Erik Seadale

If you ever saw the musicals “Wicked” in San Francisco or “Cats” on the road, you’ve probably heard Joe Rodriguez blasting on his trumpet. I met him recently at the musicians’ union hall in downtown San Francisco.

But hitting those notes night after night in a cramped orchestra pit takes a toll on the musicians.

EnlargeJosephine GrayJosephine Gray, an Alexander Technique instructor, with a patient in San Francisco.

“The fact of having your arms up and carrying the weight of this instrument and pushing the instrument toward you and so you have this stress, this wall you’re pushing against,” says Rodriguez. “And a well designed instrument will push back.”

He’s been a working trumpet player for four decades, and all that back-arching and shoulder-pinching has left him with chronic pain in his lower back. Research suggests an alternative therapy called Alexander Technique may be an effective way to treat back pain.

Rodriguez first tried massage, chiropractic, and powerful pain killers. But finding a remedy for back pain can be a lot like a guessing game.

He says it was only through Alexander Technique lessons that he trained his body to move in a way that eased his aching back. Alexander Technique is a series of posture lessons, devised by a 19^th century Australian actor named F.M. Alexander who had troubles with chronic laryngitis whenever he performed.

“It’s a feeling of working with yourself from the inside out,” says Rodriguez. “If you know you’re twisting a certain way and using too much force, it’s easy enough to know, Let that go.”

In particular, Joe now holds himself differently during his solos because of Alexander Technique.

“I know that I can just sort of be on my sits bones, instead of a funny arch with my stomach pushed out or my back arched in some strange way,” says Rodriguez

Josephine Gray is Rodriguez’s teacher and is a certified instructor in Alexander Technique. When I visited her, I was on my hands and knees next to her trying to re-learn how to stand up.

“Let the neck be free, the head go forward and up,” Gray tells me.

Once I make it to my feet, feeling somewhat like a newborn giraffe, there’s a beautiful view of the San Francisco Bay out of the studio window.

Gray teaches the technique and says low back pain is a common complaint of clients.

“We look at what you are doing that causes that problem in the first place, so how you sit at the computer or how you pick up your child or what you do when you’re driving,” says Gray. “I look at ways of changing your postural habits so you don’t get into pain.”

These aren’t static postures, though. Those who promote the technique say its more about how you move, and training yourself to release tension.

These are subtle – tiny, almost imperceptible shifts. And although the teacher will put her hand on your neck or shoulder, it’s more to bring awareness than to make adjustments.

“The whole point is that you understand the process so that you can arrive there yourself,” says Gray.

Gray and Rodriguez, the trumpet player, both say the lessons are no cure all. But there is evidence it can ease chronic low back pain over the long run.

Paul Little is a primary care researcher at the University of Southampton in Britain. He led a studyof some 460 patients who were given Alexander lessons, massage, or the usual care of pain killers and exercise.

After a year, those who had massage were no better off. Those who had six Alexander lessons showed some improvement. And those who went the distance got the best results.

“The people who had 24 lessons had gone down from about 21 days of pain that the usual care group reported to about 3 days in pain,” says Little. “So a really dramatic difference there is reported days in pain.”

Little’s research was published in the British Medical Journal in 2008. But now he wants to figure out why it appears to work.

He’s about to start a new study that involves giving chronic back pain sufferers lessons in the Alexander Technique and exercises, and then measuring how far their spines can twist and the size and strength of their deep lumbar muscles – which Little thinks might work poorly in people with chronic low back pain.

He cautions though that it may be something else entirely that accounts for the apparent success of the Alexander Technique. If that’s the case, Little says he’ll have to go back to the drawing board.

Sun Sentinel

January 20, 2012|By Nicole Brochu, Staff writer

In a sedentary era, when back pain has emerged as the second most common reason for doctor’s visits, an age-old treatment is gaining new notice for its simplicity — and scientifically proven effectiveness.

