flat butt

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…

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...

We assume in our culture that aging will necessarily be accompanied by a loss of height, increasingly stooped posture, loss of muscle strength, and a precarious inability to balance. But is this really the inevitable trajectory? Here we look at why this occurs and focus on how a healthy gait can help us maintain good balance throughout life, including into old age.

Walking sticks and poles help prevent falls but are poor compensation for loss 
of natural stability and balance from the feet and buttocks. Unsplash

Falls can have fatal consequences for the elderly, potentially resulting in broken bones and a cascade of problems that can ensue from hospitalization, injury, surgery, and immobility. Scientific data followed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has linked several known risk factors, attributing most falls to muscle weakness and problems with balance and gait. Conversely, elderly people who maintain their strength and ability to balance have been shown to mostly avoid trips, slips, and falls.

The importance of the glutes

When it comes to balance, there is good evidence to confirm that the role of the gluteal muscles (buttocks) is key. Research¹ has shown that having strong gluteal muscles and hip abductors differentiates non-fallers from fallers. These muscle groups include gluteus medius, a muscle that we pay a good deal of attention to in both our online Elements course and in-person Gokhale Method Foundations Course. 

 
The gluteus medius muscles form the
upper outer quadrants of the buttocks. Wikimedia

 
Healthily developed gluteus medius muscles are clearly visible 
in these Ubong tribesmen. (Borneo, Indonesia)

The attachments of gluteus medius high on the pelvis and wide at the hip joint position it to play an important role in steadying us when we walk. With a little coaching, it is easy to monitor its degree of engagement with the fingertips. This is also a good way of ensuring that other important muscles in the area are performing their function.

People who walk well use their back leg and glute strongly 
to propel themselves forward and maintain their balance.

Should I do glute exercises?

Well-targeted exercises are an effective intervention for jump-starting weak and sleepy glutes, and are therefore included in our courses. But your glutes would like around 5000 reps a day to maintain a good baseline tone—enough to drive most of us crazy. Fortunately, Nature has a saner solution—walking. Rather than dedicating a large percentage of your disposable time to doing exercises, if you walk well, squeezing your glutes, each step becomes a rep.  

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

Feet

At the other end of our walking gear are our feet. We treat our feet somewhat like prostheses to be shoved into shoes, with little regard for their function. But healthy feet are critical in gripping and grabbing the contours of the ground, even through shoes, as part of maintaining our balance. 

Natural gait includes a grabbing action by the foot as the glute contracts, with the back heel staying down
on the ground well into the step.

Glidewalking

A natural gait that makes good use of the glutes and feet is so rare these days that Gokhale Method teachers call it “glidewalking” to distinguish it from the various poor gait habits and compensations that most people develop in industrialized societies. 

Walking distortions

Monty Python’s “Ministry of Silly Walks” comedy sketch, starring John Cleese. 

The Monty Python “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch shot to fame in 1970 and is still absurdly comic. Its silly walks are hilarious and clearly extreme, but some of their genius lies in their exaggeration of truth as they magnify the distortions and quirks that can be observed in our individual walking patterns.

A common walking distortion occurs when the pelvis is tucked under. Tucking the pelvis disadvantages the muscles of the glutes and feet which are designed to propel us forward. Without this propulsion from behind, muscles in the front of the body such as the psoas and quadriceps are obliged to take their place and pull us along. These muscles cannot give us the same stability however, and our ability to balance or catch ourselves from falling is reduced. 

Non-industrialized populations the world over, despite their varied environments and cultural habits, share a common gait pattern. This photograph (Laurence K. Marshall) reveals no appreciable differences in walking between individuals, male or female, child or adult. 

By contrast, if you observe a tribe or family of Kalahari Bushmen you might detect slight nuances, but each individual shares the same essential gait pattern. This is also observable in our young children and is preserved in the art and film of our ancestors prior to the 1920s.

All of the upside, none of the downside

While it’s true that any type of walking may bring benefits such as cardiovascular fitness, interaction with others, connection with Nature, and a low carbon footprint, there will be downsides for your balance if you have a poor gait pattern. A habit such as landing heavily means that your weight is committed forward too early in your step, removing the ability to side-step a loose tile or slippery floor. Many people lean backwards slightly as they walk, making them more prone to their heels slipping underneath them. By contrast, glidewalking is well balanced and stable, which lends it an innately peaceful and dignified quality. 

Gokhale Fitness teacher Eric Fernandez and Gokhale Moving Meditation teacher Kathleen O’Donohue take online participants through balance exercises and movements.

It’s not just an age thing

Many younger people with poorly developed walking muscles and a “flat butt” find themselves prone to falls and injury but are likely to put it down to poor coordination and clumsiness. Whatever your age, if you often feel unstable, trip frequently, notice that you struggle to stand on one leg in yoga classes, or cannot shift your weight smoothly in Tai Chi/Qigong, it is definitely worth looking at ways to improve your balance and movement.

Strengthening the gluteus medius muscles prepares you for glidewalking.

Learning to glidewalk

The best and safest starting point for learning glidewalking is to strengthen and become very familiar with using your gluteus medius muscles. You can find our favorite glute strengthening exercise, “leg raise,” in the exercise appendix of my book (pg. 213), “8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back”.

Or watch our Online University video clip here.

For those who are willing and able to follow detailed instructions, Lesson 8 in “8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back” takes you through the phases of glidewalking step-by-step. 

If you have the resources, I recommend contacting a Gokhale Method teacher who can coach you and tailor lessons to your needs. 

You are also invited to join me for the Free Online Workshop, Sturdy, Upright, and Tall: Posture for Aging, on June 29 (5 p.m. PT). Best foot forward!

          1. Mario Inacio et al., “Gluteal Muscle Composition Differentiates Fallers from Non-fallers in Community Dwelling Older Adults,” BMC Geriatrics 14, no. 37 (March 2014), https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2318-14-37.