J-Spine

In Spring last year we launched the Gokhale® Wedge. For years, our students have been requesting a convenient, ready-made wedge for upright sitting without a backrest, one that doesn’t require folding blankets and other makeshift (pun intended) measures. The requests also specified an attractive item to enjoy around the home or office, and that it be of durable quality, keeping its shape and good looks with daily use.

Many sitting wedges on the market provide a shallow, even slope that simply does not help you antevert your pelvis—at no place do they offer the steep incline that it takes to tip the pelvis forward “over a cliff,” so to speak. Worse, they are often too soft, allowing the bottom, which after all transmits most of the body’s weight to the wedge, to sink in too deeply, sometimes resulting in a reverse wedge! Some commercial wedges are simply too hard to be comfortable, and at best provide only one choice of angle for tipping the pelvis forward.

As infants we all sat easily with our behinds behind us, and our pelvis anteverted. A wedge helps us to regain this healthy angle. Image from Pexels

To implement the Gokhale Method technique of stacksitting, students require a firm but comfortable wedge with a choice of angles to tip the pelvis just the right amount for their particular body. This is required to be able to sit upright and relaxed, rather than the common back and forth between upright and tense, and relaxed but slumped. Stacksitting enables you to avoid compression on delicate spinal nerves, discs, and tissues, and encourages healthy breathing and organ function.

Your pelvis is the foundation for your spine and upper body. With the pelvis anteverted and a J-spine arising from a healthy L5-S1 angle and well-stacked vertebrae, the upper body can be upright and relaxed (a). Without a wedge, most people sit either relaxed but slumped (b), or upright but tense (c).

Simplicity can take longer

It’s astonishing to me how long it took to pare a design for a Gokhale wedge down to its essential elements. We’ve been working on this for over a decade. We’ve hired professional design consultants, graduate students in Product Design at Stanford, and discussed the matter amongst our teachers. After discarding dozens of designs that included sophisticated mechanisms for adjusting the slope of the wedge, or replicated the front edge of chairs from the period of Louis XIV, we finally came to a wedge that is beyond simple by comparison. 

Our wedge, which only saw the light of day in March last year, is the simplest of all the designs we came up with—it’s a simple piece of foam, with a simple covering, and a simple zipper to close it up. Admittedly, the foam has a special shape—though that is not immediately obvious—and is of a high quality, resilient spec. It has just the right amount of give to be comfortable yet firm. 

Meeting needs and expectations

Above all, our students need a wedge designed to translate healthy posture principles into action. And rather than being a one-size-fits-all, this posture-friendly wedge works even as the user’s J-spine and L5-S1 angle progresses. 

Based on eighteen months of user feedback, we can say that the Gokhale® Wedge is serving people extremely well. It has been a great inclusion with the online Elements course bundles, ensuring students are always best equipped to efficiently learn to stacksit. Our students don’t hesitate to let us know what is working well for them…

…and what can still be improved. We have listened to user suggestions and recently applied a few innovations that we hope will make you like our wedge even more.

New features of the Gokhale Wedge 2.0

The original wedge (left) and its updated version (right) perform the same functions, assisting your pelvis and spine to be optimally positioned in sitting. The new Gokhale® Wedge has some innovations that we think you will like even better.

Sitting on the flat side: Our wedge has both a flat and a convex, rounded side. Using it flat side up, as shown below, it behaves like a teeter totter and gives varied options for the angle of its slope. This enables lighter people, and people with less L5-S1 angle, to tilt the wedge forward only as much as they want, and to sit on it higher or lower down, to find just the right amount of angle for them. It can give a gentle introduction to pelvic anteversion for those with sciatic pain, sacroiliac joint issues, or stiffness at the L5-S1 junction. As I already have a good bit of built in wedge in my third decade of stacksitting, glidewalking, etc.), this way around also suits me just fine. 

Sitting on the flat side of your wedge gives you a wide choice of height and angle.

To make sitting on the flat side smoother and even more comfortable, we have moved the zip of the washable cover from the center of the flat side to the edge of the new wedge.

Sitting on the convex side: We have introduced a new non-slip PU leather on the flat side, giving users a non-slip base on slippery surfaces such as some wooden chairs and benches. As before, one of its rounded edges is slightly lower and less steep than the other, giving you nuanced choices of angle whichever way around you choose to use your wedge.

This wedge is positioned ready for stacksitting, rounded side up. This way around can give the most anteversion by encouraging the pelvis to drop forward. The front edge as it is positioned here is slightly lower and has a gentler curve than the back edge. 

A change of fabric: The wedge is now in the same, slightly darker burgundy fabric that we use for our Gokhale® Head Cushion. It’s not only a nice aesthetic match, but its slightly coarser weave fabric also gives a better grip.

A well-designed wedge helps you to rediscover sitting comfort. It helps create healthy J-spine muscle memory for standing and walking too.

If you want to find out more about using our wedge, you can read our introductory blog post The Gokhale® Wedge for Relaxed, Upright Sitting, and view a video of me using it:

Here I am demonstrating how to sit on the Gokhale Wedge. Several postural principles combine to make stacksitting especially beneficial for our structure.

Your Gokhale® Wedge is backed up with know-how

No matter how well-designed, a wedge for sitting is best supported by training. This is true of all  our products, but perhaps especially so for our wedge, because stacksitting is a big departure from most people’s sitting form. You can learn about stacksitting in our in-person Foundations course, one-day Pop-up course, our online Elements course, plus our Gokhale Exercise program. These offerings, along with our DVD Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting, all teach the skills that enable you to enjoy your wedge optimally in daily life. 

Our students also appreciate being able to integrate using the wedge with our wearable PostureTracker™, which has settings that can track the degree of your L5-S1 angle, and the stack of your spine. Consider the Gokhale® Wedge a part of your toolkit as you improve your posture, and musculoskeletal health. 

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your sitting posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

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

If you have had back pain, odds are that you have visited either a physical therapist or a chiropractor. They are the most frequented medical practitioners for all types of structural pain, and our teacher community has been enriched by both these (and many other types of) practitioners. For this post, I have invited Vera Baziuk, a chiropractor and Gokhale Method® teacher based in Edmonton, Canada, to join me for a Q&A. We would like to share with you how she sees the interface between chiropractic and our method. 

Gokhale Method teacher and chiropractor Vera Baziuk.

E: How did you first discover the Gokhale Method?

