slouching

Yes, you read that correctly. Not only do you not need to damage your neck every time you use your cell phone, but instead, you could be improving it!

Most of us use our cell phones quite frequently. If you train yourself to adopt a healthy stance every time you use your phone, you will have a built-in posture practice that repeats throughout your day. 

Identifying the problem

Cell phones are unfairly regarded as the inevitable cause of neck problems and slouching. It’s not that you use a phone, but how you use it, that matters. Images from Clare Chapman, Pixabay and Pexels

Most people tend to let their head be drawn towards their screen when they use their cell phone. That’s why social media and wellness features are full of warnings about “text neck,” including graphics about how the head gets effectively heavier the further forward it is, and how that puts increasing strain on the neck. This is certainly true. The advice to avoid text neck is often to hold your phone straight ahead, rather than downward. Since this is physically and socially awkward, most people don’t do it.

Common advice to hold a cell phone straight out ahead feels awkward to most people.

Fortunately, there is a better solution…

Neck Saver #1: Adjust your head, bring your phone to your face, and look down

I like to use an analogy with eating...You may have been trained to bring your food to your mouth, rather than your mouth to your plate. Your mother was right! Following the code of table manners, she was teaching not only a more elegant, but also a more healthful way of dining which avoided squishing your neck.

Infants instinctively like to keep their neck tall and head well aligned. Pexels

Similarly, when you use your phone, you want to first establish a healthy head and neck position, and then feed yourself your information by bringing the phone towards your face, rather than your face to your phone. We recommend you get started by watching this free video, which will teach you the basics of how to glide your neck back and up to a healthy baseline position. 

Next, you will want to look down. Blaming a downward line of vision for neck problems ignores the reality that for tens of thousands of years our ancestors have looked downward, without any ill effects, and that we are fully adapted to do this. We’ve looked downwards to track animals, avoid snakes, find food, avoid thorns, make tools, prepare food, nurse infants, and more—these activities were essential, often for many hours at a time.

It may be enough to just move your eyes to look down. To look down further, you may need to do a combination of angling your chin down, and/or angling your neck from its base—where the bump of your largest neck bone (C7) may protrude at the back of your neck. No matter how you are looking downward, with your eyes, neck, or head, be sure your neck maintains a good baseline length. 

The aim is not to avoid looking down, but to improve how we look down. This teenager has his eyes down, his chin down, and has maintained a tall, spacious neck which remains centered over his body. Image from Pixabay

Neck Saver #2: Get some new wallpaper!

It’s true that a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words. Our species has a very large visual cortex—by choosing a home screen on your cell phone that inspires and reminds you to reposition your neck, you will be reinforcing healthy neck posture every time you pick up your phone. 

A little posture know-how turns your cell phone into a smartphone! Image from Freepik

We have put together a selection of downloadable images for you to choose from below. 

Smartphone image #1. Image from Pixabay
Download image #1 

Smartphone image #2
Download image #2 

Smartphone image #3
Download image #3 

Neck Saver #3: PostureTracker™

If only you could be reminded instantly every time your neck migrated forward or your chin jutted upward. Well, we have your back—and neck! Our recently released PostureTracker™ device uses a pair of sensors you can place in many pairs of locations on your body. Via an app on your phone, it gives you real-time feedback (visual, sound, or vibration) every time you depart from your calibrated ideal. No more over-contracting your neck muscles and compressing your cervical discs! 

When your chin lifts, compressing your neck (left), PostureTracker will alert you and guide you back to your healthiest calibrated posture (right).

We are often asked why we do not sell the PostureTracker as a stand-alone device. It’s because without training, the device would likely be used to reinforce common misconceptions about good posture; people would use the device to “sit up straight,” for example, and likely do more harm than good. So PostureTracker is available only to our students, past and present. For people who understand what good posture is, the device is invaluable—it helps close the gap between knowing what to do and doing it as a habit. You can sign up here for our next Alumni PostureTracker Course, starting Thursday June 27, 7:00 am PT.

Best next action steps 

If you have had trouble with your neck and would like to improve it, 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…

As we approach International Women’s Day on March 8, I would like to share a few observations regarding gender and health made over the past three decades of teaching posture. 

Does gender affect back pain?

Back pain and the posture distortions behind it are very democratic—people of all ages, activity levels, geographic locations, and gender are affected by cultural postural distortions. That said, some modern posture guidelines and expectations are gender-specific, and some of them affect women disproportionately. We will discuss posture guidelines for men another time. In this post, I’d like to address some of the messaging that is relentlessly addressed towards women and girls, and the consequences of this messaging. 

In our society back pain affects people across all social groups. Different groups can be affected disproportionately in particular ways. Image from Pexels

Fashion and posture

I think it’s fair to say that women are more subject to fashion and to its extremes than men. 

Conformity to fashion, and rebellion against it, has women, more than men, stuck with uncomfortable, biomechanically unhealthy, and impractical garb. Examples are: 

• High heels that deform the feet and prevent mobility
• Tight clothes that distort body alignment and restrict range of motion
• Eating lightly to be thin and retain teenage proportions 
• Encouraging women and men to unduly judge women by their appearance

 
Most fashion role models for women encourage an emaciated, weak physique, a tucked or forward pelvis, internally rotated legs, and forward shoulders and head. Images from X, Pixabay

One of the most damaging distortions perpetuated by the fashion industry is tucking the pelvis. This pose exploded onto the scene in the 1920s, and has been a look ever since. Perhaps a reaction against corseting and “stiff” pre–World War 1 fashions, it encouraged a relaxed but slouched posture, with a tucked tail, rounded shoulders, and forward head. 

This 1920s portrait shows the new “relaxed” posture which translates as tucking the pelvis, rounding the back, and jutting the head forward. (Photo of Eileen McCahon, New Zealand). Image from Unsplash

While tucking the pelvis is a problem for everybody vis-à-vis spinal health, when it comes to pelvic organ health, women have much more to lose! In addition to the rectum, which is at risk of prolapse in all genders, women are additionally at risk for a prolapsed uterus, vagina, and bladder, as well as urinary incontinence. Women also have a more vulnerable pelvic floor due to the stresses of pregnancy and childbearing. The wider female pelvis is also at higher risk of instability, with this effect amplified by the pregnancy hormone relaxin.

An anteverted pelvis (left) gives optimal support to internal pelvic organs and the connective tissues that hold them in place. A tucked pelvis (right) makes us more vulnerable to organ prolapse.

Pregnancy and the nursing of babies can bring with it yet more musculoskeletal challenges. The extra weight requires additional strength and resilience throughout the body. For example, weak abdominal muscles cause the spine to be pulled into a compressive sway, dangerously loading the spinal discs and nerves. While nursing and caring for an infant, it takes a strong inner corset and posture wisdom to lift, hold, and carry an infant well, or these actions too can cause significant damage. 

Several of our teachers, including myself, came to the Gokhale Method for solutions to pregnancy-related trials. These past blog posts reflect some of our experiences: Esther Gokhale and Julie Johnson, Esther Gokhale and MommaStrong, Esther Pohl, Janine Farzin. 

This young mother in Burkina Faso (left) is using her inner corset to remain tall, stable, and relaxed while carrying on her head with her baby on her back . Gokhale Method teacher Esther Pohl (right) found that traditional posture principles really work, and carried her second child much more comfortably.  

Outside of the physiological and anatomical considerations mentioned above, in my experience women are also disproportionately raised to be “good girls” and people-pleasing, and to conform to current social norms. Postural examples would be: 

• Craning the neck forward to signal empathy and attentiveness
• Turning the legs inward to be “modest”, which forces the pelvis to tuck, cultivates internal rotation of the legs and feet, and compromises circulation to the lower body
• Sitting and standing in ways that diminish size and surrender space, such as rounding the shoulders and stooping.

Body language and fashion norms for women often result in posture that diminishes their size, space, and sometimes, self-confidence. Image from Pixabay

Unless we have been subject to protection from poor posture by exposure to a strong and healthy postural tradition, we are likely to have acquired at least some of these disabling habits. When women set out on a journey into healthy posture it often awakens indignation as they gain awareness of the reasons for some of their aches and pains. This reaction can act as a useful spur to positive action. A healthy strategy going forward is about repairing the situation—and celebrating being an active woman enjoying a pain-free body. 

Aline was able to start making many empowering posture changes during her weekend Gokhale Foundations Course, and continues her journey of discovery.  

On March 12, 12 p.m. PST, my colleague Julie Johnson and I will be offering a special free online workshop called Women’s Empowerment Through Posture. Join us to discuss the issues raised by our many thousands of female students over the years—some of them mentioned here, and many more besides. 

We are excited that this workshop is the kick-off for a brand new Women’s Empowerment Through Posture campaign. For those joining our free online workshop live we will also have a special offer and will be unveiling a brand new offering! 

Best next action steps 

If you are new to the Gokhale Method, 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…

Sitting has been much maligned in the last decade. News sources love to dramatize the issue, and you can find many alarming headlines—such as, “Sitting will kill you, even if you exercise” from CNN in 2015. The debate about the various risks of sitting and possible ways to mitigate them is raging, and articles and research range from “sitting is the new smoking” to “sitting isn’t actually bad for you.”

 
Sitting: is it bad for you?

In the last few years, some research has seemed to backtrack or qualify the fears of the past, making a distinction between sitting for work versus sitting in front of the TV; news articles have begun to note the higher risks of sitting for those who are obese or inactive, and the potentially minimal risks of sitting for otherwise healthy adults. Just two years after telling us that sitting will kill us, CNN now claims, “Sitting might not be so bad for you after all.” There are also studies now suggesting that standing presents its own risks and problems including hospitalization due to varicose veins and inreased risk of atherosclerosis. In any case, studies show that after one month, users of standing desks return to sitting. 

People have been spending long hours each day sitting before the rise of ailments like heart disease and diabetes—is sitting really so bad for us? 

So what are we to believe? Do we sit, or stand—or are both harmful? You have to earn your living some way, and if it’s not going to be sitting, it’s going to be standing. All the back-and-forth in the media might have you believe the trendy guideline “the best position is the next position.” To me, this is a rather defeatist take on the human body. I believe all positions are good for you—if done with good posture, and in moderation.

Many famous thinkers can be quoted on the benefits of sitting calmly.

What is overlooked in all the studies and articles on the subject, is our sitting form and our furniture. Beyond one article that explored the benefits of sitting reclined, which is a relaxing but not a very practical posture, the medical literature seldom touches on how people sit, what they sit on, and what difference these can make to health and back pain. 

Bad furniture can contribute to harmful sitting, but even the best-shaped furniture can’t force you into a good posture. Compare the woman on the left, sitting with a tucked pelvis and rounded spine, to the woman on the right who uses the seat shape to her advantage, stacking her spine effortlessly on top of an anteverted pelvis.

In my experience, a person’s posture, what the person is doing while sitting, and what they are sitting on makes a huge health difference, both through correlated factors and through causation. Sitting with poor posture, whether from habit or from bad furniture, has many negative side effects, from causing joint and muscle pain in the back (and as we know, chronic back pain can bring down your mood and keep you from being active), to limiting lung capacity and circulation, which hinders the body’s ability to heal, remove toxins, and circulate oxygen. Even just being able to breath more deeply can have wonderful effects on physical and mental health, boosting energy, digestion, and mood. All these processes are linked, and when one suffers, it is no surprise that other weak spots in a person’s system can take a big hit, even to the extent of increasing the risk of health issues like heart disease or diabetes.

Sitting slouched all day will leave this surgeon tired and in pain, and less able to effectively help others. 

Apart from these direct effects, someone who sits with good form may be more likely to practice other beneficial health habits, like daily exercise and eating a healthy diet; while someone in the habit of sitting in front of the TV, unmoving for hours at a time is likely to harbor other unhealthy habits.

Sitting with good form can allow you to enjoy other activities that enrich your life and help you maintain mental and physical health.

These women in Burkina Faso are both working and relaxed as they sit for several hours spinning cotton. 

This baby naturally sits with good posture, and surely does not find it tiring or uncomfortable in the least. 

So wave goodbye to your anxiety about whether your desk job or your 3-hour seminar are going to give you health woes. Work on your form, maintain healthy habits like daily exercise and limited TV-watching (or other forms of lazy sitting), and take frequent breaks to move around and get your heart rate up a little. Sitting is a natural human activity, and your body is strong enough to handle moderate amounts of any position, when it’s done well.

 
Sometimes, simply by sitting, the soul collects wisdom.
- Zen proverb

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