Welcome to the second lecture. In this lecture, we're going to talk about FM Alexander's term primary control. So what is primary control? Well, basically it's just awareness of the relationship of the head to the spine in activity. Have a description of primary control by a scientist called Frank Pierce Jones are really two primary control. FM Alexander's discovery that the dynamic relationship of the head and the neck promotes maximal lengthening of the body and facilitates movement throughout the body.

So that's one of many descriptions of the primary control. When I asked groups to point where their neck joint is, most of the time, they will point To this area, C seven c seven area but in actual fact the neck joint is between your ears. Alright, so this is where the skull or head sits on top of the spine. If you take your fingers and you put them behind your ears, and you feel you will feel two bony two bony parts. This this bony part is is actually the Atlas or C one vertebrae and it sits at the very top of the spine. So there, that's where the neck joint is in the center.

It's very high up. All right, so most people don't realize how high the top of the neck is. And this is again, this is where the head sits on top of the spine. Also In the center where they, at the top of the spine there, there are a group of there's a small group of muscles called the suboccipital muscles. And by becoming aware of these muscles and thinking of them being soft, and releasing, this will actually have an effect on the whole body. So this is something you could do to practice.

Think of these muscles as releasing or being soft or letting go and this will help with your, this will help with your overall coordination. Also at the back, we have the trapezius muscle, which starts here. Then it goes to the shoulders, and it ends in the mid back area, the trapezius, it's a very large, strong muscle. And this has a powerful grip of the head. So when the head goes back, normally this is this strongest muscles. So it has a very large amount of leverage on the head.

So when the head goes back, this muscle activates first. So by thinking of this large muscle being soft, it will it will facilitate the head releasing upwards and away from the spine, which is beneficial for the total coordination. Again, this is something you can practice maybe if you're standing in a queue or waiting, you can think of the this muscle being softer releasing and it will have an effect. Some of the effects might be you will breathe easier, you will feel less tension down through the body. So, if you if you notice that this is the principle of primary control, the weight of the head is next. If we look at this picture, We see that your head is very heavy.

It weighs between 10 and 12 pounds, or 4.5 kilograms to five kilograms. So when we see that he has very heavy and it sits on top of the spine, the cervical spine is very delicate. And you can see that you've got all this weight balanced on top of this delicate cervical spine. So it's very important that there's a good alignment between the head and the spine, because it's it's affecting everything else. So that this is why this is why people get back pain and they don't know where it's coming from. It's also affecting the ribs and your breathing.

Alexander said that the primary control when it's working properly, has a profound effect on breathing. So that The weight of the head, very important. Here's another picture again, showing the primary control. When the heads going back onto the spine, this compression being sent down the spine. Alright? So when you're interfering with this optimal relationship, and you don't know that you're doing it, there's compression going down the spine.

Here's another activity you can try to practice or to understand the mechanism. If you take your and, and your and we're going to imagine this is your head, this is your neck, and this is your body. So it's like a smaller version of head, neck, body, head, neck body. So when I throw the head back, like this, when the head when I throw my head back You can feel tension down the arm, hopefully. All right. And then when I, when I stopped from my head back, the head just pops up, okay, pops forward and up the head.

And then you can feel there's less tension down through the body. So when I throw my head back, and I'm not conscious, I'll have tension going down the body. When I release the neck, the head pops forward and up, and I have less tension down the body. So it's the same mechanism here. So that's another way to understand the principle. And one more is how do we interfere with this relationship?

How and why do we interfere with this relationship? Well, Alexander found that most of the time people weren't conscious that they were interfering with this relationship. So an example I'll give you is, let's say for example, drinking someone might take a drink like this When they drink something, okay? So when people do these types of things, they're not conscious of the primary control and they optimal relationship of the head to the spine. So that's one way and here could be a more efficient way. So you can hopefully you can see the difference in the first one, and the second one.

And this is only one small example of the many ways that we interfere with this relationship unconsciously. Also, it's, when you look up, it's it's fine to put your head back if if if you're conscious that you're doing it. That doesn't mean that you can never put your head back. You can put your head back to look up if you want, and you can throw your head back if you want, but Are you conscious that you're doing it, that's the most important thing. Because when people are throwing their head back and they're not conscious that they're doing it, that could be a problem. So that's my lecture on primary control.

I'll see you in the next lecture.