stretchsitting

Over the years, I have often shown students with recliners that they can get a compression-relieving stretch in their lower back as the backrest slides away from the seat (assuming the mechanism is designed advantageously). This is something you might like to try out for yourself. 

The benefits of gentle back traction

We developed our Stretchsit® Cushion and our Gokhale® Pain-Free Chair with incorporated “sticky” nubs that give the same advantages of gentle traction to the back. The unique design of the nubs teases apart all the lumbar vertebrae, easing compression in the lower spine, and taking the pressure off the spinal nerves, discs, and bones. Stretchsitting can now be done virtually anywhere, and has provided a healing breakthrough for thousands of back pain sufferers, making comfortable, therapeutic sitting available in the car, the office, and the home. You can watch our free introductory video on stretchsitting here.

Our Stretchsit Cushion has made travel comfortable again for thousands of people.

A natural advantage of reclining over upright sitting is that the change in angle reduces weight on the spinal discs, nerves, and bones, especially at the “bottom of the heap.” No wonder so many people of all ages find it so comfortable. And it is super relaxing!

We instinctively recline to relax more completely. Image from Pexels

An executive chair with three healthy sitting options

We wanted our recently launched Gokhale® Executive Chair to offer all the benefits of the healthy sitting positions that we teach in our Gokhale® Foundations course, one-day Gokhale® Immersion course, and our online Gokhale® Elements course. Its comprehensive design enables you to stretchsit against its adjustable backrest, to perch perfectly to stacksit at your keyboard, or to recline and reset your entire spine. In the photographs below you can see these three healthy sitting positions in action in the office.

Not only can you stretchsit perfectly against the adjustable backrest, but it also has shoulder cutaways to allow you to posteriorly align your shoulders. 

The downward slope at the front of the seat tips your pelvis gently forward, allowing your vertebrae to stack easily and your back muscles to relax. The resulting freedom allows a gentle spinal massage with every breath. 

 
The multi-adjustable headrest can give precise cervical alignment and support. Recline and reset your spine to take calls, think outside the box, or simply enjoy the feeling. 

Materials and craftsmanship

This chair is handcrafted to order from the highest quality Italian leather, chosen for both durability and breathability. It is upholstered with high-resilience foam to remain as comfortable and supportive over the years as on day one. 

We think you’ll agree that our executive chair is altogether the perfect package!

On receiving her chair, Gokhale Elements alumna Katie Stringer wrote:

Thank you all so much. I received my Gokhale Method chair today. I want you to know that this is by far the most comfortable chair I’ve ever sat in. I am beyond thankful to have found you and your wonderful method.

A special opportunity to learn healthy sitting

Learning our well-honed Gokhale Method techniques for healthy sitting will give you optimal results from your Gokhale Executive Chair. We are delighted to offer, with each chair purchased between December 1 and December 26, a complimentary 25-minute personal consultation (worth $99) with one of our expert teachers.

During this session, you or the happy recipient of the chair will learn:

• How to use the chair's features for effective stretchsitting at your desk
• Optimal settings for restorative stretchreclining
• How to lengthen your neck
• Custom adjustments for your body and needs

This video demonstrates how the chair’s features improve your alignment.

People at their desks the world over need our executive chair! It is currently available with free shipping within the US and Canada. If you live elsewhere, please contact Customer Support at [email protected], +1 844 777 0440 (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon–Sat, US PST), who will be pleased to help you.

Best next action steps 

If you would like help with your stretchsitting and stretchreclining, get started by booking a consultation, online or in person, with one of our teachers.

You are also invited to sign up below to join any one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops…
 

You’ve tweaked your back. It may be a stabbing pain that catches with certain movements, it may be that you cannot straighten up, or maybe it’s an electrical, nervy sensation in your buttock.  

A back spasm is never welcome—but it is a signal we can act on—when we know how. Image by: Kampus Production

It’s true that time is a great healer—and that most back pain resolves itself without intervention—but there are also things we can do to accelerate the healing, that can help us feel better immediately, and protect us in the longer term. 

Should I take pain meds?

Pain meds (muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatories, and pain signal blockers) can be useful in allowing you to remain reasonably active, preserve your mental health, work, care for dependents, and more. They can also have negative side effects and create dependence. Using pain meds is a very individual decision to be made with your medical advisors, but if you do use meds, be sure you are using the relief they give you as a window of opportunity to address the root causes of your back pain.

Should I keep moving or rest up? 

There is research showing that for back pain, maintaining normal activities as tolerated gives a better outcome than bed rest. Maintaining gentle movement is nearly always advisable as it promotes healthy circulation and healing in the injured area. It also counters joint stiffness, muscle weakness, and loss of fitness. As the saying goes, “motion is lotion.” Maintaining regular activities as tolerated also helps you keep up with your friends, hobbies, and tasks, and staves off depression. 

In our experience doing normal activities with truly normal (healthy) posture gives an even better outcome.

Activities done with healthy posture are protective against back spasms and injuries.

Move like you are meant to

Unless it was a freak accident, think back to what caused this spasm. Going forward, what are you going to do differently to make sure it doesn’t happen again? Are there movements to avoid until you have learned what is truly healthy for your body, be that in bending, twisting, or reaching? Students have sometimes discovered that certain “healthy” exercises, such as cat-cow, or roll-downs, feel wonderful at the time, but that such alternating flexion and extension provokes their backs to stiffen up or spasm later. 

Poorly designed stretch and mobility exercises such as cat-cow actually push deeper into existing curves, provoking inflammation and stiffness. Images from Freepik 

Non-drug treatments 

Alternative or additional treatment for back spasms might include massage, physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, and osteopathy. It would be fair to say that while many of our students find one or more of these modalities helpful, they are seldom sufficient to get to the root cause of their back flare-ups and prevent them from recurring. When I was a practicing acupuncturist, I found that my patients responded better to treatment for back pain when I also helped them with their posture. Their bodies could heal and strengthen better when they stopped unwittingly reverting to poor bending, lifting, walking, sitting, and sleeping positions after their treatments.

Gokhale Method® solutions

I would like to offer two key Gokhale Method techniques that can accelerate your journey out of pain, plus get you started on creating the baseline conditions to keep your back healthy into the future. 

You will use readily available surfaces—a mattress or an exercise mat, and the backrest of a chair—to put your back into mild traction. You will be able to use this surface to contact and gently stretch your skin, which stretches the flesh underneath and gently eases your vertebrae apart. This will gradually tease out tension and spasm, facilitate circulation and healing, and bring peace to the area. These techniques are useful for five minute “resets” during the day, or for hours at a time, as needed.

Caution: If your back pain is persistent or severe, we recommend you consult your medical team prior to using these techniques.

