tucked pelvis

Myth #1

Posture is a trivial thing my mother used to pester me about only so that I would look presentable.

Actually, posture is key to optimal health. Just as a building needs a solid foundation and structure to remain strong in wind, rain, and earthquakes, so does your body. Proper alignment of the organs, bones, and muscles improves circulation and breathing, boosts the nervous system, supports organ function, promotes muscle relaxation and stress reduction, enhances athletic performance, reduces risk of injury, and accelerates healing from injury.

These young girls are getting an early start on learning posture to improve their appearance. Good posture is also key to optimal health.

Myth #2​

The pelvis should be tucked to protect the back.

Tucking the pelvis is an unfortunate part of modern ballet training.

A great many people, from fitness instructors and dance teachers to medical professionals, make the mistake of recommending a tucked pelvis. This is discordant with our natural structure. When human beings became bipedal, the L5-S1 disc at the bottom of the spine became wedge-shaped, with the thicker end toward the front of the body. Anteverting (forward-tilting) the pelvis preserves the wedge-shaped L5-S1 space that accommodates this disc perfectly. This natural position protects against L5-S1 disc damage including bulging, herniation, and sequestration. Other structures, from the vertebrae stacked above the pelvis to the organs within the abdominal and thoracic cavities, depend on a well-positioned, anteverted pelvis as a foundation. The pelvis is the keystone to the rest of our structure and it is crucial to situate it correctly.

Myth #3

Belly breathing is good breathing; chest breathing is bad breathing.

In many alternative health circles, students are misguided to breathe only into their abdomens and not their chests.

Different kinds of breathing are needed for different kinds of movement. Belly breathing is appropriate when you have an elevated need for oxygen (as when you are running) or breath control (as when you are playing the saxophone). Otherwise, when at rest, your inhalations should primarily expand your chest cavity and lengthen your back, and only slightly move your belly. The movement in the chest and back is crucial for maintaining normal rib cage size and shape and for fostering healthy circulation around the spine.

In my experience, people who practice belly breathing to the exclusion of chest breathing, develop flaccid abdominal muscles and underdeveloped chests.

Myth #4

Chin up and chest out constitutes good posture.

“Chin up and chest out” is a common misunderstanding of good posture.

This military stance is achieved by contracting the muscles in the neck and low back. Not only does this create tension, it exaggerates the cervical and lumbar curves, hindering circulation to these areas and potentially pinching nerve roots.

Myth #5

Good posture naturally comes about from being physically fit and active.

This idea is equivalent to driving around with a crooked axle and hoping that that the driving will straighten it out. If you have poor posture, increased activity is not an efficient way to arrive at better posture and can even result in injuries instead of improvement. It is better to focus on posture in its own right, or on posture alongside increased activity. Once you have good posture, you will get much more out of your activity; being active will maintain your muscles and your posture. Posture and fitness help each other but for people who are “out of shape,” posture is an easier, safer, and more efficient place to begin.

Running with internally rotated legs and a tucked pelvis can cause damage to all the weight bearing joints in the body.

Rounding the back to do deadlifts can cause serious damage to all the spinal discs.​

Have you subscribed to any of these myths? Were there any consequences? Please tell us your story...

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As the season turns and the colors around us are changing, leaves begin to float off their branches.  Just as our environment is settling in, we too can ground our bodies, using gravity as our guide.  The ability to relax downwards is an essential part of feeling comfortable within your body.  Here are some ways you can fall into your natural posture:

Nesting the Pelvis

Help your pelvis navigate its way home. While standing, take a little zigzag squat. Imagine you are about to sit down on a chair located behind you (not just directly under you) and let the pelvis fall forward. Feel your pelvis dropping between the legs, as though it is “nesting.” As your stand up out of your squat, see if you can retain that relaxed sensation in the front of the pelvis. This is an excellent way to let gravity help you antevert, or “tip” your pelvis forward.

The problems associated with a tucked pelvis, explained in an excerpt from our DVD

Esther's son, Nathan White, showing a
relaxed pelvis, rib cage and shoulder
position in spite of a challenging reach.

