herniation

My name is Sheila Bond, and I am the mother of four sweet kids, an artist, a knit and jewelry designer, and a private art teacher. In this blog post I would like to share with you my Gokhale Method® journey out of pain and despair.

Photo of me after my second disc herniation in seven years.

On May 6, 2022, I severely herniated the spinal disc between my L4/L5 vertebrae. In addition I had developed bursitis in my left hip during the previous three months, I believe from sitting improperly teaching online classes.

It happened on the Friday before Mother’s Day. By Saturday morning I could barely move and thought I might die or at the very least never recover. I ordered a TENS unit (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, a mild electrical current to give pain relief) from Walgreens, and bought Salonpas patches and a walking cane. I took three Advil and two extra strength Tylenol alternating every six hours. 

I had previously herniated my L4/L5 in 2015, and had a laminectomy (a surgical operation to remove part of the back of vertebrae, usually to relieve pressure on nerves.) That surgery had left me in terrible pain. When I told the surgeon I was still in pain in my tailbone/sacrum area, he told me he could remove my tailbone. I declined. Following surgery, I also went to physical therapy for a year and a half, but it gave me more pain than it took away.

   
My MRI from January 2015, showing my first L4/L5 herniation (red arrow).  

My MRI from May 2022, showing my second L4/L5 herniation. I was particularly disturbed by the amount of tissue damage in the area after my first surgery (circled in blue).

It wasn’t until five years later when I discovered a traditional Chinese acupuncturist that I found any real relief in that area. During that timespan I was also diagnosed with EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder), and discovered that I consequently had a hypermobile sacrum that was prone to dislocation.

Returning to May 2022, I was in denial that it could be my spine and insisted it must be my hip causing the electrifying pain that ran all the way from my hip to my foot. I thought maybe it was something wrong with the joint. I just really didn’t want it to be my spine again. On Monday, May 9, I finally agreed to go to the ER after hearing that my GP could not squeeze me in.

The electrifying pain ran all the way from my hip to my foot.

At the ER they gave me an IV, Valium and Fentanyl. It barely touched the pain, and only for an hour, and then they’d give me more. They did an MRI of my back and an X-ray of my hip. After about four hours they sent me home with the diagnosis of a severely herniated disc and bursitis in my hip. They gave me 10 Vicodin pain pills, 30 muscle relaxants, and a package of steroids and told me to see an orthopedic surgeon or a neurosurgeon. 

The ER room looked bleak, just like my state of mind.

The pain continued. I couldn’t dress myself. I could barely move or function at all. I called the orthopedic surgeon the next day who said my hip didn’t need an operation since the problem was bursitis, and that I should see a spinal surgeon or a neurosurgeon. I did not as I was so scared by my last experience. (I didn’t take the steroids either.) Instead, on May 12, I headed three hours away with my youngest kid in tow to see an acupuncturist who specialized in chronic pain and spinal injuries.

There was severe weather on my agonizing 3 hour drive to seek help. But I was desperate—and determined.

The acupuncturist recommended daily treatment so I checked into a hotel. She told me all my L1-L5 discs were not doing well. After five days of treatment, I experienced some pain relief, but sadly I tripped on my cane and fell into a wall, reversing any healing done. The pain then became so bad that I felt as though I was being constantly electrocuted. I couldn’t sleep. I drew and painted from my bed trying to explain what I was feeling. 

I tried to communicate my experience visually.

I am the main breadwinner for my family and I really could not miss work. I tried to teach my private Zoom art classes, but standing and sitting were both unbearable. I forced myself to teach some of them and rescheduled others. My birthday was on the 22nd and I felt like I was on my deathbed. I am used to being the one to care for others, so this was a terrible place for me to be.

I felt so bad for all my kids. I took the youngest one, who was with me, to the zoo, but had to use an electric wheelchair. I took the prescribed Vicodin and muscle relaxants to make it through, but still had to keep changing positions, fighting the pain. Some of the time I couldn’t even hold the steering wheel to make the wheelchair go, and then my kid would offer to steer for me. We didn’t stay long.

