8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back: Natural Posture Solutions for Pain in the Back, Neck, Shoulder, Hip, Knee, and Foot (Remember When It Didn't Hurt)

This book transformed my approach to posture and pain management. You'll find clear, actionable strategies for identifying and correcting the poor postural habits that many of us have developed from years of desk work. The techniques actually work. I experienced noticeable pain relief within weeks of implementing the exercises and awareness practices outlined in the book. The explanations are easy to follow. No quick fixes, but it will teach you to understand the root causes of postural dysfunction and give you the tools to create lasting change. It is a practical path to genuine relief and better overall well-being.

I am very impressed by the book. The discoveries made by the author about the correct posture are fascinating and they are all nicely illustrated by the lovely pictures of tribes men and little children who reminds us of an inherent beauty and wisdom contained in our bodies. The book is beautifully laid out and a pleasure to work with. Each lesson gives some theoretical background as well as clear, step by step instructions to the exercises. You will learn how to sit, lie, stand, walk, bend in a way that ensures optimum health to your spine. What is best, the presented techniques don't require extra time or effort, they are simply meant to be integrated with one's everyday routine. Correct posture should feel natural and comfortable and the tools given in the book will allow you to achieve that. I am so happy with this book and can highly recommend it to anyone. Thank you Esther :-)

Really great book, very well put together - step by step instructions on how to change posture, lots of photos which are really helpful. This really feels like common sense stuff that makes huge difference to quality of life, instead of keep paying out on physio/osteopathy etc (which I was doing) I have made more difference to my body with 6 months of practice with these techniques. I am now doing a physical job which I would have struggled with before due to constant pain and discomfort. It is not an overnight fix it does take practice and commitment but completely worth it.

Fabulous book! I've bought it for 5 other friends! I was due to go to a workshop today.. but sadly had to cancel, I will definitely do it some other time!

I think my back is sorted, I had terrible problem last year in September, I was doing my last day at work and had to cancel it because something happened to my back, I never experienced such a pain of the lower back and thought I just have to manage to get to my car and drive home, when I got into the car the pain was excruciating (and I thought I was quite good managing pain without the pain killers, haha),I had to wait for quite a while till the pain eased of a little and managed to get home. Back at home it started aching so badly I could only stand holding a chair and crying while my partner got me some painkillers. the pain lasted few days, I went to cranio-sacral therapist and relaxed a lot during her sessions. And while the pain was still somewhere in the background I found Esther book on amazon. I really loved the photographs on every page and started applying Esther's suggestions immediately, it is now nearly 6 months after the my back problem and no more pain so far! I improved so much that can not even slouch in the car any more,(I spend about 10 hours in the car a week) My back will straighten up itself. Walking took me longer to master and probably it is not perfect yet, but I feel my pelvic and buttock muscles are much stronger and more bulky which I am really happy about :) to summarise I love the book and I am really grateful that Esther shared her knowledge so generously.

I highly recommend this book. The importance of good posture and how it can be improved is well described and beautifully illustrated. The practice sessions are enjoyable and encourage a can-do approach. It takes a bit of effort to learn and remember in everyday life and needs to be taken slowly, but the benefit makes you feel better and more confident generally. Another good point is that it doesn't start off with pages and pages of lengthy details about the author's history which can be irritating, and the book is quite big so that text, illustrations and diagrams can all be on one page, making it easy to follow and holds your interest. I wish the DVD was available in the UK.

I found this book by browsing on the US Amazon, and bought it as one of a number of books to resolve an issue with my back. The book does for me an excellent job of showing using the examples of people in Burkinso Furso, Brazil, Portugal babies and ancient statues and even picture of people in the US and France at the turn of the 19 century that what is accepted today as good posture is not in fact the case. The static exercises, and sitting on the chair are reasonably well explained, although it helps if you have someone to read the exercises out to you and to check you are in the right position, particularly the one where you are on your side in bed. Where I struggled with my understanding is with her description on how to do the glide walking, particularly as the pictures do not have the floor on them and are shown in discrete sequences from one place to another. This to me was so much an issue that I bought her DVD when it cam out from her US site, but unfortunately she puts walking as a bonus at the back of the DVD and doesn't really explain if much better than the book. The rest of the DVD cover the stuff in the book. She has videos on her site and youtube, and also quite a long talk that she gave to Google employees, so if you are interested then check these out first.

