stretchlying

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.  

A back spasm is never welcome—but it is a signal we can act on—when we know how. Image by: Kampus Production

It’s true that time is a great healer—and that most back pain resolves itself without intervention—but there are also things we can do to accelerate the healing, that can help us feel better immediately, and protect us in the longer term. 

Should I take pain meds?

Pain meds (muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatories, and pain signal blockers) can be useful in allowing you to remain reasonably active, preserve your mental health, work, care for dependents, and more. They can also have negative side effects and create dependence. Using pain meds is a very individual decision to be made with your medical advisors, but if you do use meds, be sure you are using the relief they give you as a window of opportunity to address the root causes of your back pain.

Should I keep moving or rest up? 

There is research showing that for back pain, maintaining normal activities as tolerated gives a better outcome than bed rest. Maintaining gentle movement is nearly always advisable as it promotes healthy circulation and healing in the injured area. It also counters joint stiffness, muscle weakness, and loss of fitness. As the saying goes, “motion is lotion.” Maintaining regular activities as tolerated also helps you keep up with your friends, hobbies, and tasks, and staves off depression. 

In our experience doing normal activities with truly normal (healthy) posture gives an even better outcome.

Activities done with healthy posture are protective against back spasms and injuries.

Move like you are meant to

Unless it was a freak accident, think back to what caused this spasm. Going forward, what are you going to do differently to make sure it doesn’t happen again? Are there movements to avoid until you have learned what is truly healthy for your body, be that in bending, twisting, or reaching? Students have sometimes discovered that certain “healthy” exercises, such as cat-cow, or roll-downs, feel wonderful at the time, but that such alternating flexion and extension provokes their backs to stiffen up or spasm later. 

Poorly designed stretch and mobility exercises such as cat-cow actually push deeper into existing curves, provoking inflammation and stiffness. Images from Freepik 

Non-drug treatments 

Alternative or additional treatment for back spasms might include massage, physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, and osteopathy. It would be fair to say that while many of our students find one or more of these modalities helpful, they are seldom sufficient to get to the root cause of their back flare-ups and prevent them from recurring. When I was a practicing acupuncturist, I found that my patients responded better to treatment for back pain when I also helped them with their posture. Their bodies could heal and strengthen better when they stopped unwittingly reverting to poor bending, lifting, walking, sitting, and sleeping positions after their treatments.

Gokhale Method® solutions

I would like to offer two key Gokhale Method techniques that can accelerate your journey out of pain, plus get you started on creating the baseline conditions to keep your back healthy into the future. 

You will use readily available surfaces—a mattress or an exercise mat, and the backrest of a chair—to put your back into mild traction. You will be able to use this surface to contact and gently stretch your skin, which stretches the flesh underneath and gently eases your vertebrae apart. This will gradually tease out tension and spasm, facilitate circulation and healing, and bring peace to the area. These techniques are useful for five minute “resets” during the day, or for hours at a time, as needed.

Caution: If your back pain is persistent or severe, we recommend you consult your medical team prior to using these techniques.

Technique 1: Stretchlying

Stretchlying can transform lying down into therapeutic traction and comfort—even as you sleep. You can get started with this video.

Technique 2: Stretchsitting

Stretchsitting can transform compressive sitting (and driving) into hours of therapeutic traction and comfort. You can get started with this video.

You can learn these techniques in greater detail, with modifications for your body, in our in-person Foundations Course and our online Gokhale Elements. My book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, has illustrated, step-by-step instructions. Our stretchsit® cushion is a handy tool to make poorly designed chairs more comfortable and healthy. Here you can find a video on how to attach it to just about any chair. We’ve put it on sale until April 1 for $54.90, discounted from $59.90, plus free domestic shipping.

The stretchsit® cushion not only creates a healthier shape for your backrest, its soft “sticky” nubs are specially designed to give comfortable traction. 

Doing things differently

Pain is nature's biofeedback mechanism—one which alerts us to the threat or occurrence of injury, which we should act on. Unfortunately our culture has not equipped us well to interpret our pain signals, nor to understand the systematic errors we may be making in our body use. 

Once we recognize that poor postural habits are the root cause of our back pain, the process of change can begin. A teacher’s experienced eye can be invaluable in assessing your individual postural patterns and issues, helping you to steer out of trouble and into a healthier relationship with your body.

The way we make every movement determines whether our back has length and support, or is vulnerable to damaging stress. Here I am guiding a student in glidewalking. 

Best next action steps 

If you would like to know how changing your posture can prevent your back pain, 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…

In January and February this year I took the Gokhale Method Elements course, which consists of 18 brief (13 minute) but potent lessons. I would like to share my experience of the Gokhale Method with you in this blog post.

