stretchsitting

Esther Gokhale shows the benefits of stretchsitting to wellness and yoga host Lizzie Lasater in a clip from their YouTube video, Is Sitting Aging You?

Every testimonial for the Gokhale Method® represents somebody’s journey out of pain, often after many years of misery, fear, and unsuccessful efforts. All of these people have done the hard miles of being in pain, and then been surprised at the simple pathway to being pain-free that is the Gokhale Method®.

Over the years, I have often shown students with recliners that they can get a compression-relieving stretch in their lower back as the backrest slides away from the seat (assuming the mechanism is designed advantageously). This is something you might like to try out for yourself.

You’ve tweaked your back. It may be a stabbing pain that catches with certain movements, it may be that you cannot straighten up, or maybe it’s an electrical, nervy sensation in your buttock.  

I first attended a weekend Gokhale  Foundations course in 2016, to address a painfully stiff neck. I loved it. I also found it intense. To incorporate all I was learning about body mechanics, I had to concentrate so hard that I'd emerge from class feeling like my brain had overheated. On top of that, I was rather sore in unexpected places, from using my muscles in new ways. 

Welcome to the second blog post in which I am delighted to tell you more about our exciting recent TV project. If you missed it, you can read The Secrets of Pain-Free Sitting, Part1: The Inspiration behind a New TV Show here. Getting the Gokhale Method out there People are sitting poorly and continue to blame sitting for their back pain. And so we created Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting, a pledge show that the Gokhale Institute made with producer Frank Zamacona for American Public Television (APT). The solution to back pain has never been so urgently needed—and now, with our new 45-minute show, so available.

It has been 14 years since my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back came out in hard copy. For years I had wished I had a book to send to those people who called me from the East Coast or Midwest. These were often relatives or friends of people I had worked with in California, who were suffering terrible back pain and needed help. And so I got writing.  A book to solve back pain Although there was clearly a huge need for a book to solve back pain, I was still surprised to find I had written a bestseller. It reached number two on Amazon.com following our American Public Television program in 2011, and number three following the New York Times article (paywall) naming me “The Posture Guru of Silicon Valley” in 2013. It has now been published in 12 languages (Croatian later this year), and sold over 250,000 copies.

Everyone in this 1957 photograph reflects effortless elegance and poise. Their shoulders rest toward the back of their torsos, and their necks and backs are elongated. My mom and dad are on the left. Despite recent complaints of leg and knee pain at night, my mom resisted Gokhale Method instruction. At 95 years old, she said she was too old to change. However, I could see that certain activities increased her pain. In the end, she consented to instruction — and subsequently reported diminished leg pain and increased stability in walking.

One regular challenge you are likely to face in your posture journey is the battle against the oversized sofa. Here are some tips to help you maintain good form and stay pain-free when relaxing on a sofa.

Want to avoid the habitual curled, tucked position that most couches seem to encourage? Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash.

Stretchsitting

Your first line of defense against a deep, soft couch should be stretchsitting. This will make your seated time therapeutic as well as relaxing. Some couches, made of fabric with some degree of friction and having seats that aren’t too deep, may not be difficult to stretchsit on. If you’re lucky, you can simply hook yourself up against the back of the sofa

We set a high bar for our six-lesson Gokhale Method Foundations course. We expect our students will 

Sit, stand, walk, lie, and bend in new (old!) and better waysExperience significantly less pain and more functionExpect more from their body and life. Use the word “life-transforming” somewhere in their evaluation forms.

Even with this high bar, a student sometimes surprises us with the extent or speed of their progress over the course. Abigayil Tamara is one such student - here is her story. 

My Experience With the Gokhale Method
~Abigayil Tamara, MA, MSW

I looked into the Gokhale Method after someone in a grocery store told me how much it had helped his mother. 

My back issues began over 34 years