neck

Most of us are familiar with the idea of self-massage. For many it may grow from instinctively rubbing a sore spot. For a few it grows into an essential healing art, and may even incorporate skills such as trigger point work, myofascial release, and acupressure. 

Healing hands 

Many students opt for the in-person Gokhale Method® offerings (Free Workshops, Initial Consultations, Foundations, Pop-up, and Alumni Classes) because they place great value on their teacher’s hands-on work. I have found that hands-on work continues to be a force for good even in online work. For our online Elements students, who don’t get guidance from a teacher’s hands, it’s especially important to learn to do hands-on work with their own hands.

One of the most useful hands-on techniques that we teach you to do for yourself, whether you are an in-person or online student, is the hair pull. It is the subject of one of our free Gokhale® Moments videos, and one that we frequently refer to. In fact, Hair Pull is our most liked Gokhale Moment! See if you like it too…

The hair pull involves gently gliding your head back and up, lengthening the neck, aligning it more vertically, and pivoting the head slightly downward.

Confine your movement to the neck and head

When performing the hair pull, make sure that you are not pulling your torso and swaying your back. You may detect a straightening of the upper thoracic spine and feel stretch in the upper chest when gliding your neck back, which is fine. Other than that, focus on isolating the movement to your head and neck. If you find yourself swaying back with your front ribs lifting, you want to prevent this and protect against compressing your lower back by first learning to use your Rib Anchor—another Gokhale Moment video that we frequently refer to. 

Healthy head carriage

Rather than having forward head carriage, we want to return to healthy head carriage. Carrying not only your head on your spine, but an additional load on the head, is an almost universal practice in traditional societies, and both necessitates and encourages healthy neck alignment. 

A well-positioned neck and head align directly over the torso—not to the front or behind

The Gokhale® Head Cushion has just enough weight to help you find the verticality you are looking for in your neck. By strengthening your deeper neck muscles, it also helps to relax the more peripheral neck musculature that is often tight. (You can use our $5 discount code TallNeck, valid through Sunday October 13, to purchase a head cushion.)

Letting go

Undoing well-established patterns such as tensing the back of the neck can still be difficult to navigate by yourself. Often the body has “held tight” to a position for decades. This is rather like pulling on a knotted piece of string—the harder we pull, the tighter the knot gets. Take things slowly to allow your nervous system time to find a different response, and your tissues time to relax. If the back of your neck only knows how to draw tighter, you can call on the expertise of a Gokhale Method teacher who has guided other students through this same difficulty and out the other side. Once you have unlocked these patterns together, you can continue to gently coax the elastic release you have discovered using your own hands. 

Here I am guiding a student to experience more mobility, length, and verticality in his neck.

Pain will not bring gain

If you have any pain when you try this maneuver, stop. Don’t feel obliged to follow general instructions that are not tailored for you. Nature spent millions of years evolving a sophisticated way of telling you not to do something, and you don’t want to disregard that signal. This is an instance where a qualified Gokhale Method teacher can look at your health history, together with the advice of your preferred health professional if appropriate, and work with you to progress comfortably and safely. 

Previous generations rarely exhibited the forward head carriage and curved necks that commonly cause tension, pain, and degenerative conditions today.

Help that’s at hand

Once you have mastered this hands-on maneuver, you can remind your neck and head how to move back home into a healthier alignment as frequently as needed. Practice regularly and mindfully, and you will progress with both your range of motion and your baseline posture. 

Gokhale Method teacher Julie Johnson offers a student hands-on help in combination with a Gokhale® Head Cushion to gently lengthen her neck. The weight of the cushion encourages the deep spinal muscles of the neck to work, so that the outer muscles can relax.

Share your progress!

If you have practiced our “hair pull” technique and would like feedback on your neck and head position, please consider uploading a “Before” and an “After” picture in the comment section below. It’s a great way for all of us to share and learn from each other. 

Here I was in 2009, demonstrating the lengthening effect of pulling up the back of the head to a group of teenagers. Hopefully they have continued to enjoy the benefits of space for their cervical discs, nerves, and bones!

Best next action steps 

If you would like help to improve your neck and head 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…

In 2014, at age sixty-four, I began to experience pain in my left hip that eventually became quite debilitating. For the first time in my life, I went to a chiropractor, which resulted in relief that lasted a couple of years. By 2015 I had consulted first one, then a second orthopedic surgeon, who recommended a hip replacement due to osteoarthritis. 

The first clinic I went to, I felt like I was visiting a bone and joint factory…I decided to wait. The second place, they were reading another patient’s notes! That doesn’t give you a lot of confidence!! Not feeling completely comfortable with either of the surgeons, I began doing my own research. 