Technique 1: Stretchlying

Stretchlying can transform lying down into therapeutic traction and comfort—even as you sleep. You can get started with this video.

Technique 2: Stretchsitting

Stretchsitting can transform compressive sitting (and driving) into hours of therapeutic traction and comfort. You can get started with this video.

You can learn these techniques in greater detail, with modifications for your body, in our in-person Foundations Course and our online Gokhale Elements. My book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, has illustrated, step-by-step instructions. Our stretchsit® cushion is a handy tool to make poorly designed chairs more comfortable and healthy. Here you can find a video on how to attach it to just about any chair. We’ve put it on sale until April 1 for $54.90, discounted from $59.90, plus free domestic shipping.

The stretchsit® cushion not only creates a healthier shape for your backrest, its soft “sticky” nubs are specially designed to give comfortable traction. 

Doing things differently

Pain is nature's biofeedback mechanism—one which alerts us to the threat or occurrence of injury, which we should act on. Unfortunately our culture has not equipped us well to interpret our pain signals, nor to understand the systematic errors we may be making in our body use. 

Once we recognize that poor postural habits are the root cause of our back pain, the process of change can begin. A teacher’s experienced eye can be invaluable in assessing your individual postural patterns and issues, helping you to steer out of trouble and into a healthier relationship with your body.

The way we make every movement determines whether our back has length and support, or is vulnerable to damaging stress. Here I am guiding a student in glidewalking. 

Best next action steps 

If you would like to know how changing your posture can prevent your back pain, 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…

Hi, I’m Emily Agnew, and excited to share my posture journey.

I first attended a weekend Gokhale Foundations course in 2016, to address a painfully stiff neck. I loved it. I also found it intense. To incorporate all I was learning about body mechanics, I had to concentrate so hard that I'd emerge from class feeling like my brain had overheated. On top of that, I was rather sore in unexpected places, from using my muscles in new ways. 

Long story short, I was happy knowing I was doing the right thing for my body. But I hardly had the bandwidth to notice any unexpected mood changes that might have been happening. This fall—eight years later—I had a notably different experience. I took the next step in my posture journey by completing the Alumni PostureTracker™ and Advanced Glidewalking courses. This time, I knew the basics, so I had much more attention available to notice the effect the work was having on how I felt. Wow! It has been dramatic. 

For one thing, I notice that my moods are better, but the change is even deeper than that. I feel more grounded. I experience an abiding sense of well-being. I see now that all this is the “affect effect” of graceful, open, and erect posture.

2016 2023

   
Before I began studying the Gokhale Method, my concept of erect posture was actually tipped forward. This created tension in my legs, lower back, and neck (left). As I’ve refined my tallstanding, I feel more balanced, tall, and relaxed. 

What’s more, these positive results have set in motion a virtuous spiral. To my amazement, this grounded, open state of well-being has become my “default setting,” and it is naturally self-correcting. The moment I compress, scrunch, squinch, or tighten up, my body says, “No thanks!” It wants that great open feeling, and it lets me know instantly if I’m doing anything to compromise that.

No doubt, pain is an effective “stick.” Pain motivates us, and many of us come to the Gokhale Method because we are in pain. Now I’m seeing how powerful carrots are, too. The “affect effect” functions as a carrot, to complement the “stick” of pain or discomfort. I can feel my posture progress speeding up as I become more and more aware of this seamless feedback loop between discomfort and positive feelings. Any pain acts as a guardrail, and the positive results motivate me to keep my eyes on the road. 

I’ve seen and felt this synergy at work in several areas recently, leading to spontaneous and wonderful changes in four areas of my life: 

1. A happy neck and back while reading and journaling

I’ve always been a bookworm. Unfortunately, even a short reading session would leave me feeling like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, with a tight neck and sore back. After completing these recent courses, my body said, “No more.” I fashioned a couch setup that allows me to stretchsit properly and I pile pillows on my lap to hold my heavy hardback novel. I can read pain-free. Most importantly, that feedback loop is working: my neck lets me know instantly if I’m hunching.

A small investment of effort in arranging my body well with cushions brings huge dividends of comfort for reading. 

I came up with a similar supportive setup for my office couch, where I sit when I want to write in my journal. I’ve struggled to maintain healthy posture while writing and would end up bent over like Quasimodo. Now I use supports to stretchsit, and once again, my neck and back give me continuous feedback so I can adjust as needed.  

2. Deeper peace and stillness in meditation

I’ve meditated for over 30 years. Sitting cross-legged on my zafu cushion, I’d fight to stay erect. My back would get tired and sore as I tried not to give in to the urge to bend forward. Once again, I’ve felt the “affect effect” at work. My newly aligned body flatly refused to give up that wonderful open feeling. That was the carrot, and the discomfort of forward scrunching was the stick. 

In this case, I simply added a support cushion on my zafu to ensure my pelvis stayed anteverted. Now, I can comfortably stacksit in that position for over an hour. This has transformed my meditation practice. I’m able to access a new level of depth, groundedness, and stillness. 

This Buddha statue lives in my office. I feel myself embodying its stillness and centeredness more and more as I relax into my increasingly grounded posture. 

3. More vitality and groundedness walking around the house

My partner and I each lived in Hawaii in the past, where it's a sign of respect to leave your shoes at the door. We don't wear shoes in the house. I had no idea how much this was affecting my walking until I submitted a pair of videos for our glidewalking class. In the first one, which got a thumbs up from teachers Esther and Doreen, I’m striding along outside in my hiking shoes. 

However, in my second video, Esther and Doreen were puzzled by my apparent backsliding. Then it hit them: I was walking around on our polished wood floor, wearing socks. You can see how much more tentatively I’m moving, not being able to push off against the floor:  

My improvised indoor traction solution? Swim shoes. Again, I was amazed by the effect this had on me. Not only was I not slipping any more: I felt different in myself. I felt more energetic, more confident, and more grounded—another example of the “affect effect” of good posture and body use. My outside walking feels confident and strong too.

 
In the Advanced Glidewalking classes, I learned how to activate my feet to grip the floor and push back. As soon as I switched from wearing socks to swim shoes, I could push back without my feet sliding out from under me.

4. More stillness and presence working with clients

With my refreshed and upgraded understanding of what it means to “keep my behind behind,” I adjusted my office chair seat upwards so I could comfortably stacksit with my knees lower than my hips. I have a Gokhale® Pain-Free Chair, so this was easy to achieve with its waterfall front and built-in grip. 

I’m much more comfortable sitting for an hour at a time with Zoom clients. To my surprise, I’m also more present. It’s similar to the feeling I described above when I meditate: a greater sense of groundedness, stillness, and openness. This, for me, is the “affect effect” of sitting well. When I’m moving, the groundedness is there too, but with added energy and vitality.

