Alexander Technique in New York City is a challenge. Applying the Alexander Technique to bike riding in New York City is a bigger challenge!  For my first bike (bicycle) ride I chose to be near NYC. This was my first ride in quite a few years. It’s funny how once you’ve learned this skill, it stays with you forever. It’s kind of  like riding a bike…anyway, it was great to be riding again; supplying my own power, the wind rustling through where my hair used to be.

With most bikes you have to lean forward. Where does that lean, or hinge happen? Anywhere you want, but some places are more beneficial than others. You could create a hinge at the waist, and the back of the waist which is also known as the lower back. You could hinge around lumbar disc 5 and sacral disc 1 (L5-S1) a place orthopedic surgeons know very well. However, there are other choices. ‘Wheely?’, you may ask. Yes, wheely. There’s a place further down from the waistline where you could hinge. I like to call this hinge point ‘the hip joints’, because they are. They’re sort of where the legs meet the torso. That’s a beneficial place from which to hinge.

If you hinge at the hip joints, and let your spine act as one integrated unit you may notice that you’re looking only about two feet in front of you. That’s bad for you and the woman with the baby carriage ten feet ahead of you. We need another hinge, and I know where we could get one, or two. They’re where the head meets the spine, the atlanto-occipital joints. 

The AO joints (as well as the hip joints) are the bike rider, computer user, guitar player and food eater’s friend. Of course we could also make a choice to hinge at the base of the neck, cervical disc 6 and cervical disc 7 (C6-C7) another popular meeting place for orthopedic surgeons, but there’s no real hinge there either. Not so beneficial. We need to hinge from further up. Imagine a rod going through your head at the height of your ear holes, and pivoting your head up and down from there. This is using your AO joints. So, if you pivot with your hip and AO joints, you’re using your body the way it was designed. 

Now ride!  Use that computer!  Play that guitar!  Eat that food!  Your spine is thanking you for leaving it alone.

Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC

Mark@MarkJosefsberg.com

917.709.4648

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