I longed to get back to hiking and walking pain-free.

I’m not one of those people who jump into things, especially surgery. So I went to a clinic where they did a lot of rehabilitative physical therapy and I asked one of the PT’s: of the people you work with who have success with their surgery, which surgeons do they use? And that’s how I found my hip surgeon. After a successful surgery in January 2016, as well as physical therapy sessions with the excellent physical therapist who recommended the surgeon to me, I recovered quickly and was thrilled to resume walking without pain.  

During the summer of 2018, while out shopping, I experienced both of my knees feeling as if they were on fire. My knees continued to bother me, but, afraid an orthopedic surgeon would tell me I needed surgery, I consulted a sports medicine doctor. He performed X-rays and confirmed that I had osteoarthritis in both knees. He suggested physical therapy and braces, as well as steroid shots (which I declined). Physical therapy helped to provide some relief as the muscles around my knees strengthened.

The following year, I read an article by Christiane Northrup, M.D., in which she shared information about the Gokhale Method®. I researched the method and learned that a one-day Pop Up course, one of the in-person ways to learn the Gokhale Method, would soon be offered in a nearby town, Boulder, Colorado. After the course, I did my best to focus on glidewalking, which did reduce the bone-on-bone knee pain.               

    
Everyday activities, such as bending, are taught in Gokhale Method group courses. Bending can be done in ways that align the bones well, use muscles appropriately, and spare the joints. Learning to hip-hinge benefits the knees, hips, shoulders and neck, and more besides.

I made it until June 2021, when I had successful bilateral knee replacements with the same surgeon.  I opted to do them both at the same time to get it over with, but recovery was challenging. After weeks of physical therapy, I was told to just do normal everyday activities. However, I did not feel I was making the progress I wanted.

My husband took these photos of my knee replacement X-rays at my 6-week post-operative follow-up appointment. Our joints are precious things to take care of!

Because COVID was still raging, I joined the new Gokhale daily online program. This enabled me to extend my recovery in a more enjoyable and focused way, and my knees became ever stronger. Even now, if I am unable to participate in the day’s live session, just receiving the email about the topic of the day is a great reminder and encourages me to focus on practice. And I regularly watch the replays if I miss a session.

Gokhale Exercise members receive a daily email outlining the day’s program, complete with an inspirational posture reminder image. This was May 7, 2024.

In February 2023 I began experiencing pain in my hands and my left shoulder. I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and given exercises and braces for my wrists/hands to wear at night. While the shoulder responded and had some improvement, my hands were still an issue.

At a follow-up appointment six weeks later, it was suggested I could have “a little surgery” on both hands to fix the issue. I looked up information about CTS and the surgery, and learned the pros and cons of having that done. I lived with the pain off and on until this year, when in early 2024 a diagnostic nerve test was performed by a neurologist to check the severity and cause of my particular CTS. Even though C7 (the seventh neck vertebra where nerves to the back of the arm, wrist, hand, and middle finger exit the spinal cord) was mentioned to me during the nerve assessment, the hand specialist who ordered the test did not mention it at a follow-up visit. He suggested surgery on both hands. A day after this appointment, I called the doctor’s office to find out more about possible C7 involvement and to ask if that might be the cause of my CTS. If so, how would surgery to snip the ligaments in my hands fix the problem? Since I never received a response, I did not schedule surgery.  

Pain-free wrists and a mobile neck are important to enjoy my hobbies. Here I am on a painting course that my daughter and I took together.

An X-ray of my cervical spine in March did indicate osteoarthritis in my neck, which in our society would be regarded as “normal” for my age. I discussed this finding with my chiropractor, who uses the Gonstead Technique. She felt confident that regular, gentle adjustments of affected areas, found by palpation and the use of a heat sensor that indicates inflammation, could be successful in eliminating the CTS symptoms. She checked my grip strength and adjusted my hands and wrists. Because I had difficulty using my hands for so long due to pain and numbness, they had become stiff and weak. I was also given suggestions about what I might do to help with my neck after my appointment. This made me once again think about what more I could do to contribute to my own healing.

My neck X-rays showed several areas of degeneration and misalignment that would potentially cause radicular pain. 

It had been almost five years since I first attended the one-day Pop Up course. I would say that up until recently, I had been somewhat “dabbling” in the Gokhale Method, without a full understanding or commitment to change my posture. Although chiropractic treatments helped to relieve my symptoms, I recognized that a healthy baseline posture was lacking, resulting in repeated misalignments. Understanding that an issue with my cervical spine might actually be the cause of my CTS, I finally came to the realization that I had been overly relying on others to fix me, and that I also needed to do everything I could to help myself. Just the thought of yet another surgery became extremely motivating!

