bunions

Each generation brings fresh perspectives to the way they live their lives. 

Each generation finds its own way of looking at things…Image from Pixabay

One trend to emerge from the Millennials (born 1981–96) and early Gen Zs (born 1997–2012) is self-optimization. 

Personal optimizers are aiming to optimize their productivity, happiness, intelligence, and health. If personal growth is about doing the right things, then personal optimization is about doing things right.

Healthy posture and a pain-free body enable you to optimize your work, rest, and play! Image from Pickpik

So what do self-optimizers work on?

Optimizing can be about doing what you are doing better, faster, with fewer resources, to higher quality, and with better results. The optimizers’ mindset needs self-awareness: awareness of your preferences, and what choices you are making every day—look at all the options and pick the best one. 

Some examples of self-optimization include exercising regularly, taking care of your diet, managing time and stress, and getting enough sleep, all with the aim of making your body and mind more resilient against fatigue, negative mood, and illness.

Broadly speaking, optimization is the act of changing an existing process in order to increase the occurrence of favorable outcomes and decrease the occurrence of undesirable outcomes. And this is exactly what the Gokhale Method® does—it enables people to exchange unhealthy, damaging, painful posture, for healthy, healing, pain-free posture. This allows you to meet your potential for musculoskeletal health.

Gokhale Method students can use the latest biofeedback tech with the Gokhale PostureTracker™ to assist in optimizing their posture.

Healthy posture helps you walk your talk

Healthy posture gives you a body that is upright but relaxed, and super-comfortable to live in, with an athletic bearing that says you are ready for life. People instinctively perceive this in others, and it makes a positive impression. 

Wealth coach, life coach, and entrepreneur Ramit Sethi saw himself in a photo taken from the side, and didn’t like what he saw. Presenting himself well is a priority for Ramit, so he went looking for help—he had no idea if such a thing as a posture coach existed. Back last December, he spoke generously on his YouTube channel about his sessions with Gokhale Method teacher Cynthia Rose, which he described as “life-changing.” 

Ramit explains how he optimized his Gokhale Method sessions to a busy schedule in NYC. For Ramit, healthy, good-looking posture is one of life’s riches.

Rahul shares his posture optimization on Google

Rahul Reddy runs his own business doing analytics for internet startups. Before his Gokhale Method course he wrote, “As a result of many hours at my desk I’ve lost strength, flexibility, and most certainly good posture. My goals are: 

1) Better posture and physical activity habits on work days. I have picked up bad movement and posture habits as I spent more time building my business. 

2) Rebuild my strength in other activities—I maintain a small vineyard, and work with clay… and I did enjoy doing more with my hands during the pandemic. 

3) Continuous improvement and future-proofing. 

Rahul took our in-person Foundations course, and later our online Elements course. Among the many techniques he has learned in becoming pain-free, he knows to externally rotate his legs, roll open his shoulders, open his chest, lengthen his neck, and engage his inner corset. Rahul now enjoys a more stable, athletic, and symmetrical stance.

Rahul was delighted to get out of pain and enjoy his activities more than ever by learning the Gokhale Method. Thank you for your Google review, Rahul!

Don’t be a posture pessimizer

Ok, that’s not a real word, but if you are a posture pessimist then you might find yourself saying things like, “I think I inherited my bunions,” or “Everyone in my family has a rounded upper back,” or “Nobody in my family has a butt,” or “I’m learning to live with my back pain.”

These statements are usually premised on misinformation, or are wanting in alternative points of view and experiences. For example, a posture optimizer will know:

• Bunions happen due to poor stance and undue pressure on the first metatarsophalangeal joint.
• A rounded upper back is often a result of tucking the pelvis.
• A flat butt simply points to the fact that you haven’t yet learned to use your buttock muscles in walking.
• Just because back pain is common does not make it normal! We should expect to not have it.

You don’t have to be a Millennial to be an optimizer! Every generation stands to gain from being inspired by healthy, pain-free posture. We are passionate about helping all people discover their best, pain-free selves.

Best next action steps

If you would like to optimize your posture, get started by booking a consultation, online or in person, with one of our teachers.

You can sign up below to join any one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops…

It is not uncommon for students to show up at our courses aware they have lost several inches of height since their youth. In our culture it is a widely held expectation that you grow up, and then, at some point in later life, start getting shorter again. We all see friends, neighbors, or family members who are on the downward run of this trajectory, and it is virtually common lore that you will “shrink” or stoop in later years.

Losing height in later life is characterized as inevitable in our society. Image from Freepik

Can I expect to lose height as I age?

It is true that trauma, malnutrition, or conditions such as degenerative disc disease or osteoporosis can lead to loss of height. But our experience of working with many thousands of people over the past three decades has shown that most height loss is due to poor posture.

Let’s consider the most common reasons that people lose height:

• A tucked pelvis: The pelvis is actually in its tallest orientation when it is anteverted, which means slightly tipped forward, rather than the commonly advocated “neutral pelvis.” Pelvic anteversion is evident in our infants, our ancestors, and those living in traditional societies today, and is what we teach our students. 