Called the Alexander technique, the method’s message is surprisingly rudimentary for what some describe as a groundbreaking discovery: Holding and moving your skeletal frame in alignment can save your body unnecessary effort and muscle tension, relieving as much as 86 percent of chronic back pain, according to a British Medical Journal study.

And if the response to a recent syndicated column is any indication, South Floridians are eager to give it a try. When Dr. Paul Donohue briefly mentioned the technique in his “Good Health” column in the Jan. 2 Sun Sentinel as an effective way to improve back pain, one of the only South Florida spas to offer lessons on the method was “flooded with phone calls,” its instructor said.

“There’s a lot of back pain down here,” and people are anxious to get rid of it, said Matt Pressman, a board-certified Alexander technique instructor who this month began offering group classes in addition to his one-on-one sessions at the DU20 Holistic Oasis in Delray Beach.

Unlike yoga and Pilates, which focus on stretching and flexing the muscles, the Alexander technique focuses strictly on the skeletal frame. The theory is that sitting, standing and moving the wrong way throws the body out of alignment, making the muscles do unnecessary extra work. Sitting with the back in a C-curve, for example, requires the head to jut forward, putting as much as nearly 20 pounds of extra weight on the neck and spine, Pressman said.

After just one lesson with Pressman, Nicole Day, a Delray Beach yoga instructor and massage therapist, is a convert.

“I know this sounds really weird, but he worked on me for an hour and I walked out of here with no pain,” said Day, 33, who has suffered from chronic lower and middle back pain for years. “I didn’t know I was holding my back muscles tight because of the way I was standing.

“I have to say it’s very humbling, because as a yoga instructor, I thought I knew about alignment.”

Created for the stage

Though the European-based holistic technique is not widely known in medical circles or to the general public, it has long been known in the art world — for a whole different reason. Dating back to the 1890s, it was named after F. Matthias Alexander, an Australian actor who developed its principles to help him overcome breathing problems and poor stage presence.

The method soon became wildly popular among actors for bringing poise and ease of movement to a performance, with high-profile celebrities like Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Paul McCartney, Hilary Swank and Robin Williams among the many who have sung its praises.

But with the 2008 publication of the British Medical Journal’s extensive study, the Alexander technique gained new credibility for its medical benefits. Researchers found that 24 lessons over a year’s time had significant, long-term effects on flexibility and coordination, and reduced the number of days patients felt back pain by as much as 86 percent.

A 2011 study published in Human Movement Science had similar results, finding that the technique was effective in improving muscle responsiveness and reducing stiffness in patients with lower back pain. That same year, in October, Johns Hopkins Medicine issued a health alert recommending the technique as an alternative therapy for chronic back pain.

Slowly, as more everyday Americans begin hearing about the technique, especially in large metropolitan areas like New York City where certified instructors are clustered, “it’s creating a hotbed of interest” in a nation plagued by back pain, Pressman said.

Back pain, in fact, ranks as one of the America’s most common ailments, afflicting eight out of 10 people, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“A lot of back pain is due to the fact that we’re a sedentary culture,” Pressman said. “People sit an average of 14 hours a day … and the cumulative effect is compressing the vertebrae and putting extra weight” on the neck and spine.

Certified instructors

It takes at least three years and 1,600 hours of training to be certified in the technique, and Pressman is among only a handful of certified instructors in South Florida, according to the American Society for the Alexander Technique website. The site lists others, including Susan Pfeffer and Roberto Mainetti in Miami, Paul Farin in Dania Beach, and Don Taber in Loxahatchee.

Dr. Michelle Schwartz, an internal medicine doctor in Boca Raton, has been referring some patients to Pressman for lessons.

“After being introduced to [Pressman] and learning about the Alexander technique, I think it can play a beneficial role in pain prevention,” Schwartz said. “For patients that exhibit postural issues and rigid movement, learning better body mechanics can help reduce chronic back pain.”

Group lessons at DU20 cost $35 for a drop-in and $100 for four classes. Individual instruction ranges from $55 for a half-hour to $125 for 80 minutes, with discounts offered for multiple bookings. The technique is not covered by U.S. health insurance companies.

