carrying

The Question 

Can I get Gokhale-fit in 9 weeks (for a long overseas trip) via the online Gokhale Elements course?

The Dream

The trip of a lifetime is looming: 3 months in France in Spring 2023—something I’ve dreamed of for a long time. As a 67-year-old Australian, this means a lot of dreaming and a lot of planning! We’re not walking the Camino, though there’ll be lots of walking…it's more about an immersion in beauty and daily life in French towns and countryside. 

We're off in search of lush French beauty to top up our more arid and windswept Australian variety—and hopefully shine a light on an elusive French ancestor trail. Freepik

The Reality

Excitement’s building, home-front preparations are ratcheting up, French lessons take on more urgency…but I’ve been aware for a while of anxiety about how my body will cope. In particular I worry about the nitty gritty of travel: hoicking heavy suitcases into cars and taxis and onto airline scales, up and down stairwells and elevators, the sitting for hours…and hours and hours (around 24 each way) in uncomfortable airport lounges and aeroplanes—and the unfamiliar beds, tiny crowded footpaths, ankle-testing cobblestones, showers in baths—and all that walking. 

Osteoporosis

I’ve travelled lots, and well off the beaten track—but for the first time I’m aware that my body isn’t as young as it used to be and I wonder how I’ll cope with it all this time around. I’m generally healthy but have inherited thyroid and bone density issues. My current osteoporosis DEXA-scan score is -3 in the worst area—gradually drifting downward over the years despite regular daily exercise of various sorts, a very good diet, and various trials of medication. My back issues have been slowly increasing. Six-monthly injections were the only intervention producing slightly increased bone density but I had to switch medications due to side effects. 

Osteoporosis features strongly in my extended family, and I’d seen my own wonderful mum gradually defeated by increasing back aches and its psychological impact, and by inadequate healing and gradual decline after falling, despite her exceptional commitment (well into her 80s) to preventative and post-op exercise and diet.

My lumbar spine DEXA scan showed a high risk of fracture due to low bone density.

I could see—and feel—myself heading in the same direction, albeit 30 years behind her. An increasingly common ache in my back, low energy, increasing need for afternoon naps (something I’d thought was for people much older than me), difficulty sleeping comfortably at night due to back stiffness, and needing to sit with my knees up, whenever decent, to feel comfortable. I’d given up on household and garden jobs requiring back work. My mood and outlook were affected. 

Feedback from previous Gokhale Method course participants 

Someone I knew had had a remarkable and quick turnaround from severe, crippling, intractable back pain following a Gokhale Method Foundations Course in Sydney, with teacher Michelle Ball in 2017. Her back issue was disc protrusion, not osteoporosis, but like me she’d tried everything recommended to her by conventional medicine and a range of alternative approaches, without success. However, almost immediately on starting the 6-lesson Foundations Course she felt improvement—and since then has had no further back issues. She says, 

It saved my life. I have zero pain today and the best posture! Esther is my hero! 

Myriam Glorieux, Australia, 2023.

On the Gokhale Method website I’d also read Sheila Terry’s blog: How Correct Posture and a Holistic Approach Helped My Osteoporosis, written after a deep immersion in Gokhale Method training and practice. I was inspired. I dithered for a while because of the expense and the time commitment, neither of which I could manage easily in the lead-up to going away for so long. But I knew the increasing ache in my back—and the movements it was beginning to restrict—would impact a lot on our time away and all the trip preparations. 

Osteoporosis is a thinning of the bone and a reduction in its density. The Gokhale Method considers that healthy posture may well be key to the skeleton weight-bearing correctly and maintaining bone density. Image from Wikimedia Commons

My Online Initial Consultation 

I had an Online Initial Consultation with Esther Gokhale. She felt that based on the posture photos and medical reports I’d sent, and from what she could see of my movements and posture on Zoom, I had problem areas which if not addressed would likely get worse—but if addressed would improve. I dithered again, but in the end decided my health and my quality of life (and the lives of those around me) were worth the investment in time and money.