V: I was researching the best home exercises and stretches for certain patients for back pain relief. I felt that this was a missing component in chiropractic for fully resolving back pain. I stumbled upon an interview with you and Dr. Mercola. What you said in the beginning about the J-spine grabbed my attention. I immediately went to the Gokhale Method website and downloaded your book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back

This was one of those career aha moments, when I know on an inner, deeper level, that something is right and what I need to be doing. I began looking into teacher training in November 2019, however, teacher training was not going to be possible with a three-month-old, and I still needed to take the Foundations course. Then COVID hit.

I took the online Elements course in the spring/summer of 2020, right in the middle of COVID, and waited for the announcement of teacher training. In fall of 2021, I gained in-person experience in a Pop-up class in Palo Alto. That weekend was amazing! I had never felt quite the stretch before as when Esther adjusted my stretchsitting. I shall never forget that initial amazing feeling of lengthening in my erector spinae muscles and ultimately the spine. I wanted everyone I knew to feel how good that felt. If I wasn’t hooked before, I was after that class! 

Gokhale Method teacher Sabina Blumauer guides a student in stretchsitting.

E: Were you initially skeptical about the Gokhale Method?

V: No, I wasn’t. The interview I heard between you and Dr. Mercola made complete sense. The book and Elements made a well-presented argument for the natural J-shape of the spine, supported by analysis of body mechanics, muscle contraction, and relaxation. Hundreds of photos showed how the spine looks when posture is done well in daily activities—and how things look when it is not. It became evident that poor posture was the real culprit to back pain. And that the posture pot of gold is still attainable at any age. 

E: Do you see any divergence between chiropractic and the Gokhale Method? 

V: The main thing I encounter, from fellow health professionals and patients, is confusion about healthy spine shape and pelvic position. 

For example, in conventional trainings, having an anterior pelvic tilt is equated with having an excessive lumbar lordosis. The Gokhale Method makes the important distinction between upper lumbar lordosis (undesirable) and L5-S1 angle (desirable). The Gokhale Method also uses more descriptive and “sticky” language when it comes to spinal shape—instead of talking about lordosis and kyphosis, we refer to J-spines, C-spines, and S-spines; this helps students understand what they need to embody more accurately and easily. This is explained and illustrated in detail in your book, and also addressed in a blog post on spine shape and another on pelvic angle.

E: Has the Gokhale Method complimented your practice as a chiropractor?

V: Incorporating the Gokhale Method into my practice is a natural fit because, ideally, there is an active and passive component to most healing. 

Passive care is when the chiropractor (or therapist) does something to you, like an adjustment, mobilization, TENS, ultrasound, laser, soft tissue therapy, or acupuncture. While these modalities can be effective in providing relief from pain, they often do not solve the root cause of the problem. Unfortunately, perhaps due to persuasive marketing, people often expect entirely passive solutions for their back pain. They begin to believe that a magic bullet for back pain relief exists.

Here I am giving a patient a chiropractic adjustment. This is an example of passive care, using diagnostic skills and clinical knowledge, plus hands on techniques, to effect change.

Active care consists of therapists providing tools to their patients/clients that they can use in their day-to-day lives to help them in recovery. These may be cryotherapy or heat, exercises to strengthen muscles and stretches to lengthen muscles, nutritional advice to improve healing, stress management tips, and general physical fitness recommendations. This active care component is critical in creating lasting, functional changes.

The Gokhale Method provides high quality active care. It is an educational intervention that teaches and empowers people to make gentle changes to their body 24/7, often with both immediate and cumulative benefits. I don’t know of any other intervention that does this so comprehensively and also includes the J-spine paradigm. 

E: So you see the Gokhale Method and chiropractic as working together? 

V: Yes, absolutely. The Gokhale Method helps chiropractic adjustments hold more effectively and chiropractic adjustments give people a welcome jumpstart on feeling better. 

Most people who come for chiropractic treatment have sustained a lot of damage over the years in their muscles, tendons, ligaments, discs, and joints, so experiencing a break from their cycle of pain is very welcome. But partial or repeated short-term relief from pain is ultimately unsatisfying, both for the patient and practitioner. The Gokhale Method offers ways of transforming the postural habits that caused the problem in the first place. I find that, given most people’s starting point, a combination approach restores function, gives long term relief, and improves comfort along the way. 

My Gokhale Method students find learning how to rest and sleep in comfortable, therapeutic positions makes an invaluable contribution to their recovery. Here I am teaching stretchlying.

E: What impact has the Gokhale Method had on your thinking about chiropractic? 

V: I feel like my eyes have finally opened. For example, revisiting my textbooks, I noticed that references to posture are minimal and often an afterthought. Dr. David Magee is a well-respected physiotherapist who has written numerous classic orthopedic and physical examination books that both chiropractors and physiotherapists still learn from today. I began to wonder why, in one of his books, Posture Assessment is Chapter 15 of 17? It should be Chapter 1! Nearly all musculoskeletal conditions are a direct result of poor posture. 

E: Do you discuss the subject of posture with your patients?

V: I now see my patients’ complaints through the Gokhale lens, with posture as the starting point. Looking at someone in the past, I could see their posture was not ideal, but I still dealt with their presenting complaint in parts, not as a whole. For the past year, I have switched my filter and now consider all musculoskeletal pain in relation to posture. 

When speaking to patients for the first time, I begin to paint the picture of what healthy posture looks like and how their current posture compares. We then explore options to solve the problem with some immediate pain relief solutions and a longer-term relief and prevention strategy—the Gokhale Method. 

Teaching my Gokhale Method students healthy bending not only enables them to avoid future back pain flare-ups and protect against damage, it also brings many other biomechanical benefits—such as natural length in the hamstrings and improved hip joint mobility.

For existing patients, I periodically offer observations on how their current posture is very likely contributing to a flare up or increase of pain from their last appointment. Many wholeheartedly welcome hearing more about the Gokhale Method.

E: Can you share a specific case where the Gokhale Method has enhanced the outcome for a patient?

V: In September of 2023, I met Kay Chui Lee, who is happy to share his journey. He was referred by a massage therapist, and presented wearing a cervical collar for an acquired torticollis (neck twist to one side). His posture was a significant C-shaped spine, with a very tucked pelvis and his hips parked forward. His erector spinae were perhaps the tightest I have ever felt. In addition, he had tight sternocleidomastoid, scalene, levator scapulae, and trapezius muscles. His gluteal muscular tone was weak. 

Kay Lee started as a chiropractic patient, and, to best serve his needs, I also encouraged him to enroll in the Gokhale Foundations course. He stopped wearing his cervical collar about halfway through the course. After the course, his neck and head rotation to the right had improved and there were times when Kay was able to look straight ahead. 