The tucked pelvis (a) is shorter and does not allow the spine to stack well on the sacrum and retain its height. More height is evident in the anteverted pelvis (b). 

• Unhealthy spinal curves: 

Sitting or standing with a tucked pelvis (a.), expect to see the spine adopt a compressive C-shape. This rounding of the back reduces overall height in sitting, standing, and walking. Trying to sit up or stand up straight with a tucked pelvis (b.) takes a lot of muscular tension to maintain and excessively loads the lumbar spinal joints and discs. And it also makes you shorter, not taller! A healthier arrangement (c.) allows the spine to stack in more of a J-shape, formed by a distinct L5-S1 angle, and then ascending with less curvature along the remainder of the spine. This taller spine provides space for the intervertebral joints, discs and nerves.

• A weak inner corset: Weak inner corset muscles allow undue pressure and wear and tear on the tissues, discs, nerves, and bones of the spine. This is a major cause of and contributor to degenerative spinal conditions. All can result in a visible loss of height and thickening around the waist area.
• Unhealthy bending: A lifetime of rounded bending overstretches the dorsal ligaments of the spine and produces excessive kyphosis, or rounding of the upper back—stooped posture.
• Forward head posture: A tucked pelvis and/or rounded upper back projects the neck and head forward. This brings excessive muscle tension and compression in the neck and upper back as the muscles endeavor to hold the head upright. 
• Collapsed foot arches: Loss of the natural arches displace the bones and weaken the tissues of the feet, causing localized problems such as plantar fasciitis, Morton’s Neuroma, and bunions. Height and healthy function can additionally be lost through internal rotation in the knees and hips. 

Most people in our society can expect to live into advanced years—but often with considerable physical and mobility challenges. Retaining or regaining healthy posture is key to remaining free from such disability.

Most of us are taller than we think! 

It is neither inevitable nor natural to lose height as you get older. In fact, we have found that it is possible for most people, including those with degenerative conditions, to regain some height!

For a period in pre-COVID days we diligently measured the height of our students before and after they took their Gokhale Foundations Course. They averaged a height increase of two thirds of an inch (1.7 cm). 

Sometimes people discover that they have stooped for years: through doing desk work in poor furniture; bending poorly; as the result of a physical or mental health crisis; or perhaps since trying to hide growth spurts in adolescence. Many of our students have a sudden awakening to the fact that they are taller than they thought. They report feeling elegant, stronger, and healthier.

Moving like we are meant to, for example using a healthy hip-hinge like these two Portuguese workers, preserves height well into older age.

It always astonished me how students seemed more delighted to measure taller than to get out of pain! Reflecting on this, I think students have often been hopeful that their pain will resolve, but are actually surprised when they find they have recovered long-lost height. For both reasons, I share their joy!

What works to restore healthy height and posture.

Clearly, gaining height doesn't happen within a weekend course through any sort of magical “regrowth”! Nor do you get there by redoubling your efforts to “stand up straight.” But you can make transformational changes by addressing the way in which you align your feet, legs, pelvis, spine, and head. And while many of our students gain an inch or more over time, even a millimeter of regained height can be the change from impinged nerves to a pain-free existence.

Molly, a student who is nearing the end of her online Gokhale® Elements course, just wrote us:

I've been fortunate to have a very active lifestyle these 67 years. As I age, I see some effects of gravity and poor habitual posture showing up. A diagnosis of osteopenia and osteoporosis has me on alert. I was exposed to the Gokhale Method® years ago by a yoga teacher and read Esther's Book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back. Now, I see great results from having a one-on-one online Gokhale teacher providing additional tips, cues, and feedback. In my annual check-up last week, I had gained a half inch (1.3 cm) in height! This is great news for my spine! Thank you, Gokhale Method.

Molly used to lock out her knees and sway her back in standing (left). She is making great progress (right) as she softens her knees, aligns and lengthens her spine with a more relaxed lower back and tall neck, and rolls her shoulders back home. 

My colleague Julie Johnson and I offered a special workshop called Women’s Empowerment Through Posture this week and were overwhelmed by the level of registrations and interest in this topic. Aging well without shrinking is one aspect of what we will be covering in our brand new group offering Women’s Empowerment Through Posture. Join us for six one-hour group sessions, in which we will work together to transform your posture to find a new level of confidence, relaxation, comfort, and self awareness—as well, of course, as helping with aches and pains. 

Best next action steps 

If you would like to know how to restore or make the most of your natural height, get started by booking a consultation, online, or in person with one of our teachers. 

You can sign up below to join any one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops…

Why is it not a routine practice for podiatrists to observe their plantar fasciitis patients’ stance and gait? Let’s consider how a broader approach that considers the way people stand and walk could improve treatment outcomes for plantar fasciitis patients—and also help prevent recurrences.

The main factors in foot health

In my experience, the top three influences on the health and performance of the human foot are the architecture and orientation of the foot and leg, the way a person stands, and the way a person walks. Of course, shoes also play a big role in foot health (you can read more about this here), but while truly healthy posture can do a lot to compensate for poor shoes (extreme styles excepted), the best of shoes cannot make up for poor posture, stance, and gait. 

