Lazy Jenga
A General Way to Build a New You
This week I’m excited to announce the return of Mr. Blue! There’s no fun video in this article as my video editor bit the dust mid project (boooo). But fear not! He will make a return in video form along with his new buddies, Mr. Yellow and Mr. White!**
I think you can guess what they look like…
For this week, I thought I’d talk about the general approach I’ve learned for restoring mobility to stiff/blocked joints. It’s something that Alexander Technique teachers talk about and use all the time without necessarily naming and it’s extremely different from the traditional PT approach of addressing postural change through exercise. The approach we use in the Alexander Technique is something that I think of as Lazy Jenga.
First… An Obligatory Caveat
Before I go on to explain what I’m talking about, I’d like to give you the reminder that if you haven’t been reading the previous articles you could be in for a world of hurt here. You could easily misinterpret today’s example and think that I’m about to suggest an exercise or stretch to create postural change. I’m not doing that today and in my experience that traditional approach won’t cut it.
What Is Jenga?
In the game of Jenga, a player must move a block from the middle or bottom of a tower and place it on top. After the player places the block on top, the next player gets a go and they also must pick from the middle or bottom of the tower. It is always forbidden to touch the top block.
Why???
Because if you could pick up the top block of the tower you would simply put it right back on top where it started. The tower wouldn’t change and the next player would do the same thing. Thus making Jenga the most boring game ever.
What Is Lazy Jenga?
Lazy Jenga is a game where it’s totally fine to move the top block. No one will ever tell you that you’re cheating and you’re free to move the top block all day long! You can’t lose!
OK… How Does That Apply to ME?
First, let’s take a look at Mr. Blue…
Poor Mr. Blue! If it’s not clear, it looks like he is shoving his head forward, tensing up his neck, arching his back, and leaning forward. I’ve also rolled his shoulders forward and done some tortuous things to his legs. He’s having a rough go for sure!
With all of these troubles that Mr. Blue has, where is it easiest to help him move?
Answer: The fingers and the head!
Why? Because these are the end points of Mr. Blue. If we attempt to move his knees or hips or middle back there will be an extremely high likelihood that Mr. Blue will lose his balance and fall. That will certainly breed discomfort and frustration!
Out of the two options - fingers and head - the top of the weight is the head. If we want to help Mr. Blue balance in a new way that creates less strain on the back, we should try to help him here rather than the fingers.
So here we see the beginning of Lazy Jenga! I’ve taken the time to ask Mr. Blue to pitch his head down. You can see that the head and the tippy top of the neck are now relatively happy. That is… the top joint is now in better balance even though the rest of Mr. Blue is a wreck***.
Now that we have created that bow, we can more easily get access to lower parts of the structure!
If you had a very clever eye, you will have noticed that Mr. Blue has been standing with slightly bent knees from the beginning. That’s really the only reason I could help him move his hip. Had we been playing a strict Lazy Jenga game I would have asked each vertebra of the spine to curl down and follow the head.****
You can see that Mr. Blue still has a wretched arch in his back. It can’t be comfortable!
As we’ve helped Mr. Blue curl down towards the ground, the arch has left his back. If he’s doing this nicely, he’ll be using Head Lead/Body Follow and a smooth elevator game to arrive at this point. I will argue that our progress up until this point has been achieved with the least resistance from Mr. Blue because we started with the head.
Had we instead attempted to immediately and directly unarch the middle back, the whole back would have locked OR we would have only been able to move the middle back by ram-rodding tension into the neck. Mr. Blue would NOT get the chance to experience a gentle/easy movement and would grow frustrated in a HURRY!
I want to minimise frustration for Mr. Blue while maximising change.
Can you tell I have a math degree yet?!?
Now why would I ask Mr. Blue to go this low? If you have a keen eye, check out the differences between the curves of the back in figures 4 and 5. In fig 4, Mr Blue has a relatively straight middle back, but the curve at the upper back/neck is casting down. Fig 4 has a head that is dropping down but it looks like the middle/lower back haven’t decided if they will follow the curve of the head and neck.
In figure 5, the middle and lower back have cast themselves into a full curve and finally gotten into sync with the head, neck, and the upper back.
Basically, Fig 5 is more of a rainbow shape and Fig 4 makes is more like a straight line for the back and a straight line for the neck and head meeting at a 110 degree angle.
Geez man… again with the math?!?!
But you know what’s most exciting about this? Lazy Jenga has given us access to the full articulation of the back!
Elevator Up
If you couldn’t see the difference between figures 4 and 5, check out figure 6! Mr. Blue is beginning to curl up to stand only he’s refusing to stiffen the neck and arch the back on the way up. If he’s experienced and thoughtful in his upward journey he won’t return to stand and cram tension into his neck and back!
Mr. Blue is almost back to standing. And LOOK! He he’s keeping his head in a bow so that Lazy Jenga can work it’s magic up the chain of the spine. Had he began pitching up in the head at this point, the arch in the back would absolutely have returned!
Mr. Blue is waiting!
Only now does Mr. Blue actually look up. His knees are still bent because I forgot to take a shot with his legs extended, but I’m hoping this makes my point!
So Is This Particular Sequence Lazy Jenga?!?
NOPE!
You will find that every teacher of the Alexander Technique has a unique way of helping a student relieve tension from joints and create new habits for standing, walking, and generally reacting to situations. Sometimes I’ll simply start with a student on the table in the lie down so that we can come to the real heart of the matter…. STOPPING.*****
Any teacher worth their salt will take some time to check and make sure that the top joint of the head and neck is able to move. It’s not just that this head neck freedom is FM Alexander’s terrific discovery and we all choose to copy him; it’s that we’ve all tried every kind of Jenga game you can dream up and Lazy Jenga is the most effective game we can play!
Get In Touch
If you’re in NYC, you may learn more about my private teaching practice at johndalto.com.
If you’d like to book any lesson time with me, you can find my booking link here.
** For those curios - I tracked down where Mom got Mr. Blue. Check out Stickybones.com!
***In my experience, when I give instruction to folks to do this (after having them read a bit on the attitude of quiet we all love), they begin to feel a very subtle change take place in the quality of tension in the neck. Changes that seem to happen outside of their direct willpower.
**** That is something more easily done seated.
***** I’d argue this is still playing a version of Lazy Jenga because I can help the student understand themselves and the head neck relationship.
Mr. Blue demonstrates SO well!! I think I understand this activity better!
good ol Mr Blue to the rescue!!