A combination of the Gokhale Method and chiropractic treatment is enabling Kay Lee to gradually become more upright. His head and neck are returning to a more natural, comfortable, and symmetric alignment. 

He walks daily, practicing what he learnt in glidewalking, and reports doing so without the fatigue he used to feel after a walk. He sleeps better and can manage his day with greater comfort. The texture in his erector spinae muscles is softening and he reports less pain with muscle work. To date, Kay continues with chiropractic treatment and there are ongoing improvements. I am hopeful that with alumni classes, online or in-person, he will continue to improve.

E: Thanks, Vera, for sharing how you are using chiropractic alongside the Gokhale Method. I am sure your insights will help both our students, and chiropractors and their patients, to embrace this complementary pairing with a new level of confidence.

Best next action steps 

If you would like to improve your posture, 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…

Have you been taught cobra pose or locust pose to strengthen your back? It is a common practice to try to strengthen the back with back bends, focusing on the long back extensors on either side of the spine. This approach is used by the McKenzie Method, many yoga teachers, and physical therapists.

In the Gokhale Method® we prefer to strengthen the back by working with the muscles which collectively stabilize the trunk. Our focus is on maintaining a healthy J-spine baseline rather than backbending.

Healthy muscle activation maintains a J-spine, protecting the spine, discs, and nerves from damage due to instability and compression.

Recently in Gokhale® Fitness, our teacher Harrison has been taking our members through an exercise I rate highly, bird dog, or, as it is sometimes called, table top. Contrary to its appearance, it is not primarily a leg and arm exercise—instead, the weight and movement of the limbs provide a challenge to the stability of the torso, strengthening the muscles of the inner corset, which include the transversus abdominus, the internal and external obliques, and the intrinsic muscles of the spine. This then protects the spine against torque and distortion. 

Gokhale Fitness teacher Harrison in the basic bird dog pose. Bird dog involves lifting the opposite arm and leg—but its purpose is to work the deep trunk stabilizers, or inner corset.

Most people do this exercise any old way—perhaps with a tucked pelvis, a hung head, or flinging their arms and legs up and swaying their backs. It wants to be done in such a way that it maintains the J-spine and doesn’t encourage distortions of the spine such as excessive lumbar lordosis or thoracic kyphosis, and doesn’t pull your nerves and discs around willy-nilly. 

Caution: If your back pain is persistent or severe, we recommend you consult your medical team prior to doing this exercise.

Setting up

Especially if you are new to this exercise, or to the Gokhale Method, take your time to set up well. Without the correct set up, you can lose the exercise’s value from the get-go. You want the exercise to be safe, effective, and to pattern healthy everyday movement mechanics. 

• Kidney bean shape your hands (use your fists if you prefer)
• Externally rotate your legs a little
• Pivot your pelvis forward (antevert) by relaxing your lower belly
• Engage your rib anchor to eliminate any sway
• Drop your spine between your shoulder blades
• Lengthen the back of your neck. Your face will be parallel with the floor, your chin down 

Check you are starting from a good baseline position.

Doing Bird Dog

Engage your trunk muscles to keep your pelvis and trunk level and still at all times—do not twist, round, or dip.

• Start by lifting one arm, and the opposite leg, outwards to horizontal, in line with your torso. 
• Return to the floor.
• Switch sides, lifting and lowering the opposite arm and leg together.
• Repeat on alternate sides.

This video shows the smooth, steady action that you are looking for in bird dog. Your torso remains still and horizontal while you move one leg and the opposite arm, and then change sides.

Reps, sets, and frequency

How many you do depends on your current level of fitness and strength, but for most people up to three sets of 6, 8, or 10 repetitions works well (one raise and lower of an arm and a leg is a rep). Stop short of failure—you don’t want to lose your form, but rather, protect your spine at all times. 

If you feel significant soreness in your muscles the next day, give yourself a day to recuperate before repeating bird dog. If you are working at a gentle level, you can do this exercise daily if you wish.

Common mistakes

• Losing your form—keep checking that you haven’t tucked your pelvis, swayed your lower back, rounded your upper back, or arched your neck.
• Doing the exercise too fast, as if it were an arm and leg aerobic exercise rather than a trunk stabilization exercise.
• Lifting your arm and leg too high, and swaying your back.

Lifting the head and/or leg beyond horizontal will likely encourage sway in the back. Image from Pexels

Ways to progress the exercise

After you have mastered good form and smooth execution, you may want to increasingly challenge your muscles. Depending on your starting point this may take a few days, weeks, or months…don’t rush it and risk injury. There are many ways to progress steadily and vary your training:

• If you started with just a few reps, aim to up your reps and/or sets over time. You can count numbers or breaths, or work to music.
• Raising your hand in a fist uses more muscular engagement in the hand and forearm.
• As you extend your leg, use your foot muscles to point your toes. Then try a set pointing your heel back.
• Hold the extension position (lift) to work on stamina and endurance and add an isometric challenge to your muscles. Go for duration rather than lifting beyond horizontal. 
• Bring your knee and hand together rather than down to the floor between lifts.
• Add wrist and ankle weights.

In this video Harrison demonstrates adding further challenge in bird dog.

Take the benefits into daily life

No matter how well done, bird dog is only an exercise and can only be done so many times by a sane person. It is, however, perfect preparation for real life activities that use the arms and legs, while needing to keep the trunk steady—e.g. opening a heavy door, carrying a suitcase, lifting something off a high shelf, dancing, or bending. After a week or two of doing this exercise, you will probably notice that you feel stronger and that daily chores are more enjoyable. You may notice your running or swimming is more efficient and powerful. And that you have less back pain!

Trunk stability enables you to undertake asymmetrical tasks which would otherwise distort and injure your spine.

Best next action steps 

If you would like guidance in moving as you are meant to, and doing bird dog, or other exercises, with healthy form and posture, book 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…

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…

Choose your remedies carefully

There are many approaches to stretching tight back muscles that involve rounding the back. Though these exercises give temporary relief, we recommend against them because they threaten the spinal discs, nerves, and ligaments. They can also result in the back muscles contracting even more tightly to stabilize the area. 

Rounded stretching exercises increase existing upper back curvature (hunching) while pulling aggressively on tight soft tissues and ligaments. Our tissues respond better to sustained, gentle realignment to make healthy changes. Pexels

By contrast, the Gokhale Method rib anchor maneuver brings relief from compression without any negative side effects. It restores your spine to a healthy J-shape, preserving the spinal discs, nerves, and ligaments. Over time, this alignment encourages a more natural, relaxed baseline tone in your back muscles as well as better abdominal tone.

