stretch

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…

Using the word “eccentric” might sound like I’m about to write about muscles behaving in weird ways that are different from usual muscle behavior! 

Virginia Fox and Buster Keaton prop each other up in The Electric House (1922).
These muscle actions are ek-sen-trik! Wikimedia

But what I’m referring to, eccentric muscle contraction, is often pronounced ee-sen-trik, not ek-sen-trik.

How muscles contract

Eccentric muscle contraction is the reverse of the concentric contraction that we typically associate with muscle training. For example, the dumbbell curl that makes the bicep prominent as you lift the weight towards your shoulder is a concentric contraction. The muscle contracts and shortens. But lowering the dumbbell back down again, which requires the muscle to lengthen, also takes muscular control, and that is called an eccentric contraction. So the muscle is being asked to both stretch and resist at the same time. 

Lifting a weight such as a dumbbell works the biceps femoris concentrically, while lowering it works it eccentrically. Pexels

Although there is still much to be discovered about how our muscles and tendinous tissues work at a cellular level, eccentric contractions have well understood characteristics that make them of particular interest to medics, athletes, physical therapists, and researchers. And they play an important role in healthy posture.

Walking upstairs and downstairs 

Dr Michael Mosley, a well-known broadcaster on health and wellness in the UK, presents a radio series for the BBC called Just One Thing. Each 14-minute show explores just one thing that you can do to improve your health. (We would like to see him do a show on healthy posture! Consider suggesting this here.) Back in April he looked at the benefits of eccentric exercise and movement. 

One of Mosley’s favorite studies had people walk either up or down the stairs of a 10-story building twice a week, using the elevator in the other direction. Both groups saw improvements in many health outcomes—but those walking down the stairs—doing more eccentric rather than concentric muscle work—did better. They were fitter, having a lower resting heart rate despite doing less cardiovascular exercise, had lower insulin sensitivity and lower blood fat levels, better bone density, superior balance, and twice the improvement in muscle strength. Seems like those step-climbing machines at the gym could be rigged the other way around!

Gym work on elliptical trainers and step machines emphasizes concentric muscular contraction and cardiovascular effort. Pixabay

Eccentric muscle contractions dominate as we lower our weight walking down hills and stairs. They have been proven to bring particular health and fitness gains. Wikimedia

Calories you save vs. calories you use

Mosley interviewed Tony Kay, professor of biomechanics at the University of Northampton. Kay explained that the muscle-lengthening phase of exercise is also more efficient than the muscle-contracting phase because eccentric contractions only need approximately one quarter of the energy of a concentric contraction, employing fewer muscle fibers, and generally not lifting against gravity. However, eccentric work burns more calories than a seemingly tougher concentric workout because it creates more microscopic tears in the muscle, and so after exercising the body has to raise its metabolic rate to repair and build back stronger. 

Professor Kay has also conducted studies that demonstrate superior gains in bone density, and range of motion, through eccentric work. These various benefits can be effectively targeted for a wide range of needs, from post-injury rehabilitation, or strength training in the elderly, to developing elite athletic performance. 

Everyday eccentric movement and exercise

Eccentric muscle contraction, just like healthy posture, is most useful once integrated into everyday tasks and movement. For example, to lift the front of the forward foot clear of the floor while walking, tibialis anterior works concentrically, but then eccentrically to lower it. If you are prone to trips and falls, perhaps due to an underused and weak tibialis anterior, it can be woken up and strengthened by our Gokhale Method® toe tap exercise. You can learn toe tap here.

The tibialis anterior muscle runs along the shin bone (tibia), its long tendon attaching under the front of the foot to lift and lower it with fine control. Wikimedia, Wikimedia

Another especially beneficial exercise for most people in our culture is the Gokhale Method shoulder roll. It helps correct the common rounding of the shoulders that occurs with poor posture. This better aligns the joints to prevent impingements and arthritic change, and helps open the chest for healthier breathing. There are various muscular actions involved in shoulder roll, but slowly releasing the trapezius muscle (traps) downward (eccentric contraction) after they have lifted the shoulder (concentric contraction) is key to this maneuver. You can learn shoulder roll here.

The upper and mid portions of the trapezius muscle contract concentrically to lift the shoulder upward in shoulder roll, and eccentrically to lower it into its healthier new position. Wikimedia

Can eccentric work help with my tight hamstrings?

Eccentric work can be used to lengthen muscles just as it can be used to strengthen them. Most people in our culture have tight hamstrings, often despite regular stretching, even done over decades. Far better to learn how to sit, walk, and, most importantly, bend in ways that not only spare your back from damage, but also don’t cause the hamstrings to be overly tight in the first place. In addition, bending, done well, will naturally, eccentrically lengthen your hamstrings. We call this way of bending hip-hinging, and it is one of the more advanced techniques we teach in our Gokhale Method® in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, and our online Elements course. 

Women doing laundry. Photograph by Balys Buračas, Lithuania, 1923.
In traditional cultures people hip-hinge to bend, sparing spinal discs and nerves, maintaining hip mobility, and preserving good length in their hamstrings. www.epaveldas.lt

Keeping eccentric muscle training comfortable and safe

I asked our Gokhale Fitness expert, Eric Fernandez, if there are any downsides to eccentric muscle training. Eric offered two tips to proof your workout: 

1. Watch out for DOMS! (Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness) Unaccustomed eccentric exercise is known to cause muscle damage, or micro-tears in the muscle, which is followed by delayed inflammation and soreness. To avoid this, work up the intensity of your exercise very gradually.
2. With eccentric exercise you are generally lowering or resisting a weight—whether that’s a  dumbbell or your own body weight, such as when walking downstairs. You run the risk of the weight moving you, rather than you moving the weight. So, pick exercises and weights where you can build up gradually, remain in control, and safely release the weight or steady yourself if necessary.

Eric demonstrates single arm bent over rows. This exercise targets the lats (latissimus dorsi), working them concentrically to lift, and eccentrically to slowly lower the kettlebell. Eric follows this with an eccentric lats stretch using the wall.

Eric demonstrates a kneeling lunge. Usually this is a passive, sinking downward stretch. Here, by driving the kneeling leg forward, he also produces an eccentric contraction, potentially deepening the stretch and strengthening the hip flexor tendons.

Eric often uses eccentric exercise in his Gokhale Fitness classes, Monday–Saturday, 3:00–3:25 pm PT. If you are reading this blog and would like to try exercising the Gokhale way and develop healthy posture at the same time, you are welcome to sign up for your Gokhale Exercise free trial here. We look forward to seeing you there!

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, including Weightlifting and the Gokhale Method with Eric on Tuesday, August 30, 4:30 pm.

Mother and son in a tribal Orissan village demonstrating excellent walking form. Notice that their heels remain on the floor well into their stride.

Do you have tight psoas muscles? Do you suspect the cause is too much time spent sitting in your daily life? There’s a complementary activity that helps counterbalance the time we spend sitting: walking — or, more specifically, glidewalking. Glidewalking helps balance our sitting in numerous ways — walking is dynamic versus sitting which is static. Yang balances Yin, viewed in the framework of traditional Chinese medicine. One underappreciated way in which walking can balance sitting pertains to the psoas muscle.

The psoas muscle originates on the front of the sides of all the lumbar vertebrae and discs, and ends on the lesser trochanter of the femur.

This pathway is quite circuitous and runs adjacent to several pelvic organs. With long hours of sitting, the psoas can adapt to a short resting length. Original image courtesy Anatomography on Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 2.1 JP.

A short psoas pulls forward on the lumbar spine any time the legs are outstretched. This is why many people are uncomfortable lying on the back with outstretched legs, and why some people feel sciatic twinges when they stand and walk. The natural antidote for this tendency of the psoas muscle to shorten in sustained sitting is glidewalking. Glidewalking is really natural or primal walking given a special name because it is a rare thing in modern times and deserves to be celebrated with a special name! Every step done with proper form naturally stretches the psoas. That amounts to 5,000 mini psoas stretches on each side if you are glidewalking the recommended 10K steps a day. This will keep your psoas in a healthy, stretched out, pliable state!

This Orissan woman demonstrates beautiful walking form with her body in line with her back leg, her back leg straightened but not locked, and her back heel staying close the ground well into her stride.

The best way to get your psoas stretches, or resets, is to punctuate your day with glidewalking. No instance of glidewalking is insignificant: glidewalking to the bathroom, glidewalking to get a glass of water, and glidewalking in kinhin (walking meditation) all help. So are the longer, more obvious instances of glidewalking such as the daily constitutional and the weekend hike.

Orissan women carrying water on their heads. Notice how the woman in front propels herself off her rear heel. This additionally gives her a healthy psoas stretch with every step she takes.

It has become popular to consider that “sitting is the new smoking.” Poor form and long stretches of uninterrupted sitting do indeed have a deleterious effect on health, but I believe that a significant unknown contributor is that most people do not walk in a way that resets the psoas muscle after it shortens during extended sitting.

Apart from responding to extended sitting, the psoas muscle is also very responsive to psychological stress. We see this in the Moro reflex in babies when they respond to loud noises and traumatic stimuli such as real or perceived falling. Addressing psoas tension is at the core of certain body modalities, such as Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE), and innovative developments in psychotherapy involving polyvagal theory.

This Rodin sculpture shows its subject well into a stride with the rear heel still down on the ground. This stance is a natural part of gait and stretches the psoas muscle.

It’s a tad complex to learn to stretch the psoas in glidewalking, but well worth the effort. It takes a combination of the following actions to do the job.

1. The rib cage needs to be anchored to stabilize the lumbar spine. Without this step, any other effort to stretch the psoas will result in arching the lower back. 

2. The back heel needs to stay on the ground a long time into a stride. Most people lift their heel up from the ground prematurely, losing the full extent of the psoas stretch that nature designed to be built into every step.

3. The gluteal muscles of the rear leg engage appropriately, further augmenting the psoas stretch.

Proper technique can help you avoid the cycle of tight psoas muscles, reduced activity, tighter psoas muscles, further-reduced activity…

How much have you succeeded in putting these pieces together? What helped the techniques coalesce? The book? The DVD? One of our courses? A topical workshop on glidewalking for our Gokhale Method Alumni? I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.

My students sometimes lead me to particularly juicy nuggets that enrich my understanding of posture-related practices in other cultures. Sometimes they simply send me a link to an article; sometimes it is an introduction to a special person. Recently, my private Gokhale Method Foundations Course student Alpana informed me that her friend had a visitor I might be interested in meeting. She was right.

Two days later, my daughter Monisha and I showed up at Nirmala’s host’s home in Saratoga. I was immediately struck by the woman’s presence, regal carriage, slender and strong frame, and sparky energy, especially for a 60-year-old. Nirmala does traditional Indian baby and post-natal massage on newly delivered babies and their mothers in Surat, India. She speaks no English. Thanks to Alpana’s fluent Marathi and my broken Hindi, I was able to communicate very effectively with her.

She described her daily routine, which begins with chai upon waking and chai again as she is about to leave for the day’s work. Her workday goes from 7am – 3 pm. In all that time, she rarely accepts offers to consume anything besides water. If a host insists, she might eat a small morsel of food. She bikes from home to home, massaging babies and mothers and sometimes taking care of an elderly person. She wears sandals to ride her bike but goes barefoot when she walks in her neighborhood. It was hard not to notice her especially kidney bean-shaped feet, and she was tickled that I wanted to photograph (and touch) her feet. Touching someone’s feet in India is a way of bestowing honor on them and also puts you below the person in some essential way. I was happy to touch her feet, and I was happy to hang on her words. I usually have to travel far and wide to find subjects like Nirmala.

Nirmala’s feet have a particularly strong kidney bean shape. Walking barefoot often probably helped keep her natural foot shape intact.

Nirmala described various aspects of her massage practice and her life, but also insisted that it would be much better if she could show me what she does. We settled on an afternoon two weeks later to meet again so I could observe her in action. Alpana offered to provide her transportation and be the translator for us once again.

I was able to find an 11-month-old baby in my network whose mom brought him along for this event. No one knew what to expect and the experience made a deep impression in many ways.

• The base position was identical to what I had observed in Burkina Faso. Nirmala sits with her legs outstretched with the baby lying on her lower legs, the baby’s head close to her ankles.

Nirmala prepares to massage the baby with her legs outstretched.

• When she massaged my daughter Monisha (as though she were a post-partum mom), she stood astride her and hip-hinged beautifully.

Nirmala hip-hinges to perform a post-partum massage on volunteer Monisha.

• The baby massage was quite rough, comprehensive, rapid in the strokes, and unrelenting. Front and back, every organ, limb, and crevice received its treatment. I was reminded of Piglet pretending to be Baby Roo in the Winnie the Pooh story. Kanga pretended not to notice the switcheroo and paid no attention to Piglet’s squeals. But Nirmala was not meting out punishment, but rather helping the baby be strong. Some of us reached out to the baby to offer him solace. Nirmala explained that she was doing a light massage since the baby’s skin was light and might redden if she were more vigorous. She wasn’t sure how the baby’s mother would feel about that. Nirmala explained that the baby would sleep really well following the massage, giving the mother a rest. After the oil massage came a warm water massage in the bathroom. In Burkina Faso, the massage was done with shea butter and warm water at the same time, instead of sequentially. That massage was also vigorous, and the baby seemed a little in shock during it, but being only days old, didn’t have as developed a cry as the 11-month-old baby we observed.

• The baby cried for the entire 10 minutes of being massaged with oil and then warm water — Nirmala seemed unphased and said that this usually happens for the first 2-3 massages, after which the babies get used to being massaged and don’t cry.  She also said crying makes the lungs and baby strong. Mom was impressively able to withstand what must surely have been a stressful experience. All of us were too taken aback to say or do much, banking on the premise that Nirmala knew what she was doing. In Burkina Faso, the baby (only days old) cried only during the part where it was held upside down by the ankles (Nirmala did not do this).

The baby faces Nirmala’s feet as she works on every part of him.

• Part of the massage included leg and crossbody stretches. This was quite different from what I observed in Burkina Faso, where the focus of the stretches was on the joints between the limbs and torso. Nirmala drew the opposite arm and leg toward each other, and both legs up above the head to stretch the back.

Nirmala’s baby massage involves various kinds of stretching.

• Nirmala has additional expertise for conditions in both the baby and mother. She described what she would do in case the testicles hadn’t descended. Also what she does in case the mother has had a C-section. The masseuse in Burkina Faso was also comfortable doing procedures in some instances; for example, in case of a kink in the spine, she would have used a corn husking device to straighten the baby’s spine out. In both cases, the knowledge is passed down within the family. Nirmala’s daughter and daughter-in-law are able to provide similar services, and are, in fact, filling in for her during her U.S. visit.

My quick takes from this experience: massage for babies is an old tradition spanning many cultures. Babies are particularly targeted for massage post-delivery. The massage covers the entire body, is vigorous, and includes stretching. Oil/butter and warm water are used for baby and mommy massage. Crying is not a show-stopper. The masseuse maintains healthy posture throughout the act of giving the massage.

Have you seen or experienced baby or post-natal massage? What was your experience like?
 

1. Take frequent breaks to stand up and stretch

2. Sit up tall

3. Stretch out on your side

4. Or your back

5. Take time to play

6. And exercise!

7. Bend at the hips

8. You can sleep on pillows

9. Or hard surfaces!

10. Great strength requires great rest

11. Sometimes it’s good to push your limits of strength,

movement,

and patience and persistence

12. Surround yourself with loved ones

13. And lastly, enjoy yourself!

Stretching is a common prescription to help with back pain. At https://www.healthoutcome.org, the world’s first crowdsourcing platform to rate medical interventions, stretching is the 6th most commonly used intervention, after physical therapy, NSAIDs, heat, rest, and cortisone injections. On a scale from 0-5, stretching (rated 2.6) is the 5th most highly rated intervention after Postural Modification (3.8), Yoga (3.1), Supplements (2.9), Weight Loss (2.8), and Meditation (2.7).

Back pain caused by tight muscles is common

The Gokhale Method considers stretching to be one of many essential pieces in solving most people’s back problems. Even though stretching alone cannot give an equivalent result to that of a well-crafted Postural Modification approach, it is a good thing, and if slightly tweaked, could give better satisfaction and results in less time. If done poorly, on the other hand, stretching can harm, rather than help you.

A few key concepts that can help your approach to stretching are:

1. Your hunter gatherer ancestors, with whom you share the vast majority of your genes, didn’t do stretches per se. In the course of their daily activities, their bodies were self-stretching, self-maintaining, and mostly, self-healing. It’s true our lifestyles are different from theirs, but this realization should provoke some enquiry about small modifications in our ways of moving that would enable us, too, to be as efficiently and effectively stretched out as our ancestors were.

This hunter gets a natural shoulder stretch from using a bow and arrow

2. Not every muscle in your body needs to be super flexible. Unless you’re a gymnast or yogi, some stiffness here and there is well-tolerated, and can be beneficial when there isn’t great strength to balance extreme flexibility.

3. Flexibility is very useful in the following muscles: hamstrings (allows pelvic anteversion and hip-hinging), psoas (allows a full length stride without a swayback), external hip rotators (allows deep hip-hinging), pecs and traps (allows normal shoulder alignment and prevents pathology in the shoulder, facilitates good range-of-motion for the arms), and calves (allows the heels to remain on the ground for an extended time in a stride).

Calf stretches can help achieve a healthy stride

4. The reason these flexibilities are useful is that they facilitate normal human movement, which also gives a clue on to how to keep these flexibilities: PERFORM NORMAL HUMAN MOVEMENT! Hip-hinge well, stride well, maintain shoulder alignment well while moving the arms extensively, etc., and you’ll be largely covered for flexibility.

Hip-hinging in the garden keeps hamstrings flexible

Actor Shemar Moore keeps his shoulders rolled back when playing on the beach with some spare children

5. If your day does not include enough movement, supplement with a few, well-chosen stretches. It’s extremely efficient to do several stretches simultaneously. It’s even more efficient if you combine this with strengthening several muscles simultaneously.

Stretching the psoas (enables a healthy stride) and pecs, while strengthening the quads

6. Yoga and dance are two approaches to exercise that are especially efficient and effective for satisfying stretch (and strengthening) needs. Most approaches to yoga and dance could use some tweaking to “do no harm” and do more good, but it’s hard to match the possibilities with these traditional, multi-faceted, tried and true practices.

Dance is excellent for increasing flexibility - and strength

7. Distinguish between flexibility of your muscles and laxity in your ligaments. This is a big one, folks! Flexibility in appropriate muscles is terrific; laxity in your ligaments is not! Ligaments are a type of connective tissue that connect bones and cartilage in your joints and provide stability to the skeleton. Overstretched ligaments become too loose to hold your joints together under pressure or tension. People with lax shoulder ligaments, for example, can sometimes dislocate and “pop” their shoulders back in too easily. People with lax ligaments in their spinal column are able to round their spines excessively.
   
   
   This common approach to stretching the hamstrings, done poorly, causes laxity in spinal ligaments

This person would be better off lying on his back and raising one leg at a time to stretch out his very tight hamstrings

Do you have any favorite stretches? Please share them with us! We can then talk about pro's and con's for the stretches you share.

A Stretchsit cushion helps fill the unhealthy
C shape found in many airplane seats, or
even better, facilitates gently
stretching the spine.

The summer is upon us and many of us will be traveling in buses, boats, cars, and planes. I have spent a lot of time on planes and have observed people in discomfort all around me. The shape of airplane seats varies from airline to airline, but all of them have a curvature that forces the spine into an uncomfortable C-shape. In this season of airline travel, I’d like to share some simple tips to protect the spine and reduce muscle tension during an airplane flight. 

1) Fill the C

The concave shape of airline seats puts pressure on the spinal discs and is the starting point for muscle tension. Fill the lower part of your seat with pillows, blankets, sweaters, or ideally a Stretchsit® Cushion to create a flat plane along which you can lengthen your spine. 

A seated hip hinge helps bypass the poor
design of some airplane seats.

2) Hiphinge Forward

You can avoid the C-shape altogether by hiphinging forward. Use your hands to support your head with your elbows resting on the open tray. You can adjust the placement and height of your hands to provide a gentle stretch in the neck.

Another possible variation for keeping
your spine healthy during a flight.

3) Support Your Head

One of the best ways to rest or sleep on a flight is to lengthen your spine and support your head against the seat in front of you. If you are lucky enough to be in a window seat, you can find even more support in the corner between the seat in front of you and the wall of the airplane. This technique works especially well for taller individuals, who can adjust the placement of their heads to allow the spine to stretch and relax even in cramped spaces. Be sure to use a Stretchsit cushion, blanket, pillow, or sweater to cushion your head.

Here’s wishing you safe and comfortable travels.