The Gokhale Elements Course 

By this stage our trip was only 9 weeks away. Travelling to do the in-person Foundations Course was out of the question given time limitations, but I could do the online Elements course from home on a schedule that fitted me. I also decided to buy the Gokhale PostureTracker™, thinking that without a hands-on teacher who could physically check my posture, it’d be the next best thing. Wearing its two sensors told me (via an app) when my spine was or wasn’t in proper alignment. It’s been well worth the outlay—it was so reassuring to have the figure on the screen show green whenever my posture was in correct alignment, or turn to other colours if my body drifted away from this. It can be set to beep or buzz if you can’t watch the screen. PostureTracker™ can help with almost every position.

The Elements course is 18 sessions, each 13 minutes long. I knew my learning style and that to absorb things well (and make the most of my financial and time investment) I’d need several days between each lesson to do the required pre-reading/video-watching/lesson prep, and then the practise/fine-tuning afterwards. By spacing things this way (I chose Tuesday and Friday mornings at 7.30am my time) I could factor everything into daily life. The helpful Customer Support staff were able to lock in all lessons at times that fitted well for me. This way I’d finish the 18 sessions the day before we flew to France. Pretty good motivation I thought. 

The Elements course covers the key components required for re-establishing the basis of natural, healthy human posture with regard to standing, sitting, bending, walking, and lying. The 18 online classes teach Gokhale Method techniques such as the rib anchor, shoulder roll, and stretchsitting, and many more, in detail and tailored to each person.

The short, free Gokhale Moments videos can get you started with key techniques like rib anchor, shoulder roll, and stretchsitting.

Each Elements student has a private log-in User Dashboard on the Gokhale website, containing all their student records, submitted photos, PostureTracker™ data (if used), Student Notes etc. At the end of each Elements lesson, I did 5–10 mins of practice to lock in what I’d learnt, then logged into the Dashboard to write a brief summary, for my own benefit, of my key learning or queries—plus comments about body changes I was noticing. 

These notes were also a way to send progress reports and questions to Esther (who, as my teacher, was notified every time I posted). Sometimes she answered these online and sometimes during lessons.

Click here for excerpts from my Elements course Student Notes:

 A New Reality? (…am hoping so!) 

It was almost spooky how quickly my body responded to these subtle changes. Esther talks about body parts (once Gokhaled) “coming home to where they belong”—and that’s how it feels. I’m taller, straighter, firmer, stronger, and I’m walking, standing, sitting, and bending better. I’m more energetic, powering along pathways on daily walks (glidewalking is amazing!), and feel back in sync with my body. 

I finished the Elements course the day before we flew to France. My body felt so much stronger and I can see it in the “After” photos. 

I’ve had to remove the books under my desktop computer screen because the angle of my chin (and line of sight) has shifted slightly downwards without my being conscious of it, to a more comfortable position. Maybe this has something to do with the disappearance of the background headache I’ve had for the past year or so. 

I’m gradually sleeping better (i.e. more comfortably), with stretchlying on the side still to be fully mastered. The increasing discomfort I’d had for many months prior to the course has disappeared. My head is clear and I’ve got my mojo back. I feel more positive. Significant and wonderful changes. 

Of course, having France on the horizon no doubt helped (!), but it couldn’t account for the physical changes, or the confidence I felt about managing upcoming travel challenges. I skipped off into the French “coucher de soleil” (sunset) feeling ready for just about anything.

Bridge at Cirque de Navacelles, near Montpellier, southern France.

I felt Gokhale-fit—and sailed through pretty much everything on our trip. We’ve just arrived home after a wonderful three months: stunning landscapes, beauty-reservoirs full to overflowing, layers of history, French lessons given full workout, replete with delicious food, shoes worn thin, walking muscles well and truly toned. What a country! 

The Seine river, in the heart of Paris.

This curious little fish-chef artwork kept appearing (in different poses) on walls all over Paris— generally without text—but on this one was the German word “zeitenwende,” which translates as “turning point.” It seems to fit, so I’m taking it as a sign for my posture journey:)

Gratitude

I’m very grateful to Esther and her team for what she’s created and made available in the Gokhale Method. It’s extraordinary stuff. At times it feels too good to be true…and yet it is. Such subtle changes, yet such profound impact. All delivered in such an engaging, very human, immensely skilful and positive way. This gift is life-changing.   

