Case history: getting a lift
Florence is a 58-year-old cleaning lady who works at a physician’s office and who also babysits her grandchildren. She lives in Florida. She had distressing lower back pain for two and a half weeks, and had experienced lower back pain off and on for five years. The new episode began when she bent over in her cleaning work. Her pain got worse when she bent, lifted, sat, lay on either side, or walked almost any distance. She was also worse in the morning. Her sitting posture was only fair, and she had pain after sitting for long periods.
Exercise 3, Extension in Lying, reduced her pain, but only during the exercise. She began doing Exercise 3 five times a day and began using a lumbar roll when sitting. Six days later, her back pain had decreased, and she could walk greater distances before the onset of pain.
She learned to improve her posture through the slouch-overcorrect procedure, and she added this to her exercise program, doing it two to three times a day.
Still, bending and lifting at work continued to bother her. She learned to lift properly, not by bending over but rather by maintaining the lordosis in her lumbar spine and using her quadriceps (upper leg) muscles to lift.
She began to do Exercise 4, Extension in Standing, throughout her workday, especially after bending. With the use of the lumbar roll, she found she could sit without pain for longer periods than before.
She began Exercise 5, Flexion in Lying. It caused her no symptoms and no reduction in her ability to extend her spine. She did this exercise two to three times a day, followed by Exercise 3, Extension in Lying. Two weeks after beginning to use these two exercises, she was pain-free and able to resume all her previous activities
