My lower back used to hurt. It hurt for many years – more
than 10. Who knows how I came to be that way, or how it started. Maybe it was
because I had constructed a rock wall in front of my house, and I hadn’t used
good lifting form in picking up and transporting the thousands of rocks
necessary to build it. I am told this may have damaged the internal portion of
a disk in my back, but that an x-ray wouldn’t show it. At the apex of the hurt,
I even had difficulty bending over to pick up my socks off the floor.

I had x-rays taken which revealed nothing. I went to a
Chiropractor for years. It felt good when she adjusted my back and neck, but
ultimately it did not resolve my problem. Then, I went to a physical therapist
for six months, and the exercises I learned and lifestyle changes I made at
that time started me on a path of healing for which I am thankful. That path
has included a lot of prayer, meditation, study and exercise. I still value
chiropractic adjustments as a means to enhance and maintain flexibility, but I
now know that it is also necessary, as the chiropractor had told me, to build
core strength to help support my back as well. Now my back feels relatively
pain free and is increasing in strength. I can bend over and pick up things
effortlessly and without wincing in pain.  I am so grateful for this fact.

My physical therapist taught me a series of core body
exercises necessary to support lower back health, and he also told me I should
get up from my desk at least every hour or so and stretch, walk around a
little, and do some exercises. I found this was very difficult to do
consistently, especially when I was very busy and trying to meet a deadline at
work or when traveling.

During this process of healing I had also started a weekly
yoga class. At first it would hurt to even do simple exercises such as a
forward bend with back straight to a forward fold. After a period of doing
yoga, I noticed that the pain of doing it gradually decreased. I thought to
myself, “wouldn’t it be great to have the time in my busy schedule to be able
to do yoga more often?” As a result, I developed these exercises that can be
done in the car or while sitting at my desk.

Over the time of doing the exercises in this book, and
especially doing these exercises as a passenger during long road-trips, I
noticed that my hips and lower back started to release and relax like never
before. I found that at the end of a trip that would have put me in bed for a
few days with a sore lower back, I felt just fine and ready to work and play
some more. This caused me to realize what I had learned years before: the
importance of achieving flexibility and strength in the muscles, tendons and
ligaments of my legs, hips and lower back. I found that one key to developing
this flexibility and strength is to carefully introduce mobility into
infrequently used muscles, tendons and ligaments of these areas. To support
doing so is the primary focus of this book.