
A Compendium
of
Icebreakers, Energizers
and
Introductions
Alexander neck release
1.
Tell the participants that the neck is a prime area for muscular tensions.
Invite people to gently press the back
of
their necks with both hands and
to note how the muscles feel.
2.
Ask participants to stand with both feet flat on the ground and their
weight balanced evenly, hands hanging loosely by their sides when in a
resting position. When a disability makes standing difficult, encourage
sitting in as balanced a position as possible.
One way
of
testing this is
for them to sit on their hands and feel
if
the weight is evenly balanced on
the two hands.
3.
Announce that the activity to be done will help to release tension in the
neck and enable the head to be more freely balanced on the spine. It con-
centrates on working the muscles where the head balances on top
of
the
spine.
4.
Demonstrate to participants where the head balances on the spine by
having them run a finger up their own spinal column to feel where it
enters the skull. Ask them to imagine their head floating on top
of
their
spine at the point where the skull starts. A further useful image is having
the top
of
the head attached to a balloon which is gently tugging up-
wards. Pushing the nose or the chin up is to be avoided. This can be
helped by having the eyes look straight ahead comfortably at right
angles to the face.
5.
Make sure they have found this point
of
balance. Then ask participants
to begin gently rocking the head forward and back with very slight
movement
of
the nose up and down, thinking
of
the pivot as being the
topmost vertebra
of
the spine. Check how much they are moving their
head and
if
they are having difficulty producing only a small movement
ask them to put the fingers of both hands symmetrically on either side
of
the spinal column
of
the neck so that they can check that only the top
of
the spinal column is involved.
6.
A further exercise is to have them tum their heads very slightly to the
right and to the left. The movement will involve the second vertebra
only and should not twist the neck any lower.
7.
When these two movements have been established ask participants to
repeat and feel how hard their neck muscles are again. Most
of
them will
report that they feel much softer, indicating that some degree
of
relaxa-
tion has been achieved.
8.
Inform participants that relaxing the neck muscles encourages other
muscles
of
the body to relax, particularly
if
care is taken to achieve a
balanced body position.
18