Friday, November 28, 2008

Posture - ageless spine


I recently posted about Esther Gokhale's excellent book - 8 Steps to a pain free back.

One of the commenters pointed to a similar book - Ageless Spine - by Kathleen Porter. This is another excellent book, which has a very similar argument to that of Esther's book. The idea is to regain a natural posture, with your spine properly supporting your body. In some ways it is a little more easy to read and understand but both books are excellent.





Here is a video of Kathleen explaining more:




and......here is this knowledge in practice (thanks Davie)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

the stuff you've been doing on posture lately is fascinating ... thanks!

Chris said...

Cheers

I find it fascinating too

Anonymous said...

Her own alignment does not look too great!

Anonymous said...

Hi Chris,

Glad you enjoyed the book I suggested. I think Ms. Porter also has a DVD I am going to check out.

IME, hands-on instruction is best, DVD next, and then text to address subtle fine points.

Stay aligned :-)

Eddie

Chris said...

Eddie

thanks for suggesting Porter's book it is superb.

I've not been able to find her DVD. If you do, please let me know

Chris

Anonymous said...

Hi Chris,

I think I am somewhat askew in my attribution. If you see here: http://www.balancecenter.com/video.htm there is a video covering the Porter material, but it may (I'm not sure,) have been done in whole or in part by Jean Couch, a yoga teacher. I think that Ms. Couch and Ms. Porter are closely aligned, (groans at bad pun,) in their professional, posture related work. www.balancecenter.com HTH.

All the best,

Eddie

Chris said...

Thanks Eddie.

By the way I emailed Esther to see what see thought of Porter's book. Apparently they were both influenced by the work of Noelle Perez and Kathleen's teacher Jean Couch studied with Esther for about a year.

Anonymous said...

Yes Chris, I noticed the commonality of original influence, (of Couch, Gokhale, Porter, ) by Ms.Perez.

I imagine Ms. Perez, of whom I know very little, must be that sort of brilliant innovator who notices what should be obvious, but is for the most part "hidden in plain sight," and interprets it and makes it accessible for us "mere mortals," LOL.

With her work on postures in less industrialized cultures, I saw Ms. Perez and now Gokhale, Porter, Couch and those that follow, as being to posture and gait, what WestonPrice.org is to nutrition.

Enjoy, and keep walking those beautiful hills : - )

Eddie

Chris said...

Eddie - that is an interesting thought. The idea that this approach to posture is almost a paleo diet template, or as you say perhaps more Weston Price in that the genesis was in the observation of traditional cultures. Interesting.


Thinking about walking - and today was a beautiful day here in Scotland - I must admit that I'm almost over analysing my gait at them moment. I've definitely started to stand differently with the hips back a bit and I keep thinking about my posture and gait....

Gokhale has also said she's planning some You Tube instructions videos so I'll look forward to them.

Thanks again for the comments.

Anonymous said...

Any opinions on negative heel shoes? The origin of these shoes also begin with posture of native people.

http://www.earthshop.com.au/origins.html

L. Wu said...

Nice... I've actually been using nervous system range-of-motion biofeedback to optimize posture and it seems to confirm what Esther Gokhale teaches (I've studied with her and her studio personally).

Leslie, ultitraining.com

Chris said...

Leslie - I am jealous. I would love to have the opportunity to train with Esther.

susan said...

i've been taking some classes locally that are taught from the same perspective, and boy is it a challenge for me, with my naturally swayed back.