donkey kick exercies question for Esther

Moving post to appropriate forum.

Hi Carlin,

I am glad to here that you are loving the glidewalk and feeling it has helped to make your walk better. Since you are feeling a little discomfort in your SI joint area, I would suggest that you make your glute squeezes a bit gentler when doing the glute strengthening exercise and also when glidewalking.  If you are overdoing it, you might be recruiting other muscles besides your gluteus medius and that might cause some discomfort.  Let your body and level of comfort be your guide. By doing the glidewalk you are developing strength in your gluteal muscles and the more you do the glide walking, the stronger your gluteal muscles will become.  We believe in working at a gentle pace for your body when practicing all the Gokhale Techniques. Your body and muscles are happiest making changes in a slow, gentle continuous way, thinking of improving your walk, and your gluteal muscle strength over weeks and months rather than in short intense periods. You also might experiment on focusing a bit on kidneybeaning your feet as you glidewalk. Keeping your feet in a kidneybean shape throughout the engagement and relaxation phases of the walk often helps students to recruit of the gluteus medius muscles, first one side and then the other, without oversqueezing those muscles.

Good luck in your glidwalking journey.  The best way to master all aspects of the glidewalk is to take a Gokhale class or course with a Gokhale Teacher.  The teacher will be able to give you individual feedback on how to optimize your glidewalking so it is relaxed,strong, balanced, and allows you to walk for hours with energy and comfort. 

Roberta Cooks MD

Gokhale Teacher