glutes

Over the decades that our students have gotten out of pain by learning the Gokhale Method®, it has become clear that healthy glutes are essential in this. Well-functioning glutes hold the key to unlocking many poor postural habits, and contribute to better biomechanics and movement. Good glute function will often solve pain and enable healing in apparently unconnected areas of the body. Let’s take a look at some of the common, and sometimes surprising, aches and pains that respond to our glute training…

If you tire easily in walking 

The gluteus maximus is designed to be the largest muscle in the body. You want these muscles to be well developed, rounded, and pert, rather than weak, flat, and droopy. You also want your glutes positioned behind you—that’s why it’s called your behind!—rather than underneath you because you tuck your pelvis.

Tucking the pelvis under the torso makes for weak, flat glutes.

The glutes power us from behind.

In a posterior position your glutes work to pull your thigh bones back, like little jets that efficiently propel you forward. And healthy glutes look good, too!

Do you have poor balance or a waddling gait?

With advancing years people sometimes experience new difficulty maintaining an easy balance in walking. Or they may be told that they have started to waddle from side to side—not ideal. The likely culprit here is a weakness in the gluteus medius muscle, located in the upper, outer quadrant of the buttocks. It plays an important role in balance as it controls the relative positions of the pelvis and leg. This muscle gets a lot of attention in our offerings—the in-person Gokhale Foundations course, one-day Gokhale Immersion Pop-up course, our online Gokhale Elements course, plus our Gokhale Active program.

Lower back pain

If the gluteal muscles are not powering your stride from behind, you will be overly reliant on the psoas, quads, and other anterior chain muscles pulling you forward. An overly tight, shortened psoas can cause a lot of trouble, including pulling on the lumbar vertebrae, causing a sway back with compression of the area’s discs, nerves, soft tissues, and bones. A stiff lower back in the morning can be a sign of a tight psoas muscle.

A tight and shortened psoas muscle can pull on the vertebrae, causing a swayed back and compression in the lumbar spine.

Can my glutes really affect my knee and hip?

It’s said that everything’s connected, and that’s true here…Weak glutes give rise to a tight psoas that can restrict and compact the hip because the psoas runs from above to below that joint—this span makes it a key hip flexor. Other anterior chain tissues, including the quadriceps muscle and iliotibial band, may also become chronically tight if they are compensating for weak glutes. This can cause compression, wear and tear, or inflammation at various points between the hip and lower knee.

What about SI joint and pelvic instability?

While there are many factors involved in lower back pain and the instability and spasms that can affect this area, the vast majority of students who come to us suffering in this way see improvements. The pelvis and spine are stabilized by the inner corset and the glutes, as they learn to work in harmony.

Sciatic pain from piriformis syndrome

Your piriformis muscles lie deep under the buttocks running from the sacrum to the hips. If the glutes are weak, the piriformis will try to step up to do their job—often resulting in chronic contraction. In this state, the piriformis can press on the sciatic nerve, which passes alongside or, in some people, through it. A “knotty” piriformis is that sore spot that a massage therapist may dig into with their elbow to release—but the lasting solution is to recondition the glutes.

Weak glutes can cause deeper muscles alongside the sciatic nerve to become hypertonic and impinge on the nerve. Image from Thinkstock

Power up your glutes, be kind to your feet

A weak and poorly well-coordinated glute pack is unlikely to be able to maintain the pelvis and legs in the right position, and so walking becomes a series of thuds on the ground. Harsh landings may well result in jarring and damage all the way through to the neck; but your feet are first in line and most prone to suffer, with issues like plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, and tendonitis.

Introduce your glutes to glidewalking

To remedy, or even better, prevent these problems, we love to introduce our students to glorious glutes and the pleasures of glidewalking. Glidewalking describes the strong but smooth natural gait pattern which emerges as the glutes learn to contract and release powerfully and rhythmically.

Students find their glutes respond well to hands-on cues—both from a teacher, and from what they can learn to do for themselves.

Join us for our special Spring into Action free online workshops for newcomers

We encourage newcomers to enjoy Esther’s special, free, Put a Spring in Your Step: Glidewalk your Way to Healthy, Pain-Free Movement Gokhale Method beginner workshop, this Saturday, April 26, 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. (PST). Esther will be teaching glidewalking techniques you can start practicing straight away. The workshop will also launch a special, free 5-Day Glidewalking challenge to help you develop your walking power! Find out more, and sign up here.