These African fishermen all show healthy external rotation in their legs and feet. Pexels

Internal leg rotation mechanically disadvantages our structure, and offers poor support to the feet and legs. Pexels

What gives rise to foot problems

We frequently work with people whose foot problems have been created or made worse by poor postural habits. While there can be a genetic predisposition to foot problems, frequently, what appears to be a genetic trait is actually the result of mimicking those closest to us—the person with bunions has replicated their parent’s poor posture or poor shoe choices which, in turn, caused their bunions. 

Let’s consider what can go wrong in the feet when standing. In a common modern stance where the hips are parked forward relative to the feet, the body’s weight lands excessively on the smaller, more delicate structures of the midfoot and forefoot. The ligaments that bind the bones in the feet together may no longer be able to do their job in preserving the shape and healthy function of the foot. 

 
How you stand affects your weight bearing and the forces going through your feet. This man has parked his pelvis forward, shifting his weight off his heels and onto the more delicate forefoot. Pexels

Plantar fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis is one common problem that results from faulty weight distribution overwhelming the foot ligaments. Other problems may include calcium deposits (bone spurs) at points of stress, nerve damage such as in Morton’s neuroma, inflammation such as in sesamoiditis, and stress fractures. 

Plantar fasciitis affects the strong, fibrous attachment that runs from your heel bone to the ball of your foot, supporting the medial and lateral arches. The ligament-like tissue becomes irritated and inflamed, making it painful to bear weight or use the foot, especially on initial standing. 

Plantar fasciitis occurs when the connective tissue on the sole of the foot becomes inflamed. Pexels

Treatment of conditions such as plantar fasciitis is often limited to local solutions. A common treatment for plantar fasciitis is to stretch the plantar fascia with exercise, manual therapy or by wearing night splints. This has some protective merit as it reduces the degree of tearing that can occur under the body's weight. Another measure that can offer relief is foot rolling with iced water bottles. 

After observing the shape of the patient’s foot, a podiatrist might prescribe an orthotic. The most conservative treatment with orthotics simply reflects the shape of the foot and aims to prevent further deterioration of the foot’s structure. Somewhat more sophisticated orthotics are designed to exert corrective forces on the foot, such as lifting a sunken arch. 

A root-cause solution is to learn how to stand and walk well. Instead of band-aid stretching and orthotics to compensate for weak muscles and poor body mechanics, this approach will lead to a strengthening of the foot muscles, an overall shortening of the foot, and appropriate weight-bearing on the foot at all times. When students come to us with orthotics, we encourage them to think of the orthotic as a training device that reminds the foot to practice what it needs to do, as well as being a prop for as long as they need it to do some of the lifting for them. 

Once the foot muscles have learned to grip around the contours of an arch support the foot can go beyond resting passively as shown here.

Learning to activate the feet is especially beneficial for anyone with “flat” feet. It’s also important for women during pregnancy, since both the additional weight of a baby and the hormone relaxin increase any tendency to ligament laxity. 

Key components of Gokhale Method® training in our in-person Foundations course, one-day Pop-up course, and our online Elements course will enable you to make profound and lasting changes for your feet. You can learn how to:

• Place much of your body weight on your heels. These are large, dense bones with a cross-fiber construction that are well suited to load-bearing compared with the comparatively delicate forefoot with its longer, thinner bone structure.
• Kidney-bean shape your foot, keeping its structural integrity. 
• Use your foot muscles to interact with the ground, providing stability and propulsion. 
• Coordinate your foot action with the external rotation of the leg and activation of the glutes.
• Antevert your pelvis, stack your spine, and align your upper body as part of healthy standing and glidewalking.

We pay a lot of attention to the feet in all our courses. Here I am showing a student how to kidney-bean shape their foot.

Is hi-tech the answer to foot problems?

Computer technology has enabled podiatrists to measure foot shape, weight bearing, and biomechanics with a precision that was previously unattainable. There have been exciting advances in clinical 3D scanning and modeling, and the use of sensors to measure real time movement and weight distribution. There is also an increased biomechanical understanding of how gait interacts with foot function. 

However, the medical model of foot and gait health continues to arrive at conclusions based on abstract reasoning instead of tried and true historical and anthropological evidence. It therefore continues to encourage modern distortions like a “straight” foot and “straight ahead” feet. We would love to see a shift in the medical perception of healthy feet and gait that weaves in ancestral wisdom. 

The Gokhale Method has developed two wearables that help refine students’ stance and gait. The five-sensor SpineTracker™ wearable is used by many of our teachers in a classroom setting to allow them and their students to monitor and track real-time changes in spinal shape during gait. The two-sensor PostureTracker™ is a consumer product that enables students to refine their stance and gait at home, work, or leisure. 

  
The PostureTracker setting Piston Walking can tell you if you are successfully straightening your back leg while walking (a) or not (b); this is relevant to the healthy function of your feet. 

Free Online Workshop: “Fix Your Feet”

On Wednesday, May 24, 1pm PT, we will be offering a Free Online Workshop, Fix Your Feet. If you would like to volunteer for a mini-consultation in this workshop, please email teamesther@gokhalemethod with a brief description of your foot condition. If you would like to support friends and family who suffer from foot problems, please feel free to email them.

