On Alexander Technique

Sitting down withoug falling down - Noam lesson

2011-04-15T13:30:00.001-07:00

The weight must be kept as much as posible on the front of the feet instead of leting that weight go backwards over the heels.

Don't fix the eyes - Noam lesson

2011-04-15T13:26:00.001-07:00

Fixing the eyes means the mind is disconnected from the body and from the outside world.

Grow , Back-back - Noam lesson

2011-04-14T13:48:00.001-07:00

To grow from within, instead of straightening the back by contraction of the spinal muscles, the antigravitatory support system must be activated.

To do that for example while sitting down, the legs role in supporting the body's weight must be lessened.

Macdonalds achieved this by taking the pupil's upper body backwards from the head, before taking him forwards while at the same time rising him from the chair.

Back-back means not pushing with the chest forwards, so the back stays back of the head.

On the Chair - Noam lesson

2011-04-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

"Don't push with the legs"
By the way, other AT teachers will be pleased with you, because that is what they teach to do.
"The head is the locomotive, and the rest of the back is the train"

Only when making use of the "intention", he would finally aprove and let me gain the end of standing up.

On the knees - Noam Renen lesson

2011-04-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

"On the knees" seems to be aimed at (although Noam will probably not agree with this) putting the pupil in a situation of discomfort, of feeling like one is going to fall forwards.

When the leg muscles get tired (quite soon) Noam will say:
"When the back starts working then the legs dont get tired"

From time to time, he will say
"You are holding yourself at the legs, let go"

On the other hand, when I relaxed the leg muscles (also to give my legs a break)
"Now you are falling down"

In the end, its about not holding oneself up, but of getting the standing erect posture through the mechanism that is built-in in ourselves for that.

Life is what happens to you while you are busy doing things

2011-02-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

"Life" is what happens to you
If nothing "happens to you", if you don't feel anything about what happens to you, then you are not alive!
Life passes by.

The original quote was John Lennon's:
"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans"

The head leads, and the rest of the body follows

2010-06-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

I have asked several teachers: Who coined that expression.
Michael Linton:
"Interesting question - Patrick Macdonald used it all the time, but I
don't recall any mention of any origin."

Halvard Heggdal:
"Head leads, body follows" comes from Rudolf Magnus
"It is possible to impress upon the whole body different adapted
attitudes by changing only the position of the head ... the mechanism as a
whole acts in such a way that the head leads and the body follows."

Tim Kjeldsen:
"The phrase 'head leads and the body follows' originates with Rudolph Magnus
(1873-1927) the neurologist who first identified righting reflexes.
Alexander mentions him in UCL and identifies Magnus's discoveries with his
own 'primary control'"

Bruce Marshall:
"The 'head leads, body follows' beyond discovery of Magnus, seems to have taken to be, at least from my experience a framework to which Marj Barstow and coterie of students and teachers emphasized, though unfortunately to a degree of what I considered cliche"

Well, to begin with, it seems that Magnus righting reflexes are somehow controversial. In my opinion they do not exist; this would be funny if it weren't a tragedy.

Back to "the head leads ... " in my view, every attempt (either doing or imagining) of carrying out this instruction is counterproductive.
In the best case, it could be a description of how a well coordinated body is observed moving from the outside. Outside could mean an observer or ourselves when watching our image reflected on a mirror.

So, forget about "the head leads ... " and try instead with this one:
"the body leads and the head follows".

or with this one:
"the head moves with the rest of the body"
The important word here is WITH. Neither lead nor lag behind.

What is Use?

2009-06-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some quotes from F.M. Alexander's "Use of the Self":
"When the golfer starts to make his stroke, he brings to the act the same habitual use of his mechanisms that he brings to ALL HIS ACTIVITIES"

"... his faulty habitual use which, as we have just explained, is the dominating influence in WHATEVER he tries to do."

On Inhibition

2008-07-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

First of all, it is important to understand the connection of inhibition with habits.