Best next action steps 

If you would like help boosting your glutes through healthy posture, get started by booking a Gokhale 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…

Rob Buirgy reached out having sustained a multiple fragment compression fracture of his T12 vertebra (in the middle of the back). Despite being in a body brace afterwards, having already followed the Gokhale Method for a couple of years, Rob’s instinct told him that our method would be able to help him regain an active life. More recently, he has also fully recovered from a whole knee replacement. In this blog post he explains how healthy posture set him up for success… 
—Esther Gokhale

Meet Rob, whose passions include hiking and rafting.

Healing my back

In December 2023, during a vacation excursion to a Mexican cenote (deep water well) in the Riviera Maya region, I’d had a bad jump from a 12m high platform; thankfully, we were required to wear life jackets for this activity! I had serious pain and muscle spasms immediately when I sustained the fracture. With the life jacket, I was able to float for about 30 minutes while I figured out what to do. Later I went to a local clinic. With no x-ray, and because my function was good, the doctor had me bend to touch my toes (so dangerous!), and determined that I had only strained my back. I later realized this was far from the correct diagnosis. Once I was back home, I was diagnosed with a serious “burst” fracture at T12, and prescribed a TLSO brace for three months. I could easily have had a bone fragment cut into my spinal cord—I got lucky!

If there are any insights here for anyone who might have sustained a spinal fracture but not know for sure, I would say, get checked out immediately. I only even suspected it might be a compression fracture due to previous experience with this type of injury at L1 from a rock climbing accident back in 1977. 

I am so grateful that I was already familiar with the Gokhale Method®. I had followed the method for about two years and decided to get in touch with Esther for a personal consultation to find out what adaptations I could do during my rehab. I discovered there was a lot I could do to preserve and improve my posture and movement, even though I wouldn’t be moving my spine for a few months.

I had already read 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, and after my consultation I was able to come back to it with much more confidence that I could make a full recovery.

Physical therapy was not an option while I was wearing the brace. However, I could take the online Gokhale Elements course, and so I was able to start and self-direct my recovery, at my pace, much earlier than expected, with approval from my medical professionals. I worked with a new level of detail on rolling my shoulders, keeping my neck tall, and preserving my foot strength while being less active than usual. As time went on, my health professionals said it was safe to engage my inner corset and bend by gently hip-hinging.

Not much movement was possible for three months while the shattered vertebra healed. The brace had to immobilize my spine.

Just eight months after my fracture I had a prearranged wilderness raft trip with a big group of friends and family. We were running Gates of Lodore on the Green River through Colorado and Utah. This trip had been a motivating goal since my recovery started—rowing our 16-foot raft with two passengers would be a real test of my recovery! Given my compromised fitness, we planned for back-up rowers, but the frequently strong winds were overwhelming for them. I didn’t know this beforehand, but it turned out I was ready for the challenge.

Me preparing for rowing on the raft—with “Sister,” my extra crew member!

I managed well by focusing on hip-hinging to set up my forward stroke, knowing how to position my shoulders, neck, and head, plus keep my spine long and straight. I didn’t have the same trunk strength I had before, but I could maintain a healthy alignment to both keep my spine safe and generate the power needed. I rowed up to six hours a day for four days. Yes, I was tired and a bit achy at night, but nothing that threatened my recovery. I will continue to row this way—the biomechanics of it are much better than how I used to row; I used to allow my back and shoulders to round, and then sway as I pulled back.

Knee rehabilitation

I’m currently recovering from a total left knee replacement after many decades of soccer and coaching took their toll. I finally undertook the knee surgery I had been resisting because I thought that my healthier biomechanics would allow me to gain full advantage from my new knee. Before the operation, I prepared by focusing on movement patterns and conditioning joint-supporting muscles. During that time, even though my knee was compromised, I focused on glidewalking to best coordinate my gait, learning how to use my glutes properly, how to use my feet well, and also what to look for in a hiking shoe.

My new knee joint posing for the x-ray!

Post-operatively, my experience with the Gokhale Method shines through. At this point I have met or exceeded all my recovery milestones. Getting the quadriceps muscle to work correctly, and extending the leg fully behind, are often problematic with this type of joint replacement. Three weeks in, my physical therapist determined that I did not need specific therapy to recover my gait. By applying the Gokhale Method principles, my healthy gait came back incredibly fast, and I moved on to compatible strength and balance exercises sooner than expected. As an added benefit, my upright, relaxed, and well-balanced overall posture also improves my proprioception (sense of where I am in space). This has enabled me to better adapt to my new joint and leg alignment as I tackle varying terrain and other situations. 

When I was first learning glidewalking, I would keep my hands resting on the top of my glutes to check if they were working—that was the only way I could feel them activating! My daughter is a dance instructor, and although I’m not into dance as such, experimenting with the modified Samba step that Esther teaches helped me to find that little bit of lateral hip action that I had been missing with each stride.

