Alexander Technique Advice for Walking

by Peter Johnson

As well as being great exercise, walking is a wonderful time to work with some Alexander Technique ideas. It doesn’t have to be a walk in a special place, just your regular trudge to the station will do. Here are four tips to try out:

1. Let your eyeline be level with the horizon. Tricky this if you live in a city, but you can imagine. Don’t keep looking down at the floor – not only is it boring, it displaces your head forwards on top of your spine and puts you out of balance. The rest of your body then has to compensate.

2. Use your peripheral vision. Don’t glaze over, or tunnel vision in on one thing.

3. Keep a sense of the space all around you – beneath your feet, above your head, in front, to the sides and behind you.

4. If you are walking well, you are moving forward whilst releasing down and falling up. When we release our true and aligned body weight towards the centre of the earth, it stimulates postural reflexes that send us up against gravity – we ‘fall up’ in an easy and free way. To experience this, you would really need to come for an Alexander lesson, but it’s something to think about and compare with your regular experience of walking.

Even if your habitual way of walking does not appear to create any discomfort at first, it can lead to back problems later in life, which can result in making claims on your Aviva life insurance policy and taking time off work. Instead, it is far better to correct this habit before any problems have occurred.