My goals were to find out how to sit, stand, and walk well, so that I don’t overstress the scoliotic parts of my back. I was also in search of more comfortable and beneficial sleeping positions. I felt I needed guidance to help me develop a better sense of my body posture and alignment. To be able to do a one-on-one course online made this possible for me. 

It was only when I saw the difference between my “Before” and “After” pictures that I realized just how much change it was possible to make to my posture in such a relatively short period. 

Learning to stand well has been transformational for me. You can see that I used to park my hips forward and sway back, pressuring on my lower spine and sending my neck forward—little wonder I was in so much pain. Though still a work in progress, I know how to align my weight better throughout my whole body.

I have always enjoyed exercise, movement, and body work, including hiking, Qigong, and yoga. I now have a healthy standing point from which to do all these activities.

When walking, for the first few steps I might omit to squeeze my glutes and check through the other things I know to do…but it is becoming more habitual so my muscle memory soon kicks in. Or I recall my favorite prompt of Esther’s, “if your glutes snooze, you lose.” 

The J-spine concept was entirely new to me. I had tucked my pelvis under (as you saw in the above “Before” photo) all my life as far as I can recall. Consequently, I believe, the place that hurts for me is around L5-S1 at the very bottom of my spine, so I have to be accurate to squeeze my glutes from a relaxed pelvic position and not to sway and compress my lower back trying to make it happen with the wrong muscles. A single follow-up lesson on this was really useful to help me relax my pelvis back even more.

A healthy L5-S1 angle (J-spine) permits the wedge-space disc there the space that it needs (a.). Learning the Gokhale Method finally enabled me to stop tucking my pelvis and sacrum, and damaging my L5-S1 disc (b.).

Due to my scoliosis I have to be extra careful about how I do things, and with poor bending form, I would always ache—or have a more acute disaster. Now I understand why. I use the hip-hinging technique as I’ve been taught (plus putting my hands on my hips) and I can bend comfortably—it amazes me! I don’t straighten my legs like some of the pictures we see, as I don’t have the hamstring length, but I can follow the principles involved. 

Since learning to hip-hinge I can bend without distorting my back and without pain. There are many principles to learn that contribute to healthy bending, which comes later in the course, but it has been well worth it.

Since 2005 I have been playing the harp, for which being in the right position is important. I pull the harp towards me more now, and when I bend, I bend at the hips, not rounding my back. When sitting with a backrest I have found using the Stretchsit® Cushion makes a good deal of difference to my comfort—I have one in the car, and in fact I’m sitting with one in this interview right now to reduce the pressure on my lower back.

The gentle traction you can get in your lumbar area by using a Stretchsit® Cushion reduces compression and asymmetry in your spine.  

Since a hysterectomy in 1995, I have lost bone density and three inches in height. I am working nightly with stretchlying to lengthen my spine and reduce my scoliosis. I am confident that stretchlying at night and using my inner corset to support my spine during the day will prevent any further height loss and increase in my scoliosis, as I have already seen such improvement in my posture. These two measures may well enable me to regain some of the height in my spine that I have lost.

In October I had an eye surgery, a partial cornea transplant, and to make sure that it stayed in place, for three days following the operation I had to keep my head still and remain on my back. I practiced stretchlying carefully leading up to the operation and found I could lie there all night comfortably; stretchlying is the best!

Come morning I have the option of switching to stretchlying on my side, which I also learned in the course. Again, I found a follow-up lesson on stretchlying on the side helpful as it involves a little more technical precision, especially with anteverting the pelvis, to work its magic.

For me the biggest help for my upper body was learning the shoulder roll…and I feel like my neck automatically gets into the right place after I’ve positioned my shoulders well. It also positions me better in sitting and standing, and helps me do more of the things I care deeply about.

One of those things is artwork, and I am now much more aware of my body while I’m doing it. For example, I’m standing straighter, and if I start to slouch—oops—I can feel it. 

I love the poetry of combining imagery and words in my artwork.

I’m also at the computer writing books, including a biography, children’s books, and poetry. As I spend a good deal of time sitting, it’s important to do it well. 

These are four of the numerous books I've published. I have illustrated the three books shown along the top here. Seven Meditations for Children I have recorded as an audiobook—see how the child is sitting with a nice straight back!

My husband had an eminent career in public health which took us all over the world. Rather than take a lucrative post as an Obstetrics and Gynecology trained MD, he chose instead to work for the poor and underserved of the world, becoming Founder-Director of the Center for Population and Family Health, 1975–86. He was then Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, 1986–2008, and honored while alive with the naming of the Allan Rosenfield Building and after his passing by the Tribute Wall I fundraised for. The first year of our marriage was spent in Nigeria, and we were in Thailand for six years. I must have seen a lot of examples of elegant posture in the rural areas of those countries, but back then I didn’t recognize how important it was.

Here is a photo of the Tribute Wall to my husband—there we are together, bottom left. My husband served in Korea as an Air Force doctor. You can see people headloading in Nigeria (left hand panel, photo top right).