If I had focused only on the linear movement, I never would have found that natural glute and hip action. I have been a long-distance hiker all my adult life, and I was shocked to realize that I had been throwing my legs out to move forward, but I wasn’t taking advantage of the glute propulsion from behind and all its benefits.

Finding appropriate activation and relaxation in the glutes and hips is part of developing a smoother  walk.

I’m so glad to be a Gokhale Method student, because all is going well and I’m on track resuming the active life that I love. Three years ago I was often focused on my knee hurting, my back hurting, and I had little optimism about future activities. Today, I’m planning my next outing!

Reflections on healing and recovery

My doctors and therapists have said I should expect to have chronic back pain—but so far, it’s getting more comfortable, not worse, as I get stronger and more active. I’ve had great success with combining healthy posture with physical exercises, and using pain medication only when necessary. When we’re recovering from injury or surgery, there is often medication in the mix, and I think we can end up going for the pain meds when it’s actually something other than physical pain we are trying to address, such as frustration or despondency. 

With healthier posture that’s more open, relaxed, and strong, my affect has changed, and my entire outlook on life has improved—overall it’s very uplifting. I think “uplifting” is a great word to describe my experience, both in body and mind. After everything I’ve gone through, if I am having a struggle on a particular day, I know that a body scan and simple adjustments will immediately improve my outlook. Now, I can’t help but notice people’s posture and how they move—there are so many people who would benefit from this method. Hopefully, sharing my story will encourage others to come on board.

Special Spring Into Action free online workshops for newcomers

We encourage newcomers to enjoy Esther’s special, free, Put a Spring in Your Step: Glidewalk your Way to Healthy, Pain-Free Movement Gokhale Method beginner workshop, on Saturday, April 26, 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. (PST). Esther will be teaching glidewalking techniques you can start practicing straight away. The workshop will launch a special, free 5-Day Glidewalking challenge to which all participants will automatically be enrolled, to help you develop your walking power! Find out more, and sign up here.

Best next action steps 

If you would like help to enjoy an active life by learning healthy 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…

Some years ago I had a student who had difficulty engaging his glutes and leaving his back heel down while walking. I had guided him through my usual toolbox of techniques and principles, but this piece still stubbornly failed to land. All of a sudden something dawned on him, and he exclaimed, “Oh, it’s a jaunty walk!” and proceeded to do exactly what I had been trying to teach him with an additional spring in his step.

Reflecting on this later, I realized that the precise and technical breakdown of gait pattern that I had given him was far superseded by his “aha moment”—not only had he found an abbreviated way of pulling many technical aspects of gait together, but he had also articulated and embodied an important emotional aspect of natural human gait.

Of course, learning breakthroughs don't always happen this way, but it was a profound lesson in how desirable it is to be on the lookout for emotional cues that can evoke, conjure up, and breathe life into technical instruction.

Roleplay, theater, and imagination can help us to conjure new patterns and feelings in our walking.

In the upcoming second edition of my book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, which is due for publication September 1, there are some changes to the Glidewalking chapter that reflect this discovery. The original walking chapter is not “wrong”; it provides deep and helpful insights into healthy human gait. Its detail is forensic, and the choreography precise. But over the years we have found ways to make the technicalities of glidewalking more accessible and experiential for our students.

A sneak peek at a new cue for glidewalking, from the new edition of 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

Even in the Gokhale®Foundations, the core six-lesson face-to-face offering to learn the Gokhale Method®, where the technical components of healthy walking necessarily occupy much of the lesson time, we like to use imaginative cues from animal gait, walking tall, finding steadiness, and sometimes dancing a simple Samba.

Alumna Deb Claire, who is legally blind, talks about her newfound confidence in walking having learned the Gokhale Method.

In the Advanced Glidewalking course, where all students are alumni and have already somewhat digested the basics of healthy gait, we not only deep dive into the more complex technicalities of walking, but come Session 5, we experiment playfully and more freely with emotional and associational cuing. We explore feelings of strength, balance, relaxation, dignity, openness, interdependence, and more. With each exploration, students deepen their understanding, practice, and access to natural human gait.

We have found that music is a powerful way to augment this immersive experience. Carefully chosen music can help our students tap into positive natural emotional landscapes. As an example, the opening theme music to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Richard Strauss) enables students to feel their innate power and strength—we invite them to experience that in a glute-enhanced walk that also uses the inner corset and longus colli deep neck muscles, giving a profound sense of support.

Turn up the volume and take a walk to this magnificent passage of music and cinematography. Who would not be uplifted by it?

Over the next few days, I urge you to tune into, and play with any emotional connections you can feel with your walking. And this Valentine’s Day, consider exploring my very favorite emotion as you take a walk—a sense of connection and love of all that surrounds you—walk with your heart.

