Blog | Gokhale Method® - Primal Posture™ for a Pain-Free Life

How to Choose a Backrest

Esther Gokhale

January, 2022

It makes sense to be discerning about your backrests and to understand the ways in which they can help or hurt.

This blog post is about sitting with a backrest, which could be the back part of a chair, or something added to the chair for additional support and comfort. Support and relief Virtually any backrest will give relief that a tired back will appreciate. Support is certainly preferable when we sit for longer periods of time to enjoy reading, TV, a movie, or, if we are lucky, live theater. With the trunk slightly inclined against a backrest, there is less compressive force due to gravity acting on the spine. In addition, the trunk stabilizer muscles get a break. When we are driving or traveling by plane or train, a backrest also confers additional protection from vibration or any untoward impact. Read more

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Fixing my Posture Fixed my Pain

Kapil

December, 2021

I am a 45-year-old software engineer living in California. I grew up and lived in India until I was 37. In my mid-twenties I developed lower back pain and right hip pain, and I recollect having a series of MRIs and medical traction but obtaining nothing more than temporary relief. I also went for Indian massage therapy, which did effectively relieve the pain for some years. Read more

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Initial Online Consultation

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Running: Part 1: Introduction

Esther Gokhale

December, 2021

As little children we would break into a run without a second thought—it was fun! Pexels

Welcome to our first blog post in a new series on running. This series is designed to be useful to beginners and would-be beginners, as well as seasoned runners and everyone in between.

Running is primal

Running was a defining feature in our development as a species. We are built to run. As children, almost all of us enjoyed this facility. You may believe that you are too injured, too old, or too uncoordinated to consider jogging—and you may be right—but I would still like to invite you to bring running onto your radar as something to work towards. Read more

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cardiovascular health

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Home Exercises Part 4: Low Planks

Esther Gokhale

November, 2021

Plank develops muscular strength and coordination to align, support, and protect your spine.

This is our fourth blog post in the series where we put popular exercises under scrutiny to examine how they stack up—or not—against the principles of healthy posture. Here we are looking at “low plank,” a whole-body exercise that particularly develops abdominal strength and trunk stability.

Our model for the photographs is Eric Fernandez, our Gokhale Exercise teacher who teaches the Gokhale Method in the Philadelphia area. Read more

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Old Family Portraits Are a Great Posture Tool: Part 3: Hip-hinging in Small Bends

Esther Gokhale

November, 2021

A girl playing croquet bends forward slightly (detail, right foreground). Kiddle

The healthy posture and positive change that antique images can bring to modern people are potentially transformational. In Part 1 of this series we looked at how learning from old photographs can benefit our upper body posture and in Part 2 the lower body. Here we are going to focus on what antique portraits can teach us about small bends. The historical paintings for this post come from collections associated with Leland and Jane Stanford, famous for their business acumen, political influence, railroad building, and later, philanthropy as founders of Stanford University in California. Read more

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Gokhale Method Success Story: Michael Ram

Michael Ram

October, 2021

I developed excruciating lower back pain in 2001. I was a tennis player, downhill skier, and a marathon runner. I was also under a lot of financial pressure in a stressful job as a consumer class action lawyer.
My doctor diagnosed me with a herniated disc at L4-L5. He said that a piece of my disc was sitting on the nerve. I tried everything to stop my pain but nothing worked. In January 2002 I underwent a laminectomy which removed some of the vertebral bone next to the herniation to make room for the nerve root. Read more

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Spinal Cord Stimulator

TENS