PS: The Gokhale Method in Australia

As we were flying into Australia, I saw on the Gokhale website that Tegan Kahn (one of Australia’s 2 Gokhale teachers) was running a Foundations Course in Canberra that weekend. It was a hands-on opportunity (too timely to miss) for tweaking my still problematic stretchlying on the side. 

I detoured and spent 2 days with Tegan, who took me through all 6 Foundations lessons—with extra attention to stretchlying on the side. She was impressed by my “Gokhale-fit posture” and only small refinements were generally needed, but with stretchlying on the side some extra input and hands-on clarified the changes I needed to make. These are progressively becoming part of my “muscle memory” and a side-lying posture that works for me. Thank you, Tegan!

Tegan refined my stretchlying on the side position (I'd been overdoing most of the steps) and it felt great. The tricky bit is being able to repeat it at home… bit by bit training my muscle memory.

My results from practising the Gokhale Method keep growing. After my Foundations Course I was able to nestle my pelvis even deeper and align my upper back and neck straighter in hip-hinging.

Teacher Training—possibly in Australia!

I’d been wondering while away if I could apply to do Gokhale Teacher Training—as a way to deepen my own understanding and help others (including family members) out of long-term back pain.

And…a golden opportunity has come up. Esther is considering coming to Australia to run a teacher training course in early 2024! This would make the teacher-training process so much more accessible and affordable for those of us in the Australasia region. A minimum of 4–6 teacher trainees are needed. The Gokhale Method team is already in the process of contacting all Gokhale Alumni in Australia, India, Singapore and New Zealand, and inviting anyone interested to contact them for information. I’ve put my hand up and have nearly completed the application process.

If you live in our region of the world and are inspired to train in Australia to become a Gokhale Method Teacher, please contact [email protected]. I hope to see you there!

This is the second post in our series on shoulder positioning. Read Part 1 here!

Typing with shoulders too far forward.

Often, in industrialized cultures, the shoulders are slumped or held forward. There are so many daily tasks in the modern world that make it all too easy for these bad habits to set in: holding our arms out front for hours with poor shoulder placement while we are typing, gaming, driving, and so on. Over the years this is likely to cause various problems:

• Impingement, bursitis, wear-and-tear

• Reduced circulation to the arms 

• Compromised breathing patterns

• Reduced athletic performance, increased injuries

• Hunched upper back and forward head

Common pitfalls in getting the shoulders back
Unfortunately, well-intentioned advice such as “pull your shoulders back” often has negative consequences. When we try and correct our shoulder position by pulling back, we are likely to either tense and sway our lower backs, or tighten the rhomboid muscles between our shoulder blades —  or both! Neither of these responses are healthy or comfortable for very long.

Meet the rhomboids
The rhomboids, which pull the shoulder blades together, are not designed to be squeezed tightly for long periods. If you consistently rely on them to pull your shoulders back, they can become sore, knotted, and inflamed

The rhomboids are not designed to be squeezed tightly for long periods. Original image courtesy Wikimedia user Anatomography under CC BY-SA 2.1 jp.

Those of you familiar with the Gokhale Method are probably already practicing the shoulder roll. This gentle movement brings the shoulders home to a naturally sustainable position.  For detailed tips on refining your shoulder roll, please see my recent blog post on shoulder positioning.

Though the rhomboids should not be continuously contracted when you are upright, they exist for good reason. The rhomboids play an important role in keeping the shoulder joint stable, especially when you bend forward, carry heavy objects, or reach for something in front of you. These actions would otherwise displace the shoulders forward. 

Inactive or weak rhomboids allow the shoulders to be pulled forward when carrying loads in front of the body.

Changing lifestyles

This farmer doesn’t bring his shoulder forward to carry his watering can.
 

This Burkinabé teenager pounds millet with her shoulders staying far back.

Our ancestors, like people in traditional and non-industrialized cultures today, had many more opportunities in daily life to use their rhomboids and upper back muscles: drawing water, clearing land, sweeping the yard, and harvesting crops. We can get much of this conditioning from sport such as rock climbing, games such as tug-o’-war, and chores such as gardening or vacuuming, but suitable activity may not continue into a more sedentary adult life. Without regular challenges, the muscles of the upper back can become weak and lax, allowing the shoulders to drift forward and the upper back to round.