I bought this book for my daughter who has had chronic lower back pain for over seven years due to a fall from a trampoline - she was 13 years old at the time. Before we even read and digested this book we were converts after just looking at the pictures, as it makes so much sense. When we read the book and followed the advice the differences in her back were amazing. She still had a few spasms, catches and pain but she felt that she slept and sat so much better. We felt that the book was a bit hard to follow for a few of the steps but the results were so good with just our interpretation we felt that a more hands on approach would take it to the next level. My daughter took lessons with one of Esther's teachers and the results have been more that we could have hoped for. I recommend this book and new way of life posture for everyone, no matter whether they have back pain or not.

Ich habe mich 25 Jahre lang gekrümmt - weil meine Beckenstellung falsch war. Ich kann dieses Buch nur empfehlen! Anhand von Beispielen aus der natürlichen Haltung von Kleinkindern, oder auch aus der gesunden natürlichen Haltung indigener Völker, wie man stehen, laufen, sitzen und sogar liegen soll. Es öffnet einem die Augen für die in unserer modernen Gesellschaft allgegenwärtige Fehlhaltung - selbst bei vielen Sportlern! Mein Huckel schwindet und ich habe nie mehr Rückenschmerzen. Ein Muss, dieses Buch!

First, I'm gonna start with my background. I've spent 25 working years of my 40 year old life, in labor intensive, outdoor, on concrete, making a living. Since the late 80's, thanks to Dell pc's, I have had a pc to slump over, for many hours as well. About 15 years ago, I started noticing a numby, tingly sensation down my left leg. Saw my first ever chiropractor and he took xrays. He said I had some birth defect visible and some degeneration or a thin disk. Said with several treatments to mobilize my lower spine that was trying to fuse up, it should get rid of the sensations. About a month later, he was right it was gone. Since then I've led a pretty active, busy, life. However I have for years gotten some flare up inflammation around left low back/si joint area. Usually stretching will help it within a matter of dsys. About 4 months ago, I have started going to the gym, to do my physical job better, feel better and maybe less achey/sore than I should feel at 40 years old. 4 weeks ago my old left low back/si area again inflammed up, so my wife suggested I might be interested in some of her yoga routine. She has had back problems for years and she bends over like pretzel with this yoga stuff, so I said sure my flexibility is horrible. I did a few days of yoga stretches, and finally, one night, I couldn't even sleep my low left back was hurting so bad, didn't matter what position I took, I couldn't get comfortable. I went to doctor, got some anti inflammatories, and muscle relaxors to help at night. Asked for P/T and a new mri to see if I had really damaged something or if something was worse. Mri showed pars defect at L5, I believe that was my birth defect issue, plus a hemongloma (benign tumor at L5) Spondylolysis at L5-S1, mild DDD changes at L5-S1 with mild assymmetric left disc bulge and left face hypertrophy resulting in mild left foraminal stenosis at L5-S1. Basically what I got out of that is degenerative disc or drying out of discs at l5-s1, now bulging some, some narrowing of nerve tunnel from arthritis so now nerve is getting a slight pinch, causing some pain on low left of back at 40 years old, unbelieveable. I have spent a couple year working with trigger point therapy work on getting rid of plantar fascitis in left foot. P/T just wanted to stretch and stretch left calves and hams, but the problem was I was loaded with trigger points which stretching made worse. I take all kinds of multivitamins/ supplements, try to eat right, not over weight, don't smoke, and have been working out and strengthening my core, why am I having back problems. Well Doc said if P/T didn't work she'd send me to a neuro surgeon. I don't even want to think about that at 40 years old. My dad had numberous fusions, wirings, you name it in the 60's and he was never GOOD again, just pills to help him get by. I don't want that. I looked around and found Esthers book here on Amazon, and all the reviews. I saw other stuff on the internet too, like Ebooks for back relief and pain, excercises, and tucking your pelevis. I tucked my pelvis for a week and a half until Esthers book showed up and she says no, you shold not be doing that. Unbelievable, one person says do this, another video says no that's bad do this. I also ordered her DVD, at the same time. I have now had both for one week. I wish I could tell you, that I'm flying up out of bed and screaming Hooray, I'm Healed, lol. But, I can't, but being honest here, when you have spent most of your life working hard physically, as in back bent over type work for much of the day, in my case 25 years, plus, bad habits, (not knowing better) and a little stupidity when I was younger, you aren't gonna get HEALED in a day, a week, or a month. But, if I can stop the further damage as of this point now, and begin a slow process of reversing the pain, bringing back activities I have had to shut down, and restore some damaged tissue/disc with healthy tissue, I will try it. I have read this book, I just finished last night, and I've watched the dvd once. As I said, I am also back in P/T. I don't know third world civilization and their habits, but this book shows a lot of smart ways to use your body, and back. Critics might say this book is just about posture or posture can't cure all. I will say this, I was never really shown much or taught to bend over at the hips, I've always bent over and worked for long hours with a rounded back. Then I've spent many hours hunched forward and over a computer. Esther even talks about this in her book, we as western civilization have tons of back problems because of this, I didn't know any better. Sure I've tried to replay what mom use to say, "sit up straight", puff my chest out, arch my back, tuck my pelvis, hike my shoulders, suck my gutt in, geeese, like a manicun, and it was all wrong. I asked my P/T the other day, if he could show me the proper way to bend over, because I don't know, my body just can't do it right. He showed me almost verbatum what Esther does in this book with hip hinging, the back is straight, the hamms get a stretch, I practiced for a half hour and I started to get a little feel for it. I am doing the stretch sitting right now on the cushion I just got yesterday, in a foldup chair, my back is more comfortable than my big lazy boy chair I sat in last night while eating dinner. I have been doing the stretchlying at night while I sleep. I also bought a knee pillow because I can only really sleep on my side and since my knees are bony, it is uncomfortable to stack my knees on top of another. This is all taking some time to get use to, I'm waking like clock work about every 2 hours, maybe the knee pillow shifted, maybe my body is telling me I need to reposition to stretchlying again, don't know but I'm all for giving it a try. My chiropractor uses a traction table so I understand Esthers principle and it makes sense to me. So much of her book is not rocket science really, it does make sense, and several of the excercises also I have either done or at least a variation, make sense as well. Many people, as I did, think working your core means, more crunches. I said I started a gym 4 months ago, that's what the trainer taught me along with planks. Crunches, are nice, but their not doing a thing for your deep transverse abs for the spine. So again, bad habits, I thought I was doing what I was suppose to. I've also upped my glucosamine/chondroiten intake, fish oil omega 3 and vitamin c for inflmmation. It's nice to find a book with great pics and descriptions to tell people to help undo some of the bad habits they have and hopefully get on with life again with a healthy back/body. I will update in a few months after I have more practice, time with her techniques and see how my activities and pain level respond. Right now I say, deffinitely recommend the book, just on good knowledge of posture, correct excercise technique and understanding of what bad habits are doing to your back and body. UPDATE #1 (1 month) Right now, I feel better than I did one month ago. In the beginning, I couldn't sleep at night from my back discomfort/pain. I had to take 5 weeks off of work, and I just started back light duty last week. The pain in my back is not gone, but it was a 6-7 on a scale of 10, and now a 2-4. The 2 is generally early in the day, and the 4 is late in the day, I think that's just part of DDD. I do the sleep stretching everynight in bed, plus I use a knee pillow to since I'm a side sleeper. I was waking up every 2 hours like clockwork, now it's about 3 hours, not for pain, I sleep without pain now, it's just to readjust myself and roll over to sleep stretch. I just finished P/T, and everyday, probably for the rest of my life, I will work on my stretches/excercises to help with the back. When at home, I sit in this stretch sit cushion at the computer, and don't get any back pain or stiffness, where as a regualr chair after a while I would. I am hoping for continued improvement and diminishing discomfort. It takes a lifestyle change, posture change, dedication to excercises/stretching, and I think the additional techniques in this book are complimenting that. I will update again around 3 months.

The book is an outstanding work in terms of research related to the role of posture causing back pain and the solution in terms of simple steps.

Me ha gustado mucho. Estoy haciendo el curso y es un apoyo indispensable. Es un libro que me gustará conservar cerca para consulta hasta integrar todo lo que propone sobre buena postura, sentados, de pie o tumbados. Me encanta y lo recomiendo 100%. una cosa: Me compré la traducción en castellano y lo tuve que devolver, porque no entendía muchas frases, eran raras, raras....

very easy and simply adjustments that changed my back and neck to being pain free. No necessary equipment or gismos needed and you can do yourself without a teacher or having to do tiresome daily exercises, gym and weight training. I can practice the adjustments whilst cooking, cleaning etc.