Case history: hollywood barbara
Barbara is a Hollywood entertainment executive specializing in the production of documentaries. She works long hours at her desk and also drives to many meetings, screenings, and other events. At age 52, after many years of the same habits, she developed lower back pain that sometimes was sharp. She adapted her chair at work by using a lumbar roll, and after a while rarely had pain at the office.
Her main complaint then became pain while in the car. She didn’t have much trouble while driving, but had almost excruciating pain when exiting the vehicle. She was confused about the cause, thinking it must be the exiting rather than the driving.
Her friend Bill sent her the instructions for my exercises. A busy woman who rarely initiates calls, she nevertheless called Bill the day after receiving the exercises. “I’m a lot better!” she exclaimed in relief and surprise. She had been helped by the McKenzie exercises (especially number 3, Extension in Lying). But she also had benefitted from the discussion of the fact that posture is the key to most back pain. She therefore began to use a lumbar roll in the car even though driving rarely was accompanied by pain. The roll helped.
She did best, however, when she paid special attention to the McKenzie Method’s advice on how to maintain the lower back lordosis even as one moves from a sitting position to a standing position. In summary, the method says to move to the front of a regular chair or to the exit side of a car seat, then to stand up by straightening the legs, while taking care not to bend forward at the waist. With the combination of lumbar rolls at the office and in the car, the exercises, and the technique for getting out of a sitting posture, Barbara became almost entirely pain-free
