February Blog
One of the Main reasons people across the western world go to the doctor in their adult life is back pain. Statistically speaking:
One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.
Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work. In fact, back pain is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office, outnumbered only by upper-respiratory infections.
Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic—meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.
Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on back pain—and that’s just for the more easily identified costs.
Experts estimate that as many as 80% of the population will experience a back problem at some time in our lives.
Most doctors seek pain resolution through medications and surgery. Many of my clients are told it should go away without any explanation by their doctor and are given pain meds and or Physical therapy. For some “it” does “go away”. Those with chronic and more advanced diagnosis’ opting to avoid surgical intervention often scour the complimentary medicinal sciences, with bodywork and manipulative hands on therapy having a positive effect for many. Nutrition and functional movement (therapeutic bodywork and exercise) are key in maintaining a pain free life unless there is a key dysfunction causing compensatory dysfunction throughout the kinetic chain we call a body and preventing complete healing.
Some begin to see the possibilities for a pain free lifestyle but don’t get complete resolution until properly assessed by a therapist/practitioner who understands where and how these compensations manifest. Chronic pain is a mind consuming state that pervades every aspect of the person’s life. This is often compounded when pain prevents rehabilitative movement and worse, sleep.

Sacroiliac vs lumbopelvic vs iliosacral vs iliofemoral vs lumbosacral work

I am a serial investigator into the mysteries I have come across when working with the body. I used to send my teachers emails and questions all the time. At one seminar I had Erik cornered and bombarded him with a list (I had an actual list) of questions during his brief respite after class. After about ten minutes of answering my frantic questioning, Erik assured me that these were indeed advanced questions and that the top specialists in the field across the board including doctors, PT’s and all sorts of bodyworkers have differing ideas, opinions and stances on the lumbopelvic biomechanics and that it is easy for one to get confused.
One guy who seems to understand it is Jerry Hesch PT.
In Erik’s latest groundbreaking book entitled Dynamic Body, Jerry’s chapter on sacral torsion spoke to the fact that differing medical nomenclature and reliance on inconsistent assessment techniques that only tell part of the picture are to blame for the mystification of this important area in which both stability and mobility are equally necessary. He too found himself confused being a student of PT and he sought out to simplify the paradigm.
Back story:
I was placed with Jay Gibson as a roommate at the last Costa Rica seminar I attended with Erik Dalton. We stayed in touch. He’s another like minded student of truth and efficacy in treatment. He has studied orthopedic massage with James Waslaski, Primal Reflex Release and also even mentored with Paul Kelly (Top student of Erik).
He also liked the chapter so we signed up for the Si course aimed at PT’s. While we were there, Jay’s core instability (found in a functional screen prior to the course) came up because he had a back problem that wasn’t fully releasing with Jerry’s work.
Well, Jerry looked at Jay’s foot and said matter of factly “his navicular is the problem”.
He said “hold his foot like this for two minutes” and showed me how. I felt the bones unwind for two minutes and after i was done, jay went to look to see what changed. He tried the same functional screen he previously failed over and over and locked right into position. Pass!
When I got home, I was so impressed with the results I saw in class that I ordered his advanced DVD’s that Monday.
After very little discussion, Jay and I made plans to go to vegas to learn Jerry’s full body system…