Rhomboid toner exercise
Exercises are useful to isolate and strengthen muscles that have been systematically under-used. I find the rhomboid toning exercise below to be effective.

1. Hold a physical therapy band or strap. Keep your wrists straight, palms facing up.
2. Begin by performing a shoulder roll. This healthy shoulder position places your rhomboids in a position of mechanical advantage.
3. Pin elbows to your sides at a 90º angle. The position is similar to when you’re carrying a tray.
4. Draw your shoulder blades as close together as you can. Your hands will move away from each other. The band or strap provides resistance to this motion, challenging the rhomboids. Be sure not to tense the shoulders or neck.
5. Hold for a few seconds. Repeat 5 to 10 times.

Getting your rhomboids to work for you when you need them will benefit both your shoulder health and your posture. Next time you are carrying heavy bags or pulling a door towards you, notice how these muscles help to preserve your shoulder position. Sometimes a little pulling back goes a long way!

In the first installment of this story, we discussed some physical movement patterns that can be supported or reinforced by owning / walking / observing dogs. Here, we touch on a few more benefits from having a furry pet!

Carrying and Lifting

As a dog owner, you will find yourself needing to lift well. It may be to carry bags of dog food, a pup, or perhaps a much-loved elderly or sick dog. By following the postural principles of the Gokhale Method, you can do this without strain or fear of injury. The most important techniques for this context are hip-hinging, inner corset, and maintaining a healthy shoulder structure.

Carry your pet with shoulders back, close to your body. Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Projecting Authority

I have noticed that people who do agility training or show their dogs competitively tend to have better posture than average. I see this as a result of the higher level of physical fitness they maintain by working with their dogs as well as how they instinctively project to their animals the calm authority required for success.

Better posture conveys calm authority to your dog. Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Dogs in Art

Old paintings are of great value as historical records. Paintings featuring dogs give particular insight into the history of various breeds of domestic and working dog. In this charming nineteenth-century portrait we are also drawn to observe the dignified posture of the seated man, who stacksits with far more ease than is common today.

Portrait of a Sacramento Indian with Dogs, 1867, by German-American artist Charles Nahl (1818-78). Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

I hope our blogs on dogs have inspired you to explore new ways to develop your posture specific to our longest-standing relationship with another species. If you would love a dog but can't currently commit to having your own, consider walking a friend’s or neighbor’s dog — this could be a great arrangement for all concerned!

In the comments section below we encourage you to share any dog-posture stories / disasters / successes.

I like to exercise in the woods. There! I’ve said it. I’ve said it aloud too - so there’s no going back. Truth be told, I’m much happier here among the trees than the squeezing between the pec-decks and stationary bikes at my local globo gym. I even prefer it to pounding the streets or hiking through the fields. In fact I prefer it to pretty much everything.

There’s something primal about the woods. It’s not just the smells, the sounds of the whispering trees, the presence of birds and other wildlife, or the dappled sunlight effect that the forest canopy casts on the ground. I think it goes further than that.

It’s a place where human beings seem to instantly feel at home; an environment that at once welcomes and intrigues. For me, being in the woods puts humans back where they belong, back where we started before the first of our species walked out of the forest on two legs and into the African savannah.

Of course you could argue that other environments could be thought of as just as natural for humans - the desert or the mountains, for example. What’s different about the forest though is that you can’t see it all at once. Upon a mountain top, you can gaze out over acres of terrain at one glance. In the Sahara you can cast an eye over mile-upon-mile of undulating dunes if you stand on top of a high one. In a forest however, only as you walk through it are its secrets revealed to you. You stumble from one little discovery to the next with a surprise around every corner.

I don’t just walk in the forest though. That’s enjoyable enough but there’s so much more fun to be had. No, I use the forest as my gym. There’s far more to do there than there is at your local LA Fitness centre. You just need to know how to use it.