Thinking about this issue, I remembered Alexander's statement that the habit "feels right".
Like for example in "Use of the Self", pag 34:
"...proves too strong for him and keeps him tied down to the habitual use of himself which feels right"

Alexander doesn't say that it "feels good". Sometimes he says that the habit feels natural, right, etc. I shall return to this later on.

Second, it is important to note the difference between "inhibition" and "repression", an issue about which Alexander says, in CCCI pag 117:
"There has just come to my knowledge an interesting objection to the importance which I attach to the process of inhibition as a primary and fundamental factor in the technique of the scheme I advocate, and the objection is made on the ground that this use of inhibition will cause harmful suppression in the individual concerned ..."

It follows afterwards a long argument, which is quite obscure and misleading.
Finally Alexander says
"The stimulus to inhibit, therefore, in this case comes from within, and the process of inhibition is not forced upon the pupil. This means that the pupil's desire or desires will be
satisfied, not thwarted"

So, the difference is that the stimulus to inhibit comes (or should come) from ourselves, not from outside.

I believe that Alexander didn't give this issue due consideration. About one of the main difficulties in putting the technique into practice in daily life, he would speak of "forgetting to remember (to inhibit)".

But one of the reasons why pupils forget to remember, is precisely because the stimulus to inhibit doesn't come from within their self!

One of the most important things is therefore, to realize the difference between what feels right, and what feels good.
Because when we realize that an habit doesn't feel good, then we are one step closer to making the stimulus to inhibit that habit to come from within the self.

What "self"?

2007-08-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

"The use of the self", is one of F.M.Alexander's books on Alexander Technique.
Alexander, had a conception of man as psycho-physical unity, and that is what he meant by "self".

But this psycho-physical unity, cannot be taken for granted. Indeed, if we "were" psycho-physical unities, then there would be no question about mal-coordination.
Coordination is required precisely because we are NOT psycho-physical unities; psycho-physical unity is a condition to be reached.

Many of our activities are mere physiological reflexes, which one could hardly describe as "I did ...", more appropriate would be describing such activities in the passive voice.
Our "habits", which F.M.Alexander dealt with extensively, constitute another kind of reflexes, the ones that Pavlov described as "conditioned".
Both of the above are "subconscious" kinds of behavior; the self, the subject is absent.

Another kind of behaviour is end-gaining: when we succeed everything is fine; but when we fail there arises what F. M. Alexander lucidly termed "a civil war within the self".
In such instances the "I" gets divided into two, one which is felt as "me", and the other as "not-me".

("The inner game of tennis" by Tim Galway, which deals with this issue.)

There is another "I", which as I see it is "the" self that is referred by "The use of the self", and the object of the Alexander Technique.

Use your brain (II)

2007-01-10T07:24:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned previously Noam Renen's aphorisms "Use your brain"

"Use your brain" means "Use YOUR brain".

And this is because much end-gaining comes not from being bad or an idiot, just out of being lazy.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Albert Einstein

The opposite of wrong is wrong

2007-01-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

This opens Noam Renen’s aphorisms on Alexander Technique, "Use your brain".
Our intellect – that part of the brain we identify normally with thinking – thinks in terms of logical opposites: black-white, wrong-right, true-false, or in general either A or not-A.
Not-doing A, is not the same as doing not-A. Which is easy to understand intellectually, but difficult to apply in practice.
For example "not tensing the neck" is not the same as "freeing the neck" (which is also not the same as "relaxing the neck", but that is another story).

Therefore (because we confuse not-doing something with doing not-something), according to the trial-and-error plan (an end-gaining aproach), we go from one wrong to another wrong.

The right, is neither A nor not-A, nor a balance of A and not-A. This ‘third’ option is something new, outside the known or habitual, which has the attributes of both A and not-A at the same time.
Conscious Control, is not the opposite of Subconscious Control.

Why do we tense our necks (II)?

2006-08-28T05:38:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons, is simply because we don't care.
We are a lot more interested in doing what we are doing, like getting out of a chair for example, than in the consequences to our own health.

Altogether, one after the other

2006-01-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

You start with freeing of the neck, which brings about the rest, "one after the other".
But you must think of it as "one thing": it will come out wrong if you think of doing it "one after the other".
If this sounds contradictory, consider for example that when you walk, you step your legs "one after the other", while you think of it "altogether" as walking.

