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Ruth
I began having issues with low back pain while I was in high school during my track and cross country seasons. I went to physical therapy where I learned that I have scoliosis. At the time, doctors and physical therapists told me that scoliosis was not the cause of my back pain, rather, it was due to tight hamstrings and weakness in the lower back. I began to add in extensive hamstring stretching to my routine as well as weight training to strengthen my lower back. I continued to have pain but I was able to keep running. In the years after high school I ran several full marathons as well as half-marathons. I enjoyed long distance running until my back pain became too severe to continue. I tried returning to traditional weight lifting as well as yoga for flexibility and began chiropractic treatment.
My lower back pain continued to get worse. I tried massage, acupuncture, pilates, anti-inflammatory pain medications and using an elliptical trainer and stationary bike for lower impact training. As the years went by, the list of activities I could no longer participate in kept growing, as well as the list of treatments I’d tried without long term success in relieving my back pain. I went to the doctor and had x-rays taken as well as an MRI which revealed I had two herniated discs in my lumbar spine. I was prescribed narcotic pain medication, nerve pain medication, anti-inflammatory medication, and benzodiazepines. I began physical therapy again and booked a consultation with a neurosurgeon. The surgeon offered to perform surgery but cautioned me that surgery may not work, could make things worse, could do nothing at all, or could improve my pain. I opted for the less invasive option of getting cortisone injections into my lumbar spine. This provided short term relief but the pain returned. I remained on the long list of heavy medications for over a year and then began the process of tapering down the dosages and getting off of the medications. By this point I was resigned to living with this pain for the rest of my life. I found a new chiropractor and reduced my activity levels even more in order to cope with the pain. I began coaching high school cross country and track but I needed to ride a bike or stay on the sidelines as I could no longer run with the kids due to my back pain. I tried staying active as much as possible but found myself relying more on substances to get through the day as time went on. I had to give up coaching after four years because I wasn’t able to stay on my feet for long periods of time. Over the next three years I struggled to make it through the day at work due to my back pain. It became something I had to think about at all times in order to avoid a flare up. I was not able to play with my nephews or enjoy family events because of the amount of pain I was in. I began slowly working through the Power of Posture book and the 10-week course in early 2022. Working through the MFR releases really helped me get my body into a more relaxed state. I began working with a practitioner at Functional Patterns Minnesota and within a few months, my pain levels had significantly reduced. By the time I had been training for 6 months, my pain was so much better that I had the confidence to sign up for the Human Foundations course in September of 2023. Within less than a year of consistently working FP protocols and training into my life, I was having very little pain and able to do so much more than I ever thought possible. I was able to start training clients and began having success helping others get out of pain after my certification course. I had the opportunity to train many clients over the next year and attended the Human Biomechanics Specialist 1 course in July of 2024. Now, I train clients at the Functional Patterns Minnesota location in St Louis Park as well as Functional Patterns White Bear Lake. I will be attending the Human Biomechanics Specialist 2 course in August of 2025. I look forward to helping others learn about their bodies and how to effectively reduce their pain so they can increase their activity levels and performance.