I have six grandchildren, three boys and three girls, aged 12–23. When I’m with them I try to help them with their posture—they spend so much time hunched over. I guess it’s hard for children to envisage they are statistically likely to have back pain down the line, but at least I can sow the seeds for them to think about posture, and set as healthy an example as I can. I’m so glad that the Gokhale Method is there to help all generations—and especially the young—to rediscover their healthy posture heritage.

I’m known to my grandchildren as “the Nana who raps instead of naps!” Here is a rap I would like to share with you:

IT'S TIME WE VOW TO SPEAK RIGHT NOW
 

It's time we vow to speak right now

our vow to share a peace we dare

to live and keep and not let sleep

In mere intentions while old conventions

Toot horns of war. No more, no more,

We shout out loud, no more to shroud

Our depths of heart. It's time to start,

Yes, twenty-four seven, on Earth bring Heaven,

So one, two, three, it's you and me

To take a dive in what's alive,

Our YES to fate before too late

To emanate our LOVE not wait,

to one and all, the world enthrall

So they will see that all we be

One family! Yes all we be

One FAMILY!

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. . .

I developed excruciating lower back pain in 2001. I was a tennis player, downhill skier, and a marathon runner. I was also under a lot of financial pressure in a stressful job as a consumer class action lawyer with my own firm. 

Excruciating back pain challenged my ability to continue working. Forthepeople.com

My doctor diagnosed me with a herniated disc at L4-L5. He said that a piece of my disc was sitting on the spinal nerve. I tried everything to stop my pain but nothing worked. In January 2002 I underwent a laminectomy which removed the piece of disc and some of the vertebral bone next to the herniation to make room for the nerve root.

A laminectomy is a common lumbar surgery to remove some or all of the lamina (a part of the vertebra) to relieve pressure on nerves trapped by herniated discs or stenosis (narrowing of the nerve canals). Wikipedia

After the surgery, my back pain was more intense than before. It was very difficult to get out of bed in the morning. My five-year-old daughter imitated me doing a sort of downward dog yoga pose, with a lot of groaning, just to get out of bed in the morning. I could not move comfortably, nor could I stay still. I remember business meetings in restaurants—just looking at the chairs there I would feel pain.

Few modern chairs help us to sit well. Most chairs either encourage a swayback (left) or a tucked pelvis (right). Wikipedia

I also tried acupuncture treatment, but it was too painful to lie down. It hurt. Hurt to stand. Hurt to sit. Hurt to walk. Hurt to sleep. Everything hurt. 

I received cortisone injections from a pain specialist. I was ecstatic to get a needle in my spine because it gave me temporary relief from the agonizing pain that radiated all the way from my lumbar spine down my leg. Unfortunately, the relief didn’t last. 

Pain from pressure on the sciatic nerve can radiate from the origins of the nerve in the lumbar spine all the way to the foot. Wikipedia

I seriously considered a spinal cord stimulator. It was like an implanted super transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machine, but I am very glad that I changed my mind as it required subsequent surgeries and I really did not want something implanted in my body. I was prescribed multiple pain relieving medications. 

I participated in a number of lengthy courses, including some pilates and Bikram yoga, that focused on cultivating more strength and flexibility to relieve my back pain. Yoga gave me some temporary relief but nothing permanent. I also used a pilates reformer once a week for several months but it didn’t help. It started to remind me of a medieval torture device. 

Using specialized equipment without knowledge of primal architecture can hurt rather than help. Wikipedia

I also went to a physical therapist and my pain was still not relieved.

Massage from a skilled practitioner can help alleviate soft tissue tension and back pain. Ideally, it would be combined with posture training to get to the root of the problem. Pixabay

In an attempt to relieve my pain on the way to court, I would slouch in my car almost horizontally, with both an ice pack down the back of my pants and the seat warmer on. I remember the pain forcing me to lie down on the floor at an arbitration where I represented a class of homeowners in a case worth tens of millions of dollars. Other lawyers stared at me as if I were a defective space alien. 

Despairing, I thought I would never get better. I knew people with similar levels of pain who had retired. Because of my love of being a consumer protection lawyer and my financial responsibilities, this was not an option. The stress caused me to tighten up even more, worsening the pain. I felt like I was trapped in a downward spiral.

I explored the principle of mind over matter. I meditated daily and continue to do so. I read Dr. John Sarno’s books. Dr. Sarno would say first eliminate any physical cause, then heal back pain by dealing with any repressed anger or other negative emotion. But my pain persisted.

