anterior chain

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…

Few of us, wheelchair users excepted, pass a day without climbing steps or stairs. Students often ask if posture has any bearing on how best to do this—and the answer is yes! Our approach to pain-free, healthy posture works precisely because it helps you with all your daily activities. This blog post is the first of several containing introductory tips for using steps and stairs. We will focus here on how to power yourself upward.

Steps and stairs—the benefits

If you are looking to maintain or improve your cardio fitness and lower body strength, climbing steps and stairs will check that box. For example, this could be opting for the stairs rather than the elevator at work.

Choosing to take the stairs over the elevator is an easy way to build movement breaks into your day. Pexels

Or, if you have a suitable baseline fitness, you can also use steps, stairs, or gym machines, to up the challenge in your training sessions.

Gokhale Method teacher Eric Fernandez being put through his paces on a step machine.

If you have mobility issues, perhaps due to joint injury, degeneration, or poor balance, using stairs could be something you need to take, literally, one small step at a time, and possibly with the help of a healthcare professional. However, once steps and stairs are appropriate for you, then, whether you are at the level of post-op rehab, or athletic training, the healthy postural form taught by the Gokhale Method® will make your efforts safer, encourage healing rather than damage, and make each step you take more efficient and powerful.

Safety first

Whatever your fitness and mobility level, first check that you can use steps and stairs safely:

• Use a handrail if that’s right for you 
• Ensure good lighting in the area
• Watch out for wet, slippery, or unsound surfaces such a torn carpet or loose tiles
• Watch out for untied shoelaces, trailing clothing, and other trip hazards 
• Wear well-fitting, non-slip shoes

Start with your stance

Angling your body forward slightly will be of immediate advantage. It will put your behind behind you, placing your glutes in a position of mechanical advantage where they can work optimally. The glutes are an important part of the posterior chain, that is, muscles in the back of the body, which need to play a prominent role in powering you forward. 

The body wants to angle forward in line with the back leg when walking up steps. ✅

Most people overly rely on pulling up their body weight with the anterior chain when they climb. This overuses the major hip flexor (psoas), and thigh muscles (quads). It is a pattern that usually arises because the pelvis is tucked, sending the “behind” underneath. With the pelvis tucked, the glutes are unavailable to contribute the forward propulsion that makes climbing easier.

Climbing steps with a tucked pelvis disadvantage the posterior chain muscles that do this job best.

Squeeze those glutes for both stability and lift

As you stand on one leg and prepare to step up, adopt your forward stance and contract the glutes of that standing leg strongly. Gluteus medius will stabilize your leg and pelvis and help maintain your balance, while gluteus maximus will propel you forward and up to the next step.

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

The gluteus maximus is the largest and most superficial of the buttock muscles, and pulls your leg back. When one leg is fixed on the ground, as during walking or climbing steps, its muscular contraction will propel the body forward. The gluteus medius is closer to the hip joint, higher, and further out to the side, where it helps in maintaining balance as well as adding momentum. 

Notice the glutes of the supporting leg actively contracting.

In addition to climbing stairs becoming easier, contracting your glutes has the additional advantage of giving you a more athletic appearance by toning and lifting your buttock muscles.

Work those calves and spare your knees

Lower down your posterior chain, your calves and feet are designed to do the job of propelling you upward. When the calf muscles of your standing leg contract, they lift your heel, driving your forefoot against the ground and your body up. Without the calves providing propulsion, too much heavy lifting will be relegated to your quads, which is likely to overload your knee joint. 

Most people are aware of their more visible calf muscle, gastrocnemius (in red); underneath it lies the deeper soleus (in green). They both contract to point the forefoot down, driving the heel and leg upward when the front of the foot is on the ground. Wikimedia

Using your calves will mean that your feet and ankle joints also get healthy work and movement. Often people climb stairs with their ankles fixed, having become accustomed to walking on flat urban surfaces—little wonder this joint becomes stiff, weak, and injury-prone. Climbing stairs with good postural form will lend your ankles much-needed mobility, and bring a welcome boost to the circulation in your lower limbs.  

This slo-mo video shows the calf muscles of the rear leg contracting during the step up.

If you are not sure if you are activating your glutes as well as you might, you can find instructions in my book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, or sign up for my Free Online Workshop, Wake up Your Glutes: They Snooze, You Lose, on January 12, 1:30 pm PT. 

If you would like more nuanced guidance on how to navigate steps and stairs, or on refining your glute squeeze, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online or in person, with a Gokhale Method teacher.

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. . .