Use your brain

2006-01-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

This is the title of Noam Renen's aphorisms on the Alexander Technique. ( You may find them at http://members.fortunecity.com/noamrenen )
In my experience most teachers, including Alexander Technique teachers, are not ready to accept or even tolerate that his/her students explore by themselves, i.e. use their own brains!

Alexander's Teaching Aphorisms

2005-10-18T06:21:00.000-07:00

These 122 quotes from F.M.Alexander's lessons were written down by Ethel Webb, who worked as his secretary in the 1920s and 1930s, sitting in a small office outside Alexander's teaching room at Ashley Place. Dr Barlow later published them in The Alexander Journal (no.7,1972, pp.41-48). They were reprinted in "Articles & Lectures", and a selection appears in E.Maisel's book on the Alexander Technique.

They are at the same time philosophical and practical, general and specific.
For me they are like zen "koans", a source of inspiration, a guide.

Getting in and out of a chair

2005-09-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

From a purely mechanical point of view, standing up (i.e. getting out of a chair) is the reverse from sitting down, although as M.Feldenkrais observed, only when the movement is right (i.e. fluid) can this reversibility be attained.
Pushing oneself out of the chair and its opposite, collapsing into the chair, destroys this fludity.

Getting into the chair should be just that: "getting into". Not "falling into", which is what actually happens when one collapses.

On lengthening

2005-08-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

The directions "... to let the back to lengthen and widen" are better thought of as implying "un-shortening" instead of "lenghtening", undoing instead of doing.

"Everyone is always teaching one what to do, leaving us still doing the things we shouldn't do"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

Noam Renen

2005-08-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

A great Alexander Technique teacher, I learnt a lot with him.

In this picture Noam is teaching me, using a variation of the "getting in-out of a chair" exercise. (Although exercise isn't a proper term for it, I don't like procedure or evolution either)

He often says to me: "Remember this, never compromise!"

There is information on his teaching available online at
http://members.fortunecity.com/noamrenen

Why do we tense our necks?

2005-08-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Referred to Michael Protzel's article, available online at
http://ateducationresearch.com/Why_Do_We_Tense_Our_Necks.pdf

I had the oportunity of meeting Michael once on my short visit to NY last Feb 9th, during which he kindly explained and illustrated his ideas.

While posture is about positions either being good or bad, M.Protzel's "weight commitement" (which resemble F.M.Alexander's "directions"), is concerned with what goes on inside a certain position. But F.M.Alexander's directions are valid in general, either on a static position or in motion.

Moreover, M. Potzel is too fixed on vertical alignment as the only right posture - right position, and that doesn't appeal to me.

I guess this results from Michael's "steering" the body weight downwards, instead of F.M.Alexander's letting the neck to be free, which in a certain way it is "steering" the body's no-weight upwards.

Directing and Moving

2005-08-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

"Your work is a repeated combination of preparation, followed by separation. The continuous process of 'all together' is missing."
Noam Renen, Use your brain

Do not "direct" in preparation, to lengthen and widen at your current position, before making some movement.

To give consent

2005-08-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

"Doing" is our habitual way of reacting.
To give consent, is to "allow it to happen", or as Alexander said "to let it do itself".

"You ask me to lift that chair. If I give consent that is all I can do"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

Right and Wrong

2005-08-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

"Everyone wants to be right, but no one stops to consider if their idea of right is right"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

The "idea of right" means, what are we going to judge?
Our habitual "idea of right" is according to results, end-gaining, getting something in return, etc.

A much more sensible "idea of right" is according to our thinking, i.e. our attitude, our intentions.

Overdoing

2005-08-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

While end-gaining:

"Thinking" is doing,
"Doing" is overcoming,
and "Non-doing" is to colapse.

"Inhibition" is repressing,
and "Directing" is to move, without thinking.

End-gaining is overdoing, overdoing, overdoing.

Gravity?

2005-07-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

Some people, including A.T. teachers, believe that gravity, or in other words, fear of falling is our main conditioning.

