Tom Carter’s Back Pain Success Story

I’ve been doing therapeutic bodywork and massage for 25 years. One of my clients, who owns the garage that services my car, had trouble with his hip—I did what I could to help. About a month later he came back, and was walking much better. I asked him what had happened—and he told me he had taken some Gokhale Method® classes. Intrigued, I ordered Esther Gokhale’s book.

Esther Gokhale’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, was the passport for my journey out of pain.

When I opened the package I noticed the subtitle, “Remember When It Didn’t Hurt.” My body responded right away—spontaneously, tears started coming. The truth was, I had been struggling with back pain for over two decades.

It was around the age of 30 that I first injured myself, rupturing the disc at L3. I had always been very athletic and active, and wasn’t doing anything unusual for me when it happened. I was out camping with friends, digging a really deep fire pit, and lifting out the dirt. I made a bad lift, and it was like a bolt of lightning hit me. By good fortune, one of my companions was a chiropractor and got me up to treat me and did just enough so I could get home.

From then on, I had numerous episodes when I was on the floor and could hardly get up. I would take myself off to the chiropractor, or for a massage. Sometimes I ended up in the ER. I was grateful that these kept me out of surgery, although I came close to having it. I was willing to consider a 50/50 chance of success, because I couldn’t carry on living that way.

“Enough morphine to drop a horse!” My tale of pain management in the ER.

I looked for ways to adapt and cope with the pain, such as using a stool more for work rather than standing. But over time, I inevitably did less and less of my bodywork business. A combination of the pain, along with the increasing fear of pain, meant that every single moment was dominated by thinking about it. My life had become increasingly narrowed as I stopped doing things in an attempt not to trigger more pain.

It’s funny the way the universe works. I had a three-month wait to see a spinal surgeon, and thought, in the meantime, I would at least explore the Gokhale Method, though I didn’t have much faith it would work. I read Esther’s book and found two Gokhale Method teachers about an hour and a half from me in Wisconsin. I took the six-session Gokhale® Foundations course in 2019. 

The course brought me several intriguing experiences. After the first class, I couldn’t believe it, as I was driving on the freeway going home, I felt really different. Later on in the course, the teacher had us hip-hinge. I had known severe lumbar pain, and, with a history of a ruptured disc, being asked to bend forward from the hips, well, let’s just say I wasn’t on for it! I’m 6’ 4”, and bending to the floor is a long way down! I bent to about 10 degrees to start with, and built up from there. As my confidence grew I allowed my stance to widen, getting my thighs out of the way of my pelvis and bending deeper. Instead, I had been in a spiral of getting narrower with my thighs and more stiff in the hips, resulting in little choice but to round my back to bend over my legs. Now I had the technique, and torso strength (inner corset) to change my whole approach. When the appointment came through with my spine surgeon, I canceled it.

After decades of pain and fear of moving, I gradually regained confidence in bending. I learned to hip-hinge, which does my body good, rather than harm.

During my career I’ve worked with five different massage training schools, and also ran the training program at one. There are plenty of hazards that we helped the therapist avoid; you need your correct table height, and to protect against RSI in the wrists and thumbs, for example. But it is such intensive training, with a lot of material to learn in the time. Now I tell students that, if they want to be doing this for any length of time, their own body is more important than anything else that’s going to be on the qualifying test. You have to learn to take care of your structure, and your habitual biomechanics is what makes or breaks it. 

At home I find the Gokhale® Pain-Free Chair helps me keep my healthier spine shape, and I especially like it first thing in the morning—it gives me just the right support for my structure. One month when I had a little money spare, I also got the Gokhale® Executive Chair, as later in the day I’m ready to take full advantage of its reclining ability, and love to rest with my feet up. It’s so comfortable, I can’t believe it—and I know my spine is straight and lengthened all the way along. It came with a really helpful session on how to get the best from its various features.

The Gokhale Executive Chair comes with many features to enable healthy posture—plus a personal consultation on how to use it.

Earlier this year I was inspired to take an Alumni Consultation to refresh my glidewalking, and look forward to enrolling for the live online Advanced Glidewalking course in the future. 

Recently I’ve been working on a backyard project, making a very solid trellis for climbing vines. The job required me to dig eight holes in extremely rocky, stone-filled ground. I also hit a five-inch layer of poured concrete and ended up having to use a handheld jackhammer to break it up. So there I was, on my knees, wielding a 30lb jackhammer BELOW ground level. Guess what—NO INJURIES—and minimal discomfort afterwards, just a little soreness. This would have been impossible if I hadn’t learned how to bend consciously and engage my inner corset while keeping my spine long and straight. 

I share freely with my friends, clients, and people I meet, about how the Gokhale Method has helped me, and can help them—and that’s why I’m writing this post. If I get the impression that someone is looking to me to convince them, I’ll point out that it makes no difference to me and my life, whatsoever, what they choose to do. I’m not invested in persuading them of anything. But I do tell them that I was at the end of my rope, and that was no way to live. I couldn’t work full time, couldn’t sit, couldn’t stand in one place, and was facing surgery with no guarantee of short or long-term success. It was the Gokhale Method that turned that around and gave me my life back.

Best next action steps 

If you would like help with finding healthy, pain-free posture in your work and activities, get started by booking a consultation, online or in person, with one of our teachers. 

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