Cycling and the Alexander Technique

I had an interesting email from a pupil the other day (I’ll call him Fred) saying that since he had been having Alexander lessons, he felt more comfortable whilst cycling and that ‘over the year I have a particular proof
that I have recovered suppleness in my back’ .

Fred went on to say ‘I have had a bike for about 5 years which I was not able to ride hands free
like I used to. I thought it was a problem with the bike, as it was a budget non brand
roadbike. For 5 years previous to that I gave up cycling as I had a bad accident when
someone opened a car door on me and so I decided to stop cycling…’ 

Then Fred started having Alexander lessons with me. He developed his awareness about his body-use and learned to recognise habits that interfered with the way his body needed to function. He became aware that over the years he’d developed patterns of tension and contraction and these had become even stronger because of the way he reacted to stressful situations. He realised that the more stressful his work became, the more he reacted by tensing up – which resulted in developing severe pain in his neck and arms. This was not helped by tension he used to pull himself down and clutch the handlebars as he rode his bike – which then meant he crumpled his neck in order to look up to see the road and traffic, pinching his cervical nerves in the process.

Fred has worked hard at applying changes to the way he habitually uses his body during daily activities and he regularly practices the constructive rest procedure. He has learned to stop reacting to work stress by immediately tensing up and was pleased to see that he’s become calmer and has stopped experiencing constant pain in his neck and arms. Fred now uses less tension and contraction whilst cycling so that he can be more aligned, allowing his neck and spine to lengthen out ~ and he’s regained his ability to be poised and balanced on his bike. 

Making these changes helped him realise that his previous cycling problems came from the habitual way he used to ride – ‘I now realise it was me ….as I can now ride
hands-free like I used to without there having been any changes made to my bike.

Thank you Fred!