Then why we hold a pen with undue tension?

Conscious Control

2005-07-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

With subconscious control we do without knowing,
and when we are end-gaining, we do what we know.

Good "use" of ourselves is, when we know what we are doing.

The rounder we go ...

2005-06-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

Referred to D.Gorman's article:
( available online at http://www.learningmethods.com/circular.htm)

"The way out of the circle was simply to meet the moment of the symptom which I habitually feel as wrong and not take the next step of reacting to it. As I stop being divided by making one part of me wrong and trying to change it, I become whole"

A symptom is an effect, the problem is the cause. Although they are related, they are nevertheless two different things. Dealing with the symptoms instead of the causes it is why "it does not take long before the symptoms are back".

"When I allow myself to exist in any moment as it is without reaction—in other words, to open more fully to the experience and events of the present no matter whether I like it or not—these tensions and contractions disappear and I become free and whole"

To inhibit the end-gaining reaction is not the same as not reacting. End-gaining is the minimum-effort-path, therefore to take the other one, a conscious decission must be made.

F. M. Alexander says "inhibition and volition are two sides of the same coin".

The Intellect

2005-01-28T05:47:00.000-08:00

"Intelligence is the whole, and intellect is the whore of intelligence – the computer, the fitting game: If this is so, then this is so – all this figuring out by which many people replace seeing and hearing what’s going on. Because if you are busy with your computer, your energy goes into your thinking, and you don’t see and hear any more"
Frederick S. Perls, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim

Ergonomics

2005-01-28T05:10:00.000-08:00

"I am continually being asked, both by friends and unknown correspondents, for my opinion concerning the correct type of chair, stool, desk or table to be used in order to prevent the bad habits which these pieces of furniture are supposed to have caused in schools. In my replies I have tried to demonstrate that the problem is being attacked from the wrong standpoint.
Suppose, for example, that there is an ideal chair, some wonderful arrangement of perfect angles, hollows and supports that will almost magically rectify or prevent every fault in the child's physical mechanism ... how is it possible for this ideal chair to be miraculously adaptable to every age and type of child?
No, what we need to do is not to educate our school furniture, but to educate our children. Give a child the ability to adapt himself within reasonable limits to his environment, and he will not suffer discomfort, nor develop bad physical habits, whatever chair or form you give him to sit upon"
F.M.Alexander, Man's Supreme Inheritance, Ed.Mouritz pg 93

Actually the "ideal chair" has already been invented, it is the stool. But what they are actually looking for, without recognising it, is a chair to collapse comfortably.

"When people are wrong, the thing which is right is bound to be wrong to them"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms.

The body is fluid

2005-01-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

"The conventional idea can be stated thus: the body is a fixed frame which is activated by the brain so as to bring about movements of its parts. Now this is only part of the picture; the other part is that the body is continuosly activated by sets of impulses, which determine the tone and thus the manner of its behaviour, i.e. the body is fluid"
P.Macdonald, The Alexander Technique as I see it, pg 63

The conventional idea is that the body is formed by several PARTS, the trunk, the head and the limbs. Those parts are articulated by joints, which make movement possible.
There are several aproaches like "Body mapping" (an aproach within the Alexander Technique), "Feldenkrais", etc., which are based on the hypothesis that bad-coordination is a consequence of a faulty sense of the own body, and that through guided experimentation involving simple movements, that sense can be restored.

That is only part of the picture, like Macdonald says. The other part of the picture is that the body is a fluid WHOLE:
Movement is carried out not only through the visible "active parts", but also through a subtle coordinated, silent action of the rest of the body, which provides support for those active parts and overall balance.
For example in walking, the visible "active part" is the advancing foot, while the other foot must simultaneously take over the support of the body's weight.

On end-gaining

2005-01-13T06:12:00.000-08:00

It is our "End-gainer", the one who does the "end-gaining".

Besides making use of our *old* habits, it is constantly creating *new* ones, with two purposes:
1) To strive for the security of the known.
2) To free our mind from thinking, in order to have more time for its favorite past time, mind-wandering.