How your rib anchor works

Rib anchor describes the pivot of the rib cage around a horizontal axis at about breast height, bringing the lower border of the front of the rib cage in and down thus sending the back of the rib cage up and out. Since the back of the ribs are attached to the vertebrae, this pulls the curvy “necklace” of the lumbar spine into a flatter, longer arrangement. This means of tractioning the lower spine is a fundamental Gokhale Method technique for removing sway. It restores healthy length in the lumbar area, alleviating compression of the discs, nerves, and vertebrae.  

a.                                                          b.             

A forward pivot of the rib cage at breast height (b.) corrects for a tight lower back (a.), restoring lumbar length. Maintaining this orientation requires the abdominal muscles that anchor the ribs down to develop a healthy baseline tone.

The art of transmission 

Over many years of hands-on work helping students with their rib anchor, I became increasingly aware of an intuitive sequence of moves in what I was doing. My hands could guide a student to a pleasing endpoint, but what exactly I was doing fell short of verbal description and a conceptual framework. The gap between what we were doing and articulating in words showed up especially when our teachers got together for continuing education offerings, when questions and case studies were discussed. There was a need for new language, fresh insights, and deeper understanding. While teaching posture is both an art and a science, it is also a hallmark of our method that there be kinesthetic, visual, and intellectual understanding of our process; this takes the right words and analogies.

A fresh analogy for the rib anchor

For a very long time, we’ve taught three things that need to happen to help most people find a healthy head position. It’s a combination of: 

1. Pivoting around an axis from ear to ear
2. Lengthening the neck through relaxing certain muscles and recruiting others (especially the longus colli)
3. Shearing the head and neck gently back               

1.                                         2.                                       3.

Gliding the rib cage home follows a similar pattern:

1. Pivoting around an axis that goes from side to side through the chest at about breast level (this being the main component of what I’ve described as rib anchor so far)
2. Relaxing the erector spinae and other muscles and recruiting the deep abdominal and back muscles (inner corset) to create additional length in the back, as described and included in our teachings
3. Shearing the ribcage backward relative to the pelvis. This is the movement that I’d been intuitively weaving into my hands-on ministrations that previously wasn’t well described

When students aligned their ribs by only pivoting the rib cage, I could see that it sometimes resulted in an awkward movement that did not integrate the rib cage into the torso quite right. Adding, and even better with practice, integrating this element of shear, transformed their outcome and experience. 

We can describe the shear element, for both the head and the rib cage, as analogous with backing your car into its garage: 

An analogy that is true and versatile

Neat and easy parallels can, of course, be seductive but false. However, here we have a really useful and accurate analogy of what needs to happen. Deploying your rib anchor to come into a healthier orientation usually feels somewhat strange at first—especially if you have spent years actually leaning backwards from your waist—but this new analogy is already helping our students to enjoy a more buoyant uprightness, and less of a leaning forward sensation. 

This “backing up” of the ribcage can be tailored to affect different levels of the spine, as appropriate for each person. And while every body is a unique landscape known only to its owner, a teacher’s guidance is always available to help you map it out sooner. 

a.                                                          b.             

 
This girl (a.) stands with her lower back swayed. Her rib cage is angled back, and she can feel her lower front ribs popping up under her hands. She gently but firmly presses on her ribcage to “back it into the garage” and into a healthy alignment (b.), removing the sway in her lower back as she does so. 

Best next action steps

If you are new to the Gokhale Method, are resuming your posture journey after a little while, or struggle with your rib anchor, 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. . .

It has been over 60 years since Eastern schools of meditation became widely known in the U.S. and Europe, and meditation became widely practiced, with over 14% of Americans having meditated at least once. If we include those practicing mindfulness techniques, using meditation apps, and attending yoga classes with a meditation component, this figure goes far higher.

The effects of sitting in meditation

The potential benefits of meditation are well known, and include a calmer, clearer mind, lower levels of stress, better sleep, improved relationships with others, and better mental health. 

From a posture perspective, whether you sit in meditation regularly or are just getting started, you want the experience to be as healthy for your body as it is for your mind. 

Tradition and seated meditation

This North Indian Buddha figure shows healthy form. He has a well-stacked spine, open shoulders, and an elongated neck. (Post Gupta period, 7th–8th century C.E..)

Westerners often try to be “authentic” in their meditation by sitting cross-legged on the floor, as is portrayed in most traditions. This is particularly difficult for people who have not grown up regularly sitting this way. It may be that practitioners manage to cross their legs, but then their pelvis is not able to tip forward. Their hip joints will not have developed in childhood and ossified in their teens for unaided cross-legged sitting to be a truly comfortable and biomechanically available option. 

Common problems in upright seated meditation

With the pelvis tucked, meditators have two options, both of them unhealthy:

1. Sitting on their tail bones in a relaxed but slumped position, which will put their spines into a C-shape that overstretches the ligaments of the SI joints and spine, and compresses the spinal discs and nerves. Such collapsed posture restricts the lungs, stomach, and other organs. It also deconditions the deep inner corset muscles that are there to regulate spinal alignment “in the background” during healthy sitting. 
2. Sitting tucked but holding themselves upright by tensing the back muscles. Many meditators and yoga practitioners are so familiar with this effortful solution to being upright that they don’t realize that they are doing it, or recognize it as poor posture. 

It takes freedom in the hip socket to allow the pelvis a good range of motion, rotating forward (anteverting) around the head of the femurs—then the spine can articulate at L5-S1 to stack upright and the back muscles can relax. You can read more about healthy pelvic anteversion here. 

The man’s notably tucked pelvis is sending his spine into a C-shape. Their upper backs are rounded, compressing the base of the neck and lifting the chin to face forward. Pexels

This man is holding himself up with tension in his back muscles. He can learn to antevert his pelvis to find its natural L5-S1 angle, allowing his back to be upright and relaxed. To get there we recommend a suitable wedge along with some posture know-how. Pexels

This woman is getting some anteverting benefit from the slope of the beach, but is used to swaying her lumbar area rather than having a healthy angle lower down at L5-S1. Unsplash

This Chinese Buddha figure shows surprisingly slumped posture. Note the forward head, absence of a stacked spine, and tucked pelvis. With a tucked pelvis slumping is the only relaxed option for sitting.