Our next Advanced Glidewalking course starts Monday, March 31, at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. If you are an alumnus, consider joining your fellow Gokhale Method alumni on this exciting journey of walking techniques and self-discovery.

I recently took the six-session Advanced Glidewalking course with Esther and Doreen, and it was fabulous, a deep dive into the mechanics and spirit of walking… I’d been introduced to glidewalking about 10 years ago when I took Gokhale Foundations, and have been using what I learned there ever since (I’m a daily walker). Still, there was more to be remembered and more to learn and integrate. Esther and Doreen… inspired us with music and helpful images when we were getting caught up in thinking about too many details at once. My walking has improved greatly since the course; more gliding, softer landings; and I have the tools to keep improving. Definitely a worthwhile experience! A great big thanks to Esther and Doreen!
Julie Reichert, October 2024

You can sign up below to join any one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops…

In surveys of what people find physically attractive in a partner, a shapely butt is often highly rated. Perhaps it’s no surprise, but if you want, there are even apps to help! So, are good-looking glutes all about sex appeal and filling out our clothing in a flattering fashion? While these concerns may be valid, it is also true that well-toned glutes have many other, profound, but less widely recognized attributes. 

This blog post takes a look at the bigger picture of glute function. You may be surprised to find out just how much your glutes can contribute to healthy posture and a pain-free body.  

Glorious glutes—not just a “nice to have”

Your glutes potentially form the largest muscle group and have the largest impact. Most of us realize at some point in our lives, perhaps due to overdone squats or steep hill climbing, that the glutes are major players in sports and exercise. But if we don’t need them for competitive sports or challenging hiking, is it still worth investing in them for better returns? Let’s take a look at the dividends.

Reduce stress on your lower back

Glutes have a crucial role in offloading stress from the lower back and sacroiliac joints. When the glutes are weak, the lower back muscles work harder to try and stabilize the pelvis and trunk, leading to overuse and pain. When the glutes are strong, along with the inner corset, they steady the pelvis and lower back. This reduces the risk of wear and tear to discs and bones, nerve pain, and muscle spasm in the area.

Vigorous and/or repetitive movement, without the gluteal strength and pelvic stability shown here, leaves the back and spine more vulnerable to damage. (Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, 1872–​​1885)

Avoid sciatica and piriformis syndrome 

True sciatica occurs when there is pressure on the sciatic nerve, usually from a herniated disc or degenerative changes in the spinal joints. The symptoms may be numbness, tingling, burning and/or electrical shock-like pain. It usually extends from the buttock down the leg, and sometimes the foot, on one side. The Gokhale Method helps by restoring the anteverted position of the pelvis, and decompressing the lumbar spine where the sciatic nerve roots exit. We call the resulting natural alignment a J-spine.

Piriformis Syndrome is a condition characterized by pain, tingling, or numbness in the buttocks and often down the leg. It occurs when the piriformis muscle compresses or irritates the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve passes under (or, in some individuals, through) the piriformis muscle, and is particularly prone to overwork and disturb the sciatic nerve if its neighbor, gluteus medius, is not doing its duty. The Gokhale Method encourages healthy pelvic positioning and gluteal function to allow the sciatic nerve free passage through the area. 

The profile view (right) shows swayed, leaning back posture, which causes problematic tightening in the posterior chain muscles and compresses the lower spine, including its discs and nerves. 

Make your movement strong, flexible, and stable

Your glutes are the powerhouse muscles that propel you in climbing, squatting, running, jumping, and more. They also work to control those movements, and are key to maintaining your balance. But glutes are not just for vigorous exercise…

In walking, it is your glutes that enable you to correctly achieve forward motion, rather than relying overly on your psoas and quads, shuffling, or falling forward. Glute activation brings a natural smoothness and grace to walking that we call glidewalking. Glidewalking allows your front foot to meet the ground deliberately but lightly, which is gentle on your joints; it also stretches your psoas with every step. 

Long jumper Khaddi Sagnia of Sweden uses her glutes to power the run up and propel her amazing jumping…and also to glidewalk away.

Muscles support a healthy metabolism 

The muscular system plays an integral role in our body’s metabolism. Well-used muscles will be larger, helping to burn calories rather than store them. This can help to keep insulin levels low in the blood and can contribute to a healthy metabolism and weight range. 

Well-toned glutes contribute to a healthy muscular and metabolic system. Man at His Bath by Gustave Caillebotte, 1884.

The foremost antiaging strategy—beautiful buttocks!