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your foot issues and posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

You can sign up below to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

Are you beginning to wonder if you will need to set up your bed in the living room? Do you think twice about visiting places with stairs? Do you have a friend or older relative facing this kind of challenge? 

Welcome to our second post on navigating steps and stairs. Our first post looked at how to power yourself up stairs—this one talks about how to come down stairs. This kind of “life exercise,” done skillfully, can be transformative and gives many benefits beyond getting you to where you want to go.

Going down stairs is a functional exercise that doesn’t need a gym. Freepik

Walking downstairs gets you fitter than walking upstairs! 

Dr Michael Mosley, a well-known BBC health journalist, has a favorite study that had people walk either up or down the stairs of a 10-story building twice a week, using the elevator in the other direction. Both groups saw improvements in many health outcomes—but those walking down the stairs—perhaps surprisingly—did better. They were fitter, had a lower resting heart rate despite doing less cardiovascular exercise, lower insulin sensitivity, lower blood fat levels, better bone density, superior balance, and twice the improvement in muscle strength. You can read more about the benefits of eccentric rather than concentric muscle action here.

Safety first

Whatever your fitness and mobility level, follow these measures to use steps and stairs safely:

• Use a handrail if appropriate
• Watch out for slippery or unsound surfaces and trip hazards 
• Wear well-fitting, non-slip shoes

Start with your stance

When descending stairs, it’s especially important to maintain a well-balanced stance from start to finish. You want to position your body in a shallow zigzag squat, or “ready position.” We teach this stance in detail in our in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, and our online Elements course. As the name suggests, this stance makes us available for action and quick reaction.

A zigzag stance or “ready position” readies us for dance, sport, or stairs. Martina Navratilova ready for the ball, ECM Prague Open, 2006. Wikimedia

The benefits of a zigzag stance for walking down stairs

Having your behind behind with your torso angled forward from the hip joint while descending stairs has several benefits:

• It keeps your center of gravity further back so you are less likely to fall. By contrast, if you tuck your pelvis, your center of gravity goes further forward, making it more likely you will slip. This is familiar to anyone who has been on a ski slope.
• Your head aligns over your feet, allowing you to see where you are placing your feet more clearly. 
• It makes it easier to antevert your pelvis and direct body weight through your knees in a healthy way. 
• It is good practice for other activities like bending, sitting, squatting, and more. 

Gokhale Method teacher Eric Fernandez descends steps maintaining a zigzag stance.

Your glutes help you keep your balance

In coming down steps and stairs your glutes contribute to the important job of stabilizing your hips, pelvis, and sacroiliac joints. Together with other muscles they play a key role in keeping you balanced over your standing leg as the other one is smoothly lowered to the next step. The importance of our glutes for achieving stability through the hips and pelvis is one of the areas of convergence between conventional advice and the Gokhale Method®. Having your behind behind you in a zigzag stance enables the glutes to work optimally.

Try hovering in your zigzag stance for a while on one leg—you will soon feel your glutes working. Be sure not to tuck your pelvis, as this interferes with the glutes’ stabilizing ability.

Knowing where your buttock muscles are situated can help you visualize them working: gluteus maximus (left) and, underneath it, gluteus medius (right). 

The quadriceps lower you down—as well as take you up

When descending stairs, the back leg quadriceps work eccentrically to lower you with control as your front foot approaches the step below.

The “quads” are four muscles on the front of the thigh that insert at the knee. Wikipedia

Notice the quads of the supporting back leg working to lower the body’s weight.

Externally rotated feet v. internally rotated feet

Another important ingredient in coming down stairs is external rotation of the feet and legs. This is the natural angle for the feet, and encourages optimal alignment of the knees, hips, and pelvis. 

The feet of this woman in Odisha, India, have retained a healthy angle outward.

Externally rotated feet are also preferable to feet straight ahead as this enables more of your standing foot to contact the step securely while you lower your other leg. 

Externally rotated feet encourage healthy alignment of both the foot and leg.

Internally rotating your feet will, over time, collapse your arches, and create bunions and knee problems. You will also be more likely to trip over your toes. If you currently have this habit, adopt a mild turnout of about 5° to give your muscles and joints time to adapt to change. You can read more about foot angle here. 

Internally rotated feet are problematic for your structure, and your safety.

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

You can sign up below to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

We’re a month into the New Year—and that has me thinking about what helps us to keep going and succeed with our New Year's resolutions. Including our posture and exercise goals. 

One thing that I have found works well for me, and for my students, is to choose my words carefully. 

Choosing words with care

The words we use can be extremely powerful. They can shift your mindset from negative to positive. We may not even realize that we have disadvantaged ourselves with a mental framework of negative words and phrases until we gain a fresh perspective. These frameworks can go back so many years we have mistaken them for a permanent part of ourselves.

Some of our self-talk goes back to our childhood. Our parents of course do their best for us, but parenting in our culture is often an isolated, poorly supported, and arduous journey. Parents’ anxieties, prejudices, and even best intentions are often embedded in negative language and unwittingly passed on to us. Over the years I have seen how many students have internalized their parents' criticism. I encourage students to let this go. It’s a disservice to yourself. 

