stretchlying on the side

It has been 14 years since my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back came out in hard copy. For years I had wished I had a book to send to those people who called me from the East Coast or Midwest. These were often relatives or friends of people I had worked with in California, who were suffering terrible back pain and needed help. And so I got writing. 

A book to solve back pain

Although there was clearly a huge need for a book to solve back pain, I was still surprised to find I had written a bestseller. It reached number two on Amazon.com following our American Public Television program in 2011, and number three following the New York Times article (paywall) naming me “The Posture Guru of Silicon Valley” in 2013. It has now been published in 12 languages (Croatian later this year), and sold over 250,000 copies.

 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is available in many languages: Spanish, Croatian, English, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, Slovenian, and Italian editions. 

Digital download or hard copy?

In recent times digital books have revolutionized publishing. It is perhaps surprising that figures from the US publishing industry show that, in 2020, hard copy was still outselling downloads by 2 to 1¹. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is available as a digital download, but the paperback version continues to be in high demand. I have come to realize that there are numerous and perhaps unusual virtues for having a paperback edition of this book, some of which I would like to share to inspire you!

Every digital book has the primary advantages of price and portability, but can remain out of sight and out of mind. Encountering a physical book invites you to engage with it, to pick it up and thumb through it. You don’t have to sign into wifi or wait for it to load—you just start reading. 

Visual cues help pattern healthy posture

One factor which works against us developing and maintaining healthy posture in our society is that we don’t have good examples and reminders around us. In fact, we are continually exposed to a norm of bad posture, while our culture’s idea of good posture, the S-shaped spine, is deeply problematic. What we want is to be surrounded by healthy visual examples on which to model ourselves.

8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back has over 1,100 images, mostly photographs, showing healthy posture from all over the world, from history, and in infants. Students find these images a motivating and practical reminder on their posture journey. Many a person has fallen in love with the African carpenter on the frontispiece, who insisted I take his picture, or marveled at the babies stacksitting with ease. 

This African carpenter stands tall and relaxed by his bench. This is also excellent form for preparing food in the kitchen, or any work at a counter. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 3.

My youngest child stacksitting next to her “sitting tub.” 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 69.

You can of course collect your own posture pinups, and I encourage you to do so. But selecting your favorites from 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is convenient, plus you will know the posture shown passes muster. The quality of the prints means that they look completely at home popped into a frame, or even laminated and placed around the garden or garage or in your shower stall (true story about the tallstanding image leading Lesson 6). The key thing is to place them exactly where you need the reminders. For example:

Here I am reaching up to engage my inner corset. Use this reminder near a high shelf or cupboard that you regularly reach up to. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 127.

This African woman is hip-hinging as she harvests water chestnuts—a perfect picture reminder for your vegetable garden.  8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 151.

Here I am stretchsitting. Place this reminder by your easy chair or sofa, where you may otherwise tuck and slouch. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 47.

If you are of a technical bent you may be drawn to the many diagrams. Students find the mechanism of a shoulder roll drawing helpful in executing this technique. The shoulder roll helps your shoulder joint to return home to a healthy posterior position. 

The mechanism of a shoulder roll diagram is especially useful at any desk or computer. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 42.

Lastly, the recaps at the end of each chapter make a handy cheat sheet while you are revising a new technique. For example, the recap of stretchlying on the side may be beneficial pinned onto your bedside table. 

Starting a conversation about healthy posture

Your book can take pride of place on the coffee table, where, unlike a download, it will always be there to catch the eye. This is a nice organic way of keeping posture on your radar and introducing it as a talking point with family and visitors. We certainly know of parents who leave 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back strategically placed for their children to discover!

The coffee table is a great place for browsing a book. 

Introducing your wider circle to healthy posture 

If you are part of a wellness group, then 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is a natural fit for study. If you are a book club member, then this may be the book you are looking for to invite discussion beyond back pain extending into anthropology, history, health, and lifestyle. 

Given that 80% of people in the US will experience back pain², not to mention the many other musculoskeletal problems addressed in its pages, this book has broad relevance. Many of our students are grateful to have discovered 8 Steps while visiting their physician or other healthcare professional. 

To help you spread the word among your family and social networks we have created “clan packs." The launch price has an additional discount: 4 books for $79 (instead of $99), or 8 books for $119 (instead of $159), and is valid until March 13, 2022.

Sometimes when I speak at conferences or wellness events (e.g., Google, Mimosa Systems, TiE Silicon Valley, Global Fund for Women), the company offers their employees/members/donors a gift copy of my book. To encourage this, we offer special bulk discounts. For information please contact [email protected]. For speaking engagements please contact [email protected]. 

References:

¹Felix Richter, “Infographic: E-Books Still No Match for Printed Books,” Statista Infographics, August 9, 2021, https://www.statista.com/chart/24709/e-book-and-printed-book-penetration/. 

²Janet K. Freburger et al., “The Rising Prevalence of Chronic Low Back Pain,” Arch Intern Med 169, no. 3 (2009): 251-258, doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2008.543

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I’ve taught stretchlying on the side for decades. So it’s a (welcome) surprise to discover a way of arranging the neck that is both more effective in adding additional neck length and more relaxing for the neck muscles.

It takes good form to be able to get rest on a surface this hard.
 

