Knee Injuries and the Alexander Technique:
quick relief or lasting solution?
The Alexander Technique is about much more than the physical details of knee injuries.
The kind of injury — damaged ligaments, torn cartilages, an arthritic joint, or short muscles — makes no difference to what an Alexander teacher needs to do, because …
… All these knee injuries have something in common: a habit, a habitual pattern of movement that puts strain on your knee.
The strain is always there — not only if you move your knee in a certain way. The habit pattern is there whatever you do. Very few people don’t have these habitual patterns of faulty, stressful movement.
Why do many knee injuries never really heal? — even trivial ones? This habit pattern. The body’s mending, healing processes can’t keep up with the constantly repeated damage.
We Alexander teachers concentrate on the harmful habit. That’s what helps knees get better — and prevents re-injury. Although treatments, stretches and remedial exercises can be very beneficial, they can’t prevent re-injury. Only un-learning those habitual movement patterns can do that — and only the Alexander Technique can teach you how.
The Proverbial Straw
Accidents that result in knee injuries are almost always “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. The accident only pushes the day-to-day stressing of the knee that little bit further than the knee can take.
With a less stressful way of moving, your knee might never have been injured.
Having dealt with the injury, how do you help it heal? How do you prevent re-injury?
Learn to stop stressing your knee: turn your attention to how you use it. Realise why you started moving it that way in the first place. There’s more to it than you’d think — a lot more (and that’s an under-statement).
A wrong way of moving is not usually recognised as wrong. You experience it as the right and necessary way to move.
That’s why you move in that way. That’s what makes it so hard to change. The correct way is actually experienced as lacking strength, totally impossible and/or dangerous.
Find out more. You will discover that it can be changed — if you go about it in the right way.
An Illustration
It may be helpful to tell the experience of Paul Collins. Paul Collins and Elizabeth Rajna (now Elizabeth Langford) were co-principals of the School of Alexander Studies, where I did my three-year training to be an Alexander teacher (graduating in 1980). Paul and Betty were both professional violinists.
Paul was also a marathon runner. He ran for Canada in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
Paul had to give up running because of his knee injuries. He could hardly walk, let alone run. The surgeon wanted to operate, but, when he was told he would never run again, Paul refused the operation. Instead, he went for Alexander lessons. His injured knees improved.
Slowly but surely, he began to run again. In the late seventies, he ran the 50-mile London to Brighton race. In 1982, he set ten veteran world records. These included a 200-km(!) record and a 6-day(!!) record.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Time to start learning how to get rid of your knee pain. For practical ways to help yourself, read “How to walk downstairs without knee pain”.
This article is included under the following categories:‒
Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley
If you want to get the best kind of help, come to me for an introductory lesson in Liverpool.
If you’re too far away, then the next best thing is to get personal lessons and advice from me online at Repoise.com, my on-line school. (Both far-away and local pupils use Repoise).
In more detail:–
If you’re in Liverpool (or can get to Liverpool)
- There’s nothing better than individual lessons. My practice is at 37 Hope Street, Liverpool L1. Ring me on 0151 708 6172 to book an initial consultation and first lesson. (Leave your number so I can get back to you).
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If you’re short of funds, you can still have first class training from me — though it will require a little more work on your part.
The thing to do is have an individual, in-person lesson just once a month. That will entitle you to also get regular on-line lessons from me through Repoise. That way, you have the best of both worlds: in-person lessons and very regular, even daily, on-line Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley from me. That’s a real bargain because Repoise costs the equivalent of three lessons a year to everyone else.
Ring me on 0151 708 6172 if you want to arrange this.
- I occasionally run group lessons. If you’re interested in these, go here for details.
If you’re further away and can’t get to Liverpool
- There’s still nothing better than individual lessons. Here’s where you can find a teacher near you in the UK or elsewhere
- I suggest you also get direct day-to-day guidance from me by joining Repoise.
If you’re having plain Alexander Technique lessons from someone else, you still need to discover the Smiling Back Method of the Alexander Technique. You’ll get a lot more out of your lessons when you do.
37 Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 9EA, England
Telephone: +44 151 708 6172 Mobile: +44 7872 905 154
Copyright © 2007-2012 Philip Pawley
SmilingBackMethod.com