I can now sit comfortably at the computer for extended periods, typing emails and articles or working with clients on Zoom.

The “affect effect” as a learning tool

I had an epiphany in the Advanced Glidewalking class this fall. I realized that affect and effect—that is, in this instance, my mood and my posture—are a two-way street. Each powerfully influences the other. I’ve always known that better, open posture makes me feel lighter, happier, and more energetic. Even so, as I’ve continued my posture journey, I’ve been amazed how much better I feel. 

However, I hadn’t realized until now how much I could influence my posture by exposing myself to positive affects—that is, to images, music, and role models that inspire good posture. For example, we walked to different music each week in class, and everyone in the class could sense the varying effects on our walking of each style and tempo. 

I also found myself absorbing in a whole new way the beautiful images Esther shared of women carrying baskets on their heads or bending to pick things up. It was as if I could experience their posture just by seeing it. Then I realized I’ve had posture models in my past. The most spectacular one was the  principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony, Ray Still, my oboe professor in graduate school. 

Distinguished oboist Ray Still (1920–2014). I was fortunate to study with him when he was performing in the Chicago Symphony, which is considered one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Image from Wikipedia

Mr. Still inspired me as a musician, with his intensely expressive sound and style ranging from lyrical to electric. He demonstrated for me how to invoke a grounded, erect, open posture by sitting with my feet quite far apart, then positioning myself so I could slowly, smoothly stand up and sit back down—all while playing. I was struggling with a lot of anxiety at the time, and this postural intervention had a dramatic effect on my affect. I became a different, more confident person.

I didn’t have the understanding or the practices then that my Gokhale study has given me, so I didn’t know how to generalize this “affect effect” into the rest of my life. But experiences like the one with Mr. Still launched me on my posture journey, showing me how powerfully my posture and my mood influenced each other. I’m grateful that my journey is still unfolding. 

Best next action steps

If you are new to the Gokhale Method, or are resuming your posture journey after a little while, book a consultation, online, or in person with one of our teachers, who will be happy to help.

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

The much-loved Gokhale® Pain-Free Chair was launched in 2012, celebrating the philosophy that sitting is a natural, healthy activity. This office chair was designed to facilitate stretchsitting and stacksitting, two key techniques of the Gokhale Method® that transform sitting into a comfortable activity that heals you rather than hurts you.

The Gokhale® Pain-Free Chair has many features that facilitate the therapeutic techniques of stretchsitting and stacksitting once their principles are understood.

The need for an executive chair design breakthrough 

But some of our students, alumni, and members of the public asked us for recommendations for an equally comfortable executive chair—one that allows for leaning back with neck support. We gave our best guidance on what features to look for, and which to avoid. I also offered Live Chats on sitting and written blog posts about seating options—two examples being How to Choose a Backrest, and Comparing and Contrasting the Herman Miller Aeron Chair and the Gokhale Pain-Free™ Chair.

The Herman Miller Aeron Chair (top left) is a market leader, and there are a myriad of other brands, designs, and specifications to choose from. Images from: The Herman Miller Aeron Chair, The Leap Chair, Litfad Executive Chair, Laporta Executive Chair

The features we consider healthy in an executive chair are rarely all available in one package. Many common features, like lumbar curves which distort the spine, bolsters that round the shoulders forward, and head rests that crane the head forward, are problematic and difficult to work around. 

We are now delighted to be able to offer our own Gokhale® Executive Chair solution.

The Gokhale® Executive Chair

About the Gokhale® Executive Chair

Our regular Gokhale Pain-Free chair works well as a home or office chair, but for a professional working long hours, a well-designed executive chair offers additional, relevant features. For example, it isn’t always practical for a busy executive to take a walk outdoors, lie down on the floor, or relax in a nearby cafe. But they still need to reflect, reset, and refresh.

The Gokhale® Executive Chair provides this. At the pull of a lever, the backrest smoothly angles back and even rocks a little for a profoundly relaxing pause or deep-thinking time.

The reclining function of our chair combines particularly well with cutaways which allow your shoulders to rest back, the stretchsit nubs on the backrest that enable you to gently traction your back, and a headrest that helps to elongate your neck.

We decided to make the Gokhale® Executive Chair a high-end offering. It is crafted in luxurious Italian leather (also available in high-quality fabric) and quality materials for comfort and durability. It has an adjustable headrest, adjustable back height, cutaways in the shoulder area, and my favorite recline function. 

The guiding principles of Gokhale Method design

This chair blends form and function attentively. Its contemporary look belies the fact that its design is based on the timeless principles of healthy human posture. Its purpose is to not only allow you to sit elegantly and comfortably for as long as you wish, but also to bestow all the therapeutic benefits of time spent sitting well.

Most of the executive chairs on the market are designed to appeal primarily to the dictates of fashion. There is a parallel situation with shoe design; fashion does not always respect what is compatible with our structure. Additionally, from a Gokhale Method perspective, chair design often reflects conventional ideas on how to sit, which is also at odds with our natural structure.

Many designers—and consumers—are constrained by well-intentioned but misguided ergonomic principles like the S-spine paradigm. This is why almost all adjustable chairs come with excessive lumbar and neck curvature. Our chair is different because it is shaped by our knowledge of the body’s natural J-spine architecture to provide exceptional comfort and healing. No other executive chair that we know of has a J-spine paradigm informing its design. The Gokhale® Executive Chair is also uniquely compatible with all the posture principles and techniques taught in our comprehensive Gokhale Method courses (the in-person Foundations course, or one-day Pop-up course, or our online Elements course).

Let’s take a close-up look at the posture-enhancing features that enable users to sit in ways that are comfortable and therapeutic.

The Gokhale® Executive Chair works for you so that you can work in comfort.

In the video below Gokhale Method Teacher Sabina Blumauer gives her first impressions of the Gokhale® Executive Chair.

You can order your Gokhale® Executive Chair here.

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. . .

Welcome to the second blog post in which I am delighted to tell you more about our exciting recent TV project. If you missed it, you can read The Secrets of Pain-Free Sitting, Part 1: The Inspiration behind a New TV Show here.

Getting the Gokhale Method out there

People are sitting poorly and continue to blame sitting for their back pain. And so we created Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting, a pledge show that the Gokhale Institute made with producer Frank Zamacona for American Public Television (APT). The solution to back pain has never been so urgently needed—and now, with our new 45-minute show, so available. 

Here I am with the stars of the show! We are, from left to right, Susan Van Niekerk, Esther Gokhale,
Dennis Bennet, and Eric Fernandez. Go team! 