You can cut out the negatives in your vocabulary.

Our peers have also often learned to speak in terms that are unhealthily competitive and even unkind. For example, imitating or commenting on other people’s physicality is an easy way to score a laugh. The intention may be to entertain, but on the receiving end it can be hurtful. 

Change your language to change your mindset

Carol Dweck, a professor of Psychology at Stanford University, wrote her seminal book Mindset about the importance of what we believe to be true, especially about ourselves. A person with a fixed mindset will believe that they have a finite level of endowed talents, intellect, and so on. This is self-limiting, and leads to behaviors which seek to protect this self-image—for example, not trying too hard, or shying away from challenges.

Let’s not limit our potential with negative beliefs and a fixed mindset. Pixabay

This is not to say there’s no individual variation in talent; there clearly is. But aptitude is not a fixed entity. For example, many people feel they cannot dance. Maybe someone told them once that they had “two left feet.” One of our teachers in England, Clare Chapman, told me, “I was a non-dancer for 50 years until I worked with the Gokhale Method. I now enjoy healthier posture, love to dance, and join 1-2-3 Move with my camera on.” Potential can be left unused, or it can be nurtured. What helps is a growth mindset, and a positive vocabulary to express it.

Our daily 1-2-3 Move program includes a joyful Dance Party to start each session.

Here are some examples of fixed mindset language that we have heard over the years as teachers:

1. I have the family shoulders—people used to call me “coke bottle.”
2. I hate my flat feet 
3. I have no butt

Such statements hold you back from believing you can change. If you have previously said negative things about your posture, your body, or appearance, there is still the opportunity to reframe your observations positively. For example. . .

1. Shoulders come in various shapes and sizes, but how they appear is only partly due to inheritance. Odds are that if you learn how to shoulder roll, you will lose the exaggerated sloping that tends to come with rounded posture. Gently opening and resettling your shoulder joints will guide them “back home” to a more posterior, externally rotated, and natural place. You can learn how to shoulder roll here.
2. By learning to kidney-bean shape your feet you can realign the bones of your foot arches, and strengthen the muscles which support them. Restoring this natural foot shape is also a great correction and preventative for bunions. You can use any orthotics you may have as a training aid, although many of our students soon find they no longer need them.

Note the bean-shaped contours of this woman’s feet. She has well developed inner and transverse arches, giving her feet convexity rather than a collapsed shape. (Odisha, India, 2017) 

3. Let go of thinking “I have no butt!” What that usually means is that you haven’t yet developed your glutes due to tucked posture, which disadvantages their action. Most people in our culture tuck their pelvis, which results in underusing the glutes. We teach our students how to get their behinds behind them (without tensing their backs), and to use their glutes to power each step. We call this smooth, elegant action glidewalking.

Buttock muscles that have been underused due to tucking the pelvis retain their potential to be developed in healthy walking and posture.

Changing your posture with love

All these techniques and principles are covered in our in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, and our online Elements course. Technically effective and efficient as our courses are, our teachings really land best when we bring love into the process. A loving attitude enables new possibilities and holds us safely on course. It is the best way to parent, to teach, and to succeed in changing what we do. It is not by accident that the name of our publishing house for 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is Pendo, the Swahili word for love. 

Changing your posture with positivity

The uplifting words, music, and dance of Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters summarize it all. . . Enjoy!

The inspiring song Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive alongside video footage.

To find out how the Gokhale Method can help you become pain free, schedule an Initial Consultation, online or in person, with a Gokhale Method teacher.

To learn more about the Gokhale Method, sign up for one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops...

Welcome to the second blog post in our series on running. My name is Michelle Ball, and I am a Gokhale Method™ teacher in Tasmania. I am a life-long runner, and am passionate about sharing my experience with beginners and would-be beginners, as well as seasoned runners and everyone in between. If you missed Part 1, you can catch up here. 

Reactivate your feet

When it comes to advice about running, the feet often get overlooked as the subject immediately turns to shoes. While shoes are an important subject (spoiler alert! Part 3 is about shoes), I prefer to start with that miracle of bioengineering that actually does the work—your feet.

Our feet become very passive from walking on flat, featureless surfaces rather than natural, more undulating terrain. They are also constrained, misshapen and deconditioned by less-than-ideal footwear, which, sadly, includes many running shoes on the market.

Running on sand trains my feet to grab the ground and push it behind me.

Learning to engage and strengthen my feet has been a game changer, enabling me to recover from old running injuries and enjoy running into my sixth decade. I would therefore like to share some well chosen exercises you can do in addition to training on the job. These will both strengthen your feet and train them in better patterns of muscle recruitment. Your feet will soon engage more actively than they are likely used to doing. 

