Matt Pressman was the captain of the tennis team at the University of Connecticut. At age 30, he was diagnosed with spondylitis. Alexander Technique helped him deal with this chronic pain.
Matt tells Robert Rickover: “The Alexander Technique taught me how to function differently and how to use my body in a more effective and efficient way so that I wouldn’t exacerbate pain. Over about 20 lessons, it decreased the chronic pain I felt on a daily basis.”
“I’ve learned to use my body in a way where I feel no pain.”
“If people don’t body armor or increase the muscle tension near where the pain might be, [they will be better off]… If you have pain in your shoulder, you’ll tighten your neck and tighten around your shoulder and arm to make sure you don’t exacerbate the pain. That’s the way the body naturally goes about trying to relieve pain. It’s the wrong route. You want to let go of the body armoring and increase range of motion and you will decrease pain. If you decrease muscle tension, you decrease pain.”
“If you’ve ever had a back spasm, you’ve probably felt the need to stiffen up and increase the tension around the acute pain for fear that if you release and let go around that area you’ll get more pain.”