Never mind face yoga, cosmetic lifts, or surgical implants. Rather than costly interventions that do nothing to stop you losing your balance, strength, and mobility, embrace the art and science of how to rejuvenate your body by learning to move as you are meant to. Healthy posture can greatly improve your body’s architecture, self-confidence, health span—and your appearance as a bonus!

 
As infants (left) we instinctively align ourselves well, making good use of our muscles. In our society, adopting poor postural habits as we go through life results in lack of healthy muscle tone, like “glute amnesia”—flat, wasted muscles that have forgotten how to work (right).

Best next action steps

We invite you to join us for a themed Free Online Workshop: Wake Up Your Glutes, They Snooze, You Lose, on Friday, September 6 at 12:30 pm PST, in which you will learn how to make every step a rep! A replay will be available over the weekend if you cannot join live. So sign up, and you will also receive a special offer.

This workshop launches our 21-day Strong Glutes, Strong Body Gokhale Fitness challenge, which will run from Sept 9–29, to help you continue to build strength and improve your posture.

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. . .

August is peak holiday time across the northern hemisphere, and many of us who live here will find ourselves poolside, or even better, in it!

Being in water has the natural advantage of lifting weight off the joints while providing gentle resistance training. Aching backs or knees can find relief from compression in the natural buoyancy that water provides. This has made pool exercises a popular prescription with physical therapists over many years, especially for post-operative or post-injury rehabilitation. 

On land, to relieve pain and compression, people usually use elaborate measures like inversion tables, traction units, or going to outer space! In the Gokhale Method we provide decompression for the lower back relatively simply with the Stretchsit® Cushion or the nubs on our Gokhale™Pain-Free Chair. But stepping into water is the simplest of all, giving you freedom of movement and the ability to strengthen yourself simultaneously.

Pool exercise also provides a fun and refreshing environment for exercise in summer heat waves! Wikimedia

This blog post gives you three ways to harness the unique benefits of being in water to practice and develop healthier posture. These exercises are challenging enough to do as a stand-alone workout or as a way to prime your swim session.

Healthy posture habits honed in water will benefit your daily life on land, as well as giving you greater stability and power for your swimming or other sports. 

For safety and best results, I recommend that you progress the session in the order given here, starting with Exercise 1 and, once you are familiar with it, move on to Exercise 2 and finally add Exercise 3. 

1. Stabilize your spine by using your inner corset

You will use a natural brace of muscles as you walk across the pool. It will give you the stability you need to cut through the resistance of the water without wobbling and threatening the alignment of your spine. 

Imagine you are getting into ice cold water. Feel how all the muscles around your middle can contract and make you more slender. You want to work hard enough to feel this from deep in the pelvis all the way up to your rib cage. You want to feel the muscular engagement all the way around your mid torso, like a tightly laced corset. 

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

Gokhale Method teacher Eric Fernandez shows how engaging the inner corset draws the abdomen in and makes the torso slender.

This is one way of recruiting your “inner corset," which will help stabilize your spine as you walk and is key to swimming with a more streamlined, efficient stroke. We teach this technique and others in more detail in our in-person Foundations course, one-day Pop-up course, our online Elements course, plus our Gokhale Exercise program. You can read more about your inner corset here.

2. Headload to lengthen your neck and to find deep spinal support

In industrialized cultures we have an epidemic of forward head carriage, putting enormous strain on the neck and structures throughout the back. Finding healthy alignment through your neck, combined with the inner corset, helps your whole spine to support itself well. Resting even a modest additional weight on the head can help us to find our vertical axis and stand tall. This is the reason I developed the Gokhale™ Head Cushion. 

Headloading encourages recruitment of the deepest muscles of the inner corset and the neck, especially the longus colli at the front of the spine. 

In the pool I suggest you use what you have at hand—your hands! Rest them on your head and push up against them with your head. Keep your nose and chin angled downward. Proceed very gently if you have neck issues. You can gradually build up the intensity over a number of sessions. 

Gokhale Method teacher Clare Chapman headloading in the pool using the weight of hands and arms. Create space between your shoulders and your ears—keep your shoulders down as your neck grows tall. 

Establishing healthy length in your neck will help you to retain a straighter, more spacious alignment while swimming, especially in breaststroke where people tend to crane their necks to hold their heads above water. Consider training to swim with your head in the water, if you do not do this already, which will enable a much healthier alignment of your torso, neck, and head.

Especially when you raise your arms, you may need to use your rib anchor muscles to prevent your back from swaying.

3. Power up your walking using your feet and glutes

Many of us compromise our walking by overusing our quads and hip flexors (psoas muscle) and underusing our glutes. We predominantly reach our front leg forward in our strides, instead of generating propulsion from the rear leg with our glutes and foot muscles. 

