http://www.tomsterdam.com Alexander Technique with Tom Koch Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:12:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Researchers have confirmed what many Alexander Technique teachers have taught for many years. The human foot runs just fine without shoes. In fact, it runs better! From Scientific American: They found that when runners lace up their shmancy sneakers and take off, about 75 to 80 percent land heel-first. Barefoot runners—as ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/running-barefoot-is-better.html The NY Times has an article summarizing the latest research in how our bodies and thoughts interact in some very surprising ways. Surprising to the scientists perhaps, but these ideas are nothing new to Alexander students. We experience them in just about every lesson! The article mentions how people leaned forward ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/careful-what-you-think-your-body-takes-it-literally.html From the December issue of Family Practice, an international journal aimed at practitioners, teachers, and researchers in the fields of family medicine, general practice, and primary care: Patients' views of receiving lessons in the Alexander Technique and an exercise prescription for managing back pain in the ATEAM trial Background. Lessons in the ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/new-study-shows-alexander-technique-preferred-over-exercise.html Since the earliest days of the Alexander Technique, teachers and students have known from their own experiences that back pain responds very well to private lessons in the Technique. Constant back pain was in fact one of the main reasons I myself began taking lessons. The relief of that pain ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/alexander-technique-aids-back-pain-now-we-can-prove-it.html New York Magazine has a very interesting article about shoes and how they are ruining our feet. Last year, researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, published a study titled “Shod Versus Unshod: The Emergence of Forefoot Pathology in Modern Humans?” in the podiatry journal The Foot. ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/the-bare-truth-about-shoes.html I currently have three pregnant students, all at slightly different stages, so the following item captured my attention. I think this might also explain why women dancers - not to mention gymnasts - can bend backwards so much further and easier than men. Nature has a new article detailing the recent ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/bending-backwards-for-babies-and-ballet.html Today's Business Standard has a short article in the Fitness section about Alexander Technique. Although it talks in only very general terms, its imprecise wording makes me think that the author has not actually experienced lessons. A dead give-away is the reference to AT "therapists": An AT therapist starts by ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/a-dubious-mention-2.html Elizabeth Huebner teaches the Alexander Technique to Luke Daniels, a drama student in the master of fine arts program. Photo by Peter Morenus The University of Connecticut's Advance web site has a full-page article about Elizabeth Huebner's work in the master of fine arts program teaching Alexander Technique to actors. It ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/movement-re-education-helps-drama-students-improve-performance.html It has just been announced that the 8th International Congress of the F.M. Alexander Technique will be held in Lugano, Switzerland from 10-16 August 2008. From their web site: We are delighted to announce that our Opening Ceremony on Sunday evening the 10 August 2008 will start with a keynote speech ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/8th-international-alexander-congress-to-be-held-august-2008-in-lugano-switzerland.html I was a bit taken aback when I stumbled upon this reference in an article titled "God is not dead". The author posits that religion, far from disappearing in Europe, is rather taking on new "alternative" forms. Forms of alternative spirituality such as Alexander technique, Buddhist groups, Islamic Sufism, herbalism, reiki, ... http://www.tomsterdam.com/careless-comparisons.html