I moved to San Francisco at the tail end of the dot-com rush to pursue a career in advertising. Exciting opportunities led to prolonged hours sitting at a desk not fit for my height with infrequent breaks and no self awareness on proper sitting posture. Many years into it I was gaining serious traction in my career, but paying for it physically: sitting 10 hours each day in front of my computer.
I started to get some lower back pain but kept on working and ignoring my health. Then the back of my