More of the back pain lectures
May. 1st, 2013 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nancylebovA little late for you to catch yesterday's lectures (they're up till noon EST), but Back Hope has David Berceli, who's got a series of exercises for the psoas muscle (which connects the lower back to the upper thigh-- it passes in front of the pelvis bones, but doesn't connect to them) which induce trembling and release tension.
He was very clear that old, consciously forgotten injuries have side effects which are worth healing, and working on the psoas can bring memories of the injury (not the specific sensations) back.
The exercises seem to help a lot of people, but I was hurting myself a while ago trying them. It's plausible that I was trying to force things. If you're willing to follow directions carefully, I still think they're worth a try.
Richard Brennan is an Alexander Technique teacher, but what he talked about is so simplified that I'd hardly recognize it as Alexander Technique. On the other hand, he seems to have a valuable approach, regardless of what you call it, and he may have left a lot out so that there were useful things to do without having a teacher present.
He talked about the way you sit and stand become habitual, so ergonomics are extremely important. He's running a campaign to make the seats for children's school chairs level rather than (as is commonly the case and may be made worse) with a tilt so that the front edge is higher than the back.
He also explained constructive relaxation (possibly under a different name)-- lying on your back with your knees up and letting your lower back ease down towards the floor, ideally for 20 minutes a day, but even 5 minutes is enough to help. If you need to put something under your head to make your neck comfortable, paperback books are a good choice. A firm surface is best, but if you need to do this in bed, that's also valuable.
What's interesting about this is that it's something people are willing to do reliably. One of the earlier lecturers talked about the high value of 5 minutes once or twice a day of prescribed back exercises and stretches, but that many people neglect the exercises under their backs go out again. This was written off to human nature, which is certainly better than resenting people for not doing the exercises, but better yet is finding exercises which have enough intrinsic rewards that people want to do them.
More about Alexander Technique later, I want to get this posted.
He was very clear that old, consciously forgotten injuries have side effects which are worth healing, and working on the psoas can bring memories of the injury (not the specific sensations) back.
The exercises seem to help a lot of people, but I was hurting myself a while ago trying them. It's plausible that I was trying to force things. If you're willing to follow directions carefully, I still think they're worth a try.
Richard Brennan is an Alexander Technique teacher, but what he talked about is so simplified that I'd hardly recognize it as Alexander Technique. On the other hand, he seems to have a valuable approach, regardless of what you call it, and he may have left a lot out so that there were useful things to do without having a teacher present.
He talked about the way you sit and stand become habitual, so ergonomics are extremely important. He's running a campaign to make the seats for children's school chairs level rather than (as is commonly the case and may be made worse) with a tilt so that the front edge is higher than the back.
He also explained constructive relaxation (possibly under a different name)-- lying on your back with your knees up and letting your lower back ease down towards the floor, ideally for 20 minutes a day, but even 5 minutes is enough to help. If you need to put something under your head to make your neck comfortable, paperback books are a good choice. A firm surface is best, but if you need to do this in bed, that's also valuable.
What's interesting about this is that it's something people are willing to do reliably. One of the earlier lecturers talked about the high value of 5 minutes once or twice a day of prescribed back exercises and stretches, but that many people neglect the exercises under their backs go out again. This was written off to human nature, which is certainly better than resenting people for not doing the exercises, but better yet is finding exercises which have enough intrinsic rewards that people want to do them.
More about Alexander Technique later, I want to get this posted.
