This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Running Effortlessly, 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 the running technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
Primary Control is the basis of organized coordinated running in the Alexander Technique. When a runner is running with the most organized posture and movements possible, then the head is leading the runner’s spine upward, as the torso expands on the inhale with a decompressed, vertically balanced, and aligned spine.
This means that all of the nerves that radiate from the spinal cord have no pressure on them. So, the nerves can send the signals from the brain for movement and/or muscular support, as you run, without being slowed down by the vertebrae and muscles pinching the nerves.
The brain and spinal cord always organize the movement that the body produces, but when the Primary Control is interfered with by muscular tension, compression, and poor posture, then that organization is poor organization. THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IS ALL ABOUT THE QUALITY OF A RUNNER’S POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE.
The Alexander Technique recognizes that a huge amount of wear and tear and physical pain to the runner is caused by how you run, not by how fast and/or how long you run.
The assumption in the Alexander Technique is that we are born with an innate ability to move with beautiful Primary Control, and that babies crawl with the head leading a lengthening spine naturally, given that the baby is healthy in a healthy environment.
If you were to observe a 1,000 runners running, you’d be hard put to see one runner running with beautiful Primary Control (given that none of them had done any Alexander Technique work). What does running without a compromised Primary Control look like?
The runner runs fully upright with free knees with a completely mobile body (not trying to stand straight). The runner’s neck is free and the runner is aware that the head is leading a lengthening spine upward, which means that the runner is able to see ahead and peripherally, as the head continues to lead a lengthening spine upward.
This means that the runner is completely engaged in running without hunkering down, trying to get to the goal by collapsing downward. This fully upward lengthening mobile posture balancing on free legs and knees on grounded feet, gives the shoulders and arms of the runner a balanced torso to be supported by, so that the runner can effortlessly spiral the arms and the torso without compression.
When the runner’s body is organized by the Primary Control, then the runner is free to place all of his or her awareness on a running technique that isn’t being compromised by a compromised Primary Control. In other words, if the runner’s body is collapsed or over-tense with poor head/neck/spine organization, then the pure specific running technique of the runner can never be what it would be, since it is not backed up by a balanced body.
WHEN THE FOUNDATION, PRIMARY CONTROL, OF COORDINATED ELEGANT HUMAN MOVEMENT IS COMPROMISED IN RUNNING, THEN YOU WILL PROBABLY NEVER RUN AS EFFORTLESSLY OR AS FAST AS YOU COULD.