Some basic anatomical knowledge can help us get to know and appreciate our feet. This beautiful 1850s engraving (by Henry Vandyke Carter, Gray’s Anatomy) illustrates the primary arch that gives the foot its convexity. Wikimedia

Exercise 1: Inching your way to stronger feet

Inchworm is an excellent warm-up exercise, mobilizing the toe joints, mid foot, and heel bone, contracting and releasing the plantar muscles, and lifting the inner arches and also the transverse arch which spans the base of the toes. It mimics the grabbing action our feet naturally make when accustomed to walking on more varied surfaces.

This video shows how my plantar muscles contract and release to inch my foot forward. I alternately release my heel, and then my toes, from the ground.

Exercise 2: Kidney-bean shaping the feet.

One of my favorite Gokhale Method® concepts to help develop strong, functional feet, is “kidney-bean shaping.” Like inchworm, it strengthens the four layers of plantar muscle, helps raise the inner arches, and also preserves the transverse arch which spans the base of the toes. Restoring tone in these areas confers the springiness you are looking for and protects against common foot problems such as plantar fasciitis, Morton’s neuroma, and bunions. Infant’s feet have this more bean-like shape, and this is the shape preserved into adulthood among more traditional, nonindustrialized societies around the world.

Infants’ feet have a notably bean-like shape.

In nonindustrial societies a bean-shaped foot is maintained throughout life.

In addition, kidney-bean shaping the foot enables us to find a healthy outward angle for the feet and legs, and weight in our heels when standing. This multipurpose exercise is taught in all three formats for learning the Gokhale Method—our in-person Foundations course, our online Elements course, and our Pop-up course. Directions can also be found in Esther Gokhale’s number one best-selling book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, and her DVD (streamable), Back Pain: The Primal Posture™ Solution.

These photos show how, if you have a tendency toward flat feet (left), kidney-bean shaping can restore your arches, and counter any tendency to being pigeon-toed (right). It also guides your big toe home, reducing bunions. Modeled by Tegan Kahn, our Gokhale Method teacher in Australia.

Exercise 3: Bob before you jog

If you are not in the habit of jogging, or even if you do so already, it is good to ensure you jog with spring in your feet. This contributes to both push off and, most importantly for injury prevention, absorbs energy on impact. This is a natural, effective, and sophisticated mechanism that uses your muscles and foot structure rather than relying on heavily padded shoes to cushion your landing. It helps care for and protect all the weight-bearing joints in the body, as well as your feet. 

CAUTION: If you have back pain or reason to believe you may have spinal degeneration, we recommend you take one of our courses to learn appropriate techniques to protect your spine before doing this exercise.

Getting started with bobbing 

I recommend you start bobbing by shifting from one foot to the other with the heels scarcely leaving the ground. Initially just a few minutes may be plenty, and you can develop resilience for greater bounce and duration over a number of weeks. I like to suggest students play music and make it a dance. A few tracks each day will quickly build strength in your feet. 

Esther demonstrates bobbing on the feet. These clips are from her 1-2-3 Move program for Alumni. Each 15-minute Dance Party has bobbing covered!

Bobbing is a very adaptable exercise for all levels of foot strength—from slowly shifting your weight from one foot to the other, to your first split second of being airborne. As you get stronger you can intensify the work with more skipping and even hopping. 

Free Online Workshops

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, whether you are currently sedentary or a seasoned runner, sign up to join one of Esther’s upcoming FREE Online Workshops.

Hunching over or rounding the upper back is often regarded as a hereditary characteristic. I frequently hear people say, “my back is stooped just like my mother, and her mother had it too.” 

Is a hunched back Nature or Nurture?

I agree that hunching is certainly a family trait—but it is largely a learned one, not inherited. 

We mostly learn our posture from our parents and family members. As we grow up, the role models around us in wider society also hold sway. Unfortunately, in our culture, these are usually pretty poor examples to follow. Our relationship to healthy posture has steadily been eroded over the past one hundred years, as I explain in my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

Healthy, open posture, as shown here, was typical in Western societies until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Print donated by the Mendocino County Museum to the Gokhale Method Institute’s collection).

While it is true that some people have a greater genetic predisposition to these distortions, e.g., they may have slack ligaments which easily allow them to occur, these changes generally only manifest when a particular area of the body is subjected to sustained and inappropriate loading. When a person retains or relearns healthy posture, genetic predispositions have little opportunity for expression and for distortions to take hold.   

This mother in Burkina Faso positions her head, neck, shoulders, and arms in a way that is harmonious with retaining an upright and mostly flat upper back. Her child is also experiencing healthy posture—his arms and shoulders posterior, his chest open.

This well-meaning mother is unfortunately encouraging her daughter to round her back as she exercises. Pexels

Why does the upper back hunch?

In some respects, developing a rounded back is not dissimilar from developing bunions—both distortions are the body’s adaptation to a lack of support in the right place, and consequent overloading somewhere else. 

Bunions can form when the joint at the base of the big toe repeatedly takes weight that should be in the heel bone. This can be due to wearing a pointed or high-heeled shoe, or simply from habitually standing with weight through the forefoot rather than the heel. 

The upper back rounds when it is made to carry and counterbalance the weight of a forward hanging head, neck, shoulders, and arms. In healthy posture the upper body is supported by a more vertical J-shape alignment of the spine and the deep postural muscles, or “inner corset.” This prevents the spine from collapsing into an S-shape, C-shape, or I-shape. You can read more about spine shape here.