Our ancestors and many people living in more traditional or nonindustrialized societies—where joint and back pain are rare—walk using their glute and foot muscles more than we typically do.

As you walk in the pool, make each step a rep. Each step wants to progress through a pose that includes a straight back leg and a bent front knee. As each leg goes back behind you in turn, squeeze your buttock muscles on that side. Engage the upper outer quadrant of your glute pack. This is not the kind of glute squeeze that clenches your lower butt cheeks together and tucks your pelvis. 

Gokhale Method Alumna Christine Andrew working hard to achieve healthy walking form in the buoyancy and resistance of water.

Grab the floor of the pool with the whole sole of your foot, and then push off from your toes. Focus on maintaining the convex foot shape as you do this. Propel to glide forward, not bounce upward.

Eric actively grabs the floor of the pool with each foot to pull the body forward and then push back.

Putting it all together: Aim to keep healthy form and walk as smoothly as you can through the water. This develops both healthy length and muscle power in the right places.

If you notice your back arches back as you walk, take smaller steps and lean more forward until you master the art of keeping your spine stable with the rib anchor and inner corset techniques. Enjoy!

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like to know which posture changes will help you be pain-free and functional, schedule an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

You can sign up below to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

Are you beginning to wonder if you will need to set up your bed in the living room? Do you think twice about visiting places with stairs? Do you have a friend or older relative facing this kind of challenge? 

Welcome to our second post on navigating steps and stairs. Our first post looked at how to power yourself up stairs—this one talks about how to come down stairs. This kind of “life exercise,” done skillfully, can be transformative and gives many benefits beyond getting you to where you want to go.

Going down stairs is a functional exercise that doesn’t need a gym. Freepik

Walking downstairs gets you fitter than walking upstairs! 

Dr Michael Mosley, a well-known BBC health journalist, has a favorite study that had people walk either up or down the stairs of a 10-story building twice a week, using the elevator in the other direction. Both groups saw improvements in many health outcomes—but those walking down the stairs—perhaps surprisingly—did better. They were fitter, had a lower resting heart rate despite doing less cardiovascular exercise, lower insulin sensitivity, lower blood fat levels, better bone density, superior balance, and twice the improvement in muscle strength. You can read more about the benefits of eccentric rather than concentric muscle action here.

Safety first

Whatever your fitness and mobility level, follow these measures to use steps and stairs safely:

• Use a handrail if appropriate
• Watch out for slippery or unsound surfaces and trip hazards 
• Wear well-fitting, non-slip shoes

Start with your stance

When descending stairs, it’s especially important to maintain a well-balanced stance from start to finish. You want to position your body in a shallow zigzag squat, or “ready position.” We teach this stance in detail in our in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, and our online Elements course. As the name suggests, this stance makes us available for action and quick reaction.

A zigzag stance or “ready position” readies us for dance, sport, or stairs. Martina Navratilova ready for the ball, ECM Prague Open, 2006. Wikimedia

The benefits of a zigzag stance for walking down stairs

Having your behind behind with your torso angled forward from the hip joint while descending stairs has several benefits:

• It keeps your center of gravity further back so you are less likely to fall. By contrast, if you tuck your pelvis, your center of gravity goes further forward, making it more likely you will slip. This is familiar to anyone who has been on a ski slope.
• Your head aligns over your feet, allowing you to see where you are placing your feet more clearly. 
• It makes it easier to antevert your pelvis and direct body weight through your knees in a healthy way. 
• It is good practice for other activities like bending, sitting, squatting, and more. 

Gokhale Method teacher Eric Fernandez descends steps maintaining a zigzag stance.

Your glutes help you keep your balance

In coming down steps and stairs your glutes contribute to the important job of stabilizing your hips, pelvis, and sacroiliac joints. Together with other muscles they play a key role in keeping you balanced over your standing leg as the other one is smoothly lowered to the next step. The importance of our glutes for achieving stability through the hips and pelvis is one of the areas of convergence between conventional advice and the Gokhale Method®. Having your behind behind you in a zigzag stance enables the glutes to work optimally.

Try hovering in your zigzag stance for a while on one leg—you will soon feel your glutes working. Be sure not to tuck your pelvis, as this interferes with the glutes’ stabilizing ability.

Knowing where your buttock muscles are situated can help you visualize them working: gluteus maximus (left) and, underneath it, gluteus medius (right). 

The quadriceps lower you down—as well as take you up

When descending stairs, the back leg quadriceps work eccentrically to lower you with control as your front foot approaches the step below.

The “quads” are four muscles on the front of the thigh that insert at the knee. Wikipedia

Notice the quads of the supporting back leg working to lower the body’s weight.

