BodyProgram

Many people think they should do certain exercises which can produce specific effects and put them together to get the desired physical development.
What is your “desired physical development”? Is it fitness, tough muscles, health or anything else?
很多人認為做一些特定的運動來鍛鍊身體是必須的，他們認為將某些特定運動的效果相加起來，可以達到他們鍛鍊身體的目標。你鍛鍊身體的目標是什麼呢？是塑身減肥、成為肌肉男、為了健康、還是其他？

The old idea of muscle development is to train the specific parts of the body by direct means. There is nothing in the suggestions to show that most physical effort tends to increase thoracic rigidity and to cause breathlessness. Consequently, the muscle tension in specific parts tends to develop undue contraction and raising of the chest and to increase lordosis curve of the back. It is undoubted that doing the exercises can and does build up the muscles on the outside of the body, but the tendency to increased rigidity is not diminished and the structural defects already built in the body before doing exercises can be exaggerated.
以肌力訓練為例，一直以來，大家對於肌力訓練的觀念都在於直接在特定的肌肉群上作工，僅僅將注意力完全放在目標肌肉群上，但是卻沒有注意到當我們認真在舉啞鈴或做其他的重量訓練時，胸腔竟不知不覺地緊張起來，呼吸也變得不順暢。我們容易忽略特定訓練部位的肌肉緊張度，會造成胸腔肌肉多餘的緊張，因而胸腔容易往上抬、背部向前突出，整個頭、頸、背的肌肉都會過度緊張。雖然做這些運動確實會讓我們表層的肌肉群比較發達，但是因運動而過度僵硬的身體，卻使原本身體的問題或缺點變本加厲。

People think that something is wrong with the physical development of many of the modern people, so the physical exercises are advocated. This is actually a misunderstanding of the cause and effect. Actually if there is anything wrong with a person’s physical development, it is chiefly caused by the wrong manner of use of the self. The manner of use depends on our sensory guidance. That means we do what we feel is right to do. Unfortunately, our sensory guidance is unreliable so that it is not easy for us to realize whether we move our whole body correctly and efficiently or not because the effort we make to do the exercises “right” is actually “wrong”.
很多人認為現代人身體的毛病有許多是因為缺乏運動所致。但亞歷山大認為這是一般人對於其相關因果的誤解，他認為錯誤的身體使用方式才是造成許多身體不適及慢性病的主因。我們使用身體的方式是由已經在腦中駐記了的特定路徑所引導，我們依循自己認為正確的動作模式來做運動或任何其他活動，但不幸的是，我們這些既定的動作引導模式卻不見得是正確可靠的，在成長過程中，有太多養成不良習慣的情況及機會，但我們卻沒有意識到，以至於在運動時，我們可能認為自己做得很正確，但事實上卻是做了錯誤且對我們的身體造成傷害的動作。

The habitual manner of general use in daily activities is fundamentally brought into the exercises. Those bad habits are not only exaggerated but new bad habits are cultivated. That’s why the same set of exercises was responsible for quite different effects in different people. John Dewey, the famous educator in America, pointed out that in methods of general education, new defects are cultivated during attempts to eradicate old ones. Therefore, before we are given any instruction to perform the exercises, we should know where our misdirection lies and give the misdirection the means to prevent it. Then we can really get the benefit from exercises instead of building up more and more bad habits and physical problems.
我們日常生活的姿勢和動作習慣都會影響運動的品質，這些習慣甚至會被增強，如果習慣不正確，還會因此養成其他不好的習慣。就因為每個人使用身體的習慣和方式都不同，所以同一套運動由不同的人做，會產生相當不同的效果。美國知名教育學家約翰．杜威曾撰文指出，目前一般的教育方式都是想要破除舊有的缺點，卻忽略了在這當中我們又不知不覺養成了新的缺點。所以當我們在做任何運動之前，必須先知道我們有哪些錯誤習慣，並在運動的過程中避免這些錯誤發生，才能避免傷害、真正獲得運動帶來的好處並達成我們運動希望達到的目的。

How to eradicate the defects discussed so far and really get our goal by exercises?
1.Build up correct proprioception.
2.Discover and apply good primary control.
3.Employ the good primary control into your exercises.
4.Employ the good primary control in your manner of use and constantly influence your daily activities and the body function.
If is easier to start with the instruction of a qualified Alexander Technique teacher.

那麼，我們應該如何真正改正錯誤以達到運動成效呢？
1.建立正確的本體感覺。
2.發現並應用正確的身體基礎控制（頭—頸—背的相對關係）。
3.運動時維持正確的身體基礎控制。
4.在日常生活中時時提醒自己保持良好的身體基礎控制，使你一天24小時的活動以及身體的功能運作都能保持在最佳狀態。
然而，建立正確的本體感覺與身體基礎控制並不容易，因為我們的習慣很難靠自己來發覺，所以尋求合格亞歷山大技巧教師的協助是較快且較容易達成目標的方式。

Finally, most people perform the exercises for just a certain time during the day. In fact, people gain the muscle tension in a comparatively short time daily with wrong habitual use is not really helpful for our muscle endurance and body function. Alexander advocates that as long as we adhere in everything we do to the principle of consciously inhibiting interference with the employment of the primary control, then our ordinary daily activities can be made a constant means of psycho-physical development in its fullest sense.
最後必須一提的是，多數的人只能騰出一天中的一小段時間來運動，但是短時間、錯誤的習慣、緊繃的肌肉群等這些現代人的運動習慣，對於肌耐力以及身體整體運作功能的發揮來說，幫助實在有限，甚至會有反效果。亞歷山大技巧提倡的是，我們要避免及改正那些阻礙良好身體基礎控制的習慣，在每天的活動中，持續地以正確的身體使用方式來增進健康，如此才是最有效率、最能達成目標的方式。

參考文章：
F. Matthias Alexander, “The Universal Constant in Living”(2000), pp.41-59.
http://home.kimo.com.tw/richardpeng76/