alignment

In surveys of what people find physically attractive in a partner, a shapely butt is often highly rated. Perhaps it’s no surprise, but if you want, there are even apps to help! So, are good-looking glutes all about sex appeal and filling out our clothing in a flattering fashion? While these concerns may be valid, it is also true that well-toned glutes have many other, profound, but less widely recognized attributes. 

This blog post takes a look at the bigger picture of glute function. You may be surprised to find out just how much your glutes can contribute to healthy posture and a pain-free body.  

Glorious glutes—not just a “nice to have”

Your glutes potentially form the largest muscle group and have the largest impact. Most of us realize at some point in our lives, perhaps due to overdone squats or steep hill climbing, that the glutes are major players in sports and exercise. But if we don’t need them for competitive sports or challenging hiking, is it still worth investing in them for better returns? Let’s take a look at the dividends.

Reduce stress on your lower back

Glutes have a crucial role in offloading stress from the lower back and sacroiliac joints. When the glutes are weak, the lower back muscles work harder to try and stabilize the pelvis and trunk, leading to overuse and pain. When the glutes are strong, along with the inner corset, they steady the pelvis and lower back. This reduces the risk of wear and tear to discs and bones, nerve pain, and muscle spasm in the area.

Vigorous and/or repetitive movement, without the gluteal strength and pelvic stability shown here, leaves the back and spine more vulnerable to damage. (Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, 1872–​​1885)

Avoid sciatica and piriformis syndrome 

True sciatica occurs when there is pressure on the sciatic nerve, usually from a herniated disc or degenerative changes in the spinal joints. The symptoms may be numbness, tingling, burning and/or electrical shock-like pain. It usually extends from the buttock down the leg, and sometimes the foot, on one side. The Gokhale Method helps by restoring the anteverted position of the pelvis, and decompressing the lumbar spine where the sciatic nerve roots exit. We call the resulting natural alignment a J-spine.

Piriformis Syndrome is a condition characterized by pain, tingling, or numbness in the buttocks and often down the leg. It occurs when the piriformis muscle compresses or irritates the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve passes under (or, in some individuals, through) the piriformis muscle, and is particularly prone to overwork and disturb the sciatic nerve if its neighbor, gluteus medius, is not doing its duty. The Gokhale Method encourages healthy pelvic positioning and gluteal function to allow the sciatic nerve free passage through the area. 

The profile view (right) shows swayed, leaning back posture, which causes problematic tightening in the posterior chain muscles and compresses the lower spine, including its discs and nerves. 

Make your movement strong, flexible, and stable

Your glutes are the powerhouse muscles that propel you in climbing, squatting, running, jumping, and more. They also work to control those movements, and are key to maintaining your balance. But glutes are not just for vigorous exercise…

In walking, it is your glutes that enable you to correctly achieve forward motion, rather than relying overly on your psoas and quads, shuffling, or falling forward. Glute activation brings a natural smoothness and grace to walking that we call glidewalking. Glidewalking allows your front foot to meet the ground deliberately but lightly, which is gentle on your joints; it also stretches your psoas with every step. 

Long jumper Khaddi Sagnia of Sweden uses her glutes to power the run up and propel her amazing jumping…and also to glidewalk away.

Muscles support a healthy metabolism 

The muscular system plays an integral role in our body’s metabolism. Well-used muscles will be larger, helping to burn calories rather than store them. This can help to keep insulin levels low in the blood and can contribute to a healthy metabolism and weight range. 

Well-toned glutes contribute to a healthy muscular and metabolic system. Man at His Bath by Gustave Caillebotte, 1884.

The foremost antiaging strategy—beautiful buttocks!

Never mind face yoga, cosmetic lifts, or surgical implants. Rather than costly interventions that do nothing to stop you losing your balance, strength, and mobility, embrace the art and science of how to rejuvenate your body by learning to move as you are meant to. Healthy posture can greatly improve your body’s architecture, self-confidence, health span—and your appearance as a bonus!

 
As infants (left) we instinctively align ourselves well, making good use of our muscles. In our society, adopting poor postural habits as we go through life results in lack of healthy muscle tone, like “glute amnesia”—flat, wasted muscles that have forgotten how to work (right).

