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| The Alexander Technique: A Complete Course in How to Hold and Use Your Body for Maximum Energy | 
 enlarge | Author: John Gray
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $2.32
You Save: $14.63 (86%)
New (21) Used (27) from $2.32
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 530216
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 7 x 0.4
ISBN: 0312064942
Dewey Decimal Number: 615.82
EAN: 9780312064945
ASIN: 0312064942
Publication Date: November 15, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Alexander Technique is a proven process of mind and body reeducation that reduces stress and muscle tension, and revitalization those who practice it. Used by many actors, athletes, and dancers, the technique can help anyone increase his or her energy and achieve a more dynamic presence.
Written by a veteran instructor of the Alexander Technique, this authentic and easy-to-follow guide allows everyone to learn the increasingly popular program, with clear instructions for each exercise, and dozens of helpful photographs that show correct and incorrect positions to use for the exercises and throughout the day.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Dreadful, Should be a one page book January 25, 2005
30 out of 36 found this review helpful
Far and away the most tedious and tiresome book I have read in a long time. The author writes in a style popular at the turn of the century. Unfortunately, the century was 1800s. Dry, overly complicated, and filled with word selections such as "whilest" and "Effortful"; using those terms and language as the Alexander himself did, in the early 1900's. It is one thing to honor the originator, it is another to make the text convoluted and unreadable in an attempt to be "faithful" to the technique.
As a "how to" book, this one fails miserably. The best that can be said for it is that it is a mediocre "how not to" book; the author spends much more time telling you the wrong way things are done rather than the correct way to do them. The photos in the text that show the wrong way, far outnumber the photos showing the correct way to do things. Photos showing proper technique are poor at best.
As an example, the author elected to use a photo of a toddler walking as an example of good posture. Since no toddlers are reading this book and they are substantially physiologically different from adults, I doubt that was the best example to give. Showing an adult in a good example of the technique would have been much better and more illiminating. In the few photos where adults are used to demonstrate the correct posture, the effect is somewhat unattractive.
While I have no doubt the concept behind "The Alexander Technique" is a good one, and it has many health benefits, the actual technique and the teaching of it can only be described as overly complicated. Designed to confuse the reader into thinking there is more to it than there really is. Some of the things promoted in the text such as: "Experts" in the technique,
"Qualified Teachers", "slow step by step process that you could never hope to achieve on your own...". are just there to try and shroud the technique in a false mystery. Marketing plain and simple.
If the author elected to use language designed to clearly educate, illuminate and instruct, this book might have been a worthwhile addition. He didn't and therefore, it isn't.
Let me save you the cost, and the time required to wade through this gobbledie gook.
1. Keep you head balenced on top of your spine
2. Relax your neck to help direct and condition the balence of the head.
3. Stand up straight without forcing yourself into the position.
4. When you can stand and sit straight, comfortably, with your entire body in a relaxed state, you've got it nailed.
That's it. Now go look for a book to buy with more to offer.
 A solid introduction to the Alexander Technique. August 14, 1999
30 out of 30 found this review helpful
I've read a dozen or so books about the Technique over the past dozen years. I became interested in the ideas behind the Technique after having had lessons with 2 very different Alexander Techers. Both teachers helped me a great deal with a chronic back pain problem I'd had since my twenties (I'm 67 now.) My first teacher was very non-verbal, but his hands-on-guidance was very clear and was able to change my posture quite a bit. My second teacher was far more verbal, and also had very good direction in her hands. She encouraged me to do some reading, starting with "Fitness Without Stress"(my favorite) and then "Body Learning" and most recently the Authorized summaries of Alexander's own four books(most of these you can get from Amazon - but the authorized summaries you have to get by mail from an Alexander Technique Professional Society - you can find out more at the Alexander Technique Bookstore at alexandertechnique.com/books)My sense is that Gray's book is not as clear as the other books's on the Technique I've read, although it does cover the basics.
 I've tried the others-this IS the best one not written by FM May 14, 1998
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I am a violinist with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Technique itself is an **invaluable** element of my life and work---and I would say this book is the best Alexander book not written by FM Alexander himself (it's also much easier to read than FM's brilliant but *very* Victorian prose). This would be my Desert Island Alexander book!
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