On tension

2005-01-11T09:59:00.000-08:00

"Tension" is produced by the simultaneous exertion of two opposing forces, for example by trying to extend and flex the arm at the same time.

But whenever you feel tensing, you feel only one of them. You take sides with one, as if the other were not-you!!

It is no wonder then, that when you relax this tension (the habitual response), you collapse. You kill your energy, instead of using it.

On posture

2005-01-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

Whenever you find your self tensing in a fixed posture, for example you might bend the torso to wash your hands on a lavatory, and your kinesthetic sense sends you information that you are pulling your head backward. In this situation, you may be tempted to "do" the opposite thing to correct your posture, i.e. your "position", by moving your head forward.

There are a good number of reasons to "inhibit" such response.

"The opposite of wrong is wrong"
Noam Renen, Use your brain

When you attempt to correct your posture by changing your posture, it means that you are reacting according to the conception that "there is such thing as a right position". Moreover, your sensory appreciation of your own posture is wrong, so the outcome cannot possibly be right.

"There is no such thing as a right position, but there is such thing as a right direction" F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

In the example above, instead of moving the head forward, the whole back should be "directed" (NOT moved!) backwards, that is the meaning of the information conveyed by the kinsethetic sense.

By such indirect procedure, you may find your knees freeing, flexing, so that you lower the hips, the torso is directed backward and the head ... forward!!

"The movement, if any, is, in an experienced pupil, so small as to be hardly a movement at all"
P.Macdonald, The Alexander Technique as I see it.

Stretch reflex

2005-01-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

When a muscle is stretched, so is the muscle spindle ( the stretch proprioceptors), which send signals to the spine, where those signals trigger the stretch reflex (also called the myotatic reflex) which attempts to resist the change in muscle length by causing the muscle to contract.

It seems likely that in "non-doing", this mechanism is being used to our own advantage, if we "allow it to happen".

Directions

2005-01-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

"Directions", are in a way, the kinesthetic sense of lack of tension.

"You can´t tell a person what to do because the thing you have to do is a sensation"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

Therefore you cannot "produce the directions" directly. If you don't refrain nor overdo yourself, that will "produce the directions".

"How can an order be anything but doing -- but not doing as you understand doing"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

Yoga, Tai Chi, etc.

2005-01-05T05:00:00.001-08:00

"The performances of the Yogis certainly do not command my admiration, and the well known system of breathing practiced and taught by them, is in my opinion, not only wrong and essentially crude, but I consider that it tends to exaggerate those very defects from which we suffer in this twentieth century"
F. M. Alexander, Man's Supreme Inheritance, pg 35.

Focusing

2005-01-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

I have started the Focusing training course two years ago.
Focusing is a technique developed by E.Gendlin, with sources in the Humanist Psychology of C.Rogers and A.Maslow.

Kevin McEvenue deals, in his article "Focusing and the Alexander Technique"
( available online at http://www.alexandertechnique.com/articles/focusing/)
and a more extensive one "Exchange" magazine, Vol 10 N 1, February 2002.
(available online at http://www.ati-net.com/ati-artl.htm)
with his own aproach, that brings together both techniques.

On walking

2005-01-03T05:49:00.000-08:00

There are some specific instructions on walking in F.M.Alexander's book "Man's Supreme Inheritance", Part II, Notes and Instances, pag 172:

"The whole physiology of walking ... it is really resolved into the primary movements of allowing the body to incline forward from the ankle on which the weight is supported and then preventing oneself from falling by allowing the weight to be taken in turn by the foot which has been advanced"

and in "Together we walk", W.L.White (in Curiosity Recaptured, ed J.Sontag). But I didn't find them useful.

There are two issues to consider, the physical and the psychological.

The physical issue is rather simple. We aren't going to teach our legs how to walk, that is inborn. Just don't interfere with it. Keep the body coordinated, which in short means that the head should not lag behind or advance ahead of the feet. Let your neck (and your legs) to be free.

The psychological issue, which is mostly ignored in Alexander Technique, seems to me more relevant. It refers to motivation, to enjoying the physical activity, the view, etc.

