Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Head balance
It's interesting that we find it so much easier to tighten or clench muscles in our body than to release unwanted tension. When muscles tense up they are active; they are 'doing'. However when muscles release tension, it's not a 'doing' as such, but more like an 'undoing'; it is more passive.
It's often considered before we experience Alexander Technique that we need to 'do something' in order to improve our posture. But as I explained in my post the other day 'Incorporating Posture Changes into our Lives', healthy posture will happen if we let it. The problems occur when we develop postural habits such as slouching, stooping and tensing muscles in ways we did not do as young children as these interfere with healthy poise so it's these are what we should get rid of. So what we really need is the absence of our habits and not to create more. We have an instinct for healthy posture and we have the mechanism to provide it, if we leave it well alone and don't interfere. But as we have habits that are interfering, it's those we need to get rid of.
But so often we feel that we need to do something special to get good posture, when actual fact we've already experienced 'good posture' when we were very young. And all this 'doing' translates itself into effort; we pull our shoulders back, we try and stand upright by stiffening our back, we develop what we've come to know as chore strength around our middle to compensate for a weak back (how many toddler children do you know with chore strength? They have soft tummies, but their co-ordination of back and leg muscles is healthy and functioning well, so they enjoy perfect poise.) All this 'doing' is really unnecessary; indeed it can be just as harmful as the habits we're trying to get rid of, so we go round in circles; not getting rid of the habits that cause us problems while adding a few extra tensions and habits as well.
Many people come for Alexander Technique lessons because of neck or back problems. They may have sought alternative 'treatment' first but finally come for lessons to learn how to look after themselves. But before coming for Alexander Technique lessons, treatments they've had may well have recommended doing some special exercises. This may be fine in certain circumstances but it seems to be the rule rather than the exception. I don't know why the solution to most physical or postural problems nearly always results in the recommendation of doing special exercises. This 'doing' of exercises naturally develops strength....more strength than we currently have in certain muscles; the muscular activity encouraging muscle growth. The exercises can also cause muscle tension (caused by the exercise) to linger beyond the time we're exercising, so we remain stiff. But if we look at young children aged 2-4, how many do you know with strong neck muscles? Indeed when they are infants we support their heads as they're so large and heavy in relation to their bodies. When toddlers are learning to stand, their head balances freely on top of their spine. Now as adults we have very strong neck muscles compared to children as a consequence of tensing them for so many years. It is this tension that often causes problems, and when we add 'corrective' exercises, we also add more strength enabling us to tense them even more. We still have the habits of tensing our neck in our habitual way because this hasn not been addressed and we are now adding strength to already over-strong muscles. This is how problems can get worse.
Most neck problems are caused by excessive tension existing most of the time, disturbing the delicate balance of our head and then we stiffen to support it in compensation. Rather than strengthening these neck muscles it would be far more helpful if we can restore proper balance of our head so we can tense our necks less. This requires upright poise so the head-weight (4-5 kilos) goes vertically down through our spine. Our neck is a continuation of our spine as it sweeps upwards from our sacrum in gentle curves, terminating at the Atlas joint roughly between our ears. While our neck will not be vertical or straight because of the gentle curve of our neck, it should be upright so the weight of our head is over our shoulders, not jutting forwards.
Releasing neck tension can be quite tricky as we do not have much sensation of what is actually happening: there are few nerve endings in some of the small but critical sub-occipital muscles deep under our skull. As our head weight is very heavy and balanced on our spine at a point between our ears, there is more weight in front of this point (heavy forehead and jaw) than there is behind. This means that we can use gravity to help us.
Most of the big strong muscles in our necks are at the back and these pull on the back of our heads so our head is pulled backwards. (This may be less noticeable if we are in a slouch but if we were to stand or sit upright, our face would be tilted skywards.) So we must bring ourselves into upright poise as best we can, then by using gravity, let our head roll forwards just a few degrees on the top of our spine.
Letting our head roll forwards can be tricky as we often try and 'do' something; as doing is what we're used to. But it's the tension in our necks that may well be causing problems, so it's an undoing of this tension that's required. A danger can be that we end up tucking our chin under, but this is just tension again. Avoid this. Here's a tip. Allow your nose to drop by just a few millimetres so your head rolls forwards. Indeed you can think of having a very heavy nose (!!) and let the weight of your nose gently tip your head forwards on top of your spine. The 'allowing' should help avoid any 'doing' which would cause problems. Imagine your head 'teetering' on top of your spine. Visualise a young toddler and how they balance their head and now you do the same. We can learn a lot from watching our children!
Indeed, some muscle weakening exercises may serve us better in some cases rather than strengthening, but sadly this is just a contradiction in itself. However we may achieve more by 'doing' less. :-)
