walking

One of the great strengths of the Gokhale Method is that you learn it doing practical activities, like sitting and walking; you then practice it during your day-to-day life. Regular tasks like driving the car and household chores, and leisure activities like gardening and playing sports, become not only safe and comfortable, but actually therapeutic. If you are fortunate enough to live with a dog, you have a very special opportunity to hone your posture skills.

Daily dog walks are great training for your posture! Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Firstly, you will probably be walking your dog every day — maybe twice or even three times a day. The regular nature of this activity is a huge boon for establishing good postural habits. The assured minimal frequency of 1-3 times a day is also great. Back in the times of Ancient Greece, Aristotle said of repetition, “it is frequent repetition that produces a natural tendency” (Ross & Aristotle, 1906, p. 113). So your daily dog walks are not just about training your dog; they are also an amazing way to train yourself!  

Walking your dog builds in a big “posture reminder” to your day. Even when life is busy, you will be walking your dog, and in doing so, you will likely recall your new posture habits. Aristotle observed this trait, too, saying “the more frequently two things are experienced together, the more likely it will be that the experience or recall of one will stimulate the recall of the other” (p. 35).

A dog walk with a posture workout

With a little ingenuity, your daily dog walk can also be a great posture workout. However far you venture, you can divide your dog’s “walkies” up so that each section of the route can be used to focus on a particular aspect of your posture. For example, one block could focus on squeezing the gluteus medius buttock muscles, the next on push-off from the rear heel. If you are out on a trail, you can change your exercise from landmark to landmark. All this practice will accelerate your progress and soon build up your strength, coordination, and confidence.

Balance and stability come with strong glutes. Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Well-developed gluteal muscles (buttocks) are a major contribution to an easy yet powerful stride. They also play a major role in maintaining your balance — so that you are not going to be pulled over by a large dog, or bowled over by boisterous play.
 

Bending safely

Dog walking includes some responsibilities, including (in urban areas) picking up your dog’s poop. The Gokhale Method comes to your service with expert advice! Bending down to the ground is often where people get into trouble: rounding their backs, distending their spinal ligaments, and loading and wearing and tearing their spinal discs.

This woman is rounding her back, distending her spinal ligaments, as well as loading and wearing her spinal discs. Photo courtesy Pixabay.

But when you bend well, bending is transformed into something that keeps your muscles strong and joints mobile. You can observe in the humorous picture below how the back remains straight as the bend happens deeply around the hip joint.

This simple sign depicts a nice, straight back — a key feature of a healthy bend! Photo by Monisha White.

If hip-hinging with a straight back is not your usual way of bending, however, then it is important to first get guidance from a Gokhale Method teacher, or work carefully through Chapter 7 of my book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, to ensure that you are able to make this natural movement correctly and safely. You will also be able to put food down for your dog without risking your back going into spasm.

Most times, however, you will be bending down just a little to pat, groom, or put your dog on the leash. Most of our students report finding these smaller bends more difficult to remember to do well, so be super vigilant about this. Notice in the image below how the owner’s back and torso remain straight and she rests her weight on her elbows while talking to her dog.

Remember to hip-hinge for smaller bends — even though your dog loves you no matter your form! Photo courtesy Clare Chapman.

Protecting the upper body

A frequent problem for owners is that their dogs pull on the leash. This is a very detrimental habit, which would best be addressed at puppy training or with a dog trainer — there is lots of experienced and expert advice available. Until this behavior is improved, it is important that you protect yourself by arranging your shoulders in the best position possible using a shoulder roll, keeping the back of your neck tall, and using your rib anchor to help you maintain this architecture rather than letting the dog pull your upper body out of alignment. Softness at the elbow (slightly bent, not straightened all the way out) and a straight wrist will also help avoid damage to the delicate structures of the forearm.

Puppy classes and agility training are great for you and your dog! Photo courtesy Pixabay. 

If a dog pulls strongly, you also don’t want this pulling to jar and twist your spine — engaging the deep abdominal muscles and deep back muscles of the inner corset is important. This natural corset of strong, protective trunk muscle is also important to protect your spine and alignment when you are throwing balls or frisbees for your dog to fetch.

Are you using dog walks as posture practice time? Let us know in the comments! And, don't miss the second installment of this story!

On our website, the top searches include, "glutes," "walking," and "butt." So I thought I'd take this chance to say a few words on the subject.

"Callipygian" is an English word of Greek origin. It means “of, pertaining to, or having beautiful buttocks”. The word, (pronounced kal-uh-PIDGE-ee-uhn), is derived from the Greek word “kalli” meaning beautiful, and “pyge” from the Greek word for rump or buttock.

Brazilian soldier on a swimming break in Cachoeira

In some cultures, a small, slim backside is preferred. But in others, it's a prominent rear end that stops traffic. Perceptions of beauty also vary over time. In Classical art, and also in the Renaissance aesthetic, the standard of female beauty included a wide posterior and hips. In recent decades, there's been an emphasis on very thin physiques, though this preference seems to be waning.

Cambodian dancers in a performance

Despite the changing nature of fashion, one thing that never goes out of style is a healthy body. So if you want to channel your inner callipygian beauty while also enhancing your overall wellness, try glidewalking. By squeezing and strengthening the gluteus muscles with each step, you'll walk your way to a regal rear!