The hunched figure above is the oldest Chinese Buddha figure that has survived into modern times. The inscription on its base dates it to 338 C.E., 500 years after Buddhism came to China from India. Why does the hunched posture of the Chinese figure compare so poorly with the Indian figure (top)? It is reasonable to suppose that while crossed legged sitting was the norm in India, a warm country where much of the population sits on the floor to gather, eat, socialize, and more, in China, with its generally cooler climate, sitting crossed legged was consciously adopted for meditation but was not a widely used sitting position.   

Here I am stacksitting on the Gokhale™ Pain-Free Chair—my pelvis is anteverted so my spine stacks upright and relaxed, with a healthy angle at L5-S1. This way of sitting enables you to sit in meditation comfortably for prolonged periods if required, and to breathe well. Like all students on the path of postural improvement, I am a work in progress. . .

Appropriate furniture, props, and seating solutions

Most Zen and yoga centers in the West have become more enlightened about the difficulty many people have in sitting on the floor, providing chairs, meditation stools, and cushions for meditators’ comfort. Some more recently established schools, such as Transcendental Meditation, have always encouraged practitioners to use chairs and sofas rather than wrangle with the difficulties of sitting on the floor and working through the resultant aches and pains. 

That said, seeking comfort and back support from soft and poorly contoured modern furniture can also promote slumping, or lead to problematic remedies such as using lumbar cushions which sway the back. You can read more on finding a healthy back rest here, as well as about gentle traction from our Stretchsit® Cushion.

Traditional and potentially effective solutions to help meditators sit without a backrest include the Japanese Zafu cushion, a high, round cushion that can help the thighs and pelvis to angle down, and a low wooden meditation stool used in a kneeling position. The Gokhale™ Wedge is a modern solution to support stacksitting. In all cases, it is important that the practitioner knows how to anchor their rib cage to resist any tendency to sway, and how to find articulation at the lower L5-S1 junction. 

Four props for healthy sitting (top left to bottom right): a Japanese Zafu cushion, the Gokhale™ Wedge, a kneeling meditation stool, and the Gokhale Stretchsit® Cushion

Healthy sitting makes for healthy breathing

Given that controlled or mindful breathing is part of many meditation practices, it’s surprising how little attention is given to the link between breathing well and sitting well.

Some meditation traditions have mimicked teachers and icons with slumped posture, and teach that the associated abdominal breathing is part and parcel of spiritual practice. This type of breathing, however, results in a soft, expanded belly with low muscle tone, an underdeveloped chest, and inadequate use of the diaphragm and lungs.

Equally problematic is tensing the back to remain upright, which tightens the erector spinae muscles and restricts the diaphragm and ribs at the back. It takes stacksitting with a J-spine to let the breath work its magic—bringing a natural massage to your spine, better circulation, and length, strength, and flexibility to the musculoskeletal parts of the torso.

Chop wood, carry water, preserve your posture

There is a traditional Zen Buddhist koan (puzzle/story): 

The novice says to the master, "What does one do before enlightenment?"

"Chop wood. Carry water," replies the master.

The novice asks, "What, then, does one do after enlightenment?"

"Chop wood. Carry water."

Chopping wood and carrying is part of everyday life for millions of people in traditional communities—and it is done with healthy posture.

Of course there are various interpretations of this koan, including that the most pedestrian of activities are also the most sacred. From a posture teacher perspective, the koan reminds us that in the pursuit of spiritual (or mental) development, we should continue to engage with the physical foundations of life. Not only are the body, mind and spirit intertwined, but a healthy body can also help support our other endeavors.

Breaking free from old habits

Meditators often come to work with us because they are frustrated by their pain and struggle to be comfortable. In our experience, though meditators are extensively trained in matters of the mind, the training of the body lags behind. Our teachers have expertise in identifying and solving systemic postural errors in meditation and other activities, and are ready to support you on your meditation and life journey.  

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

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

In this blog post I am excited to introduce a wedge for stacksitting to our students and readers. It’s possible to experience and take pleasure in sitting as you work at your desk, eat at your table, or play an instrument. If this is not the case for you, the Gokhale Wedge could make it so.

Upright sitting is necessary for many activities. The people shown above are sitting well with ease; most people in our culture no longer know how to do this.  

How a suitable wedge can transform your sitting

Does your back get tired and tense from trying to sit upright? To sit upright without tension in your back muscles, and without slumping to let tired muscles rest, your pelvis needs to be anteverted (tipped forward). A lot of people assume that tipping the pelvis forward will result in a sway, but are pleasantly surprised to find that this isn’t the case. Using a wedge enables you to tip your pelvis forward and find the natural position for your sacrum which allows an angled L5-S1 disc space that is a better fit for the wedge-shaped L5-S1 disc. From this base your vertebrae can stack vertically, giving you a healthy J-spine. Now your back muscles can relax, and your nerves, discs, muscles, and circulation can function well.

The pelvis is the foundation for the upper body. With the pelvis well positioned, the upper body can be upright and relaxed (a). With the pelvis poorly positioned, the upper body is either relaxed but slumped (b), or upright but tense (c).

A well-designed wedge helps you to rediscover sitting comfort. It helps create healthy muscle memory for standing and walking too.

Designing posture-friendly products

In general, we have chosen to be somewhat slow to market with products. We set a high bar for effectiveness and quality of design and manufacture, and don’t want to add to the glut of products that end up in landfill. 

But creating a wedge has been on my to do list for several years. One reason is that people often arrive at our courses having bought available wedges that don’t actually antevert the pelvis—and sometimes do the opposite in tucking the pelvis. 

In the past I hired professional designers to address this problem, but was not satisfied with the outcome. So until now we taught students how to make their own wedges by folding towels and blankets. However, we recognized that this isn’t always easy to get right, and rolled fabric does not keep its shape when transferred from place to place. 

A rolled towel or blanket can make a suitable wedge for stacksitting but it loses its shape easily if moved and takes frequent remodeling.

Determined to provide our students with a truly good wedge, we recently set about trialing a number of prototypes and getting extensive feedback from students and teachers. The result is a unique, simple design which finally ticks all the boxes.

The Gokhale Wedge took some time to get right.

What makes the Gokhale Wedge different

Most wedges are not informed by the J-spine philosophy that is at the core of the Gokhale Method®. Though commercial wedges are trying to respond to the discomfort that most people feel when sitting, and the observation that many seat pans slant backwards, they don’t go far enough in helping the pelvis antevert and supporting a J-spine. 

The majority of wedges on the market have an even, shallow slope, and are made of soft foam. Soft foam allows the sitz-bones to sink into the wedge, further reducing the angle of a slope which is already insufficient to help tip the pelvis. 

An example of a widely available, evenly-sloped shallow wedge. 