Sir Charles Walker, a British member of Parliament, being interviewed. A tucked pelvis will often result in a rounded upper back and forward head carriage. Channel 4 News (UK)

How to improve rounded, head forward posture

One of the best steps towards finding your J-spine alignment is to realign your head over your body. To develop the deep cervical muscles which counter excessive neck curves, I recommend using the Gokhale™ Head Cushion, which was specifically designed for this therapeutic purpose. It mimics the beneficial effects of head loading, but with a safe amount of weight for people in a society unpracticed in carrying on the head. 

People who carry weight on their head push up against it using their deep neck muscles (longus colli) and inner corset. Their central axis remains tall, with no rounding of the upper spine.

Caution: If you have any neck pain, or suspicion of herniation or other degeneration in the neck, do not do this exercise.

Headloading is a rarely taught but highly effective means of lengthening, strengthening, and aligning the neck, and freeing the upper back.

Upright and open posture is your birthright

By not hunching you can:

• Maintain your full height
• Retain a more youthful appearance
• Avoid muscular pain and tension, especially in the back and neck
• Avoid nerve pain, impingements, and poor circulation in the shoulders and arms
• Encourage the “inner corset” muscles to support and protect the spine
• Avoid compression and degeneration in the spine, including bone, discs, and nerves 
• Reduce your risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis in the spine as the bones receive
  the healthy stress they are designed for
• Enjoy healthier breathing and digestion

Hunching is not an inevitable part of aging

Often people start to notice they are hunching in middle or older age, maybe because it has become more pronounced. Hunching usually starts as a postural habit much earlier in life, yet goes largely unnoticed if there is little stiffness or pain in the area—and it is not yet linked negatively to associations with the aging process. In many traditional cultures people preserve an upright posture well into old age.

A lifetime of seated work does not make hunching inevitable, as the upright posture of this Ecuadorian backstrap loom weaver shows.

This elderly man in Indonesia has retained posterior shoulders and a wide, relatively flat upper back. Unsplash

This elderly farmer from the Yogyakarta region of Indonesia has preserved an open chest and shoulders that rest back. Unsplash

At whatever age you notice rounding in your back, it is important not to see it as inevitably leading to an extreme kyphosis (severe outward curvature) in the upper spine. Sometimes students come to us in dismay, perhaps shocked to have recently seen themselves so hunched in a particular photograph or video. Rather than despair, use this highly pertinent data as a springboard and incentive to return toward the healthy alignment you had as a young child. 

A young girl washes eggs for market near Falls Creek, Pennsylvania, 1940. She inclines slightly forward and lengthens the back of her neck to attend to the task. Her shoulders remain posterior, her chest open—no rounding over! Pinterest

How to mobilize a stiff upper back

In most situations using a suitable roller is my favorite way of mobilizing the upper back. It can ease stiffness in the vertebral joints, soften tight muscles, and improve circulation to the area. To ensure you get all of these up sides and none of the potential downsides from roller work, there are some important guidelines to follow:

• Use a roller that is the right size, density, texture, is non-slip, and robust. The Gokhale™ Roller meets these criteria.
• Rolling needs to be done with a safe technique and healthy postural form, not threaten injury to your back or neck.
• New freedom in the upper back must be balanced with healthy posture to improve muscular tone and alignment. This prevents newly acquired “give” in the area from resulting in further rounding.

Caution: If you have osteopenia or osteoporosis, or suspicion of herniation or other degeneration in your spine, do not do this exercise.

The Gokhale™ Roller has been specifically designed to help you on your posture journey towards a happy, hunch-free back.

How the Gokhale Method resolves hunched posture

Posture education often starts when people analyze their online or in-person Initial Consultation photographs with a teacher. Gokhale Method® teachers have a lot of experience in reassuring people who have a kyphosis (rounded upper back), explaining the mechanisms that got them hunched, and the logical steps they can take to turn this unwanted trajectory around. The Initial Consultation starts the process of students fine tuning their ability to read posture. It can be a revelation. 

Initial education in Gokhale Method techniques and the resulting changes can be rapid. Most students soon realize how amenable to change the arrangement of the skeleton and soft tissue can be. Changes to rounded posture are not only possible, but almost guaranteed as students progress through our in-person Foundations or Pop-up course, or online Elements course.

In the case of bony rigidity that has been in place for decades, we work to get improvement around fixed areas, and to prevent it from getting worse. With persistence and patience, a surprising degree of bony changes can take place over time. As with all body tissue, bone constantly renews itself in response to the way it is arranged and used.

Felicia Grimke, aged 32, was a very hunched and pain-plagued office worker.

Now a Gokhale Method alumna, Felicia continues to enjoy working on healthy posture and is virtually pain-free for the first time in many decades.

Many of our students have generously shared the story of their journey out of hunching and pain. Do be inspired by Felicia Grimke’s recent post on overcoming hunching, How the Gokhale Method Solved my Neck Pain and Transformed my Life, and sign up for one of our free online workshops below. 