We have a high prevalence of back pain in our culture and a low level of effective solutions. The Gokhale Institute’s mission “to make back pain rare” through postural reeducation has been embraced by “early adopters” and those for whom our anthropological and historical approach to ending back pain resonates. 

The Gokhale Method teaches the posture principles you see in antique photographs and artworks, in children, and in traditional societies, where healthy posture has been handed down uninterrupted through generations. 

Our students are wonderful ambassadors, and are often keen to share their success stories with friends, family, and particularly generously, via our blog posts and testimonials. However, making our message super-accessible, and getting the word out far and wide, has been a challenge for a small company such as ours. 

My book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, which continues to be in demand in 12 languages, and also the DVD, Back Pain: The Primal Posture™ Solution, have certainly been key ways for many people to encounter and learn the Gokhale Method®. Yet to make it easier for people to discover our approach, and to see what it can do for them, we wanted to make our solution to back pain available in every American home. This goal became a reality when our pledge program was picked up by APT, who saw that its content was of increasing relevance to the public.

A place to make the show 

For some time the show felt a long way from happening, as we tried and failed on landing a suitable location for filming, this being made much more challenging by COVID. Eventually I made an appeal on a local social media platform. I was delighted when I was contacted by the owners of a beautiful and spacious home on Skyline Boulevard, nestled in the hills of Woodside, CA.

The stunning venue we were offered enabled the project to become a reality. It was an inspirational setting for everyone involved. 

Readying our venue for filming required a surprising amount of work, both inside and out. Control of the light levels inside was essential, and so some blackouts had to be erected over the windows of the room where we were filming.

Controlling the light levels by rigging blackouts was another physical task for the TV crew.

Our hosts were gracious and generous. Their home worked as a venue on so many levels, and not just for us, but for the family too. They homeschool their kids, some of whom watched the show take shape in real time, learning about film making and about posture simultaneously. It also turned out that one of their daughters had amazing posture (possibly the subject of an upcoming blog post!) 

Whatever job you do, posture can hurt or heal

Our very first feedback about the show came from the people engaged in producing and shooting it. The TV crew were pleased, indeed grateful, to have learned this information about sitting. They had various issues with their posture and were surprised and delighted to find this assignment so relevant to the professional demands on them. Dan Friedman, the cameraman, emailed Susan, my personal assistant, saying, “BTW, the lessons came in VERY handy with transcontinental flights and a TON of sitting around chatting with family. So simple, so therapeutic. Now to stacksit and stretchsit my way through the edit!

As you can see, some of the TV crew’s tasks are physically challenging, especially to sustain for longer periods. Here, Jermaine Battle holds a heavy boom pole.

The boom operator shown in the photo above models an excellent example of stacksitting adapted to a physically challenging situation. Jermaine sits with a wide stance, his feet and legs externally rotated, astride the ladder in a well balanced position. He holds the boom close to his body with his shoulders back so that its weight is held by the larger muscles of his arms and upper back, supported by his spine and inner corset—it does not pull him into a swayed backward or a rounded forward position. Meanwhile, his neck remains tall, adding to his poise. 

Even in this hi-tech age, I was struck by the physical bulk of the equipment needed in the making of this, production-wise, relatively modest undertaking—ladders, boxes, lights, tripods, and what seemed like miles of heavy electric cables. 

Here is a glimpse of just some of the equipment that had to be carried to, assembled, and moved around the set. 

Make-up artist Jenny Zielon arrived on set with heavy cases full of the tools of her trade. Her job involved a lot of lifting, carrying, and standing, as well as fine control and expertise with the make up.

Producer Frank Zamacona and I discuss the next segment that the filming schedule will jump to…
You can see my teleprompter beside Frank. 

New experiences along the way

One completely new experience for me was using a teleprompter. Previously when teaching and presenting, even for the DVD, I had always worked from memory. But my friend and Indian classical violinist, Kala Ramnath, had shared with me how much easier it had been to work with a teleprompter for the instructional videos on her website. (where you can also enjoy her wonderful playing!) Frank was agreeable to letting me use a teleprompter for this shoot and it was indeed painless by comparison with memorizing a show’s worth of content.  

How to stretchsit in a car

I would like to share with you a short but extremely practical tip from the show. It explains why sitting in a car can be especially bad for your back, and how to rectify it—in fact, how to change your seat into a therapeutic posture tool to help you become pain-free. 

In this excerpt from the show Gokhale Method teacher Eric Fernandez shows how to make car seats comfortable and healthy for your back.

How to watch Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting

Hopefully that clip has whet your appetite for more! The pledge program is aired seasonally—the first round was aired on 32 networks from June, with over 125 broadcasts. There are still some broadcasts to come this month, and we expect more in Aug/Sept and Nov/Dec. You can find dates already scheduled here. To request for Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting to be shown in your area, you can email your local PBS Station Programming Department. If you need help finding the contact details for local stations, you can find them here. We hope you will enjoy watching the show and recommend it to your friends and family. 

To complement the TV show, we are offering a special online workshop on July 24, where you will be coached in 5 Top Tips for Sitting Well. In this bespoke workshop a Gokhale Method teacher will be helping me to give you personal attention and answer your questions.

If you would like to get started on your posture journey right now, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online or in person, with a Gokhale Method teacher.

Our Free Online Workshop program continues as usual:

People are sitting poorly and continue to blame sitting for their back pain. We believe the solution to this problem is more urgently needed than ever… and that the solution is now more readily available than ever, given one of the Gokhale Institute’s recent projects. I am excited to tell you about The Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting, a pledge show we made with producer Frank Zamacona for American Public Television (APT). 

The Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting TV show teaches techniques to sit comfortably, including using your backrest to give gentle traction to the spine. Here I am helping Susan van Niekerk, a key member of our admin team, to stretchsit. 

Gokhale Method teacher Eric Fernandez enjoys a reclined version of the highly therapeutic stretchsitting technique. 

Sitting has become a problem

In recent years people have become confused about and even afraid of sitting. Sitting is considered problematic in our society, both because it is associated with an unhealthy level of inactivity, and because it is generally done with poor posture, leading to discomfort and pain. 

In recent decades a range of books and audiobooks have given the impression that sitting is the enemy of movement. In truth, both are important and both need to be done well. 

Inactivity has been baked into aspects of our culture for many decades, caused by various factors including long hours of desk work, the design of our environment, and car use. I have long advocated frequent exercise breaks from sedentary work, as well as active recreation. We recently started Gokhale Exercise as a contribution to positive change in this area, and it’s already helping our Alumni community to get fitter, stronger, and more flexible while they continue to improve their posture. By learning good form while exercising, they are also reducing their risk of injury and wear and tear.

