What Is A Snap-Back?

AKA What does progress in the Alexander Technique feel like?

It’s been an interesting week of lessons here in NYC. I’ve been seeing more and more folks coming in with spines twisted into various shapes. These twists come with all sorts of pain symptoms and my heart truly goes out to anyone that’s suffering with pain or discomfort.

When people with injury have their first lesson, it can be a bit of an overwhelming experience. I’ll regularly meet people who have been stuck with their injury for 10 years. They go through periods where they meet lots of doctors and try various methods of physical therapy/yoga/pilates. They do all the things everyone says you should do to recover and they hit a wall and get stuck. Understandably, they get frustrated and become stressed that their entire life will be nothing but injury¹.

After their first lesson, these folks are typically a bit surprised that something actually helped them feel better. It can create a sense of hope and a very practical concern that they will only ever feel better if I walk around behind them with a hand of their head, neck, and back all day. Naturally, their first question is, “How often do I need to see you”?

These folks are typically shocked when I tell them that I need to see them 3 times per week. I normally explain to them that learning something like the Alexander Technique takes time and repeated experiences. Martial artists train at least 3 times per week. College lecture courses are 2-3 times per week for a full semester (over a 4 year period).

But aside from the practicalities of how we learn and absorb information, using the Alexander Technique as a method of injury recovery also comes with a degree of pain management and I think it’s high time that I share with you my own experiences with recovery, pain management, and lesson frequency.

Early Days

I began my studies of the Alexander Technique in 2011 after hitting rock bottom with my injury recovery. I had had enough physical therapy post ACL surgery to know that the standard physical therapy method would not be appropriate for my particular injury. My particular injury was a type of repetitive strain injury from working out of a broken chair (an employer mandate to save money). I had whiplash from head to toe, threw my back out once per month, and had electric shocks of pain down my right arm if I typed too much on a given day.

Eventually, my saxophone teacher gave me an ultimatum; “Study the Alexander Technique or find a physical therapist that exclusively deals with musician injuries and sort this out or I’ll fire you as a student”. It was a moment of deeply human leadership and empathy from an incredible musician and it’s how I eventually found Beret Arcaya as an Alexander Technique teacher.

The result of my first lesson was dumbfounding. I felt every ounce of pain go away and had a tremendous feeling of poise and balance. My head was balancing on the midline for the first time in 3 years and I knew I needed to continue studying. The next thing I knew, I had my next 3 lesson times in Beret’s calendar for the following week and we got to work.

There were so many wonderful moments during that time. The ability to confidently show up to work and know that I could get through the day without pain was a real game changer for me, but it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. After a few lessons, Beret warned me that I was going to start experiencing a new kind of pain and man oh man was she RIGHT.

In a lesson, a student can experience a lot of increased length in their spine. This happens as the musculature releases its habitual hold the head finds a better balance atop the spine. The more crunched up your spine is at the start of the lesson, the more potential length you can gain by the end.

While it can feel great to have a ton of increased length in the spine, it asks the back muscles to support your weight in a new - more balanced way. This new balance is a form of muscular training. And just like you’ve felt fatigue and soreness from physical exercise, you will likely feel the same thing just from walking around slowly after an Alexander Technique lesson.

I can vividly remember walking the 2 blocks from Beret’s studio to the N train at Union Square after one of these early lessons. The first block felt incredible. Time seemed to move slowly and everything seemed to moved with such supple ease.

By the time I reached the second block though, I started to feel this incredible force crushing me down. My back started to ache more than it ever had before and I was beginning to get scared that I was just going to collapse on the ground. The sensation was completely bizarre and felt nothing like a muscle pull or spasm.

What I was experiencing was a reversion to my habitual poor posture (for lack of a better word) as my weaker back muscles hit fatigue and could no longer support my weight with upright balance. I sometimes call this a snap-back. Snap-backs are a normal part of learning the Alexander Technique for those of us with more severe injuries and learning to manage them is a very real part of the recovery process.

Fortunately, I made it to the subway that evening and found a seat. But the pain continued as I sat down on the train. I texted Beret in a panic about what was happening and she gently assured me that I just needed to slowly get home and immediately do a lie down.

The 15 minute walk from the train station to my apartment was absolute hell that day. But I did as I was told and lay down in constructive rest. After about 30 minutes, I felt fine and didn’t have any adverse feelings of being pulled down the next morning.

lots of snapping back!

Snap-Backs and Lesson Frequency

It was a damn good thing that I had 3 lessons per week during this early period. One of the benefits to having lessons that frequently is that you’re only ever 2 days away from your next lesson. The hands-on work from a good teacher gives you repeated experiences of not pulling down on yourself and you get more and more experiences of the right muscles supporting the right weight in the right way².

Over the following 15 years, I had all sorts of different frequencies. Sometimes I’ve had wonderful walks where I’ve had all sorts of things open up in my head, neck, and back. It feels terrifically rewarding - and good - to experience these things without the aid of a teacher, but it does come with a price. Things will snap-back from fatigue at some point and without the help of another teacher, those snap-backs can linger for 2-3 days.

For some people, this kind of snap-back can be debilitating and keep them away from work. For others, it’s just a matter of tolerating a bit of pain and being grumpy. There’s really no way to predict what will happen to you or how you will handle it but I think it’s extremely important that you know that this is normal and manageable.

In fact, it’s a sign that you’re slowly gaining strength and stamina with your balance.

Does This Resonate With You?

These blogs are hopefully a way of helping you better understand yourself, how you function, and why things sometimes feel off in a general way. If these posts are helpful, I encourage you to subscribe, leave a comment, ask a question, or check out the archives for my previous articles. I like hearing from everyone and I’ll do my best to respond as I can.

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.

1. I want to point out that each injury is unique. Certain types of injuries are permanent. Others can be slowly changed through conservative methods.

2. whatever “right” means…