That’s when I decided to circle back to the Gokhale Method. During an Online Follow-up with Esther in January this year, I explained that I wanted more confidence about what I should be doing for my posture and wanted coaching. Shortly after, I began the one-on-one online Elements course with Esther, which ended in April. In the early sessions, it was difficult for me to even get into positions that required me to use my hands and shoulders. By about halfway through the course, my pain from CTS had subsided, as well as the stiffness and pain in my shoulders which had not been in the healthy place they should be. I used to change up my mattresses and pillows a lot, but now I realize it’s not all about these external things—good mattresses and pillows can help, but how you position your body makes a big difference. 

On a regular basis, non-genetic scolioses/asymmetries tend to diminish with standard Gokhale Method training—that is, without any special focus. In my case, it reduced the strain on my neck. This surprised and delighted me.

Now for the really great news! I have not experienced CTS at all since completing the Elements course. While I practice healthy posture with my whole body, as everything interrelates, my main focus has been on my neck, head, and shoulder placement. Chiropractic appointments have gone from bi-weekly, to weekly, and now, only occasionally. For weeks now, C7 has not needed an adjustment and it makes my heart so happy when my chiro tells me the instrument that measures heat and inflammation in that area is clear! She has seen how my improved posture is making a difference and has been extremely supportive of the Gokhale Method.  

My exercise and walking had greatly diminished over the years after the onset of osteoarthritis, pain, and then surgeries. My upper body has been my main concern recently, but other techniques, such as glidewalking, have greatly improved my mobility and stamina. I would like to take the Advanced Glidewalking course in the future. I am working my way back to a healthy weight and an active life—thanks to the Gokhale Method.    

In this video I share how glidewalking has enabled me to travel and walk longer distances in comfort.

Best next action steps 

If you would like to improve your joint health, 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…

Yes, you read that correctly. Not only do you not need to damage your neck every time you use your cell phone, but instead, you could be improving it!

Most of us use our cell phones quite frequently. If you train yourself to adopt a healthy stance every time you use your phone, you will have a built-in posture practice that repeats throughout your day. 

Identifying the problem

Cell phones are unfairly regarded as the inevitable cause of neck problems and slouching. It’s not that you use a phone, but how you use it, that matters. Images from Clare Chapman, Pixabay and Pexels

Most people tend to let their head be drawn towards their screen when they use their cell phone. That’s why social media and wellness features are full of warnings about “text neck,” including graphics about how the head gets effectively heavier the further forward it is, and how that puts increasing strain on the neck. This is certainly true. The advice to avoid text neck is often to hold your phone straight ahead, rather than downward. Since this is physically and socially awkward, most people don’t do it.

Common advice to hold a cell phone straight out ahead feels awkward to most people.

Fortunately, there is a better solution…

Neck Saver #1: Adjust your head, bring your phone to your face, and look down

I like to use an analogy with eating...You may have been trained to bring your food to your mouth, rather than your mouth to your plate. Your mother was right! Following the code of table manners, she was teaching not only a more elegant, but also a more healthful way of dining which avoided squishing your neck.

Infants instinctively like to keep their neck tall and head well aligned. Pexels

Similarly, when you use your phone, you want to first establish a healthy head and neck position, and then feed yourself your information by bringing the phone towards your face, rather than your face to your phone. We recommend you get started by watching this free video, which will teach you the basics of how to glide your neck back and up to a healthy baseline position. 

Next, you will want to look down. Blaming a downward line of vision for neck problems ignores the reality that for tens of thousands of years our ancestors have looked downward, without any ill effects, and that we are fully adapted to do this. We’ve looked downwards to track animals, avoid snakes, find food, avoid thorns, make tools, prepare food, nurse infants, and more—these activities were essential, often for many hours at a time.

It may be enough to just move your eyes to look down. To look down further, you may need to do a combination of angling your chin down, and/or angling your neck from its base—where the bump of your largest neck bone (C7) may protrude at the back of your neck. No matter how you are looking downward, with your eyes, neck, or head, be sure your neck maintains a good baseline length. 

The aim is not to avoid looking down, but to improve how we look down. This teenager has his eyes down, his chin down, and has maintained a tall, spacious neck which remains centered over his body. Image from Pixabay

Neck Saver #2: Get some new wallpaper!

It’s true that a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words. Our species has a very large visual cortex—by choosing a home screen on your cell phone that inspires and reminds you to reposition your neck, you will be reinforcing healthy neck posture every time you pick up your phone. 

A little posture know-how turns your cell phone into a smartphone! Image from Freepik

We have put together a selection of downloadable images for you to choose from below. 

