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home exercise

My Favorite Exercises for When You Can't Visit the Gym, Part 1: Chair Pose

Esther Gokhale
July, 2020
Whether you are on the road, in a campground, or just stuck at home during quarantine, you can always exercise. I’ve been dancing since I was a young child, so I have a very strong bias for dance as a way of exercising, but I also like to change it up with other types of exercise. It turns out that we have a lot of options, even when we can’t access the gym. Chair Pose (Utkatasana in Sanskrit) is a great example of an at-home, equipment-free exercise which can strengthen a variety of muscles in very little time. You don’t have to spend forever and a day in Chair Pose to reap its benefits. This makes it a perfect fit for our busy lives. Read more
Tags: 
home exercise
quarantine
COVID-19
yoga
strength
healthy posture
inner corset
rib anchor
shoulder roll
Posture 1-2-3
Online University
exercises
exercise breaks

My Favorite Exercises for When You Can’t Get to the Gym, Part 2: Toning the Gluteus Medius

Esther Gokhale
July, 2020

Exercise is wonderful not only for keeping us strong and healthy, but also for relieving stress and anxiety. Now that gyms are shut down again here in California, home exercise is even more important than ever before. In today’s installment, we’ll focus on an exercise I’ve devised over the years designed to isolate and strengthen the oft-overlooked gluteus medius. This muscle is almost always underdeveloped in people who’ve been raised in industrialized cultures. But it is an important player in gait, running, and athletics. It also helps with balance and fall-prevention as we move through the world, no matter our age. And it’s “behind” all the peachy, perky behinds out there in the world! Read more

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strength
gluteus medius
home exercise
how-to
stability
walking
quarantine

Why Keep the Body forward in Warrior I Pose?

Esther Gokhale
August, 2020

A general tenet of the Gokhale Method approach is that micro-level adjustments can lead to macro-level results. Like the world we live in, the human body is a complex, interconnected system. So it is not surprising that attainable tweaks in how we use our bodies can have beneficial effects on our function and well-being.

Yoga is no different. If you have an established yoga practice, you’ve probably discovered for yourself that small adjustments are not so small in the aggregate! Learn the specifics of why I make this particular adjustment to Warrior I Pose (Virabhadrasana I) in my latest blog post. Read more

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yoga
Warrior Pose
upper body
healthy posture
lumbar spine
B.K.S. Iyengar
L5-S1
home exercise

Q&A with Eric Fernandez of Our New Program, Gokhale Fitness with Eric

Angela H.
September, 2020
Our new Online University program for alumni, Gokhale Fitness with Eric, has been delighting participants three times a week since it began earlier this month. When starting a new exercise class or fitness activity, it can be encouraging to learn more about the instructor’s background. To this end, I recently sat down with Eric to ask him a few questions about what he brings to the table for Gokhale Fitness with Eric. Read more
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Gokhale Method teachers
Online University
Gokhale Fitness with Eric
home exercise
quarantine
martial arts
fitness

Why Cycling is the Perfect Posture-Friendly Exercise for the COVID Era

Tiffany Mann
October, 2020

I’m a longtime cyclist, former elite-level mountain bike racer, and Gokhale Method teacher. Learning and applying Gokhale Method techniques helped me reduce lumbar strain caused by unhelpful posture habits I used to employ while riding. I continue riding to this day, along with my whole family — now free of lower back pain. In my humble opinion, bikes are the most perfect exercise equipment of all time. This is especially true for the COVID era! The wheel base between two bicycles is around 6 feet, so riding with others can be done safely. Add Gokhale Method techniques to the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for full-body health. Read more

Tags: 
bike riding
cycling
seat height
healthy posture
lower back pain
lumbar strain
COVID-19
home exercise

How to Work Out Smarter, Not Harder

Esther Gokhale
November, 2020
Ah, Thanksgiving. For many of us, it’s a time for gratitude and connection. It’s also a time when many people’s minds turn to exercise to offset the rich and abundant food on the menu. How can we make that extra push, enjoy it, and not injure ourselves in the process? Due to the pandemic, more and more of us are working out at home, without our usual exercise partners or in-person access to recreational facilities. Now’s the perfect time to learn to work out smarter, rather than harder. Read more
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home exercise
Thanksgiving
community
virtual fitness
Gokhale Exercise
healthy habits
healthy posture
art
music
dance
culture

Home Exercises Part 2: Crunches

Esther Gokhale
July, 2021

This is our second 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 crunches, a common abdominal exercise.


Crunches are often seen as a better targeted and safer 
abdominal exercise than sit-ups—but there is still a downside.

Crunches are done lying down on the floor, face up, knees bent with feet on the floor, and with the hands placed behind or to the side of the head. They involve using... Read more

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crunches
sit-ups
rectus abdominis
obliques
discs
herniation
nerves
rib anchor
home exercise
exercises
inner corset