Best next action steps

We invite you to join us for a themed Free Online Workshop: Wake Up Your Glutes, They Snooze, You Lose, on Friday, September 6 at 12:30 pm PST, in which you will learn how to make every step a rep! A replay will be available over the weekend if you cannot join live. So sign up, and you will also receive a special offer.

This workshop launches our 21-day Strong Glutes, Strong Body Gokhale Fitness challenge, which will run from Sept 9–29, to help you continue to build strength and improve your posture.

In 2014, at age sixty-four, I began to experience pain in my left hip that eventually became quite debilitating. For the first time in my life, I went to a chiropractor, which resulted in relief that lasted a couple of years. By 2015 I had consulted first one, then a second orthopedic surgeon, who recommended a hip replacement due to osteoarthritis. 

The first clinic I went to, I felt like I was visiting a bone and joint factory…I decided to wait. The second place, they were reading another patient’s notes! That doesn’t give you a lot of confidence!! Not feeling completely comfortable with either of the surgeons, I began doing my own research. 

I longed to get back to hiking and walking pain-free.

I’m not one of those people who jump into things, especially surgery. So I went to a clinic where they did a lot of rehabilitative physical therapy and I asked one of the PT’s: of the people you work with who have success with their surgery, which surgeons do they use? And that’s how I found my hip surgeon. After a successful surgery in January 2016, as well as physical therapy sessions with the excellent physical therapist who recommended the surgeon to me, I recovered quickly and was thrilled to resume walking without pain.  

During the summer of 2018, while out shopping, I experienced both of my knees feeling as if they were on fire. My knees continued to bother me, but, afraid an orthopedic surgeon would tell me I needed surgery, I consulted a sports medicine doctor. He performed X-rays and confirmed that I had osteoarthritis in both knees. He suggested physical therapy and braces, as well as steroid shots (which I declined). Physical therapy helped to provide some relief as the muscles around my knees strengthened.

The following year, I read an article by Christiane Northrup, M.D., in which she shared information about the Gokhale Method®. I researched the method and learned that a one-day Pop Up course, one of the in-person ways to learn the Gokhale Method, would soon be offered in a nearby town, Boulder, Colorado. After the course, I did my best to focus on glidewalking, which did reduce the bone-on-bone knee pain.               

    
Everyday activities, such as bending, are taught in Gokhale Method group courses. Bending can be done in ways that align the bones well, use muscles appropriately, and spare the joints. Learning to hip-hinge benefits the knees, hips, shoulders and neck, and more besides.

I made it until June 2021, when I had successful bilateral knee replacements with the same surgeon.  I opted to do them both at the same time to get it over with, but recovery was challenging. After weeks of physical therapy, I was told to just do normal everyday activities. However, I did not feel I was making the progress I wanted.

My husband took these photos of my knee replacement X-rays at my 6-week post-operative follow-up appointment. Our joints are precious things to take care of!

Because COVID was still raging, I joined the new Gokhale daily online program. This enabled me to extend my recovery in a more enjoyable and focused way, and my knees became ever stronger. Even now, if I am unable to participate in the day’s live session, just receiving the email about the topic of the day is a great reminder and encourages me to focus on practice. And I regularly watch the replays if I miss a session.

Gokhale Exercise members receive a daily email outlining the day’s program, complete with an inspirational posture reminder image. This was May 7, 2024.

In February 2023 I began experiencing pain in my hands and my left shoulder. I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and given exercises and braces for my wrists/hands to wear at night. While the shoulder responded and had some improvement, my hands were still an issue.

At a follow-up appointment six weeks later, it was suggested I could have “a little surgery” on both hands to fix the issue. I looked up information about CTS and the surgery, and learned the pros and cons of having that done. I lived with the pain off and on until this year, when in early 2024 a diagnostic nerve test was performed by a neurologist to check the severity and cause of my particular CTS. Even though C7 (the seventh neck vertebra where nerves to the back of the arm, wrist, hand, and middle finger exit the spinal cord) was mentioned to me during the nerve assessment, the hand specialist who ordered the test did not mention it at a follow-up visit. He suggested surgery on both hands. A day after this appointment, I called the doctor’s office to find out more about possible C7 involvement and to ask if that might be the cause of my CTS. If so, how would surgery to snip the ligaments in my hands fix the problem? Since I never received a response, I did not schedule surgery.  