The pain and discomfort that many people experience when seated for any period of time understandably gives sitting a bad reputation. Given that the mission of the Gokhale Institute is “to make back pain rare,” should we be discouraging people from sitting? I don’t believe so. 

I prefer to celebrate the fact that sitting is a natural, universal, and important human activity. I would go so far as to say human civilization requires it. There are many tasks that benefit from the rest, stillness, and mental focus afforded by sitting. Imagine nursing a baby, playing the piano, writing a book, creating pottery, watching a movie, eating a meal, or taking a flight, without being able to sit!

Sitting has enabled human civilization to develop all manner of skills, talents, and ideas. Unsplash(bottom image)

The Gokhale Method® approach to preventing and healing back pain is based on observing traditional societies around the world where people report very low levels of back pain and few other musculoskeletal problems. People in these traditional societies have maintained healthy posture and also sit as part of their daily lives, sometimes for long periods doing crafts or preparing food. And they sit on all kinds of seats, not only on the floor or squatting. The key is that they sit well.

People in different traditional societies all over the world share the ability to sit well. Here you see people in Africa, Thailand, and India.

Gokhale Method students learn these natural posture principles, plus the techniques they need to implement them. They discover healthy ways to go about their daily tasks, work, sports, hobbies, and even sleep positions. This process builds strength and resilience in the body, minimizing compression, tension, and degeneration. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been reports of and also research into an increase in back pain¹. There are likely several reasons for this increase which are related to sitting poorly. Many people switched to working from home, hunching over laptops, rather than using their usual office workstations. There was also much more remote working in general as, where possible, activities that had been done in-person switched to online platforms. For example, the Gokhale Method, in addition to teaching in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, developed our online Elements course. 

This graph shows an increased number of tweets in the US about back pain in November 2020, during the pandemic, as against the lower number of such tweets the year before.¹ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Years of experience assure me that not only can sitting be pain free, but that it can be done in ways that are positively therapeutic for the back and spine. This knowledge is exactly what we want to take into the American home with our 45-minute show. Below is a trailer to whet your appetite!

Enjoy this short preview of what’s in store with our Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting TV show.

The network uptake for Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting has already exceeded expectations. The show began airing on June 2, 2022, and as I write this, 32 networks have already screened the show. You can find the air dates for Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting in your area here. Should you need to request for it to be shown in your area, you can email APT at [email protected]. We hope you will enjoy watching it and recommend it to your friends and family. 

To complement the TV show, we are offering a number of special online workshops where you will be coached in 5 Top Tips for Sitting Well. In these bespoke workshops Gokhale Method teachers will be helping me to give you personal attention and answer your questions. I look forward to seeing you there! 

References:

¹ Krzysztof Fiok et al. “A Study of the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Experience of Back Pain Reported on Twitter ® in the United States: A Natural Language Processing Approach.” Int J Environ Res Public Health. May 2021; 18(9): 4543. PubMed (Apr 25 2021) doi: 10.3390/ijerph18094543

Our Free Online Workshop program continues as usual:

I frequently get questions about what makes a good office chair. Of course, some office chairs are primarily fashioned for style and aesthetic appeal. In general, I would say these may be easy on the eye, but, over time, hard on the body!

 This office chair sparkles with 1960s retro-chic. However, its markedly concave seat will internally rotate your legs, encouraging malalignment in the hips and knees, and flat feet. Its straight backrest leaves no space for your behind, encouraging you to sit on your tail and tuck your pelvis. lakeland-furniture.co.uk

Ergonomic chairs

People often ask my opinion on how various ergonomic chairs on the market might help them. This makes sense given the rising prevalence of back pain¹. “Ergonomic” means that something is designed primarily for the health, comfort, and protection of users, and among the specific chairs people ask me about, the Herman Miller Aeron Chair tops the list. To answer efficiently, I like to compare and contrast it with the chair I designed, the Gokhale Method Pain-Free™ chair, as this embodies the posture principles confirmed by my research and experience. 

The Herman Miller Aeron Chair. hermanmiller.com

The Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair.

Even though they are both designed to be “ergonomic,” they are clearly very different. The Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair reflects the paradigm shift that underlies the Gokhale Method® philosophy. This makes the chair quite different from every other office chair on the market.

How chairs shape your spine

The Aeron chair has been designed following the conventional wisdom of the S-shaped spine, the “S” being formed by alternating lumbar, thoracic, and cervical curves. Over the last 100 years or so, this shape has become the received knowledge learned by physical therapists, medics, and designers, resulting in chairs whose contours support a significant curve in the lumbar area, and accommodate a thoracic curve in the upper back. From a Gokhale Method perspective this excessive curvature is the primary cause of disc bulges and herniations, nerve impingements, muscular spasms, and the degenerative conditions that cause back pain. 

The Aeron chair is based on the concept of significant lumbar and thoracic curvature being desirable.  hermanmiller.com

The Gokhale Method advocates a J-shaped spine, which is the shape we see in infants and young children, in historical artifacts and photographs, and which still persists in non-industrial societies across the world. The J-spine is especially relevant when sitting upright, where, due to an anteverted pelvis, the behind is behind and the vertebrae of the spine can stack more vertically. We call this stacksitting.

No tensing the back muscles to get upright, no collapsing into a slump—and no alternating between these two problematic positions, which is a common strategy to try and relieve the discomfort they cause. Just comfortable, healthy sitting. You can read more about spine shape here.

Sitting upright at your desk

Both the Herman Miller Aeron Chair and the Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair have a waterfall front (where the seat pan front angles downward), which is ideal for upright sitting. If you know how to arrange your legs and trunk well, this will facilitate pelvic anteversion and all the good things for your spine and general health that come with it. Pelvic anteversion is central to the Gokhale Method and is taught in our in-person Foundations Course, Pop-up courses, or online Elements Course. 

The seat pan of the Aeron chair features a waterfall front in a mesh fabric. Some users may find the adjustment lever under the seat is too close for easy operation when the seat is tilted forward for stacksitting.  hermanmiller.com

I designed the seat pan of my chair using a combination of materials that give optimal support for sitting. The sitz bones need to experience a firm foundation for the pelvis and spine above, but they also need to be padded for comfort. In my experience this combination cannot be equalled or improved on by a single material or mesh fabric.

The seat pan of the Gokhale chair combines materials for optimal support and comfort.

Note that the metal backrest support is curved to accommodate the behind behind, another feature that helps in anteversion of the pelvis. 

To further aid stacksitting the Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair seat pan also has four soft, textured, rubbery nubs sewn into its front edge. These provide grip which help keep your pelvic position, and prevent any slipping off the chair. 

The Gokhale chair seat pan features four nubs which help you to stacksit for upright working at your desk.