This video shows a GIF I made from two drawings to express the pain I experienced.

My sweet sister Aileen who lived states away was worried about me. She had recovered from back pain having worked with Esther Gokhale in California, and told me Esther could help me and sent me the Gokhale Method website. From my hotel bed she and my father helped me to sign up for the 18-session online Elements course. 

Before meeting Esther Gokhale I tried. . . 

Ice
Advil
Norco
Tylenol
Tens unit
Massager
Hydration 
Electrolytes 
Arnica salve
Heating pads 
Cyclobenzaprine
Lowering my chair 
Gentle safe stretches  
B and C vitamins, zinc 
Short walks every day 
Heat wrap around calf
Gentle and slow motion 
Hot baths with Epsom salts
Trying to correct my posture myself
Hand massage of my leg muscles, daily
Inversion table—horrible, won’t do it again
Acupuncture—two weeks of daily treatment 
Herbal tea from my acupuncturist and herbalist 

I met Esther on May 24 from my hotel room over Zoom. Esther was kind and gentle, and confident that she could help me. I couldn’t sit so Esther guided me to a position lying on the floor with my feet in a chair—that relieved enough of the pain so we could talk. We set up the sessions to begin on May 31. It was so hard to take the before-course posture photos.

From the very first Elements lesson I found some relief. It was small gains at first, but I could tell the difference. I was in so much pain even the littlest movements were hard. The tiniest shifts helped a lot. I hadn’t slept well in so long.

Esther thought pain medication might be helpful to assist me though the sessions. Finally in the middle of June I went to see the neurosurgeon. I carried with me my copy of 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back. I told him I had been having private posture lessons with Esther Gokhale—I had done five at that point. He hadn’t heard of the Gokhale Method, and, as he could see that my herniation was pressing against my spinal nerves, he wanted to do surgery immediately. I told him I wanted to continue to try to heal myself, and that I wanted to try pain medication to support that. He couldn’t believe I had held on so long in my condition, and I think he realized my strength and conviction. He made an appointment for a spinal injection in two weeks’ time (which I never had) and prescribed me the second strongest Percocets available. 

I took the pain medication for only three-to-four days as they made me nauseous, but it was long enough to give me some relief and I was able to do more during our posture sessions. Each session gave me a posture gem that I needed to know. I practiced over Zoom with Esther, and by myself in between our sessions. It was amazing to me that I was learning how to heal myself and avoid pain. 

Today I find myself returning to making joyful and more optimistic drawings like this sketch of a tree, looking skyward.

Things really began to shift for me about a third of the way through the course. When Esther taught me standing, I changed my stance by kidney-bean shaping my feet, externally rotating my legs, and relaxing my pelvis and belly, allowing my behind to be behind me. I’ve had four kids, and had gotten used to holding tension and trying not to let my belly show. I had become scared to move out of my “locked up” position for fear of more pain. After learning how to relax into a healthy standing posture, a huge percentage of the back pain dissipated. 

Around mid-July, halfway through Elements, we started learning to glidewalk. This brought another huge shift, as my searing leg pain finally started to recede. I had admired my sister’s strong, smooth way of walking since she had taken the in-person Foundations Course, and now I too was learning how to keep my back heel down, and to land on a bent front knee. Having struggled even to stand for months, getting walking again took some determination just to move a few yards. 

By August I was able to return to making jewelry like this charoite and copper pendant.

By lesson 14 or 15 I was able to walk without a cane. I realized I still had to focus on anchoring my ribs as well as all the changes with my gait. I still hear Esther saying to me “heel down, ribs down. . . ” Having a teacher prompt you in real time was so helpful.

Some days were better than others, and progress ebbed and flowed. I have learned that I need to treat myself with love and patience. I had become so used to having to push through my pain to look after everybody else—to work, look after my kids, even just to get the dishes done. 

I still keep a 20-minute reminder (app) on my phone, to bring me back to mindfulness about my posture, whatever I’m doing. I realize that the pathway for the disc herniation is still there—but I feel that it isn’t going to happen again because I now have the tools to stay long, strong, and well aligned in my back.

I’m getting back to living again. I’m able to teach my private art classes comfortably and have hope for the future.

At the end of my 18 lessons, I actually danced to the 1-2-3 Move Gokhale Exercise program. I have always loved dance, and it was thrilling to start to do that again, at my own gentle pace. I want to share my story far and wide, so please share this post. Everyone in pain deserves to have realistic hope, and to know that they can heal.

If you would like guidance on any aspect of your posture and spine shape, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online or in person, with a Gokhale Method teacher.

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, sign up to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . . 

I developed excruciating lower back pain in 2001. I was a tennis player, downhill skier, and a marathon runner. I was also under a lot of financial pressure in a stressful job as a consumer class action lawyer with my own firm. 

Excruciating back pain challenged my ability to continue working. Forthepeople.com

My doctor diagnosed me with a herniated disc at L4-L5. He said that a piece of my disc was sitting on the spinal nerve. I tried everything to stop my pain but nothing worked. In January 2002 I underwent a laminectomy which removed the piece of disc and some of the vertebral bone next to the herniation to make room for the nerve root.

A laminectomy is a common lumbar surgery to remove some or all of the lamina (a part of the vertebra) to relieve pressure on nerves trapped by herniated discs or stenosis (narrowing of the nerve canals). Wikipedia

After the surgery, my back pain was more intense than before. It was very difficult to get out of bed in the morning. My five-year-old daughter imitated me doing a sort of downward dog yoga pose, with a lot of groaning, just to get out of bed in the morning. I could not move comfortably, nor could I stay still. I remember business meetings in restaurants—just looking at the chairs there I would feel pain.

Few modern chairs help us to sit well. Most chairs either encourage a swayback (left) or a tucked pelvis (right). Wikipedia

I also tried acupuncture treatment, but it was too painful to lie down. It hurt. Hurt to stand. Hurt to sit. Hurt to walk. Hurt to sleep. Everything hurt. 

I received cortisone injections from a pain specialist. I was ecstatic to get a needle in my spine because it gave me temporary relief from the agonizing pain that radiated all the way from my lumbar spine down my leg. Unfortunately, the relief didn’t last. 

Pain from pressure on the sciatic nerve can radiate from the origins of the nerve in the lumbar spine all the way to the foot. Wikipedia

I seriously considered a spinal cord stimulator. It was like an implanted super transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machine, but I am very glad that I changed my mind as it required subsequent surgeries and I really did not want something implanted in my body. I was prescribed multiple pain relieving medications. 

I participated in a number of lengthy courses, including some pilates and Bikram yoga, that focused on cultivating more strength and flexibility to relieve my back pain. Yoga gave me some temporary relief but nothing permanent. I also used a pilates reformer once a week for several months but it didn’t help. It started to remind me of a medieval torture device. 

Using specialized equipment without knowledge of primal architecture can hurt rather than help. Wikipedia

I also went to a physical therapist and my pain was still not relieved.

Massage from a skilled practitioner can help alleviate soft tissue tension and back pain. Ideally, it would be combined with posture training to get to the root of the problem. Pixabay

In an attempt to relieve my pain on the way to court, I would slouch in my car almost horizontally, with both an ice pack down the back of my pants and the seat warmer on. I remember the pain forcing me to lie down on the floor at an arbitration where I represented a class of homeowners in a case worth tens of millions of dollars. Other lawyers stared at me as if I were a defective space alien. 

Despairing, I thought I would never get better. I knew people with similar levels of pain who had retired. Because of my love of being a consumer protection lawyer and my financial responsibilities, this was not an option. The stress caused me to tighten up even more, worsening the pain. I felt like I was trapped in a downward spiral.

I explored the principle of mind over matter. I meditated daily and continue to do so. I read Dr. John Sarno’s books. Dr. Sarno would say first eliminate any physical cause, then heal back pain by dealing with any repressed anger or other negative emotion. But my pain persisted.

Eventually I came across  Esther Gokhale's book, 8 Steps to a Pain Free-Back, and subsequently took the Foundations Course in 2011 with a Gokhale Method teacher in San Francisco. As I have said many times, Esther Gokhale is my hero! I have given her book to numerous family members and friends. They don’t believe me that there are 21 pages about how to sit in a car—or a restaurant chair—but every one of those pages is precious to me as they have saved me hours of agony. The Stretchsit® Cushion and Esther’s instructions allowed me to drive without pain. The Gokhale Pain-Free™Chair is still my favorite office chair. I still use the stretchlying technique that I learned in detail there, gently introducing traction to one segment of my spine at a time.

This healthy neck stretch is from a recent 1-2-3 Move class for our Alumni.

I now have zero back pain. Because of the Gokhale Method I can finally lie comfortably in bed, sit, stand, walk, bend, and live my life. I returned to running six mile runs along California beaches and trails all over King's Mountain. Due to wear and tear on my knees over the years, I am now an active swimmer, hiker, and biker. 

Out on my bike, I enjoy being physically active again, with the occasional wipeout.

My back has tolerated a recent move into a home with 41 steps. I carry furniture, groceries, etc. up and down those steps with no back problems. I am once again enjoying being the pain-free, calm, and happy person that I used to be.

Out hiking with my wife, Susie.

This is our second blog post in the series where we put popular exercises under scrutiny to examine how they stack up—or not—against the principles of healthy posture. Here we are looking at crunches, a common abdominal exercise.

Crunches are often seen as a better targeted and safer 
abdominal exercise than sit-ups—but there is still a downside.

Crunches are done lying down on the floor, face up, knees bent with feet on the floor, and with the hands placed behind or to the side of the head. They involve using the muscles of the rectus abdominis and the obliques to repeatedly raise and lower the upper body. 

Crunches are well named—they crunch your discs and crunch your nerves. Lifting the weight of the head—which at around 11 lb. or 5 kg is the weight of an average bowling ball—can put considerable strain on your neck and threaten its delicate structures. It also encourages rounding of the back and shoulders, as you can see in the above photo. We recommend against this exercise.

Doing poorly designed exercises and overtraining the “six-pack” muscles will encourage a tucked pelvis
and a rounded upper spine. Freepik

Why are crunches so popular?

People in our culture are conditioned to feel more attractive when they have a flat stomach and an impressive six-pack, and so may turn to all manner of treatments, diet regimens, and abdominal exercises to target this area. People who have experienced an episode of debilitating back pain also want, quite understandably, to strengthen their abs and core in order to protect their back. 

Do most people need to strengthen their abs?

   
Parking the pelvis forward is a common postural habit that pushes into the groins and compresses the lower back. It indicates that the deep abdominal muscles are not engaged and prevents them from fulfilling their postural role. Freepik

Most people in our culture sit, stand, bend, and walk in ways that actually discourage their abdominal muscles from working in their day-to-day lives. Those who either arch or round their backs are holding themselves upright with their back muscles or stressing their joints. With these poor posture habits the “inner corset” (deep muscles of the abdomen and lower back) is not recruited to perform its natural role and becomes progressively weaker. 

This woman in Burkina Faso and man in Brazil use their inner corset in their everyday tasks.

Learning healthy posture as taught in our online Elements course and in-person Gokhale [Go-clay]Method Foundations Course holistically addresses this problem. In the courses we teach specific, well-chosen exercises designed to jump-start weak muscles and awaken your inner corset. Some of these are illustrated in Appendix 1 of my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back. 

Are crunches a safer exercise than sit-ups?

Crunches are often regarded as a safer and better choice of abdominal exercise than sit-ups. And they are. The Canadian Armed Forces discontinued the use of sit-ups in training and physical-fitness tests due to the large numbers of injuries caused to their personnel. The U.S. military also has a plan to phase them out by 2021. Stuart McGill, Professor of Spine Biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a leading researcher on the subject, points to numerous studies that show that repeated sit-ups, which load the discs in a particularly dangerous direction, cause bulging, sequestrated, and herniated discs as well as spinal nerve damage. 

Neither of these people doing crunches have healthy form. Their necks are doing too much, and the man is also tucking his pelvis. Crello

Gym instructors often prefer crunches over sit-ups because they are safer and result in less tension in the psoas (hip flexors). But are they safe enough? 

In our view, classic rounded crunches are still a risky, disc-compressing exercise which encourage tension in the groin, while also training the body in poor postural form (tucking the pelvis and rounding the upper back and neck).

Doing a crunch twisting the head towards the knee encourages the neck to do too much and the pelvis to tuck. Crello

Rounded crunches are sometimes done with a twist at the waist to work the abs more obliquely. This is often done by bringing up the entire upper body and reaching one elbow towards the knee of the opposite leg. 

Effective ab exercises that are healthy for your posture

There are healthy alternatives to crunches that give your abdominal muscles a good workout! 

Our healthy and posture-positive version of this exercise keeps the head supported in the hands. The arm on the side to which you are turning continues to be supported on the ground. You can watch Gokhale Method Fitness teacher Eric Fernandez performing the exercise in this video. You will see that he maintains his spinal alignment throughout the exercise, rather than tucking and rounding his torso. 

When doing this exercise:

• Support your head in your hands and relax your neck 
• Rest your upper arm on the floor as you turn towards it, lifting the opposite arm and shoulder from the floor
• Do not pull your head forward
• Do not tuck your pelvis
• Aim for small, smooth, accurate movements

If your abdominal muscles are weak or you are currently or intermittently experiencing back pain, then we recommend that you start with a less challenging exercise. To correctly identify and safely bring your abdominal obliques and other upper abdominal muscles to a healthy baseline tone, we recommend first watching this Gokhale Method rib anchor exercise video, and then learning to use your inner corset. The inner corset is explained in detail in 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back. 

Free Chapter of 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back

As a special gift to newsletter subscribers who have confirmed their subscription, we would like to send you the Inner Corset chapter from Esther's book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

Please enter your email address in the field below and you will be sent an email with your Inner Corset chapter. You may receive a confirmation email to sign up to the Positive Stance newsletter first.

If you are looking for a way to exercise regularly that is healthy for your back and improves your posture, sign up for our Gokhale Exercise Free Trial:

1-2-3 Move happens daily with Esther at 9:45 a.m. (Pacific Time)
Gokhale Fitness with Eric runs Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays from 7–7:25 a.m.
(Pacific Time), and Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays from 3–3:25 p.m. (Pacific Time)

Read our Home Exercises Part 1 blog post on Cobra here.

Hunching over or rounding the upper back is often regarded as a hereditary characteristic. I frequently hear people say, “my back is stooped just like my mother, and her mother had it too.” 

Is a hunched back Nature or Nurture?

I agree that hunching is certainly a family trait—but it is largely a learned one, not inherited. 

We mostly learn our posture from our parents and family members. As we grow up, the role models around us in wider society also hold sway. Unfortunately, in our culture, these are usually pretty poor examples to follow. Our relationship to healthy posture has steadily been eroded over the past one hundred years, as I explain in my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

Healthy, open posture, as shown here, was typical in Western societies until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Print donated by the Mendocino County Museum to the Gokhale Method Institute’s collection).

While it is true that some people have a greater genetic predisposition to these distortions, e.g., they may have slack ligaments which easily allow them to occur, these changes generally only manifest when a particular area of the body is subjected to sustained and inappropriate loading. When a person retains or relearns healthy posture, genetic predispositions have little opportunity for expression and for distortions to take hold.   

This mother in Burkina Faso positions her head, neck, shoulders, and arms in a way that is harmonious with retaining an upright and mostly flat upper back. Her child is also experiencing healthy posture—his arms and shoulders posterior, his chest open.

This well-meaning mother is unfortunately encouraging her daughter to round her back as she exercises. Pexels

Why does the upper back hunch?

In some respects, developing a rounded back is not dissimilar from developing bunions—both distortions are the body’s adaptation to a lack of support in the right place, and consequent overloading somewhere else. 

Bunions can form when the joint at the base of the big toe repeatedly takes weight that should be in the heel bone. This can be due to wearing a pointed or high-heeled shoe, or simply from habitually standing with weight through the forefoot rather than the heel. 

The upper back rounds when it is made to carry and counterbalance the weight of a forward hanging head, neck, shoulders, and arms. In healthy posture the upper body is supported by a more vertical J-shape alignment of the spine and the deep postural muscles, or “inner corset.” This prevents the spine from collapsing into an S-shape, C-shape, or I-shape. You can read more about spine shape here.

Sir Charles Walker, a British member of Parliament, being interviewed. A tucked pelvis will often result in a rounded upper back and forward head carriage. Channel 4 News (UK)

How to improve rounded, head forward posture

One of the best steps towards finding your J-spine alignment is to realign your head over your body. To develop the deep cervical muscles which counter excessive neck curves, I recommend using the Gokhale™ Head Cushion, which was specifically designed for this therapeutic purpose. It mimics the beneficial effects of head loading, but with a safe amount of weight for people in a society unpracticed in carrying on the head. 

People who carry weight on their head push up against it using their deep neck muscles (longus colli) and inner corset. Their central axis remains tall, with no rounding of the upper spine.

Caution: If you have any neck pain, or suspicion of herniation or other degeneration in the neck, do not do this exercise.

Headloading is a rarely taught but highly effective means of lengthening, strengthening, and aligning the neck, and freeing the upper back.

Upright and open posture is your birthright

By not hunching you can:

• Maintain your full height
• Retain a more youthful appearance
• Avoid muscular pain and tension, especially in the back and neck
• Avoid nerve pain, impingements, and poor circulation in the shoulders and arms
• Encourage the “inner corset” muscles to support and protect the spine
• Avoid compression and degeneration in the spine, including bone, discs, and nerves 
• Reduce your risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis in the spine as the bones receive
  the healthy stress they are designed for
• Enjoy healthier breathing and digestion

Hunching is not an inevitable part of aging

Often people start to notice they are hunching in middle or older age, maybe because it has become more pronounced. Hunching usually starts as a postural habit much earlier in life, yet goes largely unnoticed if there is little stiffness or pain in the area—and it is not yet linked negatively to associations with the aging process. In many traditional cultures people preserve an upright posture well into old age.

A lifetime of seated work does not make hunching inevitable, as the upright posture of this Ecuadorian backstrap loom weaver shows.

This elderly man in Indonesia has retained posterior shoulders and a wide, relatively flat upper back. Unsplash

This elderly farmer from the Yogyakarta region of Indonesia has preserved an open chest and shoulders that rest back. Unsplash

At whatever age you notice rounding in your back, it is important not to see it as inevitably leading to an extreme kyphosis (severe outward curvature) in the upper spine. Sometimes students come to us in dismay, perhaps shocked to have recently seen themselves so hunched in a particular photograph or video. Rather than despair, use this highly pertinent data as a springboard and incentive to return toward the healthy alignment you had as a young child. 

A young girl washes eggs for market near Falls Creek, Pennsylvania, 1940. She inclines slightly forward and lengthens the back of her neck to attend to the task. Her shoulders remain posterior, her chest open—no rounding over! Pinterest

How to mobilize a stiff upper back

In most situations using a suitable roller is my favorite way of mobilizing the upper back. It can ease stiffness in the vertebral joints, soften tight muscles, and improve circulation to the area. To ensure you get all of these up sides and none of the potential downsides from roller work, there are some important guidelines to follow:

• Use a roller that is the right size, density, texture, is non-slip, and robust. The Gokhale™ Roller meets these criteria.
• Rolling needs to be done with a safe technique and healthy postural form, not threaten injury to your back or neck.
• New freedom in the upper back must be balanced with healthy posture to improve muscular tone and alignment. This prevents newly acquired “give” in the area from resulting in further rounding.

Caution: If you have osteopenia or osteoporosis, or suspicion of herniation or other degeneration in your spine, do not do this exercise.

The Gokhale™ Roller has been specifically designed to help you on your posture journey towards a happy, hunch-free back.

How the Gokhale Method resolves hunched posture

Posture education often starts when people analyze their online or in-person Initial Consultation photographs with a teacher. Gokhale Method® teachers have a lot of experience in reassuring people who have a kyphosis (rounded upper back), explaining the mechanisms that got them hunched, and the logical steps they can take to turn this unwanted trajectory around. The Initial Consultation starts the process of students fine tuning their ability to read posture. It can be a revelation. 

Initial education in Gokhale Method techniques and the resulting changes can be rapid. Most students soon realize how amenable to change the arrangement of the skeleton and soft tissue can be. Changes to rounded posture are not only possible, but almost guaranteed as students progress through our in-person Foundations or Pop-up course, or online Elements course.

In the case of bony rigidity that has been in place for decades, we work to get improvement around fixed areas, and to prevent it from getting worse. With persistence and patience, a surprising degree of bony changes can take place over time. As with all body tissue, bone constantly renews itself in response to the way it is arranged and used.

Felicia Grimke, aged 32, was a very hunched and pain-plagued office worker.

Now a Gokhale Method alumna, Felicia continues to enjoy working on healthy posture and is virtually pain-free for the first time in many decades.

Many of our students have generously shared the story of their journey out of hunching and pain. Do be inspired by Felicia Grimke’s recent post on overcoming hunching, How the Gokhale Method Solved my Neck Pain and Transformed my Life, and sign up for one of our free online workshops below. 

At the end of his rope after chiropractic, physical therapy, massage and surgery, a Transportation Planning Consultant finds relief with Gokhale Method Foundations Course.

Travis Dunn, PhD, remembers clearly the onset of his excruciating back pain. He was all of 24 years old.

“It first appeared while I was on vacation in June 2005,” he recalls. “There was no specific, major incident that precipitated the pain, but it grew sharper and more debilitating over the course of a week or so, including occasional sciatica.”

He would start each day with his back pain registering “one or two” on a scale of ten, he recalls. As soon as he sat, the pain would grow worse. “If I were to remain seated, I’d be at seven or eight within a half hour. When I stood up, I would be like a hunchback,” he says, bending over to show how contorted his body was. “Then I would have to stretch to reset my muscles before I could sit down.”

He survived his workday by taking walking breaks—some were part of his regular routine of walking to meetings or lunch. Others were add-ons to a fully loaded workday. All told, he’d spend an hour or so walking each day, just so he could sit and work. When the pain became unbearable, he would rearrange his desk and stand at his computer, which helped only slightly.

Dunn opted for a conservative approach to treatment, starting with chiropractic care. “The chiropractor took x-rays, then put them up on the wall and showed me where everything was wrong in my spine. He said I’d see him three or four times a week at first, and then we’d taper off after that as I got better.” That lasted two months. “I wanted to believe it would work, and he told me it would. But I saw no difference.”

Over the following two years Dunn tried therapeutic massage—“short-term relief measured in hours, not days.” Next came six months of physical therapy, which provided some help if he maintained a strict regimen. Dunn had cortisone injections twice, with no benefit. 

“Long road trips and air travel were nightmares,” he recalls. Over-the-counter pain killers had no effect, he says, and he studiously avoided prescription pain relievers or muscle relaxants. “I knew of people with back pain similar to mine, who had become prescription pain killer addicts; I didn’t want to go down that trail.”

Dunn finally went to an orthopedic surgeon who, unlike the chiropractor, saw nothing of concern on the x-rays. “He looked at the same x-rays as my chiropractor and said, “You can’t see anything from these.” The orthopedist ordered an MRI, which showed a herniated L4-L5 disc.

After exhausting what he thought were all of his alternatives, he had surgery in December 2006, an L4-L5 discectomy to remove the herniation. It relieved his occasional sciatic pain, but the low back pain continued. “I followed up with routine physical therapy for the next 6 months which helped me to manage the pain, but if I skipped even one day of stretches and exercises I was miserable,” he says. 

At this point Dunn estimates he was out of pocket about $7,000 and that his health insurance company had absorbed at least another $20,000. He also missed work for a month while recovering from the surgery.

For the next several years he managed his pain with a strict regimen of stretching and exercise, but still struggled at work where he spent long hours sitting at a desk. The pain was constant, he remembers, with its severity tempered only modestly by stretching and back exercises.

The ordeal was at least as taxing emotionally as it was physically and financially. “I was never clinically depressed, but over time it took a toll on me emotionally,” Dunn recalls. “I’m an engineer by training. I solve problems, and I couldn’t figure this one out. I was going to all the medical professionals you’re supposed to go to, and they couldn’t fix it."

“The despair part of it is this fear that you’re going to have to live with this for the rest of your life. The longer it went on, especially after the surgery didn’t resolve the underlying back pain, the more I was left wondering if this was going to be a chronic lifelong cross to bear. I never stopped looking for answers, but I had five years of very limited success. And when a problem lasts that long, you can lose hope.”

In April 2010, nearly five years after the pain began, he took the three-day intensive Gokhale Method Foundation course. 

“It was intuitive, in a way that was revealing, or eye opening,” he recalls. He had seen Gokhale Method creator Esther Gokhale’s book, and the class came naturally to him. “I remember sitting down for the opening session, and listening to her explanation of posture. It was very intuitive, and I felt very comfortable. I saw results almost immediately."

“I quickly realized that many of the stretches and sitting positions I had been using to find relief were, according to the Gokhale Method, counterproductive. For example, arching or swaying my back and using a lot of lumbar cushioning—that was a big one—were actually making things worse. I had no guidance or foundation for the geometry and physics of a healthy back, so I used countless positions and exercises, many of which were ill-advised. Esther’s method was a very logical philosophy, easy to follow.”

Dunn shared an email he wrote to Gokhale six months after taking her course. "My low-back pain is, for the most part, a memory. I have applied your methods principally to my sitting, which was always the most uncomfortable position for me. The results are striking. Whereas in the past it was a struggle to get through a day (complete with standing / stretching / walking breaks every 10 minutes or so), I can now sit uninterrupted and pain free for long stretches."

“As evidence of that, I have traveled from Boston in the past three months twice to Portugal (that's four flights of seven+ hours each), twice to Texas (four flights of three+ hours), and once to Mexico (two flights of four+ hours). Each time, I flew comfortably and pain free!"

Dunn—now a 32-year-old transportation planning consultant—travels regularly overseas and has driven twice across the country—all pain free. And his advice to others in back pain? 

“This method is something everyone should be doing, regardless of whether they’re in pain. I notice posture now. I notice how people are sitting. For those in pain, it’s easy, low cost, and a low-hanging fruit. I wish I had done it first.”