Smartphone image #1. Image from Pixabay
Download image #1 

Smartphone image #2
Download image #2 

Smartphone image #3
Download image #3 

Neck Saver #3: PostureTracker™

If only you could be reminded instantly every time your neck migrated forward or your chin jutted upward. Well, we have your back—and neck! Our recently released PostureTracker™ device uses a pair of sensors you can place in many pairs of locations on your body. Via an app on your phone, it gives you real-time feedback (visual, sound, or vibration) every time you depart from your calibrated ideal. No more over-contracting your neck muscles and compressing your cervical discs! 

When your chin lifts, compressing your neck (left), PostureTracker will alert you and guide you back to your healthiest calibrated posture (right).

We are often asked why we do not sell the PostureTracker as a stand-alone device. It’s because without training, the device would likely be used to reinforce common misconceptions about good posture; people would use the device to “sit up straight,” for example, and likely do more harm than good. So PostureTracker is available only to our students, past and present. For people who understand what good posture is, the device is invaluable—it helps close the gap between knowing what to do and doing it as a habit. You can sign up here for our next Alumni PostureTracker Course, starting Thursday June 27, 7:00 am PT.

Best next action steps 

If you have had trouble with your neck and would like to improve it, 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…

According to research a shocking two-thirds of professional musicians live in chronic pain. Those of you who are music makers may have felt challenged at times by the lengthy periods of sitting or standing required for practice and rehearsal. Continuously holding an instrument, maintaining a playing position, or just standing holding sheet music, can, sooner or later, trouble your neck, shoulder, or wrist. Playing can become a physical challenge rather than an activity integrated with the music making.

This graph shows the distribution of pain reported in a group of 490 musicians.

Finding harmony in your body

The good news is that healthy posture can allow music-making to be not only a pleasure for the ears and nourishment for the soul, but also something comfortable and good for your body. Each time you play, practice, or perform, with your body in harmony, it will feel all the better for it, rather than sore and achy. 

In this series of blog posts about making music with healthy posture, you will meet some of our students and teachers who are also musicians. Some are professional while others are keen amateurs, but they all treasure music-making in their lives. They share having had their musicianship curtailed at some point by back pain, and having resolved it with the Gokhale Method®. This first blog post talks about playing the piano. 

As infants we naturally stacksit well to play an instrument. These youngsters have their behind behind them, shoulders posterior, and a tall neck. Their stool is too low though!

Playing the piano pain free

Juan Zurutuza holds the unique position of pianist with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Sweden. Juan discovered the Gokhale Method online and then took the Gokhale Method Foundations Course with John Carter in the UK in 2016. He followed up with two one-day Pop-up courses with me in Werkhoven, Holland, and Bonn, Germany. In a recent catch-up he said:

Most of my musician colleagues have problems—that are solvable. I see many fixable postural problems, for example, tight, forward shoulders causing tingling in the fingers and impaired sensation, which causes immense difficulty to string players. But there are examples all over. 

When it comes to physical ease in playing piano, I find two things resonate for me. For the particulars of piano playing, the Taubman Approach. For whole-body posture, the Gokhale Method is an invaluable baseline. I’m not claiming to be perfect, but I know if my lower back gets tight I need to work on my sway with my rib anchor, and my neck position. At least I am aware and can change. 

The straightforward guidelines given in the Gokhale Method have made a huge positive impact on my playing: learning how to glide your neck back, how to lengthen your spine, how to sit using a wedge. . .All these things help me to be able to sit down and practice for what can very often be all day. People may say “oh, all that sitting is really bad for you,” but it really depends on how you do it. 

This photo shows Juan playing in 2008, before he found the Gokhale Method. It shows how his pelvis tucked when he played, rounding his back and sending his shoulders, neck, and head forward. When the pelvis is tucked, coming to an upright position demands the lower back muscles tense up.

(Concert at the Railway Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands.)

Being pain free isn't a requirement to be a great musician, certainly. But for me, being pain free, comfortable, and able to move in a coordinated way, increases my chances of conveying my musical intentions. I would say that I am seeking to align my physical and musical experiences as I play.

Juan practicing in Gothenburg, 2023, applying what he has learned with the Gokhale Method.

Teaching the piano along with healthy posture

Sigrun Franzen is a recently qualified Gokhale Method teacher based in Madison, Wisconsin. Sigrun is also a professional pianist, organist, and harpsichordist. 

I was never completely comfortable playing the organ, but I thought that was just the price you paid for a more awkward instrument which didn’t allow you to balance your feet on the floor when using the pedals and using your arms at different heights to get to the manuals (keyboards). Doing these things gave me back pain because I did them by letting my ribs pop up and contracting my back. Applying the Gokhale Method techniques of rib anchoring and engaging my inner corset solved that problem!

