The Alexander Technique is a unique way of releasing muscular tensin throughout the body. It allows you to move with greater comfort and ease, and helps to relieve or prevent common aches and pains that can become debilitating in later life.

The Alexander Technique Manual:

An essential step-by-step guide to reducing stress and tension within the body.
Easy to follow, with full colour photographs throughout.
Ideal for newcomers as well as established students of the Technique.
Shows how to take greater control over your life and increase your sense of well-being.
Includes specific advice on applying the Technique to a wide range of sports, as well as pregnancy and childbirth.

This practical and informative guide clearly sets out the principles of this world-famous technique and shows you how to use them in your daily life. With the hep of colour photographs, it reveals exactly how we place our bodies under excessive strain and how the Alexander Technique can help us to ease this tension and achieve a more relaxed muscular system. There are also plenty of exercises for you to practise at home, with handy hints on mistakes to avoid when you first start to practise the Technique.

Richard Brennan STAT MATI is a fully quialified teacher of the Alexander Technique and runs a busy practice in Galway, Ireland. He also holds courses and gives talks throughout Europe, and has been a pioneer in bringing the Technique to a wider audience worldwide.

Contents

Introduction
Chapter One What is the Alexander Technique?
Chapter Two How the Alexander Technique is relevant to you
Chapter Three Pausing before action
Chapter Four Thinking in activity
Chapter Five First steps to reducing stress and tension
Chapter Six The Alexander Technique and sport
Chapter Seven Pregnancy and childbirth
Chapter Eight What to expect from an Alexander lesson
Afterword
Resources
Index
Acknowledgments

Today people often accept common ailments such as backache,headache, arthritis, depression and nervous tension as being 'normal'. We may readily believe the discomfort we suffer is a natural consequence of 'wear and tear', and not realize that we can do something positive about it.

In fact, many common ailments stem from stress and a range of muscular tensions caused by bad posture or poor body co-ordination-which can increase as we grow older. Rather than being a natural part of the ageing process, these tensions, if unchecked, can accelerate it and can develop into illness and even cause deformity.

Developed at the turn of the century by F.M. Alexander, the Alexander Technique is a simple method of learning to be more aware of how we move as we go about our everyday activities. The aim is to regain the natural grace and balance of a child, and to discover easier and more efficient ways of movement thus reducing the everyday tensions which have built up during the years.

In this step-by-step guide, Richard Brennan outlines the Alexander Technique and, by means of a series of simple exercises and procedures, shows how the technique can help us achieve a healthier and more balanced life.

Richare Brennan is a qualified teacher of the Alexander Technique. He lives and works in Devon where he runs course and workshps, as well as giving individual lessons

Contents

Introduction
In the beginning
The quest begins
Why do we need the Alexander Technique?
What is the Alexander Technique?
How Alexander's discovery is relevant today
How can we begin to help ourselves?
The mechnics of movement
Faulty sensory perception
Inhibition
Direction
Senses, habits and choices
Muscles and reflexes
Means and ends
Give your back a rest
What to expect from an Alexander lesson
Case histories
Further reading (bibliography)
Useful addresses
Index

Read through some, skimmed through some... ended up being somewhat like a primer on the Alexander Technique (did not know this as I just borrowed it based on the title alone). Quite intriguing. ( )

Practising the Alexander Technique can improve breathing and posture, and help make the body more supple and responsive. This practical introduction explains the basics of the technique.