Externally rotated feet v. internally rotated feet

Another important ingredient in coming down stairs is external rotation of the feet and legs. This is the natural angle for the feet, and encourages optimal alignment of the knees, hips, and pelvis. 

The feet of this woman in Odisha, India, have retained a healthy angle outward.

Externally rotated feet are also preferable to feet straight ahead as this enables more of your standing foot to contact the step securely while you lower your other leg. 

Externally rotated feet encourage healthy alignment of both the foot and leg.

Internally rotating your feet will, over time, collapse your arches, and create bunions and knee problems. You will also be more likely to trip over your toes. If you currently have this habit, adopt a mild turnout of about 5° to give your muscles and joints time to adapt to change. You can read more about foot angle here. 

Internally rotated feet are problematic for your structure, and your safety.

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. . .

We’re a month into the New Year—and that has me thinking about what helps us to keep going and succeed with our New Year's resolutions. Including our posture and exercise goals. 

One thing that I have found works well for me, and for my students, is to choose my words carefully. 

Choosing words with care

The words we use can be extremely powerful. They can shift your mindset from negative to positive. We may not even realize that we have disadvantaged ourselves with a mental framework of negative words and phrases until we gain a fresh perspective. These frameworks can go back so many years we have mistaken them for a permanent part of ourselves.

Some of our self-talk goes back to our childhood. Our parents of course do their best for us, but parenting in our culture is often an isolated, poorly supported, and arduous journey. Parents’ anxieties, prejudices, and even best intentions are often embedded in negative language and unwittingly passed on to us. Over the years I have seen how many students have internalized their parents' criticism. I encourage students to let this go. It’s a disservice to yourself. 

You can cut out the negatives in your vocabulary.

Our peers have also often learned to speak in terms that are unhealthily competitive and even unkind. For example, imitating or commenting on other people’s physicality is an easy way to score a laugh. The intention may be to entertain, but on the receiving end it can be hurtful. 

Change your language to change your mindset

Carol Dweck, a professor of Psychology at Stanford University, wrote her seminal book Mindset about the importance of what we believe to be true, especially about ourselves. A person with a fixed mindset will believe that they have a finite level of endowed talents, intellect, and so on. This is self-limiting, and leads to behaviors which seek to protect this self-image—for example, not trying too hard, or shying away from challenges.

Let’s not limit our potential with negative beliefs and a fixed mindset. Pixabay

This is not to say there’s no individual variation in talent; there clearly is. But aptitude is not a fixed entity. For example, many people feel they cannot dance. Maybe someone told them once that they had “two left feet.” One of our teachers in England, Clare Chapman, told me, “I was a non-dancer for 50 years until I worked with the Gokhale Method. I now enjoy healthier posture, love to dance, and join 1-2-3 Move with my camera on.” Potential can be left unused, or it can be nurtured. What helps is a growth mindset, and a positive vocabulary to express it.

Our daily 1-2-3 Move program includes a joyful Dance Party to start each session.

Here are some examples of fixed mindset language that we have heard over the years as teachers:

1. I have the family shoulders—people used to call me “coke bottle.”
2. I hate my flat feet 
3. I have no butt

Such statements hold you back from believing you can change. If you have previously said negative things about your posture, your body, or appearance, there is still the opportunity to reframe your observations positively. For example. . .

1. Shoulders come in various shapes and sizes, but how they appear is only partly due to inheritance. Odds are that if you learn how to shoulder roll, you will lose the exaggerated sloping that tends to come with rounded posture. Gently opening and resettling your shoulder joints will guide them “back home” to a more posterior, externally rotated, and natural place. You can learn how to shoulder roll here.
2. By learning to kidney-bean shape your feet you can realign the bones of your foot arches, and strengthen the muscles which support them. Restoring this natural foot shape is also a great correction and preventative for bunions. You can use any orthotics you may have as a training aid, although many of our students soon find they no longer need them.

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

3. Let go of thinking “I have no butt!” What that usually means is that you haven’t yet developed your glutes due to tucked posture, which disadvantages their action. Most people in our culture tuck their pelvis, which results in underusing the glutes. We teach our students how to get their behinds behind them (without tensing their backs), and to use their glutes to power each step. We call this smooth, elegant action glidewalking.

Buttock muscles that have been underused due to tucking the pelvis retain their potential to be developed in healthy walking and posture.

Changing your posture with love

All these techniques and principles are covered in our in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, and our online Elements course. Technically effective and efficient as our courses are, our teachings really land best when we bring love into the process. A loving attitude enables new possibilities and holds us safely on course. It is the best way to parent, to teach, and to succeed in changing what we do. It is not by accident that the name of our publishing house for 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is Pendo, the Swahili word for love. 