My own piano teacher recommended Esther’s book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back to me, as she had another student who had benefited from the Method. It was the structural integrity I got from the Gokhale Method that proved to be the key to pain-free music-making. In fact to pain-free everything! For example, I suffered with persistent sciatica until I learned to glidewalk. The postural techniques I use at the piano are also directly transferable to healthy working at a desk computer. 

Healthy sitting for working at a computer follows the same posture principles as playing the piano. 

I play and teach piano with the Taubman Approach. In addition, with the Gokhale Method, it feels wonderful to offer a healthy postural role model for my students, which goes a long way. If they are still sitting poorly and in discomfort I can give them a little wedge for easy stacksitting—a light touch that makes a lot of difference. I have had some of my piano students’ parents take the Gokhale Method Foundations Course, which is a great way for them to support their kids. I like to have a few suitable stools and images of good positioning around in my studio. One of the parents said “Oh, you’re kinda like a professional sitter.” 

Here was Sigrun teaching a young pupil piano, back in 2016, before she discovered the Gokhale Method. Like Juan, she was tucked and rounded forward. Sigrun’s young pupil still has her natural posture intact and is setting an excellent example!

Learning the Gokhale Method enabled Sigrun to sit tall and relaxed as she plays. This video excerpt shows Gokhale Method teacher Sigrun Franzen giving a harpsichord recital. (Johann Jakob Froberger, Suite in A minor. St Matthias Episcopal Church, Waukesha, WI.)

Special Free Online Workshop for all musicians

Join Gokhale Method teacher Julie Johnson for our special free online workshop End the back pain and get back to music-making with the Gokhale Method, Monday, November 20, 11 a.m. (PST), 8 p.m. (CET). Julie is a pianist and choral singer in her spare time, and particularly enjoys helping other musicians to make music without strain on the body. You can sign up here.

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. . .

Vision and headaches

We know that challenges with our vision can cause headaches. Squinting in bright light or straining the eyes to bring hazy text into focus can easily result in strain or pain in the eyes, temples, top of the head, or elsewhere. 

What is less widely acknowledged is that wearing prescription glasses can also cause headaches. An overlooked cause of headaches—and other pains too—is the poor posture we often adopt when wearing glasses. In this post I will be looking at the posture traps to avoid with eyewear—and how to turn wearing glasses to your postural advantage. 

Wearing glasses can solve headaches—or cause them if they lock you into poor posture. Pexels

The eye test

Let’s start with the eye test. Your optician or ophthalmologist uses various machines to measure eye pressure and light refraction, and to look at the cornea, iris, lens, and retina of the eye in microscopic detail. During these examinations you want to bring the apparatus as close to you as possible, and/or hinge at the hips to angle yourself forward. Apply the “spoon to your mouth, not your mouth to the spoon” principle; rather than jut your neck out for extended periods, minimize distortion to its delicate structures.

Various types of eye examination will require you to crane your neck forward to rest your chin
and forehead against supports. Wikimedia

Getting fitted for your glasses

Always be in your best possible position when you get your glasses fitted. Your optician or optometrist is an expert in eye care, but not in posture. They will likely overlook any degree of slump (or sway) in your back, and the resulting compensatory chin lift, and fit your glasses accordingly. In this way, they will unwittingly build in a bias that compresses your neck.

You want your head “back home," as it was when you were a young child. Let your chin angle down, your neck be tall, and your head be back, aligned over your body. You can learn how to lengthen your neck and restore healthy alignment here. This will direct your gaze more down your nose. Maintaining healthy posture while choosing and wearing your glasses will avoid compression and the wear and tear and headaches it brings.

Avoid both letting your head drift forward (left) and lifting your chin (center), both of which compress the nerves, discs, bones, and tissues in the back of the neck and are a common cause of headaches and degenerative changes in the cervical spine. 

Progressive lenses call for progressive posture

Progressive lenses are a great boon for many wearers. These lenses can combine several prescriptions in one, allowing you to focus on things near, far, and in between, regardless of what distance your eyes do best. For example, a progressive prescription for farsightedness, a common condition as we get older that makes close work like reading difficult, will have a stronger magnification at the bottom of the lens which makes it perfect for close-up tasks such as reading phones and books—or laptops and tablets—or, a little further away, working at the kitchen counter. However, there are particular posture considerations when it comes to progressive lenses:

1. If you have your chin up when you are measured for a progressive prescription, then you will be obliged to hold this compressed, chin up position whenever you need to see things up close—which could be for hours at a time. Additionally, you are training yourself to compress your neck as a baseline position. 
2. If you use progressive lenses for close-up work ahead of you, such as looking at a desktop computer screen or reading sheet music (or conducting an eye test!), you will be obliged to lift your chin to peer through the “sweet spot.” We strongly recommend having a pair of “computer glasses” which enable you to position your head in a healthy position.
3. If your vision deteriorates further and you do not update your prescription, you will be obliged to increasingly lift your chin to peer through the greater magnification lower in the lenses. It is therefore important to have your eyes tested regularly. 

