Semi-supine: the secret to building the stamina your Alexander work needs

Imagine a man hanging from a cliff by his fingernails.
Pretty quickly his hands ache, his forearms burn.

His muscles start to tremble, his fingers slip
… and he’s gone, falling.
Unless something catches him, he’s done for.

What’s that got to do with semi-supine? Let’s see.

Semi-supine is simply lying down in the Alexander way with knees up and books under your head. Why do it?

There are three main reasons for semi-supine

1. Giving yourself a sense of where everything belongs
2. Allowing yourself to stretch
3. Resting tired muscles

You see that third reason? Take note, we’ll be coming back to it

First, though, how do you do semi-supine?

Any activity has three parts

• Starting it
• Doing it
• Finishing it

Let’s start with doing it.

Simply lie down on the floor (a bed will not do) with your knees up and a few books under your head. That’s doing it but how do I get there?

Getting there

1. Get your books.
2. Sit on the floor and put the books behind you.
3. Draw your feet up as close to your bottom as you can get them, holding your legs with your hands.
4. Allow your head to drop forwards as far as it will drop. Don’t pull it or force it — just drop. Also, allow your back to curl forwards as much as it wants. Don’t try to be straight.
5. When you’ve done all that (and not before) then let go of your legs.
6. Leaving your feet on the ground and your head dropped forwards, roll back.
7. Roll back as fast as you dare … keeping your head forwards the whole time.
8. Only when your head touches the books should you stop keeping your head forwards. Keeping your head forwards stretches your back. If you let it come back and lose your stretch, your lying down will be a lot less useful.

So I got there. How do I get up?

To get up, roll over — like a cat. Look where you’re going to roll. Then let your head turn. Then your shoulders, then your hips. Your legs come last. That’s important so say after me: "my legs must move last".

Why did I make you repeat after me?

Everybody starts by moving their legs. Don’t do that.

Okay, got that, so when should I lie down in semi-supine?

The more you do it, the more you’ll want to do it

So get started now.

The more attention you give to your Alexander work, the more often you will need to lie down. Eventually, you’ll have times when you’re lying down every ten minutes.

Ten minutes??!!!

I can’t do that!

I only said there will be times, occasionally, when you’re doing it that often. You’ll be doing it because you want to. You’ll want to because you experience the benefits. You don’t need to do this a lot to get the benefit. You just need to do it sometimes.

I can’t be bothered

You will be, believe me, you will be.

As you move in your new Alexander way, you’ll be using some muscles that have been on permanent vacation for years … maybe decades.

Muscles that do no work degenerate. They lose all their strength and stamina. Ask them to work for ten minutes and they end up giving up. When they do that, you fall off the cliff face.

Right into the thorn bush of your old habits.