Myths about Posture — help for back pain
May 21, 2009
It wasn’t until I started questioning the current theories about correct posture that I started to make some headway with my chronic low back pain.
Although I’ve been acutely aware of the limitations in the knowledge of modern medicine, I somehow assumed that the prevalent description of ideal posture was true. I thought that certainly we at least know that! I could understand that the body is extremely complex chemically and how a lot about how the body functions could still elude us. But body mechanics — wasn’t that pretty straightforward? Surprisingly, no.
Experts actually don’t agree even on what ideal posture is. Most of them — from physical therapists to yoga and Pilates instructors — are pretty much in agreement. But there are those whose opinions differ, and I am finding that those differences in opinion are making all the difference to me.
A book by Esther Gokhale has convinced me that the ideal posture does not include the “tucked” or “neutral” pelvis and the supposedly natural S-curve that most people recommend. In fact, she makes a very convincing argument for holding the pelvis in an “anteverted” position, and for the superiority of a back that is relatively straight above the lower lumbar curve. She backs up these convictions logically and through reference to an amazing collection of pictures of the posture of people in other cultures and times in history, as well as the posture of toddlers whose natural body positions and movement have not yet been conditioned by the culture around them.
I was really ready to hear this alternative approach. Not only had I concluded that I would find some answers in seeing the posture and body movements of people in other, more “natural” or traditional cultures, but I had found through trial and error that anteverting my pelvis through tightening my gluts made my back a lot more comfortable. In fact, once I’d become convinced by Esther’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back, I abandoned the tucking of my pelvis recommended by my physical therapist to let it tilt into the anteverted position. And since doing that and making a few other adjustments from what I had learned in her book, my low back pain is almost completely gone.
I must confess that I haven’t even done the 8 lessons in the book yet, and I am preparing to do so. I promise to report back on the results. But I couldn’t resist sharing Esther’s ideas with you now. Before you start to invest time, energy and money into a program for your back, I highly recommend that you at least look into this alternative approach. It could make all the difference!
Here is a link to an article by Gokhale — 10 Myths about Posture:
pdf version
html version
See Esther Gokhale on YouTube.
And, last but not least, a link to Esther’s website: egwellness.com Esther has recently started a forum and is very generous in taking time to respond to posts and answer questions.