Gokhale Method teacher Julie Johnson shows how a soft, shallow wedge allows users to sit in a tucked pelvic position—not what you want, and not how Julie likes to sit!

The design of the Gokhale Wedge

The Gokhale Wedge is made from a durable foam that offers both sturdy support and enough cushioning to be comfortable for longer periods. We tested materials such as buckwheat and discovered them to be too hard for most people’s comfort. Topping the buckwheat with foam still left a loose filling that needed remodeling with each use.

The Gokhale™Pain-Free Chair, which has a steep drop built into the front edge of the seat pan, encourages the pelvis to tip for stacksitting, and was one of the inspirations for our wedge. 

Our wedge is able to accommodate all shapes and sizes and works well on a variety of surfaces. It also accommodates changes in your L5-S1 angle as you progress on your posture journey. One side is slightly steeper than the other, allowing you to choose which slope you prefer. Its cover is washable and durable, so it stays looking elegant.

Top view

Base view
The Gokhale Wedge is distinct from the triangular wedges on the market.

Backing up the Gokhale Wedge with education

No matter how well-designed, a posture product is best supported by training. This is true of all of our products, but perhaps especially so for our wedge because stacksitting is a big departure from most people’s sitting form. You can learn about stacksitting in our in-person Foundations course, one-day Pop-up course, our online Elements course, plus our Gokhale Exercise program. These offerings, along with our DVD Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting, all teach the skills that enable you to integrate your wedge optimally into daily life. 

You can also integrate using the wedge with our wearable PostureTracker™, which has settings that can track the degree of your L5-S1 angle, and the stack of your spine. Consider the Gokhale Wedge a part of your toolkit as you improve your posture and musculoskeletal health. 

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

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

Do you suffer from neck tension, muscle knots, or tingling in your fingers? Do you get frequent headaches?

Or maybe your neck is fine most of the time, but seizes up periodically, leaving you unable to function normally in your job, family life, and recreational activities.

A soft cervical collar is a common prescription to alleviate neck pain. It can give welcome support in the short term, but doesn’t help to strengthen your neck or get to the source of the problem. Wikimedia Commons

Most neck pain involves compression. 

In modern cultures, the head often drifts forward as we slouch and crane our necks towards our computer screens. The weight of the head, (typically 11 lb. or 5 kg—think bowling ball), then requires the muscles at the back of the neck to contract strongly to keep the head up. This contraction compresses the relatively delicate tissues in the area. Not a recipe for a healthy, happy neck. If you have forward head carriage but are symptom-free so far, keep reading for tips that will prevent future problems with the discs, nerves, blood vessels, and bones in your neck.

In our culture slumped desk work posture and a degree of forward head carriage is common. Pexels

Restoring the natural length and position of your neck

Young children, ancestral populations, and people living in traditional societies around the world preserve a natural head carriage that stacks the neck well as part of a healthy J-spine. This allows the head to be balanced with only appropriate muscular effort, and the neck to be tall and free from compression. 

As young children we instinctively align our neck well over our body. Pexels

Restoring mobility in your neck

Perhaps you have experienced increased stiffness and reduced mobility in your neck over the years? Or unpleasant gritty sounds when you turn your head? Beware of exercises that include extreme flexion, extension, or head circles. These movements, taken to the end of your range of motion, can damage your discs and pinch your cervical nerves. If they are a part of your exercise regimen, consider reducing their range. 

There are many delicate and vital structures within the neck, so we first want to align it well. (front view). Wikipedia

In our experience it is best to focus on restoring the neck to a healthy baseline length and shape that centers your head well on your spine. The video below shows you how to proceed:

This gentle movement will help you to find a safe, natural trajectory to get started on gliding your head up and back.

If you have areas of long-standing rigidity or curvature in your neck, it is likely linked to your postural distortions elsewhere in your body, for example thoracic rigidity or a tucked pelvis. 

Expect this to take more time and training to change, for which you will be rewarded with additional benefits including comfort, improved circulation, and increased energy.

Finding your neck strength 

While many of the neck’s structures are delicate, they can also be strong. The deep muscles that are intended to support the neck and keep it tall tend not to get used very much in modern industrial culture and are often weak. Besides doing strengthening exercises, as is common in conventional approaches to neck problems, learning to carry weight on the head is extremely valuable. 

People in traditional societies preserve a taller, straighter neck, and more functional head posture. (Odisha, India)

Cultures that headload suffer much less neck pain than we do and can teach us much about how, where, and why to headload. Not only do these people have excellent neck health, but they also have excellent posture throughout their bodies, and move with elegance and efficiency. Students in our classes begin with light weights to sense the axis along which they need to stack their bones. Over time, the weight can be increased to further strengthen the longus colli, inner corset, and other muscles. 

The small extra weight of the Gokhale™Head Cushion enables students not only to strengthen the deep neck muscles and lengthen the neck, but also to better orient their entire skeleton. 

My book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back has many images of people throughout the world headloading. Healthy head carriage, as opposed to forward head carriage, is an important starting point for this activity. It is not possible to carry significant weight without both the healthy neck alignment and strength to avoid compressive forces.

A well-aligned head and neck is both highly functional—and elegant. 

Because about one in three adults are affected by neck pain every year¹, we introduce techniques for the neck early on in our in-person Foundations course (Lesson 1 of 6), in our one-day Pop-up course, and our online Elements course (Lesson 4 of 18). Here students learn in detail the gentle techniques that gradually return the neck towards the length and pain-free position we all enjoyed as infants. Whatever your age, your neck is something you can learn to once again stack in your favor.

References: 

1. Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), “Neck Pain: Overview,” InformedHealth.org, last modified February 14, 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK338120/.

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

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

There are so many things in my life that I feel thankful for, and Thanksgiving gives an opportunity to reflect on these feelings of gratitude. For our newsletter I wanted to share the deep gratitude I have for my personal journey out of back pain, and for how that journey continues as a growing ability to support and empower others in this direction. 

When I came to write this blog post, I quickly realized that this is a daunting task! The truth is that so many people have played invaluable parts, both great and small, in helping me to create the Gokhale Method® that it’s impossible to pay tribute to everyone in a short piece of writing. So I decided there will be other posts of gratitude, including to my teachers, to the people around the globe on whom this work is based, and to our team of dedicated teachers and staff. But on this National Day of Thanksgiving, I’d like to focus on things related to living and working in the US.

