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Improve Performance & Eliminate Pain

Improved performance and eliminating pain are two sides of the same coin. That’s why most of these articles deal with both.

swan taking off
Swan taking off

When, like the swan, you can release all your power to do the job in hand. Plus, you’re unlikely to suffer many aches or pains.

So get reading.

If you don’t know where to start, email me. Tell me what’s happening for you at the moment and I’ll point you in the right direction.

Eliminating pain, improving performance articles

How your hips are like a bracelet
How to flatten your belly by letting it spread
How opening your back out like a fan lets you breathe
Now do you see why you should never pull your shoulders back?
Why opening out like a fan gives you broad shoulders
Should your bottom wiggle when you walk?
Why not finding your sitting bones makes you slump
Choosing an office chair for working at your computer
Running the Exercise Gauntlet 1: The Scapular Wall Slide
Why you should avoid memory foam mattresses
How Alexander Technique Inhibition Works
How letting your arms be heavy makes them light
How to cook without crumpling
Head forwards, the antidote to mind wandering
Want to be tall? Then stop lifting your head
Why your belly will never be right until it breathes
Break the log-jam that stunts your Alexander Technique progress
Strengthen your pelvic floor without exercises
Get a flat tummy by letting it all hang out
How to beat the taboo and stand tall
Why you can’t stand straight until you come up out of your legs
How to breathe with your back instead of your belly
How to avoid RSI from your mouse and keyboard
How to survive a long car drive
Are you afraid to enjoy sitting in your easy chair?
How to fix your car seat so you don't get a painful stiff back
Three basic things you need to know about posture
How the Alexander Technique Makes Sense of Idiopathic Scoliosis
Why do people breathe too fast?
Leaning backwards as an example of debauched kinaesthesia
How to Un-freeze a Frozen Shoulder
How to turn Migraines into Tension Headaches (and then get rid of them)
How to ease the pain in your shoulder (and the pain in your neck too)
Why you should never try to keep your back straight
Why pulling your shoulders back doesn’t work
Getting rid of a hunchback, part 6: why you should always breathe with your back
Getting rid of a hunchback, part 5: stop holding your chest up: rest your chest on your belly
Getting rid of a hunchback, part 4: stop leaning backwards from your waist or hips
Getting rid of a hunchback, part 3: swing your legs from your hip joints
Getting rid of a hunchback, part 2: the other five steps
How to straighten a hunchback, part 1: introduction
The keys to running well and enjoying it
Do gait-correcting MBT shoes work?
Why Gait Analysis Requires the Alexander Technique
RSI: why pins and needles in your arm or hand are a good symptom
Why your good posture is bed-ridden — and how to help it get it’s strength back
Why lie down if you don’t feel tired?
Bad Back Chairs: Why ergonomic chairs only give you a bad back
The importance of frequent lessons (and how to stretch your time and money so you can get them)
How to walk on ice without slipping
Demented Mechanic: hands off my back while I breathe out
Introduction to “The Hows & Whys of Semi-Supine”
How to recover quickly from putting your back out
How to look good wearing high heels
The easy way to turn your head
Good neck posture made easy: move your head instead of your neck
Heal your bad back and slipped disc
When do core stability exercises help? Why they so often weaken your core
Why leg rotation increases Core Strength (and makes you walk with more presence)
How to avoid tearing a knee ligament
Discover the one way to breathe deeply without effort
Don’t let your Demented Mechanic mess your breathing up
How to stop your Demented Mechanic giving you that bad back
Stand, sit & walk tall and pain-free
Making it possible to lie down at work
Why we can’t manage without habits
Say good-bye to knee pain: discover the right way to bend your knees
How to use your passion to fix your bad back
“Back in Action“ meets Eugene Onegin
How to make sure the Alexander Technique works for you
How can I explain lying down to people at work?
[Give this note to your fellow workers.]
How to use semi-supine to progress further, faster
How to “Bend ze Knees” like a good skier
Why core strength fitness trainers don’t provide the goods
(and what they can do to correct that)
How to stop your breathing giving you a painful bad back (and you didn’t even realise it was your breathing)
Arm pain and RSI: The Tube Principle to the rescue
How to use your feet better to get rid of knee pain
Why using Tube Principle directions is better for your posture
How to free your neck and lose your slump
Why sit-ups & crunches give you stiff shoulders
Why not understanding your shoulders causes back, neck and shoulder painheadphone image
Let your pain teach you how to be pain-freeheadphone image
Getting rid of lower back pain: How to loosen your back up
How to walk downstairs without knee painheadphone image
The key to getting rid of knee pain is knowing what’s causing itheadphone image
Lazy Tension: How to move with effortless efficiencyheadphone image
Why does cramp wake you up at 3:27am? (and how to make sure it never happens again)headphone image
Computer pain: How to be “in the zone” when working at your deskheadphone image
Computer pain and Semi-Supine: Transforming poor performers into productive workers
[Show this article to your office manager]		headphone image
How to sit at a computer for eight hours without painheadphone image
Walk faster with less effort
Let a sailing ship explain your body habitsheadphone image
What do I do with my knees in semi-supine?headphone image
Why varifocal glasses make you stiffheadphone image
Use your feet to detect body-stiffnessheadphone image
Poised for action not balanced for pain: How a free neck makes you more alertheadphone image
Balance or poise: Would you rather be stiff as a statue or poised like a trapeze artist?headphone image
The RSI pain trap: Why avoiding injury prevents healingheadphone image
How many books under your head in Semi-Supine?headphone image
Why you should never correct your semi-supine positionheadphone image
How Semi-Supine helps you sleep betterheadphone image
Stretch with Semi-Supine: Why lying down beats limbering upheadphone image
Building strength & stamina with Semi-Supineheadphone image
Some more pain and performance articles on BackMagician.com

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    “The Hows & Whys of Semi-Supine”

    This 23-page booklet is indispensable to anyone serious about getting a stronger pain-free back — and it’s free

Book image. “The Hows & Whys of Semi-Supine” by Philip Pawley. Including: The little-understood real reason why Semi-Supine is so important - Detailed instructions on how and when to lie down - Persuade your boss to beg you to take rests at work.
Medical Proof

Medical Study proves lasting effectiveness of the Alexander Technique for low back pain.

British Medical Journal video on the Alexander Technique

Published in the prestigious British Medical Journal on 19 August 2008, this randomised controlled medical trial compares Alexander Technique lessons, exercise and massage for chronic and recurrent back pain.

Clients’ Stories
Jean kept falling over after a hip replacement
Lady with a Hip Replacement

“My teacher is Philip Pawley and I can thoroughly recommend him: he’s patient, kind and knows what he’s doing. He’s given me a new life.”

Rob is a yoga teacher
Yoga Teacher

“My interest in the Technique came from my interest in yoga. At the time when I heard about it, I thought that this would be a useful thing for me to learn — just a development of what I understood yoga to be.”

Margery was disabled by osteoporosis
Lady with Osteoporosis

“Since starting with the Alexander Technique, it has boosted my confidence tremendously. It does so much more besides just helping you with the osteoporosis.”

Caroline is an opera singer
Opera Singer

“I have got enormous benefit out of a series of thirty-minute sessions with Philip Pawley. My whole stance has improved and I’m singing better.”

Watch the full video

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