Our seat pan is also slightly convex to facilitate external rotation of the legs and feet—that is, it encourages them to gently turn outward. This brings healthy alignment of the hip, knee, and ankle joints, and also the foot arches. A mesh fabric, pulled taut, cannot support external rotation in this way. 

Stacksitting with healthy external rotation of the legs. 

Armrests

Many office chairs come with armrests. It is healthier for the shoulders, which are very mobile joints, not to be continually fixed in position by armrests, however adjustable. Far better to learn to shoulder roll, which encourages range of motion and optimal arrangement in the joint. Shoulder rolls also help adjacent problem areas such as the trapezius muscle, neck, and upper back, and improve circulation to the area. A well-connected shoulder can support the weight of the arm effortlessly as you do your tasks.

Arm rests also create the significant problem of not being able to come close in to the keyboard, thus encouraging rounding of the shoulders. The absence of arm rests allows an almost cockpit like feeling of being surrounded by the desk and keyboard with no temptation to migrate the shoulders forward.

Backrests—traction trumps lumbar support

The Y-shaped feature at the back of the recent models of the Aeron chair has a support for the base of the spine which can be used to support the sacrum in mild anteversion. It also has a lumbar support which is less aggressively curved than that of earlier models. While these are considerable improvements, the mesh back of the Aeron chair is still not able to provide therapeutic length to the spine through traction, as the Gokhale chair does, or space for posterior shoulder placement. Nor does the backrest easily accommodate our trusty Stretchsit® Cushion. 

A contemporary Aeron chair features support for the base of the spine (sacrum) and lumbar area.  hermanmiller.com

The Gokhale chair backrest provides therapeutic length to the lumbar spine with soft, built-in nubs for traction.

Beyond supporting a healthy J-shape in your spine, ideally a backrest would also help tease out any tension in the lumbar area. The Stretchsit Cushion success in improving back shape and reducing back tension has inspired the same successful features in our Pain-Free chair. With a little know-how, these soft textured nubs in the backrest can give you hours of therapeutic traction at your desk, reducing pressure on your spinal discs and nerves, and improving circulation in the surrounding tissues. We call this stretchsitting. 

Are adjustable chairs better?

As consumers we have become increasingly familiar with hi-tech products that we can adjust and customize to meet our individual needs and preferences, and the Aeron chair reflects this throughout its design. 

The Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair requires just one adjustment, and that is the gas lift height adjuster. This is key to the use of the chair, which is designed to be raised for stacksitting so the thighs and pelvis can angle downward, and lowered a little for stretchsitting against the backrest so that the feet can still meet the floor well. The lifting mechanism comes in three different heights, and there is also our Petite Gokhale Method Pain-Free™ Chair, ideal for both smaller people and smaller spaces. 

The Petite Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair gives a range of working heights, and a foot ring. 

Foot rings

One additional feature on our Petite Gokhale chair is a foot ring, which gives more options for foot and leg placement, and prevents legs from dangling and pulling the pelvis into a tuck. It also avoids the constriction to circulation which may occur if the thighs hang over a seat edge.

A foot ring helps take care of the lower body—an area often overlooked in conventional office chairs. 

From a Gokhale Method perspective, adjustments for spinal curves or arm rests are simply not required once the basics of healthy posture are understood. Better to address these fundamentals before going all out on the bells and whistles. This means there’s less to go wrong—with your chair, and your body!

Sitting well is a partnership 

Almost every employer who wants to demonstrate care for their executives finds themselves purchasing a Herman Miller chair. Yet within the budget of an Aeron chair they can buy a Gokhale chair and treat their employee to a one day Pop-up Course or six-lesson Group Foundations Course in the Gokhale Method where they will learn postural skills that last a lifetime.

Healthy sitting is a partnership. It takes a good chair on the one hand, and good posture on the other. With the Gokhale Method Pain-Free™ chair and the Gokhale Method you have the perfect combination.

References:

¹Janet K. Freburger et al., “The Rising Prevalence of Chronic Low Back Pain,” Archives of Internal Medicine 169, no. 3 (Feb. 2009), 251–58, doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2008.543

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…

It has been 14 years since my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back came out in hard copy. For years I had wished I had a book to send to those people who called me from the East Coast or Midwest. These were often relatives or friends of people I had worked with in California, who were suffering terrible back pain and needed help. And so I got writing. 

A book to solve back pain

Although there was clearly a huge need for a book to solve back pain, I was still surprised to find I had written a bestseller. It reached number two on Amazon.com following our American Public Television program in 2011, and number three following the New York Times article (paywall) naming me “The Posture Guru of Silicon Valley” in 2013. It has now been published in 12 languages (Croatian later this year), and sold over 250,000 copies.

 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is available in many languages: Spanish, Croatian, English, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, Slovenian, and Italian editions. 

Digital download or hard copy?

In recent times digital books have revolutionized publishing. It is perhaps surprising that figures from the US publishing industry show that, in 2020, hard copy was still outselling downloads by 2 to 1¹. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is available as a digital download, but the paperback version continues to be in high demand. I have come to realize that there are numerous and perhaps unusual virtues for having a paperback edition of this book, some of which I would like to share to inspire you!

Every digital book has the primary advantages of price and portability, but can remain out of sight and out of mind. Encountering a physical book invites you to engage with it, to pick it up and thumb through it. You don’t have to sign into wifi or wait for it to load—you just start reading. 

Visual cues help pattern healthy posture

One factor which works against us developing and maintaining healthy posture in our society is that we don’t have good examples and reminders around us. In fact, we are continually exposed to a norm of bad posture, while our culture’s idea of good posture, the S-shaped spine, is deeply problematic. What we want is to be surrounded by healthy visual examples on which to model ourselves.

8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back has over 1,100 images, mostly photographs, showing healthy posture from all over the world, from history, and in infants. Students find these images a motivating and practical reminder on their posture journey. Many a person has fallen in love with the African carpenter on the frontispiece, who insisted I take his picture, or marveled at the babies stacksitting with ease. 

This African carpenter stands tall and relaxed by his bench. This is also excellent form for preparing food in the kitchen, or any work at a counter. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 3.

My youngest child stacksitting next to her “sitting tub.” 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 69.

You can of course collect your own posture pinups, and I encourage you to do so. But selecting your favorites from 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is convenient, plus you will know the posture shown passes muster. The quality of the prints means that they look completely at home popped into a frame, or even laminated and placed around the garden or garage or in your shower stall (true story about the tallstanding image leading Lesson 6). The key thing is to place them exactly where you need the reminders. For example:

Here I am reaching up to engage my inner corset. Use this reminder near a high shelf or cupboard that you regularly reach up to. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 127.

