Over my many years of teaching the Alexander Technique, I’ve come across the condition known as ‘Dowager’s Hump many times. This seems to be more prevalent in women possibly mostly due to the female form being more susceptible. In later years this dowager’s hump can be exacerbated by vertebral fractures due to osteoporosis. The condition is not only deemed to be unflattering but can also be the cause of pain, discomfort and disease in later life.
The Alexander Technique is a unique self-help method of facilitating health through good habitual use of the body. We human beings with our bigger brains can develop more conscious choice of how to use our skeletons in an optimum way radically improving the quality of our lives. The problem is that we can remain unaware of this capability allowing conditions to deteriorate without proper means of alleviating them. The creatures we share the planet with, don’t have that choice built-in like we do.
If you can start to perceive that increasing curve at the top of your back, the good news is that you can learn to arrest the pattern and start to feel and look better. The brain weighs about 3 pounds. Then there is the skull, the eyes, the teeth, the facial muscles and skin. In all, an adult head weighs around 10 to 11 pounds (4.5 to 5 kg) or 4 to 5 bags of sugar, Stop for a moment and consider that if you’re not carrying that weight about in an efficient natural way, your spine is going to feel the pressure and you’re going to develop exaggerated curves in your back.
Even if there is a genetic link to your emerging hump, the Alexander Technique still apples. Remedial exercises tend to be ineffective as they can be tiresome and are not actually getting to the root of the problem which is how you are carrying your head around day in, day out. Just a few lessons in the technique to re-educate your body can make a massive difference to your life.
Osteoporosis is a metabolism-related skeletal disease that is also known as “bone loss”. … In osteoporosis, the bones lose density and stability. Fractures are particularly common in the femur and spine. Learning the Alexander Technique now can help reduce that possibility.
Richard Marsden
