Rare balance: Footballer David Beckham has great natural posture

Most of us will suffer from a bad back at some time  -  whether it’s a slight twinge or a prolapsed disc that confines us to bed for weeks at a time.

The underlying cause of the majority of all back pain is a bad posture, but there is a method  -  used by thousands in the UK  -  that aims to increase our poise and reduce back complaints.

The Alexander-Technique is a self-help method that enables us to stop harmful patterns of movement and posture that interfere with the body working efficiently.

A 2008 study in the British Medical Journal showed how successful thetechnique can be in helping overcome the causes of back pain, although this is only one of the benefits.

It is renowned for helping overcome postural problems, relieving stress and eliminating back pain, neck pain, tension headaches and sciatica.

While many treatments focus on the region of pain, this technique addresses the fundamental cause of poor posture and pain.

When back pain is caused by poor postural habits, it is rarely the result of tension just in the area of pain.

Musclesare compensating from moment to moment and if one area is out of natural alignment and balance, other areas of the body will be struggling to adapt.

It is rare to come across someone with great natural posture as most of us pick up bad postural habits.

Sowhat is good poise? it is not about holding ourselves stiffly upright, rather it is when we are in good balance and can move with minimal effort.

When this happens, back pain will not occur. But we can have good balance only if our joints are free and supple as this allows the body to adapt to changing circumstances during movement.

A good example of this is David Beckham, who has balanced poise.

A lifetime of poor postural habits mean neck muscles are so strong that we hold our heads in rather fixed positions that don’t allow us to move easily.

The weight of the head can cause muscular strain to the neck and shoulders if it is not in good balance.

Excessive stiffness and strain in the neck muscles can cause the cervical spine to become distorted and compress discs, putting pressure on nerves which may also send painful symptoms down the arms, causing numbness or nerve tingling as well as headaches.

Overcoming back pain: The Alexander Technique is renowned for helping overcome postural problems, relieving stress and eliminating back pain, neck pain, tension headaches and sciatica

Having a free neck with good head balance is fundamental to healthy poise. The relationship between the head, neck and back determines how the body functions.

The head weighs between 9lb and 11lb and needs to balance freely on the top of the spine roughly between the ears.

Forty per cent of the weight of the head is behind the point of balance and 60 per cent of the weight is in front.

If we allow the neck muscles to release tension, the head will naturally roll forward a few degrees on the top of our spine.

Exercise: be aware of the top of your spine being at a height of roughly between your ears. allow your head to roll forward just a few degrees on the very top joint, without dropping your neck forward.

Think of your nose dropping a few millimetres. Think of your head teetering – it should be free like a young child’s.

Think of the ‘cushion’ of cartilage supporting your skull plumping up. do not tuck your chin in or drop your neck forward.

New lease of life: A lifetime of poor postural habits mean neck muscles are so strong that we hold our heads in rather fixed positions that don’t allow us to move easily

When we release unnecessary tension, we allow ourselves to attain our full height and stature without any perceived effort.

Children between two and four are examples of a healthy, upright posture. They stand tall, bend easily at their knees and hips to squat and run, and twist and turn with grace and ease.

From the age of four we develop postural habits such as stiffening our neck, collapsing our lumbar as we slouch in chairs and hunch our shoulders.

Back pain is nearly always an indication of loss of natural poise and the development of postural habits we need to ‘unlearn’.

Exercise: allow your head to go forward and up. First ‘direct’ your neck to be free so your head teeters on top of your spine.

Then send your head in a forward and upward direction. do not push or make any effort as this will cause tension.

You need to release unwanted tension and then direct your head in a forward and upward direction.

This realigns your neck and initiates the lengthening and support of your entire back.

• Free yourself from Back Pain, A Guide to The Alexander Technique, by Noel Kingsley, is published by Kyle Cathie, priced ?14.99.

Of uncertainty. The patient fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, afternoon fever, night sweats and weight loss and other symptoms of systemic poisoning. Occasionally a small number of acute exacerbation temperature around 39 ?, and more cold misdiagnosis or other acute infection. In contrast, No cases of fever and other symptoms mentioned above, only the sense of dull pain or radiating pain affected area is also often misdiagnosed as other diseases.

Second, the local symptoms

1, spine, limited mobility, along the spine Sudden pain with pressure, can have knock pain.

2, pain, pure pain, pain sense, activities and sports increased.

3, visible subcutaneous tumor-like streamer, iliac fossa abscess, and sometimes hip flexion deformity, fistula formation of holes around the occurrence of dermatitis due to stimulation.

4, according to the site of spinal cord compression level of a corresponding paralysis and paraplegia.

5, cervical and lumbar spinal deformity before the sudden disappearance of attention to whether the physical, physiological after thoracic whether the sudden increase. spinous process and whether the abnormal top-down highlight of each palpable, especially after the sudden angular limitations, this more common in spinal tuberculosis , and young vertebral epiphyseal rickets, ankylosing spondylitis, and poor posture after the conflict and a circular arc into the back is different. kyphosis, limited bending performance as the characteristics of spinal tuberculosis.

6, dull pain in the affected area with fever and other systemic symptoms occur more than the same time, in the event, the car shaking, coughing, sneezing increased, after bed rest to reduce; night pain increase, pain along the spinal nerve radiation, radiation to the upper cervical spine after occipital, radiating to the shoulder or under the arm of cervical, thoracic radiation along the first intercostal nerve, lower abdomen, often misdiagnosed as cholecystitis, pancreatitis, appendicitis and so on. 11 ~ 12 lower thoracic nerve along the buttocks radiating to the lower back or buttocks, Check this X-ray taken only when the lumbar spine film and more to the lower thoracic lesions are often missed. Lumbar spinal nerve plexus along the more radiation to the front of the thigh, even involve the back legs, often misdiagnosed as intervertebral disc herniation.