The settling of people from all over the world in North and South America has brought innovation and enthusiasm for new ideas. This is Sebastian Münster’s Map of the New World, published in 1540. Wikipedia

The US has a uniquely multifaceted heritage

I feel grateful to live in the salad bowl that is the US. At its best, the US benefits from embracing ideas and traditions from all over the world. It has a track record of weaving together influences that enhance the richness of life and result in vibrant, new, and exciting ways of solving problems. 

One of the ways in which the Gokhale Method® is quintessentially American is that it draws on healthy inputs from different cultures, theories, technologies, and more. We actively search out kinesthetic traditions of people all over the world, past and present, and learn from the best of what works. Since so many people visit and settle in the US, studying other movement and bodywork traditions becomes especially accessible, whether we are looking at massage, dance, or gardening.

Nirmala, a baby masseur from India visiting friends in California, prepares to massage a baby on her lap.

Gokhale Method alumna Joan Baez dancing in her kitchen with her friend Jesus Morales (better known as Chuy), who hails from Mexico. He has typically excellent form—his behind stays behind, his back is upright, and his shoulders remain back.

American “can do” can help to solve back pain 

Americans have some qualities in common with teenagers—a boldness to experiment and reinvent ourselves, and a willingness to put ourselves out there without necessarily having the training or experience to get the job done. A can-do mentality with readiness to learn along the way doesn’t guarantee success (according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 35% of new businesses survive for 10 years), but the businesses that do survive often couldn’t have gotten off the ground at all through more conventional progression and do provide valuable services and products to society. 

I don’t have an MBA, and I started the Gokhale Method 30 years ago with no idea of how to launch a business, manage staff, or use an Excel spreadsheet. Many mistakes happened along the way, and yet our small raft of a company became seaworthy, is still afloat, and continues to set sail in new waters to bring relief to an increasing number of people. 

We have evolved a highly efficient and effective solution to back pain and other debilitating musculoskeletal problems—15,000 people have taken our courses to date, and over 250,000 copies of 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back have sold. There’s much more to be done, though—back pain remains the number one cause of disability globally, and 80% of people in the US alone are expected to experience a significant back problem during their lives. The Gokhale Method mission “to make back pain rare” continues. 

Each statistic represents a personal story of pain, disability, and often financial stress. www.thegoodbody.com

Innovation is recognized and valued in the US 

I’ve been promoting the J-spine paradigm for over three decades now. (You can read more about spine shape here.) It’s a radical departure from conventional wisdom’s S-spine paradigm, but based on compelling arguments and a growing body of evidence, the Gokhale Method has been welcomed into physician training courses, retreats, and conferences, and will now be the subject of a randomized control trial (RCT) at a major university. This level of openness and acceptance of disruptive approaches is more common in the US than in many other societies. 

Americans love new ideas—even when they’re old ideas!

Back in the 1990s I was studying posture in Portugal, because the average posture in southern Europe was still notably healthier than in the US. While I was carrying my baby on my back, using an African wrap, concerned people who saw me would give well-meaning advice on how to carry a baby properly. Of course, this came from their best intentions to help me take care of my baby, but still, back in the US, I found people around me much more amenable to incorporating such techniques. Here I encounter people wanting to learn this traditional skill I had originally learned from an African friend. 

I am carrying my youngest daughter on my back. This way of carrying infants encourages healthy posture in both mother and child. 

Philanthropy and support

For most of my time in the US I have lived in the Bay area, which happens to have one of the highest densities of philanthropic donors in the US. Innumerable students from the Bay Area and elsewhere in the US over the years have stepped up in a variety of ways to offer support to our organization by way of legal advice, mentorship, business strategy, and funding for research. In 2020 we managed to raise enough money in donations for the randomized control trial (RCT) that is happening in a major university next year, from students who wanted to see the benefits they received from this work extended to a wider public.

Of course it’s natural to have the largest following, and therefore the largest number of supporters, locally. In fact, in spite of the distances, people from all over the globe have stepped up to offer a variety of kinds of support—back pain is truly a global problem.

Our company continues to receive much “behind the scenes” help. Often these supporters stepped up without me asking. A number of people eminent in their field, including musician, artist, and activist Joan Baez, have been extremely generous with their endorsement of our method. We have also received donations—of antique photographs and artifacts showing healthy posture—to the Gokhale Method Institute’s collection. People have come forward and offered us accommodation and venues. There is truly no way that our organization could have reached its current level without all this help.

It especially touches my heart when students are courageous and willing to share their story, be that by talking to others, writing a blog post, or giving a testimonial. This is never an expectation, but another gift for which I am truly thankful as it inspires others to have realistic hope that they too can learn the Gokhale Method and live without pain.

Many of our students generously share their stories. Here is Sheila Bond, who was featured in our most recent blog post.

Americans are at the frontier of wearable tech 

Over the last seven years, we’ve developed ground-breaking wearables, including our user-friendly PostureTracker™. No door was ever closed to us for lack of formal training in technology or tech enterprise. We learned as we went along and persisted through to the finish line and now have a unique and sophisticated tool to assist our students in transforming their posture education into posture habits. PostureTracker is now available as an add-on to our in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, our online Elements course, as well our in-person and online Alumni offerings. Our next deep-dive online Alumni PostureTracker Course starts on January 11 next year.

This clip from our Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting DVD shows students using our PostureTracker wearable.

Being positive is cool in the US

Positive reinforcement as a teaching style, as well as a tenet of company culture, is a data-supported choice that has been widely embraced in the US. I was raised with some degree of the Calvinistic notion that a little negativity is a necessary part of being real. And my own posture training included spurs like, “How can you stand to be so ugly?” (To many of us this will be surprising, but as part of “old school” pedagogy, it’s nowhere near caning school children, which used to be a common practice). So I’m grateful I got to see that authentic positive reinforcement works, works really well, and leaves no scars behind.  

I believe a positive approach is especially important in the field of posture because posture has historically been laced with negative reinforcement, ridicule, and even racism. Posture is a very personal matter for most people, so it is important that people feel safe, embraced, and encouraged as they go about their journey of improving themselves. It is an integral part of our teacher training that a positive stance is woven into our teaching, our touch, and our vision, and I feel grateful for my 45+ years in the US for supporting this. 

Julie and I celebrate with our most recently trained teachers—this time in Germany! (Left to right: Michal, Ines, Julie, Me, and Johanna.)

If you would like guidance on any aspect of your posture and spine shape, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online or in person, with a Gokhale Method teacher.

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, sign up to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

At the beginning of the pandemic, my tween daughter was the dancer in my house. When her in-person hip-hop class was canceled, she quickly turned online for inspiration, showering me with her 30-second Tik Toks.