This African woman is hip-hinging as she harvests water chestnuts—a perfect picture reminder for your vegetable garden.  8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 151.

Here I am stretchsitting. Place this reminder by your easy chair or sofa, where you may otherwise tuck and slouch. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 47.

If you are of a technical bent you may be drawn to the many diagrams. Students find the mechanism of a shoulder roll drawing helpful in executing this technique. The shoulder roll helps your shoulder joint to return home to a healthy posterior position. 

The mechanism of a shoulder roll diagram is especially useful at any desk or computer. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 42.

Lastly, the recaps at the end of each chapter make a handy cheat sheet while you are revising a new technique. For example, the recap of stretchlying on the side may be beneficial pinned onto your bedside table. 

Starting a conversation about healthy posture

Your book can take pride of place on the coffee table, where, unlike a download, it will always be there to catch the eye. This is a nice organic way of keeping posture on your radar and introducing it as a talking point with family and visitors. We certainly know of parents who leave 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back strategically placed for their children to discover!

The coffee table is a great place for browsing a book. 

Introducing your wider circle to healthy posture 

If you are part of a wellness group, then 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is a natural fit for study. If you are a book club member, then this may be the book you are looking for to invite discussion beyond back pain extending into anthropology, history, health, and lifestyle. 

Given that 80% of people in the US will experience back pain², not to mention the many other musculoskeletal problems addressed in its pages, this book has broad relevance. Many of our students are grateful to have discovered 8 Steps while visiting their physician or other healthcare professional. 

To help you spread the word among your family and social networks we have created “clan packs." The launch price has an additional discount: 4 books for $79 (instead of $99), or 8 books for $119 (instead of $159), and is valid until March 13, 2022.

Sometimes when I speak at conferences or wellness events (e.g., Google, Mimosa Systems, TiE Silicon Valley, Global Fund for Women), the company offers their employees/members/donors a gift copy of my book. To encourage this, we offer special bulk discounts. For information please contact [email protected]. For speaking engagements please contact [email protected]. 

References:

¹Felix Richter, “Infographic: E-Books Still No Match for Printed Books,” Statista Infographics, August 9, 2021, https://www.statista.com/chart/24709/e-book-and-printed-book-penetration/. 

²Janet K. Freburger et al., “The Rising Prevalence of Chronic Low Back Pain,” Arch Intern Med 169, no. 3 (2009): 251-258, doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2008.543

Free Online Workshops

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.

SCIJ isn’t a very memorable acronym, but the shapes of the letters do accurately represent the four most common spinal shapes. In this blog post you will discover which SCIJ category you belong in, what changes you might want to make, and the first baby steps to improve your spinal shape.

The letter “S” is widely used to describe the conventional paradigm for an ideal shape of the spine. The Gokhale Method perspective is that we need a paradigm shift.

Loren had developed a pronounced S-shaped spine before she took the Gokhale Elements online course. Tightened lower back muscles formed a pronounced lumbar curve, and her upper back had to round over to return her to upright. 

S. This is the spinal shape considered to be normal (as well as ideal) in today’s conventional wisdom. You will find the S template for spinal shape in lay circles, alternative health circles, as well as medical circles. Massage therapists, yoga teachers, physical therapists, and medics, are all taught the S-shape paradigm, which may include arguments about the strength of arches and “opposing curves'' and their ability to absorb vertical load like a spring.

The S-spine consists of a significant concave curve in the lower back meeting a significant convex curve in the upper back. From the Gokhale Method perspective, both curves are exaggerated and can lead to pain and dysfunction. This posture loads the spinal joints and takes a lot of muscular tension to maintain. It is the reason, we posit, that maintaining “good posture” has a reputation for being hard work. If this shape fits your spinal contour, it is unlikely to have been called out by either conventional or alternative practitioners. After all, it is the described ideal. If you have faced the frustration of having your back “go out” soon after an intervention, or your symptoms return again and again, a possible reason is that your S-shaped spine has never been recognized as the root of your problem, let alone be treated. 

This medical illustration (1990) displays the excessive curvature that can result in pinched nerves and compressed intervertebral discs. 

As both the vertebrae and the intervertebral discs have virtually parallel upper and lower surfaces, like a cylinder, the exaggerated curves of the S-spine create pinch points that can impinge on nerves, and cause wear and tear on the discs and degenerative change in the bones. Any of the tissues of the back, shoulder area, and neck might well “complain” about being obliged to maintain these contours.

An ideal first step to improving the shape of your S-spine would be stretchsitting. You can begin to learn stretchsitting here.

The letter “C” describes the most common modern posture of all—slumped.

The C-shaped spine will curve more at the top if we hunch more…

or curve more at the bottom if we tuck more…

either way, a C-shaped spine is bad news for our discs.

The C-spine is the product of slumped posture, with the tail tucked between the legs, shoulders rounded, and head forward. This compresses the front of the spinal discs, squeezing the interior contents (the nucleus pulposus) backward. This is the most dangerous direction to load the spinal discs since the nerve roots exit the spine right behind the discs. Slumping with a C-spine also overstretches and weakens the ligaments around the spine, undermining their ability to maintain the integrity of our all-important spinal column. Many people alternate between forcing an S-shape in their spine in the name of “good posture” (wrong!) and collapsing into a C-shape when they are fatigued from their efforts. Both these shapes in fact cause damage—in different ways—and need to be replaced with a J-shape (keep reading!). 

An ideal first step to improving the shape of your C-spine would be learning to use your inner corset, the deep muscles of the abdomen and back which support and protect the spine. This is explained in detail in my book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

Free Chapter of 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back

As a special gift to newsletter subscribers who have confirmed their subscription, we would like to send you the Inner Corset chapter from Esther's book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

Please enter your email address in the field below and you will be sent an email with your Inner Corset chapter. You may receive a confirmation email to sign up to the Positive Stance newsletter first.

The I-spine shape results from a “sinking into oneself” without a significant increase in spinal curvature. 
Older people may develop an I-spine as they lose height due to spinal degeneration. Unsplash

The I-spine is common in older folk living in modern industrialized societies. There are no particularly pronounced contours in the spine, but rather a general “melting into itself” with the disappearance of 1 or more inches in height accompanying the aging process. The shrinkage is often the result of degeneration in the discs or mini-fractures in the vertebrae. Some diagnoses that might accompany this spinal shape include osteoporosis and stenosis. The pelvis is tucked, there is no angle between the buttocks and the back, and the buttocks are underdeveloped. Though the I-shape is most common in older people, it can begin at a young age with tucking the pelvis.

This photo of Taylor Swift shows how a tucked pelvis flattens the lumbosacral angle, and disadvantages the gluteal muscles, combining to produce a flat “behind." 

