The Simple Technique That Could Eliminate Back Pain

IF I ASKED you what Judi Dench, Joanna Lumley, Pierce Brosnan and Robin Williams had in common, you would rightly say they are all actors. But if I were to throw Paul McCartney, Roald Dahl and George Bernard Shaw into the mix, perhaps you wouldn't be quite so sure.

So I will put you out of your misery and let you into the secret.

All of the aforementioned personalities have turned to the Alexander Technique to help them overcome muscle problems, poor posture, anxiety, asthma and a variety of other ailments -- and the number of people joining them is growing.

Next month, from July 13-18, an Alexander Technique Summer School will take place in the University of Limerick and promises to show participants exactly how to make the method work for them to cure niggling pains, correct posture and ultimately save them a fortune in medical bills.

I have always had back problems, thanks to a childhood incident in which a car drove over my foot.

Unsurprisingly, it was a pretty painful experience, but back in the 'good old days' if you didn't appear to be too damaged, you were pronounced fit and well enough to avoid further investigation and to carry on with your life.

Unfortunately, although I appeared to have escaped major injury, the internal damage to my foot caused me to spend the following 30 years leaning to one side in order to take the weight off my damaged bones.

THIS Tower of Pisa effect resulted in me having a back problem -- culminating in a herniated disc -- for most of my adult life. So when the opportunity arose to find out exactly how the Alexander Technique worked, I jumped at the chance (or I would have if I had been able to).

Richard Brennan is the director of the Alexander Centre in Galway.

He runs courses to help people re-train their bodies and perform a variety of everyday tasks with less strain and tension.

'Millions of people suffer from back pain because of poor posture,' he says. 'During Alexander lessons you will learn how to sit, stand, walk and make your body become more efficient. Posture is very important and most children possess it without doing anything.

'This is the sort of posture the technique offers. The common "sit up straight, shoulders back" mentality that we see today, in fact only leads to more problems.' Richard says that the majority of people have poor posture and while there are plenty of treatments available to alleviate pain, very few trace back to the source.

'One of the most common examples of the consequences of muscular tension, poor posture or stress is back pain,' he says. 'In fact 80 per cent of all people living in our western civilisation will suffer from disabling lower back pain at some point in their lives. And statistics reveal that back pain is on the increase in most developed countries, yet no one seems to have any clear answers or solutions to the problem.

'Although vast sums of money are being spent on treatment for the pain, there is little research into why it is so prevalent in our society and yet comparatively rare in some under-developed countries.

'An increasing number of doctors, back specialists and orthopaedic surgeons are now advising people to try the Alexander Technique as they can see the beneficial results when nothing else has helped.

'Unfortunately, it is still the case that many millions of people carry on for years in unnecessary pain, without realising that anything can be done for them. We do, however, need to take responsibility for our own ailments.'

So with this in mind, I lay on the treatment table to begin my first session. I had expected lots of pummeling, pulling and forcing my body to change its natural inclination but instead I was simply encouraged to visualise the lengthening of my limbs and the relaxation of my shoulders.

Brennan, who is co-founder of the Irish Society of Alexander Technique Teachers, told me to imagine my muscles releasing their tension as he gently stretched out my legs and shoulders.