The Pitfalls of High Heels
My first Alexander Technique teacher taught group classes in his studio. Once in awhile, he would venture out into the anteroom where students left their coats and shoes and would return holding aloft a pair of high-heeled shoes, demanding in a booming voice, "Who belongs to THESE!" There would follow a moment of embraced silence until some poor woman would meekly confess.
In retrospect, I don't think this was a particularly good strategy. Public humiliation is unlikely to enhance any learning process, certainly not one so subtle as learning the Alexander Technique. And in my yeas of experience since then, Alexander teachers usually go out of their way to provide a friendly, supportive atmosphere for their students.
But like many other Alexander Technique teachers, I do try my best to coax wearers of high-heeled shoes to lessen their dependence on them and, if at all possible, to gradually give them up entirely. Fortunately our notions of acceptable work wear have changed and it's a lot easier to do this today than twenty-five years ago when I was having my first lessons.
Why are Alexander teachers so concerned about this issue?
There are two main reasons: First, high-heeled shoes throw the entire weight of the wearer forward, making it far more difficult to sustain upright balance. They force the women wearing them to use a lot of extra muscular effort to keep themselves from falling forward. Much of this extra effort is concentrated in the lower back, producing an exaggerated arch which can easily lead to back pain.
But the distorting effects go far beyond the lower back. Human bodies function as a whole and so it's not possible to create undue tension in one region without also producing a series of related restrictions extending from the head down to the feet.
Shallow breathing, tight necks and shoulders, knee and ankle pain - these are just a few of the possible consequences of giving up the easy and natural upright balance designed into our structure and replacing it with a system of muscular tugs and pulls that attempt to keep us from falling over.
A second important reason for our concern about wearing high heels is that they make it very difficult for the feet to carry out their important sensing and balancing roles. The underlying structure of the human foot is very similar to that of the hand - lots of bones and joints designed to allow us to quickly and easily sense and adapt to whatever surface it contacts.
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