Spring is in the air! As the temperature rises, we go for lighter footwear, exchanging our shoes for sandals, or going barefoot. It may have been a while since our feet had so much exposure - what can we do to benefit our feet and put a little spring into them?

Babies and Toddlers

For babies, the question about ideal footwear is easily answered - a baby is best off barefoot so she can feel the stimuli of different contours and surfaces. These induce her to engage and strengthen her arch muscles as she learns to crawl and then walk. Minimize putting shoes on infants, as this inhibits the natural development of their feet and affects their learning to move and walk well.

Toddlers and older children, as they venture into unfamiliar or less friendly terrain, may need protection for their feet. For any age group, choose a shoe that allows the foot to retain its natural kidney-bean shape.

Choosing Healthy Footwear

Avoid shoes that point or curve the big toe away from the inside edge of the foot. Heels that are higher than 1-2 inches pitch your weight forward onto the ball of the foot – avoid shoes with very high heels.

Well-designed shoes have a kidney-bean shaped footprint, pronounced arch supports (unless your feet are super strong and/or you're paying attention to your gait), and shock-absorbent soles
 

Healthy Foot Practices

Adults sometimes develop foot problems like bunions despite wearing well-shaped shoes. They may even see this as something that runs in the family – “my mom’s feet are exactly the same”. While it is true that our genes predispose us to certain problems, often it is poor postural habits that actually allow structural problems to develop. For example, if we have copied how our parents stand and now also park our pelvis forward and lock out our knees, then an excessive amount of our weight will fall on the front of the foot.

A pelvis thrust forward displaces body weight forward and puts excessive pressure on the delicate structures in the front of the foot

This is problematic because it flattens the transverse arch and causes distortion through the delicate joints of the forefoot – result: bunions, hammer toes, sesamoiditis, metatarsalgia, etc. It is the sturdy heel bone with its dense, cross-fiber construction that is perfectly adapted to take most of our weight. In Lesson 3 of the Gokhale Method Foundation course, when we teach this shift in tallstanding, most people feel somewhat odd, and have to reassure themselves that they don't look odd by looking at their reflection in a mirror!

The heel bone in our species is a sturdy bone adapted for weight-bearing. The bones in the front of the foot, by contrast, are delicate and not constructed to bear the weight of the body.

Bear in mind that our ancestors continually exercised their feet by walking on softer, more contoured surfaces than we encounter today. Compared with a hunter gatherer's foot, the modern urban foot tends to be underused and weak. Flat, or pronated feet misalign our ankles, which results in misaligned knees and hips, wear-and-tear, and arthritic change in the lower body.

Walking barefoot on the beach - depending on how you do it, this can be great foot exercise or destructive for the ligaments of your feet.

Supportive foot-beds, orthotic insoles, and arch supports can be a real help in correcting this sort of distortion. However, while shoe inserts do help to reshape the arches and restore mechanical advantage to the foot muscles, they are no substitute for learning to actively reshape, exercise and engage the feet. The inchworm exercise below is a great way to begin strengthening important muscles in your feet. After you master this exercise, integrate it into every step you take - grip the ground ahead of you, "pull" the ground towards you and then "push" it behind you. This builds the kind of strength and spring you want from your feet, and an elegant glidewalk will result from it!

Click here to watch.

Best,
Esther

The holiday season has arrived, and with it, the formidable holiday party. If, like most people, your back starts aching after an hour (or less!) at the hors d'ouevres table, consider this advice for your next yuletide function:

1. Put your weight over your heels. When we balance the weight of our bodies towards our toes, it can disturb the alignment of our weight-bearing joints. The dense and sturdy heel bone is much better equipped to bear weight than the delicate bones of the forefoot.

On the left, Brian has parked his pelvis
forward, which places excessive
pressure on the delicate structures in
the front of his feet--over time, this
may result in bunions or other foot
conditions. On the right, his pelvis is
properly positioned posteriorly and his
spine stacks well over his heels.

2. Soften your knees. It is a common habit to lock the knees and groin while standing. This can wreak havoc on the knee and hip joints and may inhibit circulation to your lower legs and feet. Conversely, if the knees are too bent, the quadriceps are obliged to work overtime, leading to fatigue and unnecessary tension.

This model's knees
and groin are soft,
which helps her to
stand for long periods
without fatigue, pain
or damage.Standing with
locked knees or a pelvis
that is "parked"
forward impinges the
femoral arteries, veins
and nerves, and can
predispose people to knee,
hip and leg pathologies.

3. Roll your shoulders back. Hunched shoulders are a common problem in modern society. Not only does this wreak havoc on your neck and upper back, it also emits an anti-social vibe. We suggest rolling back one shoulder at a time: a little forward, a little up, a lot back--and totally relax.

When standing, let your arms hang
towards the back of your torso
and your thumbs face forward.

Here's to a holiday season of connecting with your friends and family!

Cheers,
Esther

--

Join us in an upcoming Free Workshop (online or in person).  

Find a Foundations Course in your area to get the full training on the Gokhale Method!  

We also offer in person or online Initial Consultations with any of our qualified Gokhale Method teachers.