Many times, walking is a means to an end, i.e. we are going somewhere, to do something. Then it is mainly how we feel about that "something", what affects our walking.

Non-doing and End-gaining

2004-12-22T06:44:00.000-08:00

How can we "allow it to happen" if we are at the same time "looking for results"?
The "end-gainer" in us, won't let it happen, will want to be sure that it happens.

The "step"

2004-12-22T06:20:00.000-08:00

Alun Thomas, mentioned once that Margaret Goldie (one of F.M.Alexander assistants) used a step in her lessons.
I have built myself such device, of about 50*50cms and 10 cms height, and found it extremely useful.

It gives many choices, for example which leg leads, to stay on the step or stepping back, etc, etc.
I use it also for practicing "lounge", by keeping one leg at the floor, instead of taking the full step.

Simplicity

2004-12-13T05:18:00.000-08:00

"All the darned fools in the world believe they are actually doing what think they are doing"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

What has this to do with simplicity?

Let's consider a man who has a bad habitual posture he tells himself, or is told, to stand up straight.
If he has his back slouched, in order to correct this defect, he could for example pull his shoulders backwards.
What he "thinks he is doing", is standing up straight. But what he is "actually doing", is adding the pull of his shoulders to his habitual bad standing posture.

So, whatever we "do" to correct a specific defect, it will only complicate the matters further.

"A rose is a rose is a rose ..."

Forward and Up reconsidered ...

2004-11-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

Referred to Joe Armstrong’s articles "Reconsidering Forward and Up", and "Forward and Up reconsidered" :
(available online at http://home.earthlink.net/~jarmstrongatech/ )

Why make things unnecessarily complicated?

It is "forward and up in relation to the spine", and it is not a "position".

Mechanical Advantage

2004-11-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

I believe that positions of mechanical advantage, or in other words, the "right way of doing according to the Alexander Technique", are not always advantageous.

"Don´t you see that if you get perfection today, you will be further away from perfection than you have ever been."
F. M. Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

One should be able to carry normal activities under varying conditions, not only "ideal" conditions.

On the other hand, positions of mechanical dis-advantage provide a strong stimulus to coordinate oneself.

Freeing the neck

2004-11-03T03:58:00.000-08:00

If your neck feels stiff, that is not to say your neck ''is'' stiff.
F.M. Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms

I) It makes sense the other way around
If your neck feels free, that is not to say your neck is free.

II) Cause and effect
By itself or through the throat (which is an associated part to the neck), the neck is part of several interconnected mechanisms:

Posture
Sight
Breath
Speech
Mastication

So that if your neck feels stiff, it might be that it's because your jaw is stiff.

Head forward and up

2004-11-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

Free your neck, and the "right thing does itself".

The head leads, and the body follows ...

2004-11-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

If the head leads (by "doing") , the body will not follow.
On the other hand, by following the body (i.e. "non-doing") , the head leads.

By following the body, head and body move as one, "altogether". And then of course the head will lead.

Conscious Control

2004-10-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

There is a wealth of literature on Alexander Technique, but you will find almost no reference at all to this subject, save from F.M.Alexander own books.

For me, what F.M. meant by Conscious Control, should be conceived as an altered state of mind. It should be our normal state of mind, but we have lost it in our childhood.

It is well described and in an accesible way, in A.Maslow's book "Towards a psychology of being".

Use and functioning

2004-10-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

"Use affects functioning", is according to Dr W.Barlow "The Alexander Principle".
What is "Use"?"
Use" is the cause, and "functioning" are the effects.
"Use" is previous to any activity (i.e. functioning), including posture, movement and even thinking!

Joe Armstrong deals with two different kinds of “use” in F.M. wriings, “manner of use” and “conditions of use”:
“Manner of use pertains, of course, to how we do things - respond, behave, direct, etc. - whether we do them consciously or subconsciously. Conditions of use pertains mainly to the quality of muscle tonus (anywhere from extreme tightness to extreme flaccidity) that exists in us regardless of how good or how poor our manner of use might be at any given moment”
Joe Armstrong, “A crucial distinction: manner and conditions of use”

The Alexander Technique is about “manner of use”: