Testimony: Yoga, VR, and Alexander Technique -- Nick Mellor
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I have never been properly diagnosed with any particular condition,
and don't feel that any diagnosis would add much to my knowledge of
my own condition. I have spent years researching it, after all.
Somehow I don't subscribe to the common view that it's a relief to
know the name of your affliction, though it is to know that you're
not alone. Sorehand was a revelation to me. I have seen GPs
(physicians), physiotherapists and Alexander teachers and have been
very impressed by them, with the exception of the GPs. They were the
only people who named my condition (RSI, they said) and offered me
aspirin and ibuprofen which I do not regard as any kind of solution.
One doctor, having held my arm like a piece of chicken (except that
she clearly hadn't a clue what to do with it), at least had the
humility to say she was not knowledgeable on the subject and referred
me to a colleague. I'm afraid I had had enough of GPs, skipped the
more knowledgeable colleague and went to see a manipulative
physiotherapist instead, who was brilliant. The other GP told me it
was psycho-somatic, that I should push through it, and that of course
the recent European legislation on the subject was utter nonsense.
The non-GP health professionals, I think significantly, never once
said "Oh yes, you've got disease/disorder/syndrome X". I could myself
have found evidence (from what I've read of other peoples'
experiences) for diagnoses ranging from CTS, Thoracic Outlet
Syndrome, tendonitis to nerve damage and others at various stages,
but they all come and go. I would never go near an operating table. I
fear the risk of permanent damage, and I strongly suspect any relief
would be temporary. Much of my trouble, I believe, is postural and
generally life-style related. These assumptions have served me
extremely well for five years, keeping me relatively healthy and
financially solvent. I find absolutely no reason to change them.

The last thing I want to do is give anyone false hope, and I am
acutely aware that RSIs must be treated on an individual basis. But I
frequently get CTS-style pains in my wrists and find that Yoga back
and shoulder stretches almost always alleviate them. A thorough 
workout with a knowledgeable yoga teacher works all the better.

My pain is relatively mild on the whole. It is a determined
traveller, moving between fingers, thumbs, wrists, shoulders, lower
back, thorax and upper thighs (mainly just persistent tension in my 
thighs-- this doesn't vary).  Currently I have trouble with
thumbs, wrists and lower back. The symptoms commute from place to
place regularly but do not vary that much in severity any more.

I derive a lot of benefit from back stretches, which can alleviate
wrist and thumb pain very quickly. From what I can make out this is
not an uncommon phenomenon. It is certainly worth trying Yoga as it
is not harmful even if ineffective for your particular problem. I
would be very surprised to find anyone who isn't helped at all by it.
It is also cheap and is about you taking control of your own
condition which as you may have guessed is my favourite approach.

I'm a beginner in Yoga and don't have a Yoga manual to hand to give
out the names of the asanas I find most beneficial. If anyone's
interested I'll post the exact names later. Informally they are
pelvic rotation (lie flat on back, arms out at shoulder level palms
down, knees bent, touch knees to the ground on either side while
turning head the opposite way), the Fish, the Plough,
shoulder-balances, bending from the hips with a straight back and
holding, corpse position for general relaxation, the Dog, the Cat
and, which I'm finding particularly good at the moment for
exercising my thoracic spine, the following pose:

Stand upright, arms above head, finger interlinked with palms facing
up. Keeping body and arms at full stretch, lean from side to side so
you feel a stretch under the armpit on the side you're leaning away
from. Don't try too hard. Try to relax *and* stretch simultaneously.
Comes more easily with practice.

I do a lot of routine work with a dictation system these days,
standing in front of my computer, but for some work (e.g. database
form design) I still need a standard keyboard and mouse. When I quit
my dictation system for a while I am astonished how quickly my
condition worsens, though this may be to do with the fixed state of
concentration I get into, with bad posture and insufficient breaks. I
still have a lot of work to do on my posture and work habits. I am
truly terrible at taking regular breaks. (This long post is no
exception!)

I use DragonDictate on a Pentium PC, and am very pleased with it.
Although my department have very kindly funded the hardware, I did
end up paying for the sound card and the software because at the time
of my application the British Access to Work scheme had run out of
money. The funding model for that organisation is typically ludicrous
and short-sighted in my opinion: the Government will not fund it on a
needs basis, getting physically and mentally impaired people the
equipment they require to be economically active and autonomous.
Instead they under-fund Access to Work, shelling out more money on
benefit payments than it would typically cost them to buy job access
equipment. There's a bitter answer to Michel's question about
disability "retirements", though I have no intention of retiring.

Another very useful treatment is personal reeducation. Alexander
Technique (through an Alexander teacher who has become a good
friend) has made me much more aware of my physical tensions, many of
which I suspect are behind my RSI symptoms. Certainly when I pay good
attention to Alexander principles (while walking, sitting, standing
and running) I am almost always better off-- less tense, less tired
and in less pain. I try to find time to lie in the semi-supine 
position for a few minutes every lunch time. This lengthens and 
releases the back, with many knock-on benefits (yes, including relief 
of my wrist and finger pain.)

To paraphrase heavily (I am not an expert), Alexander teaches you to
let go of semi-conscious bad habits by giving discretion back to the
vast "bodily wisdom" (my phrase-- borrowed from an old piano teacher)
inherent in the human nervous system. Children are often said to have
wonderful natural posture and energy partly because they haven't yet
developed bad habits that override this bodily wisdom. Alexander
Technique is based on a thorough knowledge of anatomy and the
fascinating principle of "inhibition". Inhibition is much like yogic
relaxation, a way of getting under your habits to the muscles you
have lost control of. Rather than "forcing" a muscle to relax (which
is counter-productive) you become aware of it and "feel" it lengthen
and soften, sort of like gently persuading it. I find it helpful to
visualise as I do this, seeing the muscle lengthen and loosen in my
mind. Although you don't have to be an anatomist to practise
Alexander, I have found that the more anatomical knowledge I acquire
the better. For example, to relax my shoulders I have been taught to
"feel lengthen and soften" the muscles from shoulder to centre of the
chest, from shoulder to elbow, and to "feel" my shoulder blade moving
down my back. These actions have strict counterparts in anatomy: you
can't relax the shoulder as a whole (or not so efficiently) because
there are several muscle groups involved, each of which should be
released for best results. The combination of the three "actions"
above has an extraordinarily powerful effect.

I have seen some posts and some resources compare Alexander
unfavourably with Feldenkrais, saying that Alexander is based on a
dogmatic set of rules. I can't comment on Feldenkrais but this simply
isn't true of Alexander. It is much more about reasserting your own
body's autonomy and freeing it from the tyranny of inappropriate
conscious control, much as yogic "discipline" has the effect of
freeing the practitioner. Alexander gives you a wonderful sense of
freedom and release and effortlessness, but it is difficult to
inhibit deeply ingrained habits at first.

I also have a general set of stretching exercises from my latest
physiotherapist, which I use during my (too infrequent) breaks from
the computer. They too alleviate symptoms, this time by stretching
neck, shoulder and back muscles. They have the advantage that I can
practise them while sitting at my desk or standing [sic] in front of
my computer.


I'm not cured and probably never will be completely but I have got
myself back from an agonising condition that prevented me tapping in
a telephone number without trying 4 or 5 times to a very manageable
chronic one. I hope to publish a more detailed version of the above
on my World Wide Web page. I'm still thinking about it and trying to
find time to put it together, and I'd be really grateful for any
feedback on the above. Please feel free to ask questions if anything
interests you. I've had quite a lot of positive experience and would
be more than happy to pass on what I've found out about my own case.


+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=  Nick Mellor  =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
      Faculty of Law, University of Leeds
         W Yorkshire LS2 9LA, ENGLAND
        Tel +44 113 233 5058 Fax 5056
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/staff/nickm/nickm.html
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