Progressive lenses can work well for looking down at books, tablets, and laptops. Pexels

Relying on the reading area at the bottom of a progressive lens will lock you into poor posture at a desktop computer. Pexels

Bending forward or down

You want your frames to fit your head and the bridge of your nose perfectly, so that you won’t tip your nose up to keep them from sliding off. Test the glasses properly for size and grip when you buy them. A good optician will be able to make adjustments to most frames to fit you optimally.

  
Don’t let poorly fitting glasses compromise your bending, making you round your back and crunch your neck. 

You want to hip-hinge as well as you know how, maintaining length through your spine. 

Choose larger lenses 

Habitually seeing the world through lenses, even sunglasses, tends to somewhat limit the movement of the eye and increases our reliance on turning the neck. Infants and people in traditional societies show a preference for bigger eye movements rather than bigger neck movements. 

This young girl at school in Otavalo, Ecuador, moves her neck a little—and her eyes a lot. You can read more about eye tracking here.

We recommend you choose good-sized lenses that lessen the tendency to “tunnel vision," and avoid thick frames that block your peripheral vision. Contact lenses can go a long way to restoring this freedom, so you may want to consider them too.

A well-fitted pair of glasses can even be a reminder to find your best head, neck, and body alignment. Muster all the elegance you might bring to wearing a crown. 

Audrey Hepburn knew how to use both her eyes and her sunglasses to good effect—and with strikingly good posture! (from Breakfast at Tiffany's). Wikimedia

Best next action steps for newcomers

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

We are offering a Posture Remedies for Text Neck Free Online Workshop on June 1 at 4 p.m. PST. You can sign up below to join any of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops.

Do you suffer from neck tension, muscle knots, or tingling in your fingers? Do you get frequent headaches?

Or maybe your neck is fine most of the time, but seizes up periodically, leaving you unable to function normally in your job, family life, and recreational activities.

A soft cervical collar is a common prescription to alleviate neck pain. It can give welcome support in the short term, but doesn’t help to strengthen your neck or get to the source of the problem. Wikimedia Commons

Most neck pain involves compression. 

In modern cultures, the head often drifts forward as we slouch and crane our necks towards our computer screens. The weight of the head, (typically 11 lb. or 5 kg—think bowling ball), then requires the muscles at the back of the neck to contract strongly to keep the head up. This contraction compresses the relatively delicate tissues in the area. Not a recipe for a healthy, happy neck. If you have forward head carriage but are symptom-free so far, keep reading for tips that will prevent future problems with the discs, nerves, blood vessels, and bones in your neck.

In our culture slumped desk work posture and a degree of forward head carriage is common. Pexels

Restoring the natural length and position of your neck

Young children, ancestral populations, and people living in traditional societies around the world preserve a natural head carriage that stacks the neck well as part of a healthy J-spine. This allows the head to be balanced with only appropriate muscular effort, and the neck to be tall and free from compression. 

As young children we instinctively align our neck well over our body. Pexels

Restoring mobility in your neck

Perhaps you have experienced increased stiffness and reduced mobility in your neck over the years? Or unpleasant gritty sounds when you turn your head? Beware of exercises that include extreme flexion, extension, or head circles. These movements, taken to the end of your range of motion, can damage your discs and pinch your cervical nerves. If they are a part of your exercise regimen, consider reducing their range. 

There are many delicate and vital structures within the neck, so we first want to align it well. (front view). Wikipedia

In our experience it is best to focus on restoring the neck to a healthy baseline length and shape that centers your head well on your spine. The video below shows you how to proceed:

This gentle movement will help you to find a safe, natural trajectory to get started on gliding your head up and back.

If you have areas of long-standing rigidity or curvature in your neck, it is likely linked to your postural distortions elsewhere in your body, for example thoracic rigidity or a tucked pelvis. 

Expect this to take more time and training to change, for which you will be rewarded with additional benefits including comfort, improved circulation, and increased energy.

Finding your neck strength 

While many of the neck’s structures are delicate, they can also be strong. The deep muscles that are intended to support the neck and keep it tall tend not to get used very much in modern industrial culture and are often weak. Besides doing strengthening exercises, as is common in conventional approaches to neck problems, learning to carry weight on the head is extremely valuable. 