I was amused, but resolute that dancing online was not for me. I had my own exercise regime, at the heart of which were a series of Pilates-based exercises that I had incorporated in the hopes of healing a nagging injury. 

But now, 16 months into the pandemic, I’m dancing online too, maybe even more than my 12-year-old. This is thanks to Esther Gokhale and her unbelievably fabulous community who, like me, wanted to find a safe, therapeutic, and fun way of exercising after injuring our backs.

I first heard Esther years ago on a podcast and subsequently checked her book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back out of the library. I remember being especially interested in the pictures of women holding their babies so comfortably; I had recently given birth, and I tried my best to imitate the women pictured. 

Me with Baby Yael in 2013. I now see I had a very pronounced S-shape curve. 

From reviewing pictures of myself during that time, I see now that I did a poor imitation, but at the time I didn’t have any pain, so I returned the book to the library. 

However, last November while experiencing non-stop back pain, I purchased the book, which led me to Esther’s website and one-on-one coaching. Six weeks later, after completing the Elements course, this is what I wrote to friends and family in my 2021 New Year’s letter:

I’ve been relearning how to walk, stand, and sleep over the past six weeks. This is what one does when she becomes so desperate for relief from unrelenting sciatica, the kind that starts in the buttock and runs down to the calf. It all began with a yoga injury in May 2019, but the pain became unbearable after our move (hello, stress and grief, and, yes, more disc degeneration.)

An MRI from December 2020 had pinpointed “severe facet arthritis bilaterally” at L4-5, and mild to moderate facet damage elsewhere. I had tried everything from PT to Pilates, from massage to medical marijuana, but what seems to have made the biggest difference is the Gokhale Method, which attempts to reteach the body how to do the work of everyday life without further degrading our discs.

I was skeptical about how much I could actually learn online from a Gokhale coach, given that postural work benefits from hands-on adjustments and corrections. But with COVID-19 raging, this is not the time for in-person classes. Happily for me, my coach was terrific, and after completing the 18 introductory classes, I’m feeling so much better. It’s definitely not a magic bullet, but it’s the best thing I’ve tried so far, and I want to believe that if I keep it up, I’ll eventually be pain free. Here’s hoping I can report that next year.

Seven months later, I am thrilled to say that I am indeed pain-free and living a full life that enables me to care for my family, return to writing, and relaunch my health coaching practice that I had put on hold due to the pandemic and pain.

My recovery has been so complete that in May I undertook training to become a certified canoe instructor and am now teaching at the American Canoe Association’s Camp Sebago in New York. 

Now free from back pain and sciatica I am once again able to canoe.

Even though I feel great, I know that wellness takes regular work, and I’m grateful for the ongoing Gokhale Exercise program. Gokhale Fitness teacher Eric Fernandez has gotten me to enjoy strength training; teachers Kathleen O’Donohue and Roberta Cooks are responsible for me incorporating Moving Meditation into my morning routine, while Esther’s daily 1-2-3 Move program has rekindled my love of dance and taught me steps from traditions that include bharata natyam, samba, capoeira, 50s rock, and reggae. Joan Baez’s music is a fave—she is a student of Esther’s and will often be dancing on the screen with the rest of us. 

Head-loading is a fun way to practice many important posture principles, shown here on the 1-2-3 Move program. 

Esther will also occasionally focus on yoga asanas and offer modifications that have enabled me to safely return to a yoga practice. If you see me balancing boxes (or my canoe) on my head, it’s thanks to all the practice I’ve now had with the Gokhale™ Head Cushion, gently “head-loading” my way to a taller, healthier neck. Thanks to the Gokhale Pain-Free™ Chair and Gokhale Stretchsit® Cushion, I’m also able to sit well at my desk and to drive long distances without pain, something that was impossible seven months ago.

1-2-3 Move often features artefacts such as Greek statues, Indian deities, or photographs of people from different cultures going about their work. Esther points out that examples of healthy posture by Americans are more readily found some generations back, in works such as those by Grant Wood or Winslow Homer.  

A Basket of Clams, 1873, Winslow Homer

My favorite class was the one devoted to the Hindu deity Ganesh, who takes the form of an elephant with a pot belly. While dancing to the “Ballad of Ganesha” by Lil Darkie, we took a cue from Ganesh, who holds himself beautifully, despite his roly-poly largesse. Esther talked about how strong abs are something that everyone, no matter what size, can cultivate. If Ganesh can carry himself well, the rest of us can do so as well. She made a similar point using images of Japanese sumo wrestlers. I deeply appreciate that Esther, raised in India by her Dutch mother and Indian father, takes a global perspective on healing. 

Dancing Ganesh, India, 900–1000 AD, sandstone - Fitchburg Art Museum

As a Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Practitioner, I’ve come to view the Gokhale Method as nonnegotiable, or what Andrea Nakayama, CEO of the Functional Nutrition Alliance, calls “Tier 1”—the basics that must be in place before supplementation (Tier 2) or any kind of medical intervention (Tier 3). 

Tier 1 includes community support, something that is available in any Gokhale Method group class. These social and emotional components of healing, and the importance of surrounding yourself with healthy posture cues from people, artwork, and music, are frequently discussed during the Q&A on the 1-2-3 Move program. 

In this 1-2-3 Move video, Esther shows how traditional artefacts such as shadow puppets from Java, Indonesia, inspire us to free our arms and open the chest.

The Gokhale Method is not against appropriate medication or procedures. Back in February when I was still having some pain upon waking every morning, I asked Esther what she thought of “injections” as a way to mitigate this. To my surprise she said that she sometimes suggests that her students consider this “Tier 3” approach, but only after they have tried “Tier 1” first. Medical interventions such as injections and painkillers can create a window of pain-relief that enables students to learn to improve their posture and address the root cause of their problem. 

I had already had an injection into my SI joint the previous September, which didn’t give me any relief. So I booked a one-on-one appointment with Esther, who pinpointed an excessive curve in my lumbar area. The transformation I brought about in my spine led to me being used as an example of progress in a blog post about spine shape. 

My “before” (above) and “after” (below) Elements photos show a considerable change from an S-spine towards a J-spine. You can read more about spine shape here.

With ongoing attention to creating more of a J-spine and less of an S-spine I no longer have pain. Perhaps even more importantly, I have greater trust that my body, with the right support, can heal.

Loren Edelson is a Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Practitioner who writes Given the Givens, a bimonthly newsletter on reaching our full potential, even after receiving a life-changing diagnosis. To subscribe, visit https://loren6c2.substack.com/welcome