Eventually I came across  Esther Gokhale's book, 8 Steps to a Pain Free-Back, and subsequently took the Foundations Course in 2011 with a Gokhale Method teacher in San Francisco. As I have said many times, Esther Gokhale is my hero! I have given her book to numerous family members and friends. They don’t believe me that there are 21 pages about how to sit in a car—or a restaurant chair—but every one of those pages is precious to me as they have saved me hours of agony. The Stretchsit® Cushion and Esther’s instructions allowed me to drive without pain. The Gokhale Pain-Free™Chair is still my favorite office chair. I still use the stretchlying technique that I learned in detail there, gently introducing traction to one segment of my spine at a time.

This healthy neck stretch is from a recent 1-2-3 Move class for our Alumni.

I now have zero back pain. Because of the Gokhale Method I can finally lie comfortably in bed, sit, stand, walk, bend, and live my life. I returned to running six mile runs along California beaches and trails all over King's Mountain. Due to wear and tear on my knees over the years, I am now an active swimmer, hiker, and biker. 

Out on my bike, I enjoy being physically active again, with the occasional wipeout.

My back has tolerated a recent move into a home with 41 steps. I carry furniture, groceries, etc. up and down those steps with no back problems. I am once again enjoying being the pain-free, calm, and happy person that I used to be.

Out hiking with my wife, Susie.

Lithuania, 1957: my parents' wedding day.

Everyone in this photograph reflects effortless elegance and poise. Notice that their shoulders are resting toward the back of their torsos, and their necks and backs are elongated; very different from the modern "chin up, chest out, thrust your pelvis forward” stance. This photograph was taken on my parents’ wedding day. My mom and dad are on the left. Healthy posture has contributed pain-free living (musculoskeletally speaking) well into my mom’s advanced years. She didn't have aches and pains until my dad passed away, two years ago.

Resolving knee and leg pain
My mom is very gentle, yet she can be stubborn! Despite recent complaints of leg and knee pain at night, she was adamant that she did not need Gokhale Method instruction. At 95 years old, she said she was too old to change and had no time for “such things.”

However, I could see that when she used the stairs a lot, her pain would increase. In the end, she consented to instruction — and subsequently reported diminished leg pain, and increased stability in walking.

We know that leg pain can be local and/or referred from the low back. To address the legs and knees locally, I showed her parts of the glidewalking technique. To help take the pressure off her back, I taught her stretchsitting and stretchlying on the back.

Knee pain can sometimes result from posture issues. Image courtesy Dr. Manuel González Reyes on Pixabay.

Foot grab and bum squeeze
Weak arch muscles can cause the feet to pronate, which is the case for my mom. Pronation pulls the leg in, creating misalignment in ankle, knee and hip joints. Notice the white arrows in the photos below, showing my mom's legs and the feet moving in dramatically different directions. No wonder when she goes up and down the stairs, her symptoms flare up!

My mom's usual way of climbing stairs pulls her femur and foot in two different directions.


She experiences the issue on both sides.

The solution was to incorporate glidewalking elements with every step on a new stair. I taught her to grab the floor with the foot and squeeze the bum (same side) with every step. This engages the foot and glute muscles and reshapes the leg and foot into healthier architecture and articulation. See my mom make this change in the photos below. Notice how her thigh bones and feet are now aligned!

After incorporating Gokhale Method techniques, my mom's femur and foot on each side are now aligned while climbing stairs.

Learning glidewalking was key for helping my mom recalibrate her stair-climbing technique.

After addressing her legs and knees locally with glidewalking, we helped take pressure off her back with stretchsitting and stretchlying.

Stretchsitting
My mom loves to decompress her back by stretchsitting in the Gokhale Pain-Free™ Chair. She lengthens her back against the backrest and maintains a gentle traction while she sits. Moreover, a Gokhale-style shoulder roll helps open her chest and decrease hunching on top. With a history of chronic bronchitis and heart issues, this small gesture supports these organs with more space and better orientation. Quite a contrast to her “before” sitting photo!

Above, my mom’s “before” photo sitting in a typical chair, with hunched shoulders and a rounded upper back. Compare with her "after" photo below.

    
Here, my mom uses a Gokhale Pain-Free Chair to stretchsit, effecting gentle traction in her spine, and positions her shoulders with a shoulder roll to gently open the chest.

Stretchlying on the back
Finally, we learned stretchlying on the back as another practical way to decompress the low back, illustrated below. Once the spine is lengthened by stretching, it is supported with strategically positioned pillows. A pillow under the shoulders/head elevates the upper torso and flattens any sway in the low back. A second pillow under the knees relieves pressure in the low back by relaxing the psoas. She now has a relaxed, lengthened back while she sleeps.

This sketch shows how stretchlying helps gently lengthen the spine.

Results
My mom now stretchsits and stretchlies easily on her own. Walking and taking the stairs continue to be works in progress but she is already very pleased with the results. With diminished pain she sleeps better and has more energy. Hands-on instruction does help things stick! In fact, she is now enthusiastic to learn more Gokhale Method techniques.