In July, reindeer herders in Samiland corral their reindeer to mark the ears of the unbranded calves. This involves stretches of waiting, some of it done reclining on the side, as above.

To date, I’ve taught students to grasp a clump of hair at the base of the skull and pull backward and upward so as to elongate the neck and slide the head back along the pillow into a healthier configuration.

Grasping the hair to guide the back of the head up and back.

My head is supported by a pillow and my forearm acting as a second pillow.

A new technique for lengthening the neck in stretchlying on the side
When I sleep on my side, I usually sleep on just one pillow and place my forearm under the pillow to add a second layer of thickness. Recently I discovered that I could use that forearm to manipulate my head position and enhance the stretch of the back of my neck. By slightly extending my forearm, I was able to elongate my neck further. Using my arm beneath the pillow, I was easily able to manipulate the pillow to move my head where I wanted it to go — rotated forward and glided back. This without tensing a single muscle in my neck and getting a better result — more fine-tuned and with a stronger stretch if that’s what I want (I do). The head’s journey back was very smooth — the pillow provides a soft, cushioned interface, and almost creates the illusion someone is doing the maneuver to you.

A supportive family supported by J-spines!

Forearm and pillow supporting an elongated neck. Enjoying a happy moment on the day of the public television program shoot.

Have you discovered extra techniques that improve your neck’s posture journey? Please do share your discoveries so everyone can benefit!

This month I traveled to Northern Sweden and joined my friend Fredrik Prost's community for the annual marking of their reindeer calves. It was an amazing experience I will never forget.

Annual marking of reindeer calves in Samiland, July 2015

Though the Sami have given up many of their traditional ways, many persist and in the coming months, I will share aspects I found inspiring or educational.

Fredrik finishing working on his new knife. More of his work here.
Notice the inclusion of our Stretchsit cushion alongside some other basics from the modern world!

Traditional Sami housing is a tepee or lavoo, with long birch poles forming the main structure (these used to be transported from place to place by domesticated reindeer), and stitched reindeer skin providing the cover. The top of the lavoo is open to let smoke from a fire escape.

A Sami family in Norway around 1900

Today most Sami live in regular houses or cabins with varying degrees of modern facilities. Fredrik owns a summer cabin in a village inhabited by his paternal relatives; we visited a village inhabited by his maternal relatives where he does not own a cabin. We stayed in a traditional lavoo though we still had many modern conveniences with us.

Soon after arriving at the village (after a five-hour trek that was a good reminder for me to up my game in fitness and strength!), we cut young birch branches to create a floor. I used my newly acquired knife that I had commissioned Fredrik to make for me.

Fredrik (and I, not visible) cutting small birch branches to create a traditional mattress.
Notice the great hip-hinging (that pre-dates my teaching him good posture)

The birch branches help elevate you off the cold ground (this is the Arctic, where the ground remains cold all year round) and away from the gap at the lower border of the tepee. They are also supposed to soften the surface you are sleeping on but I can’t say I noticed that effect very much! 

The birch branches arranged in the traditional fashion on either side
of the central area which includes the kitchen, fireplace, and entryway (not visible)

We had carried in thin foam pads that went on top of the birch branches which were then topped off with reindeer hides from one of Fredrik’s cousins. His cousin Monica also lent me a rakas (this means “love” referring to the privacy it affords you in a communal tepee).

The rakas, suspended from the tepee poles, provides protection from mosquitoes and 24-hour daylight.
It also offers privacy in a communal tepee.

This is so much better than the miserable mosquito net I had brought along from REI - it blocks out mosquitoes very effectively (thank goodness!) and light (foreigners who stay in the Arctic longterm report having much more trouble with 24 hours of daylight than 24 hours of dark in the winter). My cocoon's space under my rakas served as refuge and a place where I could read Alexander Hamilton (highly recommended and a wonderful balance for my otherworldly experience).

The view from inside my cocoon under the rakas.
It was good to discover that mosquitoes are not good at navigating gaps
at the bottom of the cover though they'll find any hole higher up. 

It can be challenging to sleep on the ground, especially when some parts of you stick out (like my hips or some mens’ shoulders), or when your joints have been recently challenged (as mine were from carrying a heavier backpack than I ever have and trekking through swampland with heavy knee-high rubber boots). There’s not much give in reindeer hide and birch branches, and your spine and other joints are forced into some degree of distortion. This need not cause problems if your baseline spinal length is long and your joints are calm, but this July I was much happier to sleep the way much of the world sleeps - with a three quarter turn in my torso, one knee bent and the other straight, one forearm providing for a second pillow and the other helping keep my shoulder from collapsing forward. Ahhh - I had some comfortable long sleeps in Samiland...

Turning the torso as one unit, as shown above,
allows for comfortable sleep on hard surfaces

I’ve known theoretically that it’s important to periodically check out from one’s usual scene, but it’s only when I actually do it that I fully realize just how important it is. For the first week of July, I had nothing much firing between my ears - no thoughts of things to do, no urgent insights, no place I needed to go or people I needed to see. I just experienced life similarly to how the Sami do.

Fredrik's cousin Ulf, a full time reindeer herder, checking the weather
and resting between stints of reindeer herding

I visited neighboring cabins, went to the sauna and the ice cold lake after, joined the community in the reindeer marking (more about that later), made fires and cooked food, lay around a lot, went for a walk...

Warmly,
Esther

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