptive postural tone, we might have:

• My neck is free
• My shoulders are free
• I am not compressing myself
• I am not hunching my shoulders
  

And emphasizing an expansive or more accurate body schema, we might have:

• Let the head float on top of the neck
• My back is widening
• The pelvis belongs to the spine
• My spine is one
• Think of the distance between the sternum and the edge of the shoulders
  

Further examples of Alexandrian Direction can be found in this article.

Conclusion

The condition of our postural tone and body schema can have profound consequences for our overall health, and yet so little useful information on this topic is available in the public domain.

That said, there is a growing body of evidence that the Alexander Technique nurtures these aspects of ourselves. The message for anyone who hasn’t tried the Alexander Technique is therefore: it can be life-changing.

Further information on taking lessons in the Bristol area is here.

Further reading

de Vignemont, F., Pitron, V., & Alsmith A., ‘What is the body schema?’ in Y. Ataria, S. Tanaka & S. Gallagher (2021), Body Schema and Body Image: New Directions (pp.3-17). Oxford University Press.

Cacciatore,. T., Cohen, R., McCann, A., ‘Mind the Gap: the Missing Science of Posture’ (https://www.postureunderground.org/posts/mind-the-gap-missing-science – accessed Jan 30 2024).

Cacciatore, T., Johnson, P., Cohen, R. (2020) Potential Mechanisms of the Alexander Technique: Toward a Comprehensive Neurophysiological Model. Kinesiology Review 9, 199-213.

When actor Jonathan Pryce was asked which book changed his life, he replied:

The one the teacher put under my head during the Alexander technique sessions at RADA. I grew an inch and a half.

‘Q&A: Jonathan Pryce’, The Guardian, 7 March 2015

And now RADA – The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art – is proposing cutting their Alexander Technique (AT) programme by 70%, and is in redundancy consultation with its director of 40 years. What’s worse, there appears to be a degree of skulduggery in the consultation process with students.

Please sign the petition against RADA’s ill-conceived move.

AT is fundamental to the training at RADA, and is part of its world-class status. It is an incredibly powerful and meaningful practice for actors, and should not be discarded. For example, award-winning actor Lily Gladstone has recently spoken about its huge impact on her.

The creator of the petition has explained the significance of AT at RADA as follows:

One to one and group Alexander Technique classes are, for many, the backbone of the training at RADA, an area of work that simply cannot be done quickly; it takes time and patience, but it feeds into voice, movement and acting work. The patience, gentleness and presence that Alexander Technique’s approach offers isn’t captured in other areas of teaching, yet it is fundamental to a longevous artistic practice. It’s also unique to RADA, having been phased out certainly of other British drama schools (yet remaining at both Yale and Julliard), and is something that, without being exposed to as students, is an area of practice that many students will be completely aware of, and/or unable to access.

Caitlin McEwan

And here’s another insightful petition comment:

Refined over generations of experience in the world of the performing arts, the Alexander Technique is unique in its ability to support actors throughout their development and careers by training them l to look after their health and to optimise their skills by accessing their full physical, vocal and emotional range. It would be a great disservice to up-and-coming actors to deprive them of this powerful and transformative practice that is so fundamental to an actor’s craft and ongoing wellbeing. It is especially distressing that Katya Benjamin, a teacher with so much expertise and experience, is threatened with redundancy.

Loretta Manson