My mother developed Parkinson’s Disease (PD) over 22 years ago. My mom’s brother passed away from PD, and another relative on the maternal side also suffered with it. I also have a more distant “uncle” who is in the early stages of PD, who I visit. This particular disease has loomed large in my family and my life for over two decades, but many of its challenges and what helps will apply to those living with other diseases and their caregivers. In this blog post I would like to share how the Gokhale Method has helped my mom, my family, and me.
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This blog post explains how some common yoga injuries occur and how applying the principles of healthy posture to yoga postures replaces this scenario with movements that are good for your body.
Yoga postures and back pain
Growing up in Mumbai, India, my Dutch mother was a student of BKS Iyengar and the Satyananda yogis, and keen for me also to learn yoga asanas, or postures. I practiced, and, being reasonably athletic as a child and already trained in Indian classical dance (Bharata Natyam), did not find it particularly difficult to choreograph the back bends, forward bends, and twists that were asked of me. I became a yoga model, demonstrating postures alongside visiting swamis’ presentations to induce the audience to sign up for upcoming yoga courses.
If you’ve been participating in our ongoing Posture 1-2-3 Challenge for alumni, chances are you’ve seen my longtime student, Joan Baez, who regularly joins in. At age 79, she’s sturdy and beautiful, with shapely legs, toned arms, and a peachy, perky butt. Although we’ve all enjoyed her bodacious pipes for many decades, she hasn’t always been such a well-rounded posture student. In her 20s and 30s, her boombox was highly functional, but her booty was lacking. Learn how a posture upgrade helped Joan develop her glutes, and how you can develop yours, too -- regardless of age!
Feeling happy after a lesson.
If you ask Joan Baez what keeps her in good enough shape to do worldwide musical tours at age 78, she will hand you a little brown card that says “Esther Gokhale, Creator
When I was 12 years old my mother took me to our family doctor for a check up. I remember him looking at me and saying “One of your shoulders slopes down more than the other. Isn’t that interesting!”
Beginning in June 2016, we sent online surveys about lower back pain to all students enrolled in our group 6-lesson Gokhale Method Foundations course. We chose the Roland-Morris Questionnaire [1], and