Corset

In our culture a loss of up to 50% of the height of the discs as we age from our twenties to our fifties is considered normal. It follows that the herniations, nerve pain, and arthritic change that accompanies this chronic degeneration of our discs is also not seen as unusual. Pain and reduced ability to function is normalized.

It doesn’t have to be this way. In the Bhil tribe in central India, the average disc height of the discs of people in their fifties was discovered to be the same as those in people in their twenties¹, as detailed in Esther’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back. It is their habit to actively maintain the length of their spines whenever they do anything that might otherwise compress their discs.

The human spine is able to carry considerable loads without damage—when length is actively maintained.

Maintaining healthy discs requires a healthy J-spine and the engagement of a matrix of muscles—which we refer to in the Gokhale Method as the inner corset. This muscle recruitment and more is taught in our in-person Foundations course, one-day Pop-up course, our online Elements course, plus our Gokhale Active program. The inner corset performs two main actions: a strong engagement of the deepest spinal muscles, and a strong engagement of the deeper layers of abdominal muscles. Together they create length and stability in and around the spine, thus preserving the height of each disc and protecting them against wear and tear. When we make recruitment of our inner corset a habit, every time the spine would otherwise be challenged and damaged, the spine is strengthened and made more resilient.

The effect of engaging the deep abdominal muscles is easy to understand. It’s similar to wearing an external corset, or weightlifting belt, that makes our torso a thinner cylinder. We are mostly made of water, which does not compress easily, so as we squeeze our torso it gets thinner and that fluid has to go somewhere—so it makes us taller, increasing or at least maintaining disc height.

As your torso gets more slender, it must get taller because its volume stays the same.

The action of the deep spinal muscles along the spine is however somewhat counter intuitive. When muscles engage, they contract, becoming shorter. How can that lengthen the spine?

The answer is tensegrity, a word coined from the phrase “tensional integrity”. This is a new word for something very old. If you have ever pitched a tent, that is, almost, a tensegrity structure. The poles are compressed and kept stable by a general tautness, or tension, of the tent fabric. If you leave the tent fabric loose, or leave a guy rope slack, the tent will easily fall down or blow over. But with good all-round tension the tent can resist gravity and additional forces.

In a true tensegrity structure the poles, or bones—whatever is being compressed—do not touch each other. They float as islands of compression in a sea of tension. The simplest example of this is the tower of string, demonstrated below in a short video.

Tensegrity offers an alternative model of structural support. The string is compressing the semicircular strips of plastic which are trying to straighten, putting the string under tension—now even a piece of string can stand up straight! 

 
This striking structure, Kenneth Snelson’s Rainbow Arch, is made from metal poles—islands of compression—and wire—the sea of tension. None of the poles touch each other, as with the bones in our bodies (in their natural healthy state).

 
The roof of the Denver airport uses fiberglass and steel cables in a tensegrity design to create a striking structure that is strong and lightweight, covers 300 x 1000 ft, and is evocative of First Nation teepees. It is modern, but native Americans have been pitching teepees using this principle for millennia.

The human spine is a sophisticated tensegrity structure, or more accurately, a biotensegrity structure, part of a living organism. The wood and fine string model in the video below shows how the bones and deepest muscles use the biotensegrity effect. Engaging the muscles increases the biotensegrity effect and the bones actively “float” apart, increasing space for each disc, the overall length of the spine, and its ability to bear load.

This simple wood and string model demonstrates the tensegrity principle, showing how the tendons and muscles can suspend the bones of the spine.

An electromyographic study of the rotatores muscles, the deepest on the spine, confirms this. The rotatores run the length of the spine connecting each vertebra to the next on both sides of the spine. If you engage the rotatores on one side, they assist in spinal rotation. Engage the rotatores on both sides, and the spine lengthens.

The rotatores muscles—small, deep muscles which attach each vertebra to the next—
were thought to be the main rotators of the spine. Their larger role in fine movement, stabilization, and extending the spine is now better understood. 

Our bodies have many fluid-filled spaces contained in “bags” or pockets of elastic material, fascia, where fluid pressure works with healthy tension in the tissues. We also have various “guy ropes” among our fascia, muscles, and tendons, and some are self-tensioning. This makes biotensegrity very elegant and dynamic.

Though it can be difficult to imagine biotensegrity, instruction from a Gokhale Method® teacher makes learning the inner corset very doable. You can lengthen and protect your spine in any number of situations: carrying shopping, running, cycling on rough ground, high-diving, being on a bumpy car ride—the list is almost endless—as are the benefits for your body.

References: 

1.   Fahrni, W. Harry and Trueman, Gordon E. (1965): Comparative Radiological Study of the Spines of a Primitive Population with North Americans and Northern Europeans, The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 47-B (3): 552. 

Best next action steps 

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I have often written about the elegance of people in bygone years. The women, sometimes corseted, show striking deportment.

This young woman shows wonderful alignment and poise in an age when corsets were commonly worn. Corsets encouraged abdominal support, a tall straight spine, and the behind behind. Pinterest

The excesses of nineteenth-century fashion understandably gave corsets a bad name. Extreme tight lacing had some terrible effects, imposing some drastic anatomical remodeling:

The stomach and liver are crammed down, with the ribs compressing into drooping S-loops. The neural spines of each vertebra, the little projections that stick up from the central body of each bone, are also pushed out of place. Normally they stack nicely one atop the other in a neat midline ridge, but in long-term corset wearers these spindles of bone jut to this side or that.

Science writer Brian Switek in Skeleton Keys: The Secret Life of Bone.

