Esther Gokhale July, 2024 Today, those of us in the U.S. celebrate our nationhood. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence announced colonial freedom from Great Britain; our history has included the winning of many more freedoms since. In various and sometimes contradictory ways, our society continues to defend much cherished freedoms, and also to aspire to new levels of freedom. Abraham Lincoln is remembered for preserving the union of the U.S.. This 1864 photograph of Lincoln with his son, Tad, shows the upright posture characteristic of our ancestors. You can find it alongside ma ..read more

Kathy Nauman June, 2024 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 c ..read more

Q&A with Esther Gokhale and Vera Baziuk June, 2024 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 Metho ..read more

Esther Gokhale May, 2024 Next time you are in the dentist chair, spare a thought for your dentist’s posture and the postural demands of their job. Doing dental procedures shares many challenges with other surgical procedures, such as having to maintain a steady position for long periods, maintain a clear line of vision, and hold and manipulate tools with precision. Working in the oral cavity of a conscious patient is a pretty significant challenge.  Dental professionals place many physical demands on their structure. They can be regarded as “occupational athletes.” Image from Pexels Den ..read more

Esther Gokhale May, 2024 The best art often communicates on many levels. The Walking Men 99™ exhibit is a great example. It consisted of a frieze of pedestrian crossing icons, photographed and assembled from around the world. At human scale, they mingled with passersby on the sidewalk.  Walking Men Worldwide™ is a series of public art installations by artist Maya Barkai, which was launched in Lower Manhattan in 2010-2013 (Walking Men 99™), and was followed by a series of installations around the globe. www.walking-men.com From a posture perspective, signage featuring pedestrians offers ..read more

Esther Gokhale April, 2024 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, Pixa ..read more

Esther Gokhale April, 2024 Have you been taught cobra pose or locust pose to strengthen your back? It is a common practice to try to strengthen the back with back bends, focusing on the long back extensors on either side of the spine. This approach is used by the McKenzie Method, many yoga teachers, and physical therapists. In the Gokhale Method® we prefer to strengthen the back by working with the muscles which collectively stabilize the trunk. Our focus is on maintaining a healthy J-spine baseline rather than backbending. Healthy muscle activation maintains a J-spine, protecting the spine ..read more

Esther Gokhale March, 2024 You’ve tweaked your back. It may be a stabbing pain that catches with certain movements, it may be that you cannot straighten up, or maybe it’s an electrical, nervy sensation in your buttock.   A back spasm is never welcome—but it is a signal we can act on—when we know how. Image by: Kampus Production It’s true that time is a great healer—and that most back pain resolves itself without intervention—but there are also things we can do to accelerate the healing, that can help us feel better immediately, and protect us in the longer term.  Should I take ..read more

Esther Gokhale February, 2024 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 ..read more

Esther Gokhale January, 2024 When students first meet with a Gokhale Method® teacher they are sometimes surprised to learn that one of the reasons for their back pain is a tight psoas muscle. What does this little-known muscle, embedded deep within our bodies, have to do with back pain? And what do we need to do to have it recede in the background and leave our backs alone? Get to know your psoas muscle  Psoas major (pronounced so-as) is a deep-lying muscle with a downwards trajectory through the abdomen. There can be some individual variation, but it usually originates from T12-L4, and ..read more