People in traditional societies preserve a taller, straighter neck, and more functional head posture. (Odisha, India)

Cultures that headload suffer much less neck pain than we do and can teach us much about how, where, and why to headload. Not only do these people have excellent neck health, but they also have excellent posture throughout their bodies, and move with elegance and efficiency. Students in our classes begin with light weights to sense the axis along which they need to stack their bones. Over time, the weight can be increased to further strengthen the longus colli, inner corset, and other muscles. 

The small extra weight of the Gokhale™Head Cushion enables students not only to strengthen the deep neck muscles and lengthen the neck, but also to better orient their entire skeleton. 

My book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back has many images of people throughout the world headloading. Healthy head carriage, as opposed to forward head carriage, is an important starting point for this activity. It is not possible to carry significant weight without both the healthy neck alignment and strength to avoid compressive forces.

A well-aligned head and neck is both highly functional—and elegant. 

Because about one in three adults are affected by neck pain every year¹, we introduce techniques for the neck early on in our in-person Foundations course (Lesson 1 of 6), in our one-day Pop-up course, and our online Elements course (Lesson 4 of 18). Here students learn in detail the gentle techniques that gradually return the neck towards the length and pain-free position we all enjoyed as infants. Whatever your age, your neck is something you can learn to once again stack in your favor.

References: 

1. Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), “Neck Pain: Overview,” InformedHealth.org, last modified February 14, 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK338120/.

Best next action steps for newcomers

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If you are fortunate and have photographs going back three, four, or even more generations, you likely possess a compelling tool for posture improvement. How and why exactly are these images so useful?

Abraham Lincoln with his youngest son, Tad, 1864. Wikipedia

The invention of photography allows us to look back in time as far as the 1840s. It is rare to possess family photographs going this far back, both because heirlooms tend to get lost over time, and because fewer photographs were taken then due to the cost of the elaborate processes in those times. But many of us have portraits of our great grandparents’ generation—whose posture is usually much healthier than what we see today. 

Rediscovering ancestral posture can be fun! In our 1-2-3 Move program we regularly have a “Show and Tell” during which participants share old family photographs. The inspiration for change that these pictures bring to their owners, as well as to the online community, is powerful. 

Sue Beltram shares a photograph of her parents who both show healthier posture than her own generation.

Old photographs connect you to forebears who lived their lives in a culture of healthier posture. As I explain in my book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, industrialization was the first challenge to society’s posture. Healthy kinesthetic traditions that had been passed down for centuries decayed as younger people left their families to migrate to new cities and even new continents for work. Posture went further awry in the 1920s, when a seismic shift in clothing fashions and furniture design actively encouraged a “relaxed” posture that tucked the pelvis, rounded the upper body, and sent the head forward. Slouching made its entrance!

In the 1920s it became fashionable to slouch, as this photograph shows. 

Viewing old family photographs, it’s details such as the shape of a mouth or the curve of a brow that give you a feeling of kinship and likeness. But photographs of your ancestors can also give you a direct strong message about the genetic basis for the healthy posture that could have been yours. You can experience that healthy posture as a characteristic of your “tribe,” rather than an attribute from some distant land. Ideally, you now have a precious resource to inspire you to reclaim your postural birthright. 

Gokhale Method teacher Sheelagh Tobin shares three photos from her grandfather’s life on the daily
1-2-3 Move program.

Posture that keeps your muscles, joints, and bones healthy is part of your genetic heritage. Whatever distortions you suffer from are merely a result of cultural, familial, or individual misunderstandings, and very probably can be restored with the right knowledge, effort, and support. Guiding students through this transformative process is the purpose of all of our courses: our online Elements course, our six-lesson in-person Foundations Course and one-day in-person Pop-Up Course.

The Mendocino County Museum donated several spare antique photographic prints to the Gokhale Method Institute’s collection.
Here I use one to talk about neck posture with participants on the daily 1-2-3 Move exercise program.

Antique portraits often show a strong, well-aligned neck. The neck can easily support and balance the head when it has appropriate support from deep postural muscles such as the longus colli, which lies along both sides of the front of the cervical spine. When these muscles are weak and underused, the head and neck hang forward. This forces tissues at the back of the neck and in the upper back to carry weight they were not designed to; it also compresses the cervical vertebrae, discs, and nerves.

Healthy head carriage allows the head to rest on the axis of the spine while the chin rests down.

Old family photos usually also show particulars about the relaxed carriage of the head on a well-stacked spine. With the head well poised, the face angles downward and the eyes are better oriented to move as needed. 

The Fisk University Jubilee Singers, c. 1870, all have their shoulders well back in a wide, relaxed position. Wikipedia

Another characteristic that is common in old photos and rare today is posterior shoulder placement and an open upper chest. In the group portrait above you can see how everyone’s shoulders are posteriorly positioned with the upper arm often remaining aligned with the back half of the torso. The very best way to start to get your shoulders into this healthy posterior alignment is to do shoulder rolls. This gentle maneuver avoids arching the back or tensing the muscles between your shoulder blades in an effort to get your shoulders back. Enjoy this video that shows you how.

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!

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.

I’ve been in Orissa for the past week, the last of my three-week stay in India. I'm observing village and tribal people in their everyday activities, learning what I can in a short stay, and looking for nuggets of body wisdom to bring home to my students. This visit has been a rich experience indeed! Orissa has more distinct tribes (62) than any other state in India; inland Orissa is off the tourist track and entirely new to me though I was raised and well-travelled in India. 

Sharing bananas with some pottery vendors at the Kakirigumma tribal / village market.

A great vantage point for observing the comings and goings at the Kakirigumma market

One activity that strikes most new visitors coming to India, first in the cities, and then with greater frequency in the villages and tribal areas, is how impressively people carry things on their heads. The balance and elegance is arresting; the strength and health this practice imparts to the neck is a good reason to adopt it into a modern lifestyle.

People who routinely carry weights on their head usually have beautiful carriage

Why carry on the head?

1. It strengthens the longus colli muscle, which elongates the neck

In the torso, there are many muscles, including the three deeper abdominal muscle layers, that can contribute to elongating the torso and protecting the spinal nerves and discs. In the neck, which is also prone to wear and tear and injury, there are many fewer muscles that can do the equivalent job of elongating the neck to protect the cervical (neck) discs and nerves. Carrying weight on the head activates and strengthens one of the most important of these muscles, longus colli. 

Modern lifestyles often have us facing computer screens for many hours a day, which can result in the head projecting forward. Carrying weight on the head and strengthening the longus colli muscle counteracts the tendency for the head to protrude forward. This spares the neck and shoulder muscles a lot of unnecessary and painful tension. 

Carrying on the head results in an elongated, upright, and healthy neck

2. It strengthens and stretches numerous neck muscles

To balance a load on the head requires numerous mini-excursions of the head from side to side and from front to back. All of these movements serve to strengthen and stretch important groups of muscles in the neck. The result is more strength, flexibility, and relaxation in the neck.  


Balancing a load on the head involves shearing motions to the sides, front, and back - these motions strengthen and stretch neck muscles.

3. Your hunter gatherer ancestors did it for millennia - we may have some dependencies that have evolved around this action. 

Extrapolating from modern hunter gatherer societies, it is reasonable to conjecture that we have been carrying things on our heads for millions of years. It was logical for our hunter gatherer ancestors to carry weights on their heads. In the absence of vehicles, or carrying implements (if you go far back in time), the head presents a particularly efficient way to carry weight. It’s right on the weight bearing axis of the body - so carrying on the head causes no torque in the spine.  

Carrying weight on the head is a particularly efficient way to carry weight that causes no torque in the spine.

When an action has been part of our evolutionary history for long stretches of time, there’s usually a web-like interdependence between that action and other functions. For example, it may be that carrying weight on the head from time to time is necessary training to easily carry the weight of our own heads all day long. 
 

4. It gives you poise.

In my experience, there’s nothing quite like carrying weight on the head to help you find your central axis and a feeling of being “centered.” People who regularly carry weight on their heads tend to have wonderful poise and presence. 

Carrying weight on the head gives poise and balance

How to carry weight on your head?

1. Begin with a small weight and work your way up.
    
2. Locate the top of your head accurately (see our Gokhale Method Head Cushion FAQs)
    
3. Carry your head weight for brief periods (maybe 30 seconds at first) until you are strong enough to carry the weight for longer.
    
4. If you have the opportunity, get some bodywork to help you through any transition soreness.

Receiving a neck massage from the local healer in tribal Orissa

Practical tidbits

Our Gokhale Method head cushion is crafted to not slip off your head too easily while still challenging your neck muscles to do the desired balancing maneuvers. Having a cushion handy at strategic locations is a good way to ensure you develop a habit of using it. I like to use a head cushion when I'm at a keyboard or cooking. If you are able to take it out walking without causing negative repercussions for yourself, this is the best way to learn carrying on your head. Not only will you improve your neck strength and architecture, but the weight will probably help you find a healthier gait. To support your head carrying efforts, we have created a 3X head cushion bundle at a discounted rate - one for home, one for work, and one as a gift to a special person in your life to join in your primal posture revival.

Please share if you've had problems with your neck, if you've tried carrying a weight on your head yet, and what your experiences have been.

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.