Glidewalking in Cambodia

Facing the feet outward increases the chance of engaging the glutes, especially gluteus medius. If you're not feeling your glutes, it's probably because they're not used to working when you walk. Try taking just one step at a time and see if you can engage gluteus medius. Make sure your pelvis is tipped forward (anteverted) and try again (refer to Chapter 6 "Tallstanding" in 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back for more details). Try pointing your back foot out a little and try again. Still flummoxed? Raise the back leg up off the ground with your back leg rotated outward. This should do it. Walk one step at a time until you can contract your glutes reliably. Then smooth it out into a walk.

How to Glidewalk:

1. When initiating a stride, relax the muscles around the hip joint of the leg moving forward and engage the lower buttock muscles of the back leg to propel the body forward.

2. Towards the end of the stride, use the gluteus medius muscle (at the upper outer quadrant of your buttock) of the back leg to gently land the front foot on the ground. Try to avoid free-falling to the ground. This technique strengthens the gluteus medius, giving you firmer, higher buttocks. 

Onward and upward,
Esther
 

As the summer sun mellows and fall approaches, this is my favorite time of year to go hiking. Hiking brings so many benefits, from lifting your spirits and relaxing in fature, to catching up with friends and spending quality time with family.

The physical health benefits of walking are well documented. Choose your terrain well, and hiking provides great cardiovascular exercise for all ages. If you have a sedentary job, walking around town can be an important part of what helps you to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

10,000 STEPS A DAY

If you like to track your progress, a pedometer to measure and increase your steps is a great fitness tool. Pedometer researcher Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke published a study in "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise" in 2004, showing that men in the survey took an average of 7192 steps per day and the women an average of 5210. The research showed that a sedentary person however might average only 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day. For people in this category, gradually adding steps is the way to go.

A reasonable goal for most people is to increase average daily steps by 500 each week until you can easily average 10,000 per day.

MODERN KNEES HAVE ISSUES

Among the common problems that prevent people from walking very far are knee problems. Ironically, a common source of knee problems is a problematic gait. Moving less then compounds the problem with stiffness and weight gain, which puts even more stress on the knees, setting up a downward spiral.

In our culture we now have an epidemic of knee problems; most are not associated with any injury. Over half a million Americans a year are diagnosed with meniscus (cartilage) tears and bone spurs. They have sometimes suffered years of inflammation, pain and loss of mobility in the joint. Thankfully, surgical repairs can be pretty good at restoring knee function, but it's always best to prevent the damage, try to improve the situation simply if possible, and use surgery as a last resort.

Let’s look at the figures:

http://www.healthline.com/health/total-knee-replacement-surgery/statistics-infographic

• More than 4.5 million Americans are living with at least one total knee replacement. That is 4.7% of people aged 50 and over. By age 80+ the figure is 10% and rising

• Knee replacements increased by 84% from 1997 – 2009

• Osteoarthritis is the principal diagnosis of knee replacement recipients

http://www.healthline.com/health/total-knee-replacement-surgery/understanding-costs

• The average cost of knee replacement surgery is $49,500, plus in-patient charges of $7,500

• The average cost of knee arthroscopy surgery is $11,900

• An estimated 850,000 meniscus surgeries are performed each year

http://www.newchoicehealth.com/Directory/Procedure/130/Arthroscopic%20Knee%20Surgery

A SIMPLE PREVENTIVE POSTURE MEASURE FOR KNEES

If you observe young children’s gait, you will see that they land on a slightly bent front knee. You can also see this in people from non-industrial cultures. Bending the front knee provides extra shock absorption for the knee joint. By contrast, if you are in the habit of landing on a straight leg (a result of inappropriately using your quads to lengthen your stride) the knee cartilage will be subjected to a much greater force as your foot hits the ground.

Landing on a straight front leg is often accompanied by several other postural aberrations as listed below. Conversely, bending your front knee at landing can help induce some of the other aspects of a healthy gait like a stronger, more propulsive action in your back leg and buttocks.

TRY IT

Start from standing with your feet hip width apart in a relaxed micro-squat position (with your knee and hip joints softened). This will help antevert your pelvis. Now imagine you are walking up a hill. This will lean you slightly forward. Your back leg can now propel you forward and your front knee is more likely to be bent at the moment of impact. Squeeze the upper buttock muscles (gluteus medius) of your back leg as it propels you forward, and use this muscle to help slow the landing of your front foot. You should land heel first, but only by just a fraction ahead of the rest of your foot (avoid an extreme heel-toe one-two step). If you succeed in making your landing soft, you will be providing additional protection for the knee.

It may help to try walking barefoot, on dirt or grass if possible. When doing this, you will instrinctively land more softly to protect your feet, which are no longer over-protected by thick shoes.

A good general principle to keep in mind is to use your muscles and spare your joints.

In addition to being a healthier way to walk, you may experience that a lighter landing on a bent front leg is more pleasant than crashing to the ground with a rigid front leg.

Walking is one of the techniques where students most benefit from hands-on coaching. In our six-lesson Gokhale Method Foundations course, we introduce elements of walking in the first lesson and build on them with each successive lesson. This gives students a chance to digest, practice and refine their technique with feedback from the teacher.

Walking habits can be deeply ingrained in your muscle memory and even your psyche—after all, it’s part of who you are and has been a lifetime in the making! It often takes a lot of repetition and hands-on cueing to change these habits. Gokhale Method teachers are trained to help you learn good habits by logically breaking down walking into smaller moves and then linking the new moves together. We teach elements of walking in our Free Workshops, our Initial Consutations and, most comprehensively, in our six-lesson Gokhale Method Foundations course.

We hope to see you in person at one of these offerings!