Hello, I'm new to this forum and have been trying to implement the Gokhale method into my life since April. Since the birth of my 5th child last year in August, I'd been struggling with some lower back pain/spasams & what has been more relentless - midback/shoulder blade pain. I noticed that I really slump my shoulders forward and started looking for advice on how to fix my posture. That is when I came across this book. I have had some relief in my midback/shoulder blade pain, it still flares up if I need to hold my son a lot. I was hoping for some tips on how to hold him in a way that doesn't aggravate this. I know baby carrying is mentioned in the book, but he's 10months old, it's a lot of up and down. Which brings me to my next question, the bending down! Hip hinging has been a challenge and discipline for me, but when I started to slowly implement it, it is also what improved my midback/shoulder pain the most. I'm not always sure I'm always hiphinging with the proper mechanics, especially when I'm lifting my 23# son up and setting him down numerous times during the day. It really feels quite streneous on my back at times and I'm not sure how to maintain perfect posture while I do this. I've started to develop some pelvic pain (psoas?) recently that I think is attributed to hip hinging. Any tips that you have on how to hip hinge to constantly lift a baby would be helpful! I'm also including a photo of me stacksitting and one of me holding him on my side, just incase I'm completely missing the mark! I tried to have a photo taken where I wasn't positioning my body for it first, if I'm not thinking about it, these are probably the positions I go to, if I think about it, I know I do better!
4 min 40 sec ago
11/03/2015 - 2:37am
Hello Mrs Rogers :)
Firstly, kudos to you for investing the time and energy to protect your back with 5 children to look after! I sometimes struggle with just one!
Your stacksitting and tallstanding look wonderful. You are doing a great job!
I can see that your shoulders and head are further back in the standing picture than the sitting one. Keeping up your shoulder rolls and lengthening the back of your neck are key to relieving your mid-back pain.
Hiphinging is quite an active position for the back muscles, and when you add the extra resistance of lifting your son, it can become quite a workout. I recommend engaging your Inner Corset (Chapter 5) prior to hiphinging, and then trying to maintain it as you bend, pick up your son, and straighten back up. Inner Corset helps you to be more sure that you are maintaining a J-spine as you go down, and gives you more strength and robustness for lifting your son.
I’m afraid I can’t make any inference about the pelvic pain you’re experiencing without seeing you in person.
Keep up the great work, and, if in doubt, use your fingertips to assess the groove in your back :)
Best wishes,
Tegan Kahn, Gokhale Method Teacher, Canberra, Australia
6 years 3 months ago
07/10/2018 - 4:15pm
I appreciate your feedback. I've been trying so many things to help my back, yoga videos, stretches, massage, chiropractor... This is the only thing that's helped and the only think I don't have to set apart time to do! It's been interesting to me how my body has responded to each new step I've implemented. Some of it has felt akward at first, but once you get it- it's like your body just falls in line, it knows it was made to move in that way :)