Releasing the rib cage

Ideally, the front of the ribs want to be flush with the contour of your torso. However, the ribcage may feel “seized” by a tight set of low back muscles which pull your back into a swayed position. The low back muscles need to release so the ribcage can drop forward, which can be challenging for some. We often need a little help from our rib anchor muscles (the internal obliques) which harness the ribcage into place. As your rib anchor strengthens, your low back is given a reprieve. Try placing two fists at the base of your ribs, below your chest, and gently push in and down. As much as you can, consciously try and relax the low back. Then, as your remove your fists, see if you can maintain the settled ribcage position.

Young man from Burkina Faso
showing healthy, settled shoulder posture. 

Settle the shoulders

Continue to roll your shoulders. Remember, a little forward, a little up, a lot back, and relax. When you create a homebound pathway for the shoulders, there is a nice little niche for them to settle down and back. So, don’t forget to relax after your roll-you might be surprised that your shoulders will often drop down even further.

Young girl in Otavalo,Ecuador,
showing relaxed, settled lower
jaw position.

Slacken the jaw

If you strain the neck, the lower jaw can become tense and tight. As the back of neck lengthens and the jawline angles down, gravity will coax the lower jaw forward relative to the upper jaw. This is helpful for those of us who have an "overjet" (sometimes erroneously called an overbite in colloquial English). Use your hands to adjust your head. To enhance this effect, grasp a clump of hair at the base of the neck, gently pull back and then upward, and allow the lower jaw to soften and slide slightly downward.

Wishing you the best in this season of change,

Esther

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Join us in an upcoming Free Workshop (online or in person).  

Find a Foundations Course in your area to get the full training on the Gokhale Method!  

We also offer in person or online Initial Consultations with any of our qualified Gokhale Method teachers.

Though a sway back is commonly perceived as good posture, most people recognize it to be a problem. What is the best way to fix a sway? And for those of you who don’t quite know, what is a sway?

Arching the low back is common and problematic.

A swayback is an inappropriate curve usually in the upper lumbar spine. It is frequently the result of trying to “sit up straight,” or “stand up straight” in a sustained way. Sometimes it is the result of modern activities, most notably women’s gymnastics, women’s ice-skating, women’s ballet and misguided forms of yoga.

The directive to "stand up straight" often results in a swayed low back. 
Swaying compresses the discs and decreases circulation around the spine.

I know this problem intimately. Having done a great deal of misguided gymnastics and yoga growing up, I had a very pronounced swayback in my twenties. People complimented me on my posture (sways certainly make you appear upright), but I blame the sway for weakening my lumbar spine and the resulting problems I had with my back in my mid-twenties (this is no longer such a young age to have back problems, I regretfully note). 

Esther demonstrating her previous habit of arching the back to be "upright"

The conventional fix for a sway is to tuck the pelvis. But this causes as many problems as it solves. It is true that tucking the pelvis usually flattens a swayback, and often feels good because it stretches out the low back muscles, but tucking the pelvis also compromises the wedge-shaped L5-S1 disc. In my own case, I suspect that the tucking exercises I was taught after my initial episodes of back pain in my teens and early twenties contributed to my more serious L5-S1 disc herniation problem in my later twenties. 

The better way to address a sway is to tuck the ribs. By this I mean rotate the ribcage forward so as to make the lower border of the ribcage flush with the abdomen. As the lower ribcage descends and retreats into the contour of the torso, the lower back lengthens, flattens and has a healthier architecture.

Tucking the rib cage-- a healthy way to flatten the low back.

This move is usually quite difficult for those who need it most. If you have been swaying your back for years/decades, tucking the ribs makes you feel hunched (it shows whatever hunch you have, which you now want to address directly with shoulder rolls, neck lengthening, etc.) and ape-like. A quick glance in a mirror should reassure you that you don't look the way you feel. This is always a major aha! moment in our Gokhale Method Foundations course. So there you have it - tuck your ribs, not your pelvis!