Posts Tagged ‘Bicycle Technique’

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Bicycle Riding, is published on this website in a PDF format. It goes into extraordinary detail on how to ride a bicycle without paying a physical price by using an efficient riding technique.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

Primary Control is the basis of organized coordinated bicycle riding in the Alexander Technique. When a cyclist is riding with the most organized movements possible, then the head is leading the bicycle rider’s spine into lengthening, as the torso expands from a decompressed, vertically or diagonally balanced, and aligned spine.

This means that all of the nerves that radiate from the spinal cord have no pressure on them. So, the nerves can send the signals from the brain for movement and/or muscular support, as you ride a bicycle, without being slowed down by the vertebrae and muscles pinching the nerves.

The brain and spinal cord always organize the movement that the body produces, but when the Primary Control is interfered with by muscular tension and compression and poor posture, then that organization is poor organization. THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IS ALL ABOUT THE QUALITY OF A BICYCLE RIDER’S POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE.

The Alexander Technique recognizes that a huge amount of wear and tear and physical pain to the bicycle rider is caused by how you ride, not by how fast or how long you ride.

The assumption in the Alexander Technique is that we are born with an innate ability to move with beautiful Primary Control, and that babies crawl with the head leading a lengthening spine naturally, given that the baby is healthy in a healthy environment.

If you were to observe a 1,000 cyclists riding, you’d be hard put to see one bicycle rider riding with beautiful Primary Control (given that none of them had done any Alexander Technique work). What does riding a bicycle without a compromised Primary Control look like?

The bicycle rider stands or sits fully upright or pivoted forward from free hip joints with a completely mobile body (not trying to stand or sit straight). The cyclist’s neck is free and the bicycle rider is aware that the head is leading a lengthening spine upward or diagonally, which means that the rider is able to see ahead, as the head continues to lead a lengthening spine curving upward or forward.

This means that the bicycle rider is completely engaged in riding without being pulled downward trying to control the bike. This fully lengthening mobile posture balancing on free legs on grounded feet in the pedals on or off the sit bones, gives the shoulders and arms of the rider a balanced torso to be supported by, so that the bicycle rider can effortlessly control the handle bars without locked shoulders.

When the bicycle rider’s body is organized by the Primary Control, then the cyclist is free to place all of his or her awareness on a riding technique that isn’t being compromised by a compromised Primary Control. In other words, if the cyclist’s body is collapsed or over-tense with poor head/neck/spine organization, then the pure specific riding technique of the bicycle rider can never be what it would be, since it is not backed up by a balanced body.

WHEN THE FOUNDATION OF COORDINATED ELEGANT HUMAN MOVEMENT IS COMPROMISED, THEN THE SECONDARY TECHNIQUE OF A SPECIALIZED ACTIVITY, LIKE RIDING A BICYCLE, WILL NEVER BE AS EFFORTLESS OR AS CONSISTENT AS IT COULD BE.