Pain-free wrists and a mobile neck are important to enjoy my hobbies. Here I am on a painting course that my daughter and I took together.

An X-ray of my cervical spine in March did indicate osteoarthritis in my neck, which in our society would be regarded as “normal” for my age. I discussed this finding with my chiropractor, who uses the Gonstead Technique. She felt confident that regular, gentle adjustments of affected areas, found by palpation and the use of a heat sensor that indicates inflammation, could be successful in eliminating the CTS symptoms. She checked my grip strength and adjusted my hands and wrists. Because I had difficulty using my hands for so long due to pain and numbness, they had become stiff and weak. I was also given suggestions about what I might do to help with my neck after my appointment. This made me once again think about what more I could do to contribute to my own healing.

My neck X-rays showed several areas of degeneration and misalignment that would potentially cause radicular pain. 

It had been almost five years since I first attended the one-day Pop Up course. I would say that up until recently, I had been somewhat “dabbling” in the Gokhale Method, without a full understanding or commitment to change my posture. Although chiropractic treatments helped to relieve my symptoms, I recognized that a healthy baseline posture was lacking, resulting in repeated misalignments. Understanding that an issue with my cervical spine might actually be the cause of my CTS, I finally came to the realization that I had been overly relying on others to fix me, and that I also needed to do everything I could to help myself. Just the thought of yet another surgery became extremely motivating!

That’s when I decided to circle back to the Gokhale Method. During an Online Follow-up with Esther in January this year, I explained that I wanted more confidence about what I should be doing for my posture and wanted coaching. Shortly after, I began the one-on-one online Elements course with Esther, which ended in April. In the early sessions, it was difficult for me to even get into positions that required me to use my hands and shoulders. By about halfway through the course, my pain from CTS had subsided, as well as the stiffness and pain in my shoulders which had not been in the healthy place they should be. I used to change up my mattresses and pillows a lot, but now I realize it’s not all about these external things—good mattresses and pillows can help, but how you position your body makes a big difference. 

On a regular basis, non-genetic scolioses/asymmetries tend to diminish with standard Gokhale Method training—that is, without any special focus. In my case, it reduced the strain on my neck. This surprised and delighted me.

Now for the really great news! I have not experienced CTS at all since completing the Elements course. While I practice healthy posture with my whole body, as everything interrelates, my main focus has been on my neck, head, and shoulder placement. Chiropractic appointments have gone from bi-weekly, to weekly, and now, only occasionally. For weeks now, C7 has not needed an adjustment and it makes my heart so happy when my chiro tells me the instrument that measures heat and inflammation in that area is clear! She has seen how my improved posture is making a difference and has been extremely supportive of the Gokhale Method.  

My exercise and walking had greatly diminished over the years after the onset of osteoarthritis, pain, and then surgeries. My upper body has been my main concern recently, but other techniques, such as glidewalking, have greatly improved my mobility and stamina. I would like to take the Advanced Glidewalking course in the future. I am working my way back to a healthy weight and an active life—thanks to the Gokhale Method.    

In this video I share how glidewalking has enabled me to travel and walk longer distances in comfort.

Best next action steps 

If you would like to improve your joint health, 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…

August is peak holiday time across the northern hemisphere, and many of us who live here will find ourselves poolside, or even better, in it!

Being in water has the natural advantage of lifting weight off the joints while providing gentle resistance training. Aching backs or knees can find relief from compression in the natural buoyancy that water provides. This has made pool exercises a popular prescription with physical therapists over many years, especially for post-operative or post-injury rehabilitation. 

On land, to relieve pain and compression, people usually use elaborate measures like inversion tables, traction units, or going to outer space! In the Gokhale Method we provide decompression for the lower back relatively simply with the Stretchsit® Cushion or the nubs on our Gokhale™Pain-Free Chair. But stepping into water is the simplest of all, giving you freedom of movement and the ability to strengthen yourself simultaneously.

Pool exercise also provides a fun and refreshing environment for exercise in summer heat waves! Wikimedia

This blog post gives you three ways to harness the unique benefits of being in water to practice and develop healthier posture. These exercises are challenging enough to do as a stand-alone workout or as a way to prime your swim session.

Healthy posture habits honed in water will benefit your daily life on land, as well as giving you greater stability and power for your swimming or other sports. 

For safety and best results, I recommend that you progress the session in the order given here, starting with Exercise 1 and, once you are familiar with it, move on to Exercise 2 and finally add Exercise 3. 

1. Stabilize your spine by using your inner corset

You will use a natural brace of muscles as you walk across the pool. It will give you the stability you need to cut through the resistance of the water without wobbling and threatening the alignment of your spine. 

Imagine you are getting into ice cold water. Feel how all the muscles around your middle can contract and make you more slender. You want to work hard enough to feel this from deep in the pelvis all the way up to your rib cage. You want to feel the muscular engagement all the way around your mid torso, like a tightly laced corset. 

The muscles of the inner corset include the deep intrinsic back muscles, the abdominis transversus, and the obliques. 

Gokhale Method teacher Eric Fernandez shows how engaging the inner corset draws the abdomen in and makes the torso slender.

This is one way of recruiting your “inner corset," which will help stabilize your spine as you walk and is key to swimming with a more streamlined, efficient stroke. We teach this technique and others in more detail in our in-person Foundations course, one-day Pop-up course, our online Elements course, plus our Gokhale Exercise program. You can read more about your inner corset here.

2. Headload to lengthen your neck and to find deep spinal support

In industrialized cultures we have an epidemic of forward head carriage, putting enormous strain on the neck and structures throughout the back. Finding healthy alignment through your neck, combined with the inner corset, helps your whole spine to support itself well. Resting even a modest additional weight on the head can help us to find our vertical axis and stand tall. This is the reason I developed the Gokhale™ Head Cushion. 

Headloading encourages recruitment of the deepest muscles of the inner corset and the neck, especially the longus colli at the front of the spine. 

In the pool I suggest you use what you have at hand—your hands! Rest them on your head and push up against them with your head. Keep your nose and chin angled downward. Proceed very gently if you have neck issues. You can gradually build up the intensity over a number of sessions. 

Gokhale Method teacher Clare Chapman headloading in the pool using the weight of hands and arms. Create space between your shoulders and your ears—keep your shoulders down as your neck grows tall. 

Establishing healthy length in your neck will help you to retain a straighter, more spacious alignment while swimming, especially in breaststroke where people tend to crane their necks to hold their heads above water. Consider training to swim with your head in the water, if you do not do this already, which will enable a much healthier alignment of your torso, neck, and head.

Especially when you raise your arms, you may need to use your rib anchor muscles to prevent your back from swaying.

3. Power up your walking using your feet and glutes

Many of us compromise our walking by overusing our quads and hip flexors (psoas muscle) and underusing our glutes. We predominantly reach our front leg forward in our strides, instead of generating propulsion from the rear leg with our glutes and foot muscles. 

Our ancestors and many people living in more traditional or nonindustrialized societies—where joint and back pain are rare—walk using their glute and foot muscles more than we typically do.

As you walk in the pool, make each step a rep. Each step wants to progress through a pose that includes a straight back leg and a bent front knee. As each leg goes back behind you in turn, squeeze your buttock muscles on that side. Engage the upper outer quadrant of your glute pack. This is not the kind of glute squeeze that clenches your lower butt cheeks together and tucks your pelvis. 

Gokhale Method Alumna Christine Andrew working hard to achieve healthy walking form in the buoyancy and resistance of water.

Grab the floor of the pool with the whole sole of your foot, and then push off from your toes. Focus on maintaining the convex foot shape as you do this. Propel to glide forward, not bounce upward.

Eric actively grabs the floor of the pool with each foot to pull the body forward and then push back.

Putting it all together: Aim to keep healthy form and walk as smoothly as you can through the water. This develops both healthy length and muscle power in the right places.

If you notice your back arches back as you walk, take smaller steps and lean more forward until you master the art of keeping your spine stable with the rib anchor and inner corset techniques. Enjoy!

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like to know which posture changes will help you be pain-free and functional, schedule an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

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

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.

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

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