How to progress further, faster with Semi-Supine
The person who regularly does semi-supine can progress eighteen times as fast as the person who doesn’t. They will progress even faster than that if they do it even more often.
What is this semi-supine? Semi-supine is the Alexander Technique lying down procedure, also known as “Constructive Rest”.
When you learn the Alexander Technique, you learn that your existing bad habits of movement overuse many muscles and under-use others. You learn how to stop overusing tense, over-used muscles and you start putting the muscles you haven’t been using back to work.
Even sportsmen have under-used muscles
What happens to a muscle when you don’t use it? It becomes weak, it wastes away. Convalescent people who have been bed-ridden through illness for three months are doing very well if they manage to sit up for as long as ten minutes at first. That’s because their muscles have grown so weak from disuse.
Even very physically active people such as professional sportsmen have the same problem when they start to bring under-used muscles back into play. They may have the stamina to keep going all day when moving in their old less-efficient way. Still, when they bring muscles they normally don’t use into play, those under-used muscles tire just as easily as the convalescent’s. Their wonderful stamina counts for nothing. Their under-used muscle don’t have that same stamina.
More efficient movement uses those under-used muscles
When those sportsmen start to practise moving in the better way they will learn through Alexander Technique lessons, they will need those under-used muscles.
- They can fall back into their old patterns of movement and allow their strong muscles to take over again. This is the default option, the option people usually take. It has four undesirable effects:–
- They revert to their bad old ways of moving
- As a result, their weak muscles continue to get very little exercise and basically remain weak forever.
- Not getting in much practice moving in the new way, they don’t progress well with learning the Alexander Technique. You can’t progress well with any skill just by learning the skill: you have to practise it as well.
- The better option is to give tired muscles the rest they need — as often as they need it. Only a very short rest each time will revitalise those muscles and enable you to go back and use them again.
Maximising your potential
Every moment of your waking life could be an opportunity to practise and perfect your new better movement. But only if your unused muscles are not too tired. Semi-supine makes that possible and it does so simply by giving them the necessary rest.
Lets do the math: say for three hours you lie down for a minute every ten minutes in between normal activity. During this activity you’re tuning in from time to time and giving attention to your Alexander technique. Over those three hours, that’s eighteen mini-rests using semi-supine. That’s eighteen times you get to allow yourself to move as well as you currently know how. Now let’s say you never do the semi-supine exercise. Now you have only that one first ten minutes when you can move as well as you know how.
If two people learn the Alexander Technique and practise it regularly, the person who follows that lying down routine will get eighteen times as much practice moving well compared with the person who doesn’t do the lying down.
The person who does the semi-supine will progress eighteen times as fast as the person who doesn’t.
My articles teaching you how to do semi-supine are here.
The other articles in this category are here:‒
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
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