@@stanthefeline I had to go back to the stairs and check! Yes, I do always look forwards. As you walk down the stairs, your peripheral vision lets you see a few steps ahead anyway without looking down. This is essential for me because my kids always leave toys on the stairs!😄 You may find that you are looking down more than you need to so might be worth experimenting with that and of course if you are going to look down, make sure you're doing it from your head/neck joint, not by bending the spine!
Amazing! When at work, I have to go up and down a flight of 18 stairs between 8 and 12 times in a 2 hour period. By the end of this period I'm usually struggling badly trying to lessen the pain and keep my balance. Tried this method today and had very little discomfort. There was a slight build up of pain when I was ending my shift but nothing compared to usual. Will definitely keep using this method. Thanks so much for your help.
I don't have knee issues, but, because of old habits and a brain injury that helped to caused a lack of communication, walking down hill is more of a challange for me.
Sorry to hear that. It takes a lot of coordination to walk down a slope or staircase. Must be much more difficult if you have had a brain injury. Hopefully you will be able to keep working on reducing the unhelpful habits though and find it gets easier!
@@MovementandPosture After all these years i do ok, but, its seems to be more of a challange developing new habits. i now try to relearn what i need to re-learn how to do again with new habits,usind AT, Feldenkreis and somatics,to reteach my brain, puzzle.
Thanks! Glad you find them helpful. You can definitely choose to look down at the ground if you feel you need to but I would just encourage you to try to do this from the head/neck joint rather than by bending the spine.
Apologies for the delay replying! The way to avoid over contracting the muscles around the knee is to be really clear that you are releasing your knees away from both your hip and ankle joints. Tension always has to pull between 2 places so if you are feeling tightness above your knee for example, that means that your quadriceps are contracting pulling your knee towards your hip joint. This is a habit that you have developed and the AT way of breaking habits is to practice paying attention to the area and being really clear that you want to keep releasing. Basically using conscious thought to override the unconscious habit. You may find it easier to develop this release using the conscious rest exercises on this channel first: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RSfxTO7EAyo.html or ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cPKGEGWqUFc.html. Hope that helps. All the best, Pete
Thanks Pete for this and all your other videos. I live on a steep hill. Walking down a hill, which is a constant slope, is different from walking down stairs, where each step is level. My tendency in walking down a hill is to lean backward to maintain balance. How would you recommend walking down a steep hill?
Walking down a slope needs you to really 'stay in your back'. This is Alexander technique speak for refusing to react to the slope by compressing yourself forwards and downwards which is what happens with many people. As soon as you compress the body forwards, each step becomes uncomfortable as the hip and knee joints grip and will eventually become inflamed or even damaged. Keep releasing your weight fully into the ground and stay at your full height (which may feel like leaning backwards). Keep mobility in all your joints and the body will organise the movement in a natural way. The ankle, knee and hip joints will flex but as weight of being released through them rather than being held, you will maintain balance and freedom. Hope that makes sense!
There will be some activation of the thigh muscles (and all the other muscles in the leg) when walking but if you feel that this is an area that you are noticing an excess of tension, then try to identify the exact point in the movement that your habit of tightening the muscle happens. Is it when you release the leg forwards, when it moves away from the body or when you take weight onto it? Once you have a better idea of what your habit is, you can then practice making the movement with the clear intention (what we call a direction in Alexander Technique) to keep releasing that area. For example, if the tension happens when you transfer weight onto that leg then be clear that you are releasing the weight of your body through the thigh, calf and foot and into the ground rather than holding your weight in the leg muscles. Hope that makes sense!
@@roxannasheffield8439 In that case, I'd have a go at my video about standing posture: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ch6usAbpnsc.html. When we start to pay attention to the tension levels in our legs, it's common to notice problem areas. For me, it was my knees. Just standing still and my knee caps would keep tightening onto the joint. After a while of using these Alexander Technique 'Directions' I found that I was able to rid myself of the tension and standing became much more comfortable.
I have a friend who cannot flex her foot owing to an operation years ago for bunions. She is now suffering from lots of musculoskeletal problems. Is there any way she can adapt to move properly despite her handicap?
Sorry to hear of your friends troubles! When one joint is limited like this, you have to find a way for the body to compensate. In this case, it would mean that more of the movement would need to happen at the knees and hips. If she tries to keep forcing her body to move in the way that it used to when she could flex her ankle, it will cause all kinds of issues throughout her body. If she is walking down the stairs then she will need to let her hip and knee joints flex much more so that she can keep in balance. It'll feel weird at the start but she should be able to find a more comfortable way to move. It's also really important to make sure that she is not stiffening up anywhere else as this will prevent the body finding a good way to move. All the best, Pete
@@MovementandPosture I'm sorry to disturb you again, it's the foot itself that doesn't bend in the middle but she can flex her ankles. She can only put her feet flat down on the floor.
@@rebeccataylor4809 That should be an easier problem to fix. Again, the approach is to make sure that she is allowing all the leg joints to be free rather than fixed and the movement will adjust to compensate for the lack of mobility in the foot. The real risk of having one part of the body fixed is in the way that we react by stiffening up in other places and affecting our balance. By consciously keeping the rest of herself free from excess tension, she will avoid the one problem snowballing into other issues. She may benefit from trying some of the videos on standing posture on this channel then moving onto the other videos about walking. This one (walking down stairs) is probably one of the most difficult movements for her so she may make more progress using one of the easier ones. Here's a couple of suggestions to get started: Standing: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ch6usAbpnsc.html Walking: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AFDclV84Tfc.html
