In early 1985, I had the cleaning and gardening contract at the Boyne Island Shopping Centre in Queensland, Australia. I was 18.
One afternoon, I was watching the local news and lifting buckets of bricks to try to build myself up. I’m always going on these self-help kicks. I thought this weight lifting would give me a more impressive body and help me to get a girlfriend.
This woman came in who I didn’t like much. She took one look at me straining to lift the bricks during the latter end of my set and she said, “You’re only making your posture worse.”
I ignored her. I probably just grunted. But I never forgot her words. I didn’t understand them fully but I feared that she was on to something.
Then in 2008, I began taking Alexander Technique lessons and came to understand the destructiveness of work-outs that ingrain bad habits of needless compression and tension.
This woman was a dancer and probably had some good ideas about ease of use that would’ve been of great benefit to me but I was too stubborn to listen to her. At age 42, however, I was able to look back 24 years and realize she was right.