Changing your posture with positivity

The uplifting words, music, and dance of Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters summarize it all. . . Enjoy!

The inspiring song Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive alongside video footage.

To find out how the Gokhale Method can help you become pain free, schedule an Initial Consultation, online or in person, with a Gokhale Method teacher.

To learn more about the Gokhale Method, sign up for one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops...

We’re here to help with your New Year’s fitness resolution. Join us for a FREE 10-day New Year 3 x 3 Fitness Challenge, which is offered as part of the Gokhale Exercise program. It will be fun, safe, and effective, enabling you to build your strength without strain and injury, because, all the while, you are also training for healthy posture! 

Your 10-day challenge consists of three sets of three (3 x 3) popular exercises. Our approach to these well-known exercises is unlikely to be found in any standard gym or fitness program where, unfortunately, poor postural habits go undetected or are even unknowingly promoted. Here the exercises will be taught with our “Gokhale filter” to respect what is natural and healthy for your body.

The New Year 3 x 3 Challenge Exercises:

Exercise #1: Push-ups

Push-ups are a highly functional exercise that will assist you with many daily tasks and a range of activities—getting up from the floor, yoga, weight training, gardening, pushing heavy doors or strollers, etc.

A lot of people, especially women, have difficulty supporting their weight with their arms; their upper body muscles are much weaker than lower body muscles. That was certainly my story.

To this day I haven’t yet done a full push-up though I am getting tantalizingly close thanks to our Gokhale Fitness and Yoga programs. I can now lower myself to the ground with full control, (an excellent eccentric exercise, which you can read more about here), and can push up from part way up. I am hopeful that the 10-day New Year 3 x 3 Challenge will take me all the way! 

This push-up is done at a bench rather than on the floor to be easier. However, common problematic habits can still creep in, as Gokhale Fitness teacher Eric Fernandez demonstrates.

This push-up shows healthy form.

Exercise #2: Squats

Growing up in India, I was surrounded by people sitting on the floor and squatting frequently throughout the day. These habits contribute to greater mobility in the formation of the hip joint, and flexibility in the tissues surrounding the hip joint. 

People in our culture rarely have this degree of mobility and flexibility in the hips and ankles, and so squat poorly in a way that does damage—rounding the back and pronating the feet. This is more of a collapse downward than a well-supported, well-aligned squatting movement. 

In the 3 x 3 Fitness Challenge, Eric will show you how to do squats in a safe way, to boost the strength of your knees, quads, glutes, thighs, and whole lower body. Done well, deep squats are not only safe—research shows that they can improve the health of knee menisci and cartilage, ligaments, and bones.

This squat demonstrates poor form, such as internal rotation of the legs. 

This squat demonstrates healthy form.

Exercise #3: Deadlifts

Often known as a Romanian deadlift due to its popularity among weightlifters in Eastern Europe, a deadlift strengthens almost everything on the back of your upper and lower body. It is also a good exercise to test and develop hip mobility, and to develop bone density. 

The deadlift utilizes our primal way of bending, which we call hip-hinging. Hip-hinging is instinctively used by our infants, and widely by adults in many parts of the world where traditional patterns of movement have been maintained. Hip-hinging is taught in our Gokhale Method® in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, and our online Elements course.

This deadlift demonstrates common mistakes such as rounding the back.

This deadlift demonstrates healthy form.

Here’s your Challenge:

Day 1: You’ll test how many reps of each exercise you can do in a minute. You’ll take a minute’s rest between each of the three sets, and between each exercise. 

Days 2–4: You will do other exercises that compliment and build up your strength for the 3 x 3 Fitness Challenge.

Day 5: Check-in on your goals.

Days 6–9: Continue with strength training.

Day 10: You’ll go through the challenge again and see in what ways you have improved. Expect an improvement in your strength, in the number of reps you can do, and in your range of motion!

Is this fitness challenge suitable for everyone?

The 3 x 3 Fitness Challenge is designed for practically everyone, with easier options given for those taking steps towards the full exercise, and additional challenges for those who find them relatively easy. 

People are often surprised at how working with healthy posture changes their experience of an exercise—depending on the situation, you may feel stronger and lighter, for example. Or you may discover that you were unknowingly “cheating” and can benefit your body by making different, healthier efforts.

If you have had an injury or surgery recently, or have a particular health issue, we recommend that you seek the advice of your preferred physician or health professional before starting the Challenge. We encourage everybody to work within their capabilities—this is not a no-pain, no-gain program!

I look forward to meeting you as we challenge ourselves to greater fitness, and healthier posture.

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, sign up to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .