Kyphosis

It is not uncommon for students to show up at our courses aware they have lost several inches of height since their youth. In our culture it is a widely held expectation that you grow up, and then, at some point in later life, start getting shorter again. We all see friends, neighbors, or family members who are on the downward run of this trajectory, and it is virtually common lore that you will “shrink” or stoop in later years.

Losing height in later life is characterized as inevitable in our society. Image from Freepik

Can I expect to lose height as I age?

It is true that trauma, malnutrition, or conditions such as degenerative disc disease or osteoporosis can lead to loss of height. But our experience of working with many thousands of people over the past three decades has shown that most height loss is due to poor posture.

Let’s consider the most common reasons that people lose height:

• A tucked pelvis: The pelvis is actually in its tallest orientation when it is anteverted, which means slightly tipped forward, rather than the commonly advocated “neutral pelvis.” Pelvic anteversion is evident in our infants, our ancestors, and those living in traditional societies today, and is what we teach our students. 

The tucked pelvis (a) is shorter and does not allow the spine to stack well on the sacrum and retain its height. More height is evident in the anteverted pelvis (b). 

• Unhealthy spinal curves: 

Sitting or standing with a tucked pelvis (a.), expect to see the spine adopt a compressive C-shape. This rounding of the back reduces overall height in sitting, standing, and walking. Trying to sit up or stand up straight with a tucked pelvis (b.) takes a lot of muscular tension to maintain and excessively loads the lumbar spinal joints and discs. And it also makes you shorter, not taller! A healthier arrangement (c.) allows the spine to stack in more of a J-shape, formed by a distinct L5-S1 angle, and then ascending with less curvature along the remainder of the spine. This taller spine provides space for the intervertebral joints, discs and nerves.

• A weak inner corset: Weak inner corset muscles allow undue pressure and wear and tear on the tissues, discs, nerves, and bones of the spine. This is a major cause of and contributor to degenerative spinal conditions. All can result in a visible loss of height and thickening around the waist area.
• Unhealthy bending: A lifetime of rounded bending overstretches the dorsal ligaments of the spine and produces excessive kyphosis, or rounding of the upper back—stooped posture.
• Forward head posture: A tucked pelvis and/or rounded upper back projects the neck and head forward. This brings excessive muscle tension and compression in the neck and upper back as the muscles endeavor to hold the head upright. 
• Collapsed foot arches: Loss of the natural arches displace the bones and weaken the tissues of the feet, causing localized problems such as plantar fasciitis, Morton’s Neuroma, and bunions. Height and healthy function can additionally be lost through internal rotation in the knees and hips. 

Most people in our society can expect to live into advanced years—but often with considerable physical and mobility challenges. Retaining or regaining healthy posture is key to remaining free from such disability.

Most of us are taller than we think! 

It is neither inevitable nor natural to lose height as you get older. In fact, we have found that it is possible for most people, including those with degenerative conditions, to regain some height!

For a period in pre-COVID days we diligently measured the height of our students before and after they took their Gokhale Foundations Course. They averaged a height increase of two thirds of an inch (1.7 cm). 

Sometimes people discover that they have stooped for years: through doing desk work in poor furniture; bending poorly; as the result of a physical or mental health crisis; or perhaps since trying to hide growth spurts in adolescence. Many of our students have a sudden awakening to the fact that they are taller than they thought. They report feeling elegant, stronger, and healthier.

Moving like we are meant to, for example using a healthy hip-hinge like these two Portuguese workers, preserves height well into older age.

It always astonished me how students seemed more delighted to measure taller than to get out of pain! Reflecting on this, I think students have often been hopeful that their pain will resolve, but are actually surprised when they find they have recovered long-lost height. For both reasons, I share their joy!

What works to restore healthy height and posture.

Clearly, gaining height doesn't happen within a weekend course through any sort of magical “regrowth”! Nor do you get there by redoubling your efforts to “stand up straight.” But you can make transformational changes by addressing the way in which you align your feet, legs, pelvis, spine, and head. And while many of our students gain an inch or more over time, even a millimeter of regained height can be the change from impinged nerves to a pain-free existence.

Molly, a student who is nearing the end of her online Gokhale® Elements course, just wrote us:

I've been fortunate to have a very active lifestyle these 67 years. As I age, I see some effects of gravity and poor habitual posture showing up. A diagnosis of osteopenia and osteoporosis has me on alert. I was exposed to the Gokhale Method® years ago by a yoga teacher and read Esther's Book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back. Now, I see great results from having a one-on-one online Gokhale teacher providing additional tips, cues, and feedback. In my annual check-up last week, I had gained a half inch (1.3 cm) in height! This is great news for my spine! Thank you, Gokhale Method.

Molly used to lock out her knees and sway her back in standing (left). She is making great progress (right) as she softens her knees, aligns and lengthens her spine with a more relaxed lower back and tall neck, and rolls her shoulders back home. 

My colleague Julie Johnson and I offered a special workshop called Women’s Empowerment Through Posture this week and were overwhelmed by the level of registrations and interest in this topic. Aging well without shrinking is one aspect of what we will be covering in our brand new group offering Women’s Empowerment Through Posture. Join us for six one-hour group sessions, in which we will work together to transform your posture to find a new level of confidence, relaxation, comfort, and self awareness—as well, of course, as helping with aches and pains. 

Best next action steps 

If you would like to know how to restore or make the most of your natural height, 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…

Here I am in September 2017 when I began the Gokhale Method—sitting and bending over:

I have kyphosis. My upper back is curved from the shoulders to the bottom of my ribcage. The exact cause of my kyphosis is not known. There are two types of kyphosis: Scheuermann’s and postural. In Scheuermann’s disease, the normal bone growth in the vertebrae is interrupted during adolescence leading the spine to develop wedge-shaped vertebrae which result in a rounded curve in the thoracic spine. I believe I may have been diagnosed with Scheuermann’s Kyphosis at some point, but I don’t know for sure. I would like to think of it as postural because that word opens up more room for change.

I was born with my left leg and foot turned inward. I wore several different braces on my leg and my foot until the age of five. I became a shy and inhibited child, and I remember not wanting to be seen. 

Me aged three and a half

Even as a young child, the outward curve of my upper back was already accentuated, perhaps to protect my inward self, which withdrew in anxiety and insecurity. 

 
Even as a young child, I remember being fearful.   

By 2nd grade, my shoulders were already turning in—and my chest too. 

During adolescence I was constantly told to stand up straight. If I tried to pull myself up from my hunched position, my back muscles would fatigue and I would inevitably return to slouching.

I remember this photoshoot vividly. (I am center.) I felt really ugly and sad at age 15. I felt uncomfortable in whatever I wore. I did not want to be in the picture. The photographer took lots of photos. Over the years, friends and family have remarked about how sad I looked. Every picture taken that day captured the shame that was locked inside of me.  

 
My marriage ceremony (age 26) to my husband David. I am pretty hunched over even on this occasion.

My son Charlie and me (age 32) in Kentucky. My curved back is really evident.  

Fortunately, pregnancy, nursing, and motherhood did not seem to worsen my kyphosis. I had some pains, but the joy of motherhood eclipsed these. I set up a “nursing chair” for myself with lots of supportive pillows. 

Pains then began to establish themselves in parts of my upper back, and I was given exercise regimens on several occasions over the years to better my posture. I was in pain, but over the years I learned to live with it. At the age of 33, my husband encouraged me to see a specialist, who recommended a fusion operation—to correct my appearance and relieve my pain. I was tempted to choose this path to free me from the hunch in my back. After contacting people who had undergone this surgery, I discovered that some experienced more pain after the fusion than before, so my husband and I canceled the operation.  

Here I am sitting in my usual hunched-over position, with my rounded upper body mirrored by my tucked pelvis. I am aged 38 here, with my daughter Katelyn.

Here I am aged 46, with David, Katelyn, and our friend Leonard. My husband loved backpacking, but out of fear of hurting my back, I chose not to participate in many of the more adventuresome backpacking and canoeing activities that would have enriched our outdoor experiences.

Four years ago, at the age of 60, a good friend of mine encouraged me to investigate the Gokhale Method®. I attended a few free workshops, and then took the Foundations Course in New York City with Cynthia Rose. She gave me the hope I needed to begin my journey from being afraid, ashamed, and embarrassed about my physique to acceptance, appreciation, and discovery. I bought a Gokhale Method Stretchsit® Cushion, took two Alumni classes, scheduled some sessions of massage/acupuncture with Cynthia, purchased a used copy of Esther’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, and began to do the exercises on my own.  

A year and a half ago, I received a Gokhale Method invitation to meet with Esther on the daily 1-2-3 Move online program. As I opened Zoom each day, I was fascinated by Esther’s broad knowledge base and her ability to hone specific skills. Her multicultural knowledge and research of traditional cultures gave her a worldwide perspective that drew on the wisdom of many traditions. Esther was unafraid of a difficult problem or question but would not be drawn into making predictions or entering territory that was outside of her expertise. She honored people’s differences and gave judicious hope. The hope Esther gave me was not just optimism that ignored the realities of my difficulties but was rooted in a deep respect and knowledge of the body and its structure.  

Over time, I became part of a community of people committed to working together on our bodies and began asking questions myself. The camaraderie is immensely motivating. It makes a remarkable difference to know that Esther, or one of the other teachers, is online with me. A strong community has developed in this COVID-19 age of isolation.  

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Gokhale Fitness teacher Eric Fernandez answering my question on working my latissimus dorsi muscles.

I always look forward to my Gokhale Fitness session with Eric. It cracks me up that this strong, well-built young man truly enjoys our company! I love that he gives me ways to adapt each exercise to my level. His kind and relaxed manner gave me the courage to ask my first question. Aurelia answers questions with the most patient, comforting voice I have ever heard. And Kathleen and Roberta cultivate the beauty of silence and then slowly and gracefully explain each move of the Tai Chi sessions. I find the whole team of Gokhale Exercise teachers to be equally compassionate and committed to freeing others from pain and helping them take care of their bodies. Each program brings me a deeper understanding of the postural structure of my body.   

Early in the Gokhale Exercise classes, I realized that I would benefit from some one-on-one sessions on how to walk, sit, and sleep. I needed both Esther and my husband to help me understand how I had been walking incorrectly for 62 years. My husband got excited about the glute work! I had hardly used my left glute and my left knee had never completely opened. With months of constant practice, I came to understand how to use my glutes and to open my knee.

I had spent most of my life hunched and tucked when standing and walking.

I reached out to Esther again for a private session on how to sit healthily and adjust my desk to the correct height. I also attended an online workshop session on how to stretchlie.  

This new-found body wisdom began to enter every aspect of my life, from walking down the stairs to sitting on the toilet. The Gokhale Method gives me a framework from which to evaluate and correct my posture in all activities. It keeps bringing me back to the core. Throughout the day I recall Esther’s words, “Are my ribs anchored? Are my shoulders rolled back? Is my head in the garage? Is my pelvis anteverted? Are my feet bean-shaped? Am I relaxed?”  

But it is the dancing that unites everything! Esther showed me how to appreciate and move my body in a playful way. The beat of the music entices my muscles to work—and it’s fun! I have gone from being a person who felt awkward and ashamed of her body to one who feels rhythm and loves to create new dance movements.  

How is my back now? I have kyphosis, yes, but my muscles are changing. I am so much more comfortable sitting at my desk. This is important because this is where I spend most of my hours. 

Sitting well at a laptop or desktop computer makes sitting comfortable in the moment and cultivates healthy posture. My shoulders are slowly returning to a healthier posterior position as my upper chest opens.

I continue to work on developing my gait in my regular daily walking and my glutes are definitely developing; I am able to identify my weak areas and work to strengthen them. The habitual pains have largely (but not totally) disappeared—and I know so much more about why I have them and can focus my work on the right places. When a particular exercise strikes me as personally beneficial, I incorporate it into my fifteen-minute morning and evening exercise routine.  

A confidence permeates my mind and body. It replaces my shame and fears with the desire and energy for change. It enables me to choose what is good. A friend has remarked that my back looks straighter which confirms my inner knowledge that deep change is taking place. I am developing a patient contentment with the small incremental changes that are wrought through regular daily Gokhale Method instruction and my new life habits. There is much to be joyful over.

I write this with deep gratitude for the faithful dedication of Esther and her team.

This is our third blog post in the series where we put popular exercises under scrutiny to examine how they stack up—or not—against the principles of healthy posture. Here we are looking at “Cat-Cow,” a common exercise for mobilizing the spine.

Cow is one of the “holy cows” of conventional exercise. Done on all fours, it puts the spine into extension (swaying). It is paired with Cat, which puts the spine into flexion (rounding). Alternating between these postures is widely considered to be a good or even necessary exercise for mobilizing the spine.

Cat-Cow is widely considered to be a good mobilizing exercise for the spine—but there is a big downside. Pixahive

Alternating between extreme extension and flexion stresses the joints of the spine, which then sustain wear and tear. It also results in the surrounding muscles stiffening to protect the spine. True, it can feel good to stretch out tight muscles in this way, but rather than relying exclusively on repeated extension and flexion, it’s better to address the underlying cause of the stiffness, which is usually poor posture. People with good posture are not compelled to do this sort of exercise. 

Arching the back (above) and slumping (below) are common but damaging postural habits 
that we do not want to reinforce in our exercises. Freepik

In addition to the real-time wear and tear in the spine, Cat-Cow reinforces the poor postural patterns of arching and slumping that are common in our culture. 

Many of us arch the lumbar spine to be “upright.” This compresses the discs, nerves, and soft tissues of the lower back which leads to degeneration, pain, and dysfunction. It is also common to slump the upper back when sitting or standing. This progressively overstretches the spinal ligaments, increasing kyphosis. Cat-Cow augments both these common characteristics of modern posture. 

Cow (above) can deepen and compress an already tight lumbar curve. Cat (below) will then overstretch an already rounded upper back.
Both movements compound common posture problems.

If the chin is lifted and the neck is swayed in Cow, this will additionally put pressure on the cervical joints.

Due to its horizontal orientation, without an awareness of healthy posture, this is an exercise that encourages the abdominal muscles to “switch off” rather than retain a healthy baseline tone. Hanging the abdomen from the lumbar area like a deadweight encourages exaggerated distortion of the lumbar spine.   

After compressing the lower back in Cow pose, most people then round into Cat to stretch it out. Training the upper back to hunch in Cat will then send the shoulders and head further forward in daily posture. Rather than mobilizing the spine, Cat-Cow can create a destructive spiral of a tight lower back and an overstretched upper back. 

Rather than encouraging even length throughout the spine, Cat-Cow pushes deeper into the existing curves. Freepik 

If you are concerned that the yoga or exercises you do could be exacerbating a habit of arching and/or slumping, we recommend exploring how to modify your regimen in an Initial Consultation. You can arrange an Online Initial Consultation or an in-person Initial Consultation if you have a Gokhale Method® Teacher near you.

The 1-2-3 program on Monday, August 9 will show you how to do a modified Cat-Cow. In Cat you will learn to stretch the upper back without overdoing it, and how and why not to round the lower back in the process. In Cow I will teach how to restrict the concave sway in the lower back while giving a satisfying stretch through the thoracic spine where it will do no harm. You will learn how to invite the right amount of movement in the right parts of your spine.

If you would like to join the Cat-Cow class but have not yet subscribed to the 1-2-3 program, sign up now for your 7-day Gokhale Exercise Free Trial.

1-2-3 Move happens daily with Esther at 9:45 a.m. (Pacific Time)
Gokhale Fitness with Eric runs Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays from 7–7:25 a.m.
(Pacific Time), and Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays from 3–3:25 p.m. (Pacific Time)

Hunching over or rounding the upper back is often regarded as a hereditary characteristic. I frequently hear people say, “my back is stooped just like my mother, and her mother had it too.” 

Is a hunched back Nature or Nurture?

I agree that hunching is certainly a family trait—but it is largely a learned one, not inherited. 

We mostly learn our posture from our parents and family members. As we grow up, the role models around us in wider society also hold sway. Unfortunately, in our culture, these are usually pretty poor examples to follow. Our relationship to healthy posture has steadily been eroded over the past one hundred years, as I explain in my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

Healthy, open posture, as shown here, was typical in Western societies until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Print donated by the Mendocino County Museum to the Gokhale Method Institute’s collection).

While it is true that some people have a greater genetic predisposition to these distortions, e.g., they may have slack ligaments which easily allow them to occur, these changes generally only manifest when a particular area of the body is subjected to sustained and inappropriate loading. When a person retains or relearns healthy posture, genetic predispositions have little opportunity for expression and for distortions to take hold.   

This mother in Burkina Faso positions her head, neck, shoulders, and arms in a way that is harmonious with retaining an upright and mostly flat upper back. Her child is also experiencing healthy posture—his arms and shoulders posterior, his chest open.

This well-meaning mother is unfortunately encouraging her daughter to round her back as she exercises. Pexels

Why does the upper back hunch?

In some respects, developing a rounded back is not dissimilar from developing bunions—both distortions are the body’s adaptation to a lack of support in the right place, and consequent overloading somewhere else. 

Bunions can form when the joint at the base of the big toe repeatedly takes weight that should be in the heel bone. This can be due to wearing a pointed or high-heeled shoe, or simply from habitually standing with weight through the forefoot rather than the heel. 

The upper back rounds when it is made to carry and counterbalance the weight of a forward hanging head, neck, shoulders, and arms. In healthy posture the upper body is supported by a more vertical J-shape alignment of the spine and the deep postural muscles, or “inner corset.” This prevents the spine from collapsing into an S-shape, C-shape, or I-shape. You can read more about spine shape here.

Sir Charles Walker, a British member of Parliament, being interviewed. A tucked pelvis will often result in a rounded upper back and forward head carriage. Channel 4 News (UK)

How to improve rounded, head forward posture

One of the best steps towards finding your J-spine alignment is to realign your head over your body. To develop the deep cervical muscles which counter excessive neck curves, I recommend using the Gokhale™ Head Cushion, which was specifically designed for this therapeutic purpose. It mimics the beneficial effects of head loading, but with a safe amount of weight for people in a society unpracticed in carrying on the head. 

People who carry weight on their head push up against it using their deep neck muscles (longus colli) and inner corset. Their central axis remains tall, with no rounding of the upper spine.

Caution: If you have any neck pain, or suspicion of herniation or other degeneration in the neck, do not do this exercise.

Headloading is a rarely taught but highly effective means of lengthening, strengthening, and aligning the neck, and freeing the upper back.

Upright and open posture is your birthright

By not hunching you can:

• Maintain your full height
• Retain a more youthful appearance
• Avoid muscular pain and tension, especially in the back and neck
• Avoid nerve pain, impingements, and poor circulation in the shoulders and arms
• Encourage the “inner corset” muscles to support and protect the spine
• Avoid compression and degeneration in the spine, including bone, discs, and nerves 
• Reduce your risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis in the spine as the bones receive
  the healthy stress they are designed for
• Enjoy healthier breathing and digestion

Hunching is not an inevitable part of aging

Often people start to notice they are hunching in middle or older age, maybe because it has become more pronounced. Hunching usually starts as a postural habit much earlier in life, yet goes largely unnoticed if there is little stiffness or pain in the area—and it is not yet linked negatively to associations with the aging process. In many traditional cultures people preserve an upright posture well into old age.

A lifetime of seated work does not make hunching inevitable, as the upright posture of this Ecuadorian backstrap loom weaver shows.

This elderly man in Indonesia has retained posterior shoulders and a wide, relatively flat upper back. Unsplash

This elderly farmer from the Yogyakarta region of Indonesia has preserved an open chest and shoulders that rest back. Unsplash

At whatever age you notice rounding in your back, it is important not to see it as inevitably leading to an extreme kyphosis (severe outward curvature) in the upper spine. Sometimes students come to us in dismay, perhaps shocked to have recently seen themselves so hunched in a particular photograph or video. Rather than despair, use this highly pertinent data as a springboard and incentive to return toward the healthy alignment you had as a young child. 

A young girl washes eggs for market near Falls Creek, Pennsylvania, 1940. She inclines slightly forward and lengthens the back of her neck to attend to the task. Her shoulders remain posterior, her chest open—no rounding over! Pinterest

How to mobilize a stiff upper back

In most situations using a suitable roller is my favorite way of mobilizing the upper back. It can ease stiffness in the vertebral joints, soften tight muscles, and improve circulation to the area. To ensure you get all of these up sides and none of the potential downsides from roller work, there are some important guidelines to follow:

• Use a roller that is the right size, density, texture, is non-slip, and robust. The Gokhale™ Roller meets these criteria.
• Rolling needs to be done with a safe technique and healthy postural form, not threaten injury to your back or neck.
• New freedom in the upper back must be balanced with healthy posture to improve muscular tone and alignment. This prevents newly acquired “give” in the area from resulting in further rounding.

Caution: If you have osteopenia or osteoporosis, or suspicion of herniation or other degeneration in your spine, do not do this exercise.

The Gokhale™ Roller has been specifically designed to help you on your posture journey towards a happy, hunch-free back.

How the Gokhale Method resolves hunched posture

Posture education often starts when people analyze their online or in-person Initial Consultation photographs with a teacher. Gokhale Method® teachers have a lot of experience in reassuring people who have a kyphosis (rounded upper back), explaining the mechanisms that got them hunched, and the logical steps they can take to turn this unwanted trajectory around. The Initial Consultation starts the process of students fine tuning their ability to read posture. It can be a revelation. 

Initial education in Gokhale Method techniques and the resulting changes can be rapid. Most students soon realize how amenable to change the arrangement of the skeleton and soft tissue can be. Changes to rounded posture are not only possible, but almost guaranteed as students progress through our in-person Foundations or Pop-up course, or online Elements course.

In the case of bony rigidity that has been in place for decades, we work to get improvement around fixed areas, and to prevent it from getting worse. With persistence and patience, a surprising degree of bony changes can take place over time. As with all body tissue, bone constantly renews itself in response to the way it is arranged and used.

Felicia Grimke, aged 32, was a very hunched and pain-plagued office worker.

Now a Gokhale Method alumna, Felicia continues to enjoy working on healthy posture and is virtually pain-free for the first time in many decades.

Many of our students have generously shared the story of their journey out of hunching and pain. Do be inspired by Felicia Grimke’s recent post on overcoming hunching, How the Gokhale Method Solved my Neck Pain and Transformed my Life, and sign up for one of our free online workshops below. 

Anissa Morgan is 46 years old and was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. In her own words, her relationship with her body has “always been a little messed up.” She didn’t like how she looked. Growing up, her mom frequently told her that she was slouching and "should pull her shoulders back," anecdotal posture advice many of us have heard.

In adulthood, Anissa spent some time in the Army Reserves as a petroleum specialist. The military approach to posture reinforced what she’d heard from her mom in childhood: that she “shouldn’t be slouching and that everything should look ‘a certain way.’” In her job, she would deliver fuel to military vehicles such as airplanes, cars, and trucks. She had to leave this position due to medical hardship after her first husband suffered a severe accident and broke his back, resulting in his paralysis from the waist down. She didn’t have anyone else to take care of both her husband and her young daughter, so she left the military. It was a short career, but she loved a lot about the military experience and the connections she formed with people during her service.

Anissa, 46, has seen her life dramatically changed by the Gokhale Method. Image supplied.

As the primary caregiver of her then-husband, the load on her body was extreme. She would have to carry her husband’s wheelchair, even while pregnant. Not long afterward, she and her husband divorced. Between pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, and the end of her relationship, she endured a lot of emotional and physical trauma.

“I was never an athlete or in super-great shape, but when I was in the military, I’d started having problems with my knees and my feet. My arches started to fall then,” says Anissa. She feels that may have been the first sign that things were going wrong.

Military posture guidelines encouraging tension and artificial positioning in the body predispose servicemembers to posture problems, which can lead to pain and injury. Image courtesy 272447 on Pixabay.

After her time in the Army Reserves, Anissa recovered from her divorce and eventually remarried. She found a job working at the Officer’s Club doing clerical and computer work. Computers were just coming into widespread use at the time. After that, with her valuable skills, she began working at the computer helpdesk at the USAA office in San Antonio. One element of her job with USAA involved travel: visiting field adjusters to set up laptops for them. One day, after a training, carrying a heavy load of equipment and baggage, she bent over and felt something give. After a couple of weeks where her back was “uncomfortable,” she visited her husband’s chiropractor, which was “like magic.” One morning, however, while making lunch for her three daughters, she bent over to pick up a box of Capri Suns and couldn’t stand back up again, and could hardly lift her leg. That’s where “the really major problems” began.

This continued until she was about 32 and her “back was done,” leaving her unable to work due to severe pain.

With her level of pain, sitting at a computer desk all day was excruciating. “Even with the great resources they have there, like standing desks and the people that would come in from Ergonomics who would tell you how you were ‘supposed to sit and stand’ — all of which I now know was wrong — it just wasn’t possible for me anymore, so I stopped working at about 32.”

Sufficiently severe pain makes even desk jobs impossible, as it did for Anissa. Image courtesy Claudio Scott on Pixabay.

“It just didn’t work”
It turned out that Anissa had a rupture in the spinal disc between her L4 and L5 vertebrae, which resulted in severe pain in her lower back and radiating down her legs, into her calves, and a loss of feeling in her toes. At the time, all she wanted was to have her back “fixed” so she could be sent back to work. By then, she had 3 small children and a job she loved. She needed to be able to show up in her life. With this in mind, she opted to have laminectomy surgery to hopefully resolve her symptoms.

Although the laminectomy gave her around 6 months of improved symptoms, the surgery soon revealed itself to have been unsuccessful in resolving her pain, which returned and began radiating down her legs again. A second surgery was proposed to fuse her L4 and L5 vertebrae. Her surgeon’s perspective had been tightly focused on the disc as the cause of Anissa’s problems, suggesting that once it was removed and that joint was fused, she would “feel grand.” There was again a little relief soon after the second surgery, but it quickly became apparent that even after this fusion, working at a desk all day wasn’t good for her body and something she could tolerate. The one way Anissa could tolerate it was with the use of opioid pain medication, although this further complicated her ability to do her mentally demanding job — troubleshooting computer problems — well. “You’re problem-solving — that’s your gig,” Anissa says. “And when your brain can’t fire, there’s no solving going on. Unfortunately, that was the end of that.”

Within a year of the first surgery, she was starting to feel pain in her legs in a different location. At the time, she had a wonderful pain management doctor, but Anissa was still concerned about the side effects and addictive potential of opiate painkillers. She began feeling terrible pain on the front of her thigh, which would command all her attention while driving an hour and a half to visit a friend. By the time she got home, she’d have a bruise on her leg where she’d been pressing the muscle, trying to get some relief. Her pain management doctor recommended another MRI, which revealed that the discs above and below her fusion site were herniated — just a year after the fusion surgery.

For Anissa, surgery was a “band-aid” treatment which did not eliminate her pain long-term. Image courtesy Sasin Tipchai on Pixabay.

“My decade of darkness”
The worst of Anissa’s severe, debilitating pain lasted a decade during which she didn’t know what else to try. She tried acupuncture, and completed five different courses of physical therapy within a couple of years. She’d given it “everything [she] knew how to do” and was still having to resort to taking enough opioid pain medication to keep herself comfortable while trying to balance the demands of her body with those of being a wife and a mother. “That,” she says, “was my decade of darkness. There was no moment that was comfortable. There was no joy left in my life, because all I could think about was the pain in my spine, which then started radiating up through my thoracic spine and neck. My whole body hurt all the time.”

Anissa was hitting rock bottom. She would wake up at night heaving and sobbing from pain. She didn’t know what else to do or what to try. All her doctors wanted to do was more surgery: fusing two or even three more levels of her spine. Her pain management doctor would give her steroid injections and trigger point therapy, all of which were wonderful, but they weren’t long-term fixes and only took the edge off the pain. She felt like a burden to everyone, and a failure, and didn’t see how she was going to go on living like that.

In a moment of deep desperation, Anissa hid in the closet, kneeled, and prayed for assistance. In her own words, she “saw the light” and was filled with a new determination. She decided to start over, trying every approach again, so that if she did have to resort to another surgery, she would know that she had done everything she possibly could to avoid putting herself in a worse situation. That was her nightmare: that she would do what the surgeons advised and the new surgery would only do what the second surgery had done.

Opioid painkillers were something Anissa was not happy about having to take in such large doses. Image courtesy newsong on Pixabay.

The next day she got online and went in search of acupuncture. She Googled and found an acupuncturist and someone’s testimonial called him a “gift from God,” and hoped that perhaps he could be such a gift for her as well. She walked into the acupuncturist’s office barely able to lift her feet to walk, with numbness in her feet so severe she would avoid the stairs at her house for days at a time for fear of falling. By going to the acupuncture appointment, she felt she was just doing her due diligence and crossing something off the list.

Her first acupuncture treatment was “excruciating.” The acupuncturist is “old-school,” from Taiwan, and she found him somewhat frightening and difficult to understand. After the treatment, he asked her, “How do you feel?” And she replied that she didn’t know, but that she might have been feeling a bit better. She was experiencing a pulsing sensation which was new to her, and which she found encouraging. When he prompted her to lift her legs to waist level by raising his hands as targets for her to reach toward, she was shocked to be able to do so, considering that she had barely been able to walk into the office for her appointment. She got back up from the treatment table “thanking God that maybe this was something” that would continue to help her. She now had hope that something better — perhaps even relief — might be possible.

Acupuncture was the first partially effective intervention Anissa found, but it didn’t fix her underlying posture issues. Image courtesy Hamilton Viana Viana on Pixabay.

Over the next three months, she frequented her acupuncturist, seeing him by her choice for treatment two to three times a week. She could feel the healing occurring in her body. The treatments reduced her pain to a tolerable level. Her next target was stopping the narcotic pain medication she’d resorted to for years. Someone in a chat room online told her about kratom, which she investigated and then used for a short time in order to transition away from the prescription painkillers. “I’ve been pharmaceutical-free for going on about four or five years now. But during that time, I still had pain.” At this point, she still had pain to contend with, but “not to the level where everything was darkness.”

“I’ve learned now that if I manage my life right, I can have joy again. I can do things again.”

The Gokhale Method is something Anissa first heard about from a friend.

A new approach to pain relief
Anissa first heard of the Gokhale Method from a friend with whom she had a reciprocal coaching arrangement: Anissa would life-coach her friend, and her friend health-coached Anissa. “She said, ‘You know, I heard about this, and it might help you.’” Anissa looked it up, watched a few videos, and bought herself a copy of 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back as it was more within financial reach than enrolling in a course immediately. “Let me see what I can get from the $20 book first, before I further the investment. From the book, I was able to tell that it was something and that it made sense to me. With what I had been through and what they had tried to teach me and what was so different.”

Anissa “almost didn’t go to the Pop-up Course.” She was aware Esther was travel-teaching in Texas, but the courses weren’t near Anissa. However, they were close enough for her to try to get to. She felt it was a sign: a response to her prayers. “I was actually experiencing higher-than-normal pain, the most I’d had in a few years, and I really wanted to go, but I didn’t know if I could. I didn't know if I was physically capable.” Determined, Anissa ended up driving 5 hours to Dallas — a drive that would be impossible for her most of the time due to her pain levels, but the endpoint of which was so important to her she didn’t want to miss it. She was assisted on the drive by one of her daughters.

During the drive back to San Antonio back from the Pop-up Course in Dallas, Anissa asked her daughter to take this picture of her standing without pain at a rest area — a truly memorable moment. Image supplied.

Dramatic results in a single day
By the end of the Pop-up Course and the drive home to San Antonio, Anissa almost couldn’t believe the results. “My camel hump on my neck was gone! And I knew it was gone, but I questioned how that had happened.” Just that day, she had noticed her longstanding kyphosis, also known as a “buffalo hump” or “dowager’s hump,” during the halfway point of the course, when she was experiencing some of her usual pain and applied a topical pain relief cream to it. She regularly asked her husband to rub this kyphotic hump to provide her some fleeting relief. But after the Pop-up Course, the hump was gone. This was a big change; nothing she’d ever done before had ever had such dramatic results in such a short amount of time. “The book was great, but I really needed the hands-on [learning], and I need to do the Foundations Course next. My body is used to being a certain way, and it’s taking time to train my brain to do things differently.”

In her own words, Anissa is “thrifty, so [the course tuition] felt like a lot of money.” It was actually her and her husband’s anniversary weekend and she wanted to do something with him for the occasion, but she reconsidered. “I thought, what better gift could I give to my husband than feeling better?”

“Acupuncture has helped me manage my pain to where I can have a life now. It’s a more limited capacity than I would maybe prefer. But what the Gokhale Method did is open the door up wider.” A couple of weeks after the course, Anissa and her husband took a trip to Marble Falls and went hiking for the first time in maybe 15 years. “I remembered how much I loved it, and how good it feels to stand in nature — wow, Lord, really! This is in my backyard? And I never would have seen it, because I was afraid [of debilitating pain].” On her hiking trip, she realized the course was “worth all that money and then some, because we get to do things we used to not be able to do, that we hadn’t done in a really long time. So it was amazing.”

Anissa’s once-debilitating pain is now well-managed enough to let her live her life again, as in this photo during her hiking trip to Marble Falls. Image supplied.

“An answer to prayer”
When she does experience pain, the Gokhale Method has given Anissa the tools to realize that something is in need of adjustment. Anissa is humble and adamant that, in spite of her excellent and heartening results, her posture journey is only beginning. “I only know this much, and it’s made such a huge difference,” she says. “Even knowing that much has made a huge difference. And there’s so much more.” The private online follow-up session with Kathleen was a needed refresher on the techniques. Being able to bring the method home to her space, to her desk, and to her home context was incredibly helpful for Anissa. Aside from the pain relief, Anissa appreciates the comprehensive nature of the Gokhale Method. “It’s for your whole body, working with your whole body the way it was designed to work,” unlike exercises focused only on giving people superficial benefits, like “great abs.”

When asked what Anissa treasures being able to do with her body, it’s the simple things that are most important. She has a young grandson, and being able to pick him up and get on the floor and play with him are precious. The freedom of being able to get in the car and drive for 10 hours and end up in New Mexico, for example, is a blessing. “I want a body that doesn’t limit my capacity to do what I do and what’s important, not to be sitting there with family and friends and wondering when I can go home because my back hurts so much. I want to be able to actually enjoy conversation and interaction with people without the primary brain focus being the pain in my body.”

Anissa considers her whole journey to have been “an answer to prayer. It was too weird the way it all happened, and the results. I always know it’s special — a gift — when it goes this well. Not that the process has been easy, because I feel like I’m constantly having to work on it and I have so much more to learn. But to get such an immediate injection of hope, to feel that maybe I wouldn’t at some point be managing the symptoms of my pain with acupuncture and supplements. I have hope that this can build up to more as I go further in the process and learn to work with my body the way it was designed to be.”

And given her history, she’s no stranger to despair. “I know what it’s like to lose hope. I know how different your life can turn out if you can’t be pointed and guided in a direction that’s not pharmaceuticals, that’s not injections, that’s not surgeries. I’ve met so many people whose long-term results are a disaster. Maybe in the beginning they’re ok, the first few years out, but talk to them 5 years after surgery and they’re all miserable, too. I’d like to be able to help share this and help save people from the decade of disaster I experienced myself.” Thankfully, with the Gokhale Method on her side, Anissa has a brighter future to look forward to.

Future generations, and our ability to show up for them, can prove excellent motivation for reducing our pain and improving our functionality. Image courtesy Sasin Tipchai on Pixabay.