An ideal first step to improving your I-spine would be to learn stretchlying on your back.

The letter J represents the healthiest spinal shape. 

The shape of this Ubong tribesman’s back is best described as a J-spine.

Though rarely preserved in adults in modern industrialized societies, the J-spine is the shape we all enjoyed as toddlers and is still prevalent in many nonindustrialized areas of the world. This “J” is a modern, stylized “J,” reflecting the relatively straight alignment of the vertebral column and the pronounced angle at the lumbosacral junction. There is no exaggerated lumbar sway or thoracic curvature. You can see this shape embodied in the Ubong hunter’s torso. 

This medical illustration from 1911 more closely depicts the J-shape spine rather than the S-shape of modern conventional wisdom. The only pronounced curve is at the L5/S1 junction at the base of the spinal column.

Since taking the Gokhale Elements online course, Loren has made good progress in losing unwanted curvature in her back. Her upper lumbar spine has straightened out considerably. Over time, given her dedication, we expect to see her most pronounced curve move lower as she continues to cultivate her J-spine. 

If you are interested in restoring your J-spine, we recommend taking our Elements course (one-on-one coaching online), or our Foundations Course (one-on-one or small groups in-person) or Pop-up Course (not available during COVID). These courses teach you to systematically lengthen, strengthen, and remodel your spine to a healthier J-shape in a safe and effective way. 

To gradually and safely improve their spinal shape students learn well-honed techniques using their fingertips to monitor their spinal groove, kinesthetic and visual cues, customized exercises, and visualizations. Because it is still challenging to rely heavily on your proprioceptive sense, we have also developed the PostureTracker™, a tool that tells students exactly where they are positioned using Bluetooth sensor technology. PostureTracker tracks the shape of your spine in real time—it gives immediate and intuitive feedback, is easy to use, and reveals information about your spine that a plain mirror cannot show you. Though PostureTracker is not yet available for sale, it is available as a loner (while supplies last) to students who sign up for the online one-on-one Gokhale Elements course.

If you sway in your lumbar area, PostureTracker will show what is going on with your spine.

To get an idea of the current shape of your spine, view yourself side-on. You can use a mirror, but it is best to photograph or video yourself, or use several mirrors, so that you can observe your shape without turning your head. Take a while to study yourself both sitting and standing. Notice that your spine changes if you alternate between swaying and slumping. You may discover that your habitual posture combines elements from two or more of the categories we have described—for example, you may most closely resemble the I-spine, except that your head and neck jut forward.

The curves in our spines precisely reflect our everyday posture habits.

If you would like a trained eye to help you understand your spinal shape and how to improve it we recommend an online Initial Consultation with a Gokhale Method teacher. In-person Initial Consultations may also be available depending on the COVID status of your area.

Lithuania, 1957: my parents' wedding day.

Everyone in this photograph reflects effortless elegance and poise. Notice that their shoulders are resting toward the back of their torsos, and their necks and backs are elongated; very different from the modern "chin up, chest out, thrust your pelvis forward” stance. This photograph was taken on my parents’ wedding day. My mom and dad are on the left. Healthy posture has contributed pain-free living (musculoskeletally speaking) well into my mom’s advanced years. She didn't have aches and pains until my dad passed away, two years ago.

Resolving knee and leg pain
My mom is very gentle, yet she can be stubborn! Despite recent complaints of leg and knee pain at night, she was adamant that she did not need Gokhale Method instruction. At 95 years old, she said she was too old to change and had no time for “such things.”

However, I could see that when she used the stairs a lot, her pain would increase. In the end, she consented to instruction — and subsequently reported diminished leg pain, and increased stability in walking.

We know that leg pain can be local and/or referred from the low back. To address the legs and knees locally, I showed her parts of the glidewalking technique. To help take the pressure off her back, I taught her stretchsitting and stretchlying on the back.

Knee pain can sometimes result from posture issues. Image courtesy Dr. Manuel González Reyes on Pixabay.

Foot grab and bum squeeze
Weak arch muscles can cause the feet to pronate, which is the case for my mom. Pronation pulls the leg in, creating misalignment in ankle, knee and hip joints. Notice the white arrows in the photos below, showing my mom's legs and the feet moving in dramatically different directions. No wonder when she goes up and down the stairs, her symptoms flare up!

My mom's usual way of climbing stairs pulls her femur and foot in two different directions.


She experiences the issue on both sides.

The solution was to incorporate glidewalking elements with every step on a new stair. I taught her to grab the floor with the foot and squeeze the bum (same side) with every step. This engages the foot and glute muscles and reshapes the leg and foot into healthier architecture and articulation. See my mom make this change in the photos below. Notice how her thigh bones and feet are now aligned!

After incorporating Gokhale Method techniques, my mom's femur and foot on each side are now aligned while climbing stairs.

Learning glidewalking was key for helping my mom recalibrate her stair-climbing technique.

After addressing her legs and knees locally with glidewalking, we helped take pressure off her back with stretchsitting and stretchlying.

Stretchsitting
My mom loves to decompress her back by stretchsitting in the Gokhale Pain-Free™ Chair. She lengthens her back against the backrest and maintains a gentle traction while she sits. Moreover, a Gokhale-style shoulder roll helps open her chest and decrease hunching on top. With a history of chronic bronchitis and heart issues, this small gesture supports these organs with more space and better orientation. Quite a contrast to her “before” sitting photo!

Above, my mom’s “before” photo sitting in a typical chair, with hunched shoulders and a rounded upper back. Compare with her "after" photo below.

    
Here, my mom uses a Gokhale Pain-Free Chair to stretchsit, effecting gentle traction in her spine, and positions her shoulders with a shoulder roll to gently open the chest.

Stretchlying on the back
Finally, we learned stretchlying on the back as another practical way to decompress the low back, illustrated below. Once the spine is lengthened by stretching, it is supported with strategically positioned pillows. A pillow under the shoulders/head elevates the upper torso and flattens any sway in the low back. A second pillow under the knees relieves pressure in the low back by relaxing the psoas. She now has a relaxed, lengthened back while she sleeps.

This sketch shows how stretchlying helps gently lengthen the spine.

Results
My mom now stretchsits and stretchlies easily on her own. Walking and taking the stairs continue to be works in progress but she is already very pleased with the results. With diminished pain she sleeps better and has more energy. Hands-on instruction does help things stick! In fact, she is now enthusiastic to learn more Gokhale Method techniques.

While we all await a return to in-person teaching, you can schedule an Online Initial Consultation with one of several qualified online teachers to begin individual posture coaching and begin learning these techniques (and more!) yourself.

To be continued!