The extremes of nineteenth century corsetry had unhealthy effects, including restricting breathing and digestion (left). Wikimedia

The majority of people nowadays enjoy the freedom of not wearing a corset, and are understandably determined never to return there. However, some kinds of external corset, well chosen and used judiciously, can have protective benefits for the lower back area. They can also serve as a training tool for developing a stronger, healthier, inner corset. Let’s consider this in more detail.

External corsets can offer protection in some contexts

Belts and corsets are often worn by manual workers—for lifting heavy goods at Home Depot, for example. The extra stability they give the trunk can be protective in awkward maneuvers, when workers are tired, if they have previous injuries, or are vulnerable due to a weak “inner corset.” 

A corset provides extra protection for the lumbar spine, which, unlike the thoracic spine, is not protected by the architecture of the ribcage. Ninelife.uk

Another common use for external corsets is in weight lifting. In this case, should the natural inner corset fail and the considerable weight over challenge the lifter, a resultant twist or buckle of the spine could cause serious injury. The corset will guard against this and also help the lifter to maintain length and space in the lumbar area despite the compressive force from the weights. 

   
A weightlifter protects his lower back with a belt. Unsplash

External corsets can be useful training aids

A corset or belt can give a feeling of strength and stability that you want your own muscles to provide. A corset or belt can be used as a reminder and a training tool. External corsets can be used as supplements to your own inner corset musculature, not instead of it, when bending, lifting and carrying.

Healthy posture trains your  inner corset

Healthy posture naturally strengthens your inner corset. Poor posture will lead you to slump and collapse your inner corset, or sway and make your back muscles overwork and tighten. Either way, your inner corset is sidelined, making you more vulnerable to injury and degenerative spinal conditions.

Some traditional cultures wear external corsets

Some societies have integrated corsets into their traditional dress. Members of the Dinka tribe from Southern Sudan, Africa, wear surprisingly rigid corsets with metal ribbing and beading to show their status. These are worn day and night for years. The corsets allow no appreciable flexion, extension, side-bending, or twisting, yet the excellent physique of the young men and women who wear them is testimony to how little spinal movement may be necessary to preserve good health.

A member of the Dinka tribe wearing a corset. Note that the L5-S1 area is allowed to assume its normal curvature.

Another corset-like garment, this time from East Asia, is the Japanese obi, or sash, worn in various styles with different types of kimonos. Nowadays they are mainly reserved for bridal wear. Over the centuries, owing to their increasing ornamental width and stiffness, other more functional belts would be tied underneath to close the kimono.

A woman tying the obi of a geisha in the 1890s. Wikimedia

Gokhale Method students can make use of corsets

Some of our students have explored wearing corsets. Alumna Fatimah has experimented with very different types of corsets. She tells us that in the old days in Java the kemben, an item of traditional clothing she knows from her Indonesian heritage, was similar in function to the modern bustier, and was worn with a sarong (wrap around skirt). However, nowadays most people would wear a sarong with a corset over it, and a kebaya (longer blouse/jacket, sheer and often lacy) on top. Fatimah remembers her grandmother wrapping herself in a sash that acted as a corset over her sarong, with a long straight kebaya on top.

A woman wearing a kemben, the traditional Indonesian female torso wrap, circa 1900.
The traditional kemben is worn by wrapping a piece of cloth around the torso, folding and securing the edge, tying it with binding, and then covering it with a sash or angkin around the abdomen. Today, there are also tight-fitting and tailored kemben secured using buttons, straps, or zippers similar to the Western corset. Wikimedia

Modern shapewear as a corset

Modern shapewear is, as the name suggests, usually worn to achieve a smooth and shapely body contour—in the case of the corset, while reducing the waist. The sensation of wearing it can provide a reminder to engage the deep abdominal muscles. Fatimah discovered a shapewear corset via her hairdresser, who uses it while working to prevent back pain. Fatimah comments:

If I wear it high, covering my lower ribs, it reminds me to engage my rib anchor, keeping my front ribs down and flush with my torso and avoiding swaying my back. I actually don’t find it comfortable to wear for long periods, so I’m getting good at remembering to use my rib anchor without it!

 A SKIMS corset, a modern piece of shapewear in a style made popular by Kim Kardashian. Pinterest

Ideally, we all have a strong, natural inner corset

Since our first human ancestors stood upright some 5–7 million years ago, we have acquired not only a J-spine but also a strong matrix of tissues designed to support and protect it. (You can read more about spine shape here.) We evolved perfectly to do this. Unfortunately, about one hundred years ago, our industrialized culture took a wrong turn in notions about healthy posture. Going forward into modern times, we have exported a distorted view of human posture to much of the world through our design, fashion, and manufacturing. This unraveling of global postural health and traditions is explained in more detail in my book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

Fortunately, there remain traditional societies where healthy, pain-free posture is still intact, and they provide precious role models for us to learn from. The Gokhale Method® in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, and our online Elements course, teaches how to stand, bend, walk, and even sit as these people do. The inner corset is also explained in detail in my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

The muscles of the inner corset include the deep intrinsic back muscles, the abdominis transversus, and the obliques. 

This young mother in Burkina Faso is using her inner corset to remain tall, stable, and relaxed while carrying on her head with her baby on her back. Headloading, done well, can encourage the inner corset to engage and the spine to align. Traditional posture principles really work!  

Strengthening your inner corset

There are few of us who can’t do without some attention to our inner corset. What you don’t want to do is common ab exercises such as the aptly named crunches, which squish your discs and crunch your spine, or, worse, sit-ups. You can read more about ab exercises here.

We recommend you start by learning to use your rib anchor, an ingredient of your inner corset, which will prevent you from swaying and compressing your lumbar area. You can watch our free rib anchor video here. 
If you would like guidance on any aspect of your posture, including ways to cultivate your inner corset and protect your back, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online or in person, with a Gokhale Method teacher.