While we all await a return to in-person teaching, you can schedule an Online Initial Consultation with one of several qualified online teachers to begin individual posture coaching and begin learning these techniques (and more!) yourself.

To be continued!

I’ve taught stretchlying on the side for decades. So it’s a (welcome) surprise to discover a way of arranging the neck that is both more effective in adding additional neck length and more relaxing for the neck muscles.

It takes good form to be able to get rest on a surface this hard.
 

In July, reindeer herders in Samiland corral their reindeer to mark the ears of the unbranded calves. This involves stretches of waiting, some of it done reclining on the side, as above.

To date, I’ve taught students to grasp a clump of hair at the base of the skull and pull backward and upward so as to elongate the neck and slide the head back along the pillow into a healthier configuration.

Grasping the hair to guide the back of the head up and back.

My head is supported by a pillow and my forearm acting as a second pillow.

A new technique for lengthening the neck in stretchlying on the side
When I sleep on my side, I usually sleep on just one pillow and place my forearm under the pillow to add a second layer of thickness. Recently I discovered that I could use that forearm to manipulate my head position and enhance the stretch of the back of my neck. By slightly extending my forearm, I was able to elongate my neck further. Using my arm beneath the pillow, I was easily able to manipulate the pillow to move my head where I wanted it to go — rotated forward and glided back. This without tensing a single muscle in my neck and getting a better result — more fine-tuned and with a stronger stretch if that’s what I want (I do). The head’s journey back was very smooth — the pillow provides a soft, cushioned interface, and almost creates the illusion someone is doing the maneuver to you.

A supportive family supported by J-spines!

Forearm and pillow supporting an elongated neck. Enjoying a happy moment on the day of the public television program shoot.

Have you discovered extra techniques that improve your neck’s posture journey? Please do share your discoveries so everyone can benefit!

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. However, many couches are too deep to allow you to get your bottom up against the backrest while keeping your legs bent and feet on the ground. In this case, you will need to fill in the space behind your back with one or more pillows or cushions. For very soft pillows, you can squish them down behind you until they are compressed enough to provide some resistance to lengthen your back against. If the couch or the cushion you use behind your back is made of a slippery material, such as leather, and provides no friction for hooking your back, add a Stretchsit® cushion behind you. Even without anchoring the Stretchsit cushion, the rubber nubs will allow you to get a little length in your spine. If the back of the couch tilts you significantly backward and there is no support behind your head, it may be a strain to support your head and neck. You may need to build up some extra padding toward your shoulder blades so your spine is closer to vertical. If the seat angles back or is soft enough to rotate your legs inward, you may also want another cushion beneath your pelvis.

You don’t need to get a strong stretch while lounging on the sofa, the way you might want to while working at a desk. Even a subtle lengthening that prevents you from sinking into the couch and “melting,” as many of us tend to do, will be beneficial.

Place as many cushions behind your back as you need to prevent a rounded spine and create a firm enough surface to stretchsit against. Photo by Jacalyn Beales on Unsplash.

Stacksit on the edge

If you find it challenging to stretchsit on your couch, perhaps because the couch sucks you in and you can’t find cushions that give you firm support to stretch against, try perching on the edge of the couch and stacksitting instead. Although slightly less relaxing and somewhat more formal, stacksitting is an option on almost any sofa or surface. Simply scoot to the edge of the couch, make sure to antevert your pelvis, and find that perfectly balanced stack! Anchor your ribs as necessary to prevent a sway, and roll your shoulders back.

The man on the right has his bottom behind him and maintains an elongated spine while sitting on the front edge of the sofa. Photo by Aaron Thomas on Unsplash.

If you find your knees are up rather high and causing an uncomfortable stretch, you can extend them in front of you, or cross them at the ankles and let your knees roll open to each side. Crossing the legs at the ankle and letting the knees fall open is an elegant, comfortable way to slant the thighs downward and promote pelvic anteversion, rather than having the knees up above the hip joint. The softer the couch and the more the seat tilts back, the closer to the edge you will want to be. In the end, you may end up with only an inch or two of support against the very backs of your thighs. To get a little extra length in your spine while stacksitting, push your elbows against your knees to elongate your back.

This man lengthens his spine by pressing with his elbows against his thighs. Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash.

Reclining

Another great way to enjoy your couch time is to use the full length of the couch (if you don’t have to share) and recline up against an armrest. On most couches, however, the armrest creates too vertical of a support to lay directly against, and will round your spine.

Without filling in the corner of the couch with cushions, the armrest will force you to round your spine and provide little support. Photo from startupstockphotos.com.

Instead, you will need to create a gentle slope of cushions, filling in the corner of the couch and the space underneath your J-spine. This will create a nice soft spot for you to recline halfway on. To get the shape right, make sure there is a sufficient ledge to allow your bottom behind you, preserving the J, and that the slope you create supports your shoulders as well as your head so you aren’t rounded with your head pushed too far forward by the armrest.

In the classic painting (The Venus of Urbino, by Titian), Venus has enough cushions beneath her to maintain a neutral, supported spine, and could even relax her head back against the pillow. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

You can also recline on your side, as long as you have enough support under your waist, shoulder, and head to keep your spine straight and relaxed.

What's your favorite lounge position on couches? Let us know in the comments!

There are several more weeks of summer vacation before school starts again: plenty of time to squeeze a family camping trip or two out of the sunshiny drops of Summer!  Here are a few tips to promote healthy posture while you’re on the road, by the campfire, and in your tent.

Are We There Yet?

During the long haul to your nearest national park, it’s easy to strain your cervical spine (the vertebrae in your neck) by craning your neck forward to see the road.

Justin Bieber, in this photo, is demonstrating forward head—his ear is forward of his collar bones, and his chin is far in front of his sternum

If you notice your head drifting out of alignment with the rest of your spine, a quick fix is to gently pull your chin in so it aligns above your sternum, and stretch the crown of your head—the part of the head that’s home to many a cowlick--up towards the roof of the car.

You can give your neck a little manual lengthening by pressing up on your occipital bones, behind your ears

Once you’ve lengthened your neck, relax your head into alignment with the rest of your spine. It should be a smoother drive from here on out!
(For further specifics on setting up your car for comfort, see this blog post on modifying your seat for Stretchsitting.)

Relaxing Fireside

Collapsible fabric and steel chairs are popular with campers, but these seats are often draped in a way that promotes slumping and slouching.

Fabric that hangs without any support induces a curved body position, and will force you into tucking your pelvis and slumping

A better option is to bring along a collapsible stool instead.  With a stool, you’re better equipped to “leave your behind behind you” while you roast your s’mores.

A tri-pod style fabric stool can be used to help antevert the pelvis, because although the fabric hangs, you can tip your pelvis forward using the elevated corners in the same way as a wedge; a firm-topped stool may be even better for stacksitting, and will allow more flexibility in how open your hips are while sitting

Lights Out

Except for encountering a bear, sleeping in your tent can be the most uncomfortable part of camping. In the Gokhale Method Foundations Course, we teach our clients a technique called “Stretchlying” that decompresses the spine and can help sleepers tolerate a wide range of bed firmness. Here are two tips borrowed from the Stretchlying technique that may help prevent an achy back the next morning:

When sleeping on your back, check the position of your pillow (or if you don’t traditionally pack pillows on your camping trips, whatever you stuff under your head).  Your head, neck and shoulders should be slightly raised on the pillow.

If you are too low on the pillow, it can cause your neck to curve forward. If you are too high, it can cause your neck to sway and compress your cervical vertebrae.

Your pillow should be able to support your head, neck, and shoulders without your head tilting back as if slipping off the top end of the pillow, which can cause a sway; a pillow that is too full can cause you to round your neck and/or back. Your pillow should provide just enough padding to support your current cervical curvature and encourage a very gentle lengthening stretch

I also recommend positioning a pillow underneath your knees when you sleep.  Many people have tight psoas muscles, which can cause an unhealthy sway in your back if you lie down with outstretched legs.  A pillow beneath your knees keeps them in a slightly bent position, which relieves the stress on your low back.  Again, if you didn’t pack a pillow, you can always use a folded up fleece or other extra clothes you brought on the trip.

Stretchlying with a pillow supporting the head, neck, and shoulders, and a second pillow providing gentle support under the knees, can greatly improve your night’s sleep on a thin camping pad

An outstanding technique to use for sleep when camping, is the way most of the world sleeps—one leg is straight, one leg is bent, the body is ¾ -turned toward toward the ground.

This is an assisted version of sleeping ¾ turning toward the ground, using extra pillows under the knee and arm to help support the rotation and avoid a sway and a slumped shoulder

The challenges here are to not sway the lumbar spine, not tuck the pelvis, not force the head to turn more than it easily can, and not slump the upper shoulder forward. Easier said than done! We teach these techniques in our advanced technique classes after people have learned the basics of healthy sitting, lying on the back and side, standing, bending, lifting, and walking.

In the meantime, take along a thicker sleeping pad and extra pillows to make sleeping on the back comfortable for you.

Hopefully these tricks, along with supportive hiking shoes and plenty of bug spray, will keep your whole family in good spirits during your next excursion. And if you capture any good pictures that show these techniques in use, post them in the comments below!

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.

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

1. Sit, stand, walk, lie, and bend in new (old!) and better ways
2. Experience significantly less pain and more function
3. Expect more from their body and life. 
4. 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 ago, in 1983. I was given epidural injections. When I reached the point where I was unable to sit down, I had my first back surgery, a laminectomy on L4/L5, L5/S1. After the surgery, I used a walker for many years. In 2009, I had a second back surgery, a fusion at L4/L5, L5/S1. My third and fourth back surgeries In 2013 and 2016 involved removal of previous hardware, and fusion of L1-S1. Besides walkers, canes, and mobility scooters, I also had a service dog with a harness that I used for balance and support. Over the years I have worn a number of braces including two substantial back braces and braces for both legs. My back issues had resulted in burning in both calves and feet, and bursitis in both hips with pain extending down my right leg.  I have had numerous tries of Physical Therapy, the most successful being Aquatic Physical Therapy in a warm water pool. Since my last surgery I have seen three Physiatrists and two Internists, one with an Anesthesiology specialty, in my search to heal my back, resolve severe pain, increase my functionality, and be able to stop wearing the brace I had worn for over ten months following the last surgery.

With my history, I wasn’t sure that the Gokhale Method® was going to be able to help. I attended the Free Workshop, and then had a consultation with Esther Gokhale. I found her extremely knowledgeable, and able to immediately offer help for my situation. She taught me how to engage and develop my Inner Corset. I then started the Foundations Course individually with Monisha White. After the first session with Monisha I was able to discontinue use of my back brace and haven’t needed it since. With Monisha’s help I was able to continually improve my posture, with Stretchsitting (I love shoulder rolls), Stacksitting, Tallstanding, Stretchlying (side and back), Glidewalking, Hip-Hinging, and wonderful Kidney-bean shaped feet. Because my back was very stiff and painful, lying down and going to bed had been extremely difficult activities. Once I learned Stretchlying, lying in bed was very comfortable, and I looked forward to getting into bed.

Having spent years as a teacher and in helping professions, it is always wonderful to find others who are passionate about their subject matter and able to teach in a way that enables others to absorb the information and apply it in their lives. This has been my experience with the Gokhale Method®. Demonstration, visuals, positioning my body, review, practice, and homework involving reading and exercises continually reinforced the information.

I own the Gokhale Pain Free™ Chair and two Stretchsit® Cushions (one permanently in my car, and the other for use on chairs at home or other places), and these help me sit comfortably. 

With the conclusion of the six session Foundations Course, I am engaging in continuation of the learning. It is important to me to build on current knowledge, to continually practice, stay engaged with others on this journey and learn new information. I am a senior with years of having a compromised back. I was amazed that in a short time with the Gokhale Method I was able to make significant changes to enhance the quality of my life. I am hopeful that others will learn this information and avoid the many years of suffering that characterized my life. I am very appreciative of Esther Gokhale’s work, and grateful for the many methods she has developed to help others.

Stretchsitting®

The difference in neck curvature between the two is particularly marked

Stacksitting®

Note the strong improvement in shoulder and head placement

Hiphinging

Abigayil will now build up the flexibility and strength she needs to deepen her bend, instead of compromising her spine above her fusions to reach the ground

Tallstanding®

Notice how much stronger and more confident Abigayil appears while standing, after!

Several years ago, I had the good fortune to teach Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African social rights activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. He was recommended to my care by a common friend. His wife Leah had faced some lower back challenges, as had he. We exchanged emails and arranged a meeting during his visit to San Francisco in 2009.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

When I first saw him in the lobby of his hotel, he struck me as a very unassuming, grounded person, perfectly content to be one among many in a common area.

We went up to his room where several members of his family were gathered. My daughter Maya, the lead Gokhale Method teacher in Palo Alto at the time, was also there to assist me.

In addition to Father Tutu and Mama Leah, their daughter Mpho, who had a history of low back pain, joined the lesson. Between the props we brought along and the hotel room furnishings, we were well-equipped to teach stretchsitting, stretchlying, and more. A hotel room is a very conducive place to teach Gokhale Method principles, if you are willing to stand up on a bed, gather extra pillows from the closet, and push furniture around a little.

At one point in the lesson I inquired of Father Tutu if he was feeling stiff. “No,” he said with a twinkle, “I’m not feeling stiff; I’m just feeling stupid!” It’s a common juncture in our teaching for people to feel this. Our teachers are trained to offer some help here, interpreting what’s going on in a positive light. We might say “It’s like learning a language and no one is fluent at the get go.” Or “Our students are used to being very competent in what they do. Here you’re going back to being a baby - you’re learning to sit and walk! So it’s natural to feel out of your element.” But I didn’t say any of this to Father Tutu. It didn’t seem necessary. He was able to step outside himself and enjoy a little joke about it. 

Mpho was catching a plane later that day and we gifted her a Stretchsit cushion to make the plane journey more comfortable. This is what they wrote to me a few days later:

Hello Esther,

Thank you, thank you and thank you again. I have lived with back pain for so long that I had come to believe that it was and would be the one constant in my life.

Yesterday I had the most comfortable flight from San Francisco to Washington DC that I have ever experienced. I sat in economy class with little leg room and minimal space and got off the plane feeling rested. I had learned how to sit!

I can not thank you enough. I am toting around your book re-learning how to be in my body. It is a glorious thing!

Thank you and bless you.

M

The Rev. Mpho A. Tutu

The Tutu Institute for Prayer & Pilgrimage

118 N. Washington Street

Alexandria, VA 22304

From Desmond Tutu:

We can never hope to express our deep appreciation to you adequately at all. So I’m afraid you will have to settle for the hackneyed ‘thank you’. Our daughter experienced such immediate relief that, as you saw, she broke down with tears of joy and relief. Thank you so much for that too.

May God continue to bless your healing hands so that you may make more people get slightly taller as they also experience relief from what had seemed chronic pain.

God bless you richly always,

+Desmond Tutu.

Here are some warm thoughts they left me with.

• There’s very little that is as satisfying as shoring up people who then shore up others. We all need those who help others to remain healthy, pain-free, and vibrant.
• A lot can happen from a single Gokhale Method lesson.

Doug Abrams, a Gokhale Method Foundations course alumnus who introduced me to “Arch,” as those close to Desmond Tutu affectionately call him, was also instrumental in bringing Arch and the Dalai Lama together.

The Dalai Lama, Doug Abrams, and Archbishop Tutu

How marvelous that these two great people get to share a friendship in their old age!

They recently co-authored a book called The Book of Joy,. Here is a picture of Arch teaching the Dalai Lama how to dance! Does it get any better?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama learning to dance for the first time from his friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu 

Having some asymmetry in our bodies is natural and by no means a problem… for example, the majority of us are either strongly right- or left-handed, and if we play soccer we soon discover that we have a preferred foot, too! This study shows that pelvic obliquity (often caused by legs of a slightly different length) is present in equal measure in people both with and without Lower Back Pain, and doesn’t seem to be a contributing factor to the problem of back pain.

A famous example of someone who had a big leg length discrepancy was Bruce Lee. It didn't hold him back very much! To quote him, "I became a martial artist in spite of my limitations. My left leg is almost one inch shorter than the right.  That fact dictated the best stance for me – my right foot leading. Then I found because the right leg was longer, I had an advantage with certain types of kicks, since the uneven stomp gave me greater impetus.”

Bruce Lee, who had almost a 1" leg length discrepancy, managed to go far nonetheless.

It is a good bet that having a dominant side is not a significant problem for humans, or we would likely have evolved to be more ambidextrous!

Pete Sampras showing great form. Playing tennis is a very asymmetric activity, but amateurs and professionals alike don't suffer from it in any obvious way.

As long as our bones and joints stay well aligned and our postural muscles are strong, moderate amounts of muscular asymmetry doesn’t seem to be problematic. However, if our posture and movement patterns have been poor, we are much more likely to develop shears or twists in our bodies, and suffer injury or uneven wear in the joints. Joints or muscles that remain unused because of pain or weakness can degenerate or atrophy, hindering the development of a strong postural base.

Because of this, it is worth observing our everyday movements. If you favor one side to the extent that one side of you becomes strong and the other noticeably weaker, or one side is flexible and the other stiff or uncomfortable, applying the Gokhale Method can help redress the balance:

Stretchlying on a Different Side
If it is suitable for your back, give a little more attention to stretchlying on your less favored side, where it is likely that your back muscles are tighter and shorter.

Stretchlying on your less favored side can help even your body out. 
 

Fine-tune Your Hiphinge

Make sure that:

1. Your weight is evenly distributed between your feet

2. Each knee is bent the same amount

3. Each thigh is externally rotated to the same degree

4. Most importantly, check that your pelvis and torso remain central and that you are not listing to one side.

Be sure that as you bend, your knees point in the same direction as the feet, and that you don't list to one side.

Glidewalking
When practicing your glute squeezes for glidewalking, usually by raising a leg behind you, it can be helpful to complete more reps on your weaker side. Same with the inchworm exercises for gaining foot strength.

Try to even out unevenness in the strength of your feet by doing more reps on the weak side.
 

Steps and Stairs
Make sure you do not always climb up steps and stairs with the same leg first. Alternate which leg you start with, and focus on pushing off from behind with the foot.

Alternating which leg you begin climbing stairs with helps eliminate a possible cause of muscle imbalance.

You may also notice that a movement flows well in one direction, and feels awkward in the other direction (for example, opening a door with your non-dominant hand). Practice switching sides from time to time. Beginning with a blank slate will help you reexamine and improve your movement pattern. Being somewhat ambidexterous can improve your overall muscular strength and be helpful in sports and everyday life; it can also help chart new and helpufl neural pathways in your brain.

Do you have activities in your life that are very asymmetric? Have they caused you problems or have you navigated them just fine?

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.