There’s no end of challenges when you learn how to spot them. Can I jump that log? Can I vault that broken stump? Can I balance on this branch – or hang underneath that one – or move hand-over-hand along it?

Now you might be wondering what any of this has to do with posture or the Gokhale Method? What’s easy to forget is that posture is just a snap shot of movement. If you can move successfully between a range of different but correct postures, we can say that you ‘move well’. The challenge of moving well only becomes real when we are asked to engage in real, complex and unique movement patterns.

Ok, so you’ve used the Gokhale Method to improve the way you stand, sit and lie down. Maybe your back pain has cleared up? Maybe you no longer feel like a hunchback when you look in the mirror? That’s great! But that’s not the end of the Gokhale Method or your quest to make the most of the body you’ve been given.

The next test is to use your new-found sense of balance, posture and grace in an increasing number of more challenging ways. And, to my mind, there’s nothing outside of the woods to beat this.

As you walk through a forest you’ll notice the floor beneath you is uneven. Can you keep your foot arches nicely intact and your ankles, knees and hips in alignment? Or do you allow your knees to pitch inwards, your shoulders to pull towards each and your head to be pushed out, grimly, in front of you? If you can learn to control your posture while moving in a complex environment like this, you’re well on the way to mastering your body. It’s both the training and the test. You’ll move with greater efficiency and grace, be protected from injury – and certainly enjoy yourself a whole lot more!

There’s something to look for with every step. When you notice you’re going to have to duck under a low branch, do you find yourself rounding your back and tucking your head into your shoulders? Or do you hinge neatly at the hips, while keeping your back straight and true?

Another example: try walking along a log. You’ll find you’re much more balanced if you engage your inner corset and ensure you’re using your rib anchor. In fact, the extra stability you gain from appropriate use of your abs and obliques will extend into every movement.

If you try to lift a sizable log from the ground but don’t do it from a healthy start and end posture, your body will tell you about it. You might get away with reaching for your toes badly under ordinary circumstances – but try it before lifting a heavy weight from the ground and suddenly all Esther’s teachings make sense. (In fact many powerlifters and strongman competitors unconsciously employ the skills and positions that Gokhale Method student practice – that’s what makes them so successful.)

Whether you’re jumping, crawling, climbing, lifting or carrying, these principles will all still apply. You can’t really break the rules. You can only break yourself against them.

When I take new clients into the forest to train I find there are two things that make them feel pretty darn stiff the next day, even if to my conventional gym goers it appears that they’ve only done a light workout.

Firstly their bodies go into positions that they would otherwise never find themselves in. Joints will go through a much wider range of motion that they are used to, making this excellent mobility work. (If you’ve tried taking a huge first step to get off the ground and onto the first branch of a tree, you’ll know what I mean.)

Secondly, every movement is unique. Because each inch of a wood is different, individuals must adapt their movement in complex and subtle ways each time. Every muscle and every joint has a part to play. There's no machine isolating muscle groups as there will be in your local LA Fitness center. Movement faults or postural issues have nowhere to hide.

The mind-body link has a large role to play here too. To respond to this environment fully, you must be highly alert: alert to the branch you might walk into; alert to the shifting terrain under your feet; alert to the position of your body in space; and alert to how you’re controlling your body in this ever changing landscape.

The overall benefits of a workout like this are entirely holistic. Because we never use sets and reps, improvements are harder to measure yet easier to feel. We’re simultaneously addressing mobility, strength, speed, stamina, balance, movement skills - and, of course, bodily awareness in the form of the Gokhale Method.

The better you apply your refined awareness skills the more quickly the other benefits will follow, all the while protected from injury by the balance, alignment and stability that the Gokhale Method confers. Twenty minutes on a stationary bike while staring at a LCD screen just doesn’t compare!

My hope is that one day we will all return to moving, standing and sitting as humans have for thousands of years (and as some indigenous people still do.) I hope also that we will reject the artificiality of gym exercise and get back to performing authentic human movement in the sort of environment in which our bodies and minds have evolved to thrive.

By Oliver Selway
Author of Instinctive Fitness

www.instinctive–fitness.com

www.woodland-workouts.co.uk

Book available from Amazon: http://amzn.to/2vPiIA8

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.