I had tried everything: Chiropractor, massage, relaxation, yoga, hot tub, another chiropractor, egoscue e-cises, physical therapy, MRI, neurosurgeon consult, a third chiropractor, functional movement training, everything, and the pain did not go away. I was told I had arthritis and I just had to learn to live with it.
Then my dear Dr. Hotchner , seeing my desperation, suggested I read Esther Gokhale's book 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back. I borrowed a copy at my local library.
The book makes sense. It is very informative, has novel ideas, yet not so good in explanation of the method. The premise of the book is great. Basically it reveals that there are some 'ancient' cultures where people spend their days doing what we would call backbreaking work, yet hardly have any incidents of back pain. The book is filled with inspiring pictures showing the contrast between the way people in those ancient cultures sit, stand, lie, sleep, and bend over, compared to how we do it today in Western societies. The differences are striking. What most impressed me was a juxtaposition of two spine images, taken from two different medical books, one from before 1920 and the other from around 1970. Both images were supposed to show what a 'normal' spine looked like, except that they were so different from each other! The spine image from before 1920 had more of a 'J' shape while the more modern one had more of an 'S' shape. If these pictures were based on the average person, I thought, I can understand why we now have more back pain. Our bad postural habits have even altered the way our spine is shaped.
In the picture below, Esther shows one of the correct ways to sit. Notice how her spine is straight, not curved in either an 'S' or a 'C' shape. Plus, she's bending forward form the hips, not from the waist. When I sit this way I don't feel any pressure on the lower back.
Even though her book and the premise are extraordinary, it's difficult to follow the instructions of how to adopt the different lilfestyle changes she suggests based solely on the book explanations. I tried searching for some more instructions in youtube (as you know, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a billion words), to no avail. BUT I did sign up on their website for their newsletter, and voila!
A week into having read the book, I got my first newsletter, and there it was. An invitation to attend a class near me where I could learn the Gokhale method in person with one of their trained instructors. That was even better than a youtube video, so I immediately signed up, thinking I really had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
I can't tell you that I have 'perfect' posture now, but I can tell you that my back pain has improved tremendously. Look at the picture below of how I used to bend over to pick something off the floor and how I do it after the class.
So my back pain has gone away. Now if I could only do something about my hip pain! ;)
Okay, which picture is before and which is after the class? ;o)
ReplyDeleteKarina, It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the key is how much I was straining holding each position. The first one is before the class, and the second one is after. I've always 'tried' to have good posture, to sit up straight, but it always felt 'tense' and I could not keep it up for too long. The new technique is more of a 'relaxed' mode.
ReplyDeleteSay I needed to weed the garden (which I probably do need to do, by the way). In the 'before' picture I would end up rounding my back instead of bending the knees, in order to reach the ground, and probably end up with lower back pain after a few minutes. Using the second 'after' way of reaching the ground, I could spend a long time weeding and would not get as tired or hurt my back, since I keep my back straight and pelvis in a good position (and I would tone my butt and legs in the process). Who knew gardening could be so much exercise?