Healthy Living Made Easy

Running, climbing, starting a new workout, losing weight—there are countless ways to improve athletic ability. Once you choose to make a change, it’s incredible how quickly the body begins to adapt to new demands. Whether you’re starting something new, returning to an activity, or deconditioning, there’s always an adjustment phase where you adapt to the new way of working.

The Alexander Technique offers skills designed to help you recognize what you’re doing with your body and provide tools to create change. The work is simple, effective, and doesn’t require complicated methods. Life is constant and ongoing—there’s always something requiring your attention, whether it's gravity, hand-eye coordination, or eye-foot coordination. Developing the skill to recognize and regulate your overall use and functioning helps you become more able to recognize how you’re moving and engaging with the world. From starting a workout to managing deconditioning and everything in between, having a strong sense of self-awareness and the ability to initiate change naturally is a powerful addition to any fitness routine.

When you begin a new workout program or athletic practice, the feeling of effort often feels different from your usual routine. This quickly becomes your perceived understanding of how the body should be working—“no pain, no gain,” right? However, nothing could be further from the truth. Trying to replicate the “felt” experience of previous workouts can actually undermine your body’s ability to adapt. You may unintentionally impose an idea of how the work "should feel," and the body responds by shifting its movement pattern based on the information you’re providing, even if it’s not accurate or unconscious. This can lead to overworking, initiating unnecessary stress, and possibly hindering progress.

The key here is that once you begin, the body has already started adapting. What’s needed is not more effort, but maintenance—both through active work and through integration with your resting state. This is different from simply cooling down after a workout. It involves increasing the overall conditioning of your body’s use and functioning throughout your day, which helps it adapt more efficiently and with less strain.

For avid athletes with a regular workout regimen, the Alexander Technique can add nuance to your approach. One of the skills the technique helps develop is the ability to be both “within” (aware of your internal state) and “without” (attuned to external factors) simultaneously. This balance of introspective and extrospective awareness—or what might be called “multisensory perception” Multiceptive—enables you to recognize key touchpoints within your body’s overall use and functioning. These points can help you identify when your movements have shifted in a way that might lead to compensatory patterns or stress.

Once you acquire this skill, you’ll be able to make real-time adjustments during your workouts, recognizing when changes are needed. This helps you decide if you need to back off from your workout, and/or if a more detailed process of change and adjustment is required. This level of self regulation and self assessment is an exceptional bonus for competitive athletes. 

Deconditioning is often overlooked in workout programs, but it plays an important role. Deconditioning refers to bringing the body to a more sedentary state, and it's a process that can be especially relevant for athletes or individuals who have been in an intense training phase. For example, actors who have played physically demanding roles may want to transition to a more relaxed, sedentary lifestyle after their performance. In these cases, it’s important to recognize how the body is changing and adjust accordingly.

The ability to effectively inhibit certain patterns of movement, while recognizing the body’s shifting needs, is crucial during deconditioning. It’s not just about reducing physical activity, but about learning how to manage and adjust to the body’s evolving state.

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• Weekly Group Class: September 16th through May 11th, Tuesdays 2:00pmEST, $300.
• Mind in Motion: Live-stream only, Wednesday 8:00am-9:00am, Friday at 8:30am-9:30am.4 sessions for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.
• Workshops available too