Elliptical Machine (Trainer) – Inhibition in the Alexander Technique (Pain)(Strain)(Injuries)(Posture)(Psychology)(Albuquerque)

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Using the Elliptical Trainer, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create an effortless elliptical technique.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

INHIBITION is one of the most powerful tools in the Alexander Technique. It gives the elliptical trainer user a tool to change any aspect of her elliptical technique and posture that doesn’t work with what works. Inhibition helps the elliptical user identify what is interfering with the elliptical user using the most user friendly trainer technique and posture possible, and then to be able to change what isn’t working.

INHIBITION ALLOWS THE ELLIPTICAL TRAINER USER TO LET GO OF WHAT ISN’T WORKING, AND TO REPLACE IT WITH WHAT DOES WORK IN HIS OR HER ELLIPTICAL TECHNIQUE.

Inhibition is what you do after you’ve identified what is not working in your trainer technique. Let me explain. By the time a elliptical user has discovered, after years of using a trainer, that there are aspects of the person’s trainer technique and posture that are interfering with the her ability to use the elliptical machine without wear and tear and with a lengthening spine, these destructive habits are as central to the person’s trainer habits as the productive ones are.

So, how do you throw out the bath water, without throwing out the baby? You identify and list what is compromising your using an elliptical trainer, and you also make a second list of what it is that works as you exercise on the trainer, and you only keep the good list.

There are the typical big postural problems – a slumped or over-arched back, obvious tension throughout the body, from hands to legs. Then there are the much more subtle problems, which may be a matter of degree. What I mean, is there may be postural and technique things that you do that are not obvious to anyone but an Alexander Technique teacher.

Ex: If right before the person uses the trainer, she locks her neck, then this can be pretty invisible to most people. If the person locks and narrows her shoulders as she uses the elliptical machine, this can be pretty invisible. If she shortens her spine as she trains, this can put pressure on the nerves that originate at the spinal cord, and this can be hard to see.

So, what is the act of inhibition or inhibiting? If right before you do what you have always done just before you use the trainer, you stop and choose to do something new, then you have just inhibited what isn’t serving you.
Ex: Just as the person is about to use the elliptical machine, she notices she locks her neck. She stops – doesn’t start yet. She now chooses not to lock her neck, and right after that new choice, she then begins using the trainer with a released neck.

What I have just described is inhibition or inhibiting a habit. It very subtle and very powerful, because for the first time, the elliptical user has chosen not to lock her neck and start and continue to exercise with an unconscious bad habit.

She has chosen to use the trainer without unconscious tension and compression of the neck/spine. Bringing this into the elliptical user’s awareness is moving using an elliptical machine away from being something you fix, to being something where you are truly experiencing all of your subtle habits, good and bad, you have used the machine with. Now you have the tool, INHIBITION, that will allow you to perceive and choose which habits you want to keep or release.

THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE DOES TWO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS. IT TRULY RAISES YOUR AWARENESS OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN YOU USE AN ELLIPTICAL TRAINER TO A LEVEL THAT SHOWS YOU HOW YOU COMPROMISE YOUR TRAINING TECHNIQUE, AND IT GIVES YOU THE TOOLS TO STOP DOING THIS.

Ready to Learn More?

An Alexander Technique Approach to Using the Elliptical Trainer

Read Ethan's eBook

Ethan Kind

AUTHOR, TRAINER "When you change old habitual movement patterns with the Alexander Technique, whether in playing a musical instrument, running, weightlifting, walking, or typing at a computer, you create an ease of body use that moves you consistently into the zone." - Ethan Kind Ethan Kind writes and is published extensively on all of the above activities. He teaches musicians, athletes, and computer operators how to stop hurting themselves, by showing them how to use their bodies with ease and coordination. He brings a unique perspective to his work, having been a musician and athlete all of his life. After training for three years at the American Center for the Alexander Technique (New York, NY), Ethan received Professional Certification credentials.