Did you know that the most common type of back pain, suffered by people, is lower back pain? If you have lower back pain, it’s a red flag that something may be going wrong with your bending, lifting and carrying.

Where are your hip joints?

Where do you bend from in your body? If you are pointing at or thinking of a place around your belt line, like the photo above, then you are bending incorrectly! It’s a big problem. Many people think that they bend from their waist. No. There is no bending joint at the waist. That’s a back pain red flag!! Keep bending there and it will keep hurting you.

 Find your hip joints avoid those back pain red flags.

Alexander Technique is about organising our movement differently. Sometimes, it’s worth going back to basic body mechanics to set your mind straight. You need to bend from your hip joint NOT from your waist. Unfortunately, many of us have gotten it wrong and then fixed that wrongness as a permanent pattern. We habitually bend at the waist. Are you ready to undo this pattern? You’ll need to find your hip joint and then you’ll need to remind yourself how it is when you bend at the correct place. The guy in the gif above is bending correctly. See how he uses his knees ankles and hip joints together.  It’s a good example BUT wait….don’t try and bend all the way to the ground like him until you are ready.

If you have hip joint pain or knee pain, it may be that your hip joint muscles are too tight. Of course you should check with a medical practitioner if the pain is serious and debilitating. Otherwise an Alexander Technique teacher can work with you to minimise the hip joint rigidity and get things moving again.

Let’s start in sitting.

Find a chair and sit on it. Stick your hand under your bottom and you should feel a big bone on each side. That bone is called the sit bone (ischial tuberosity). Even if you have a big bottom, you can still feel those bones. For some people, the sit bones are a big discovery. They’re called sit bones because they are great to sit on. See the second drawing. The sit bones are represented by the green section.

Now you may not be sitting on your sit bones. You could be curling down onto the tail bone.

May I suggest you try, as an experiment, sitting on your sit bones? Keep your feet on the ground.