Adherents say the cost is worth it, though, because it helps prevent pain, injuries and stress that may require more costly treatment later on.

“I don’t have any pain. I came here to avoid that,” said Marc Thompson, a Delray Beach personal trainer who is taking both individual and group classes. He quickly learned that, despite his own training, even fitness experts like him aren’t aligned properly.

“What’s surprising is once you learn the technique, it becomes effortless,” said Natalie Kusturic, co-owner of DU20. “That’s the whole point, to train your body to know what it feels like when it’s properly aligned.”

nbrochu@tribune.com; 561-243-6603

7 Feb 12 @ 05:41pm by ALEX WARD

PENELOPE Carr helps fix bad habits.

From her Rozelle clinic she assists sports people, musicians, office workers and nurses reprogram their body using the Alexander Technique.

“It’s a re-education process that teaches you how to unlearn habits,” she said.

The technique increases the awareness of the body through dialogue and gentle manual guidance.

Ms Carr discovered the technique after 15 years working in ceramics.

“I was doing heavy labour lifting raw materials and my body was a mess,” Ms Carr said.

“The technique completely changed my life and now I see people and help them transform their lives.”

Anxiety is the biggest problem faced by Ms Carr’s patients.

“People are coming to me in their thirties with anxiety problems,” she said.

“It’s a huge problem now because everything is going too fast.”

SESSIONS
* Individual, small group and Qi gong/yoga sessions available
* At 46 Alfred St, Rozelle
* Information: Call 9810 4347 or visit alexandertechniqueconsultant.com

THE TECHNIQUE
* Was developed by Tasmanian actor F.M. Alexander, who lost his voice, but through observation was able to change his thinking and free his voice and his whole body
* Good for those who sit at computers for a long time, have pain, repetitive strain injury
* Helps: Reduce tension and postural stress; gain a deeper understanding of the body, mind and self; achieve more with less effort; enhance performance in all daily activities

© 2012 News Community Media

Jasmine Gardner

07 March 2012

A RETIRED west of Ireland consultant has advocated far greater awareness of the Alexander Technique in medical training and practice.

Ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon Kieran Tobin said he found the relief gained from the technique to be “quite incredible”, after he was treated for chronic neck problems. The technique purports to improve body posture and movement and relieve chronic stiffness, tension and stress.

Mr Tobin said he believes medical students should have far greater awareness of the technique’s many benefits.

A past president of the Irish Otolaryngological, Head and Neck Society and a past president of the Royal Society of Medicine’s ENT section, Mr Tobin was speaking at the publication in Galway last Friday of a new book on the subject by practitioner Richard Brennan.

Mr Tobin took early retirement from medicine. He hoped the change of direction would give him the opportunity to recover from serious neck problems which he had developed during his working years.

“This was not the case, and limitation of cervical [and thoracic] movement became quite an intrusion on my life,” he writes in the introduction to Brennan’s new book, Change Your Posture Change Your Life .

“Physiotherapy and medication gave only short-term improvement,” he says. “On being introduced to the Alexander Technique, I was somewhat sceptical that anything was going to work, but can only describe the relief gained, and maintained, as quite incredible.

“[My] general posture has improved, and neck mobility has returned to that last experienced more than 20 years ago. What more could one ask for?” he notes.

The technique was developed at the turn of the 20th century by Tasmanian-born actor Frederick Matthias Alexander.

Brennan relates in his book how George Bernard Shaw was 80, suffering with acute pain due to angina and over-curvature of the lumbar spine, and needed help to get up three steps when he arrived at Alexander’s practice.

After a course of lessons, he lived another 14 years in “excellent health” until the age of 94 when he fell off a ladder while pruning trees.

Brennan points out the problems start in school, when children are forced to hunch over flat desks and to carry heavy bags. Ironically, the old style raised wooden desks used in Irish schools were less likely to cause such problems.

He believes vast savings could be made in the health system if such contributory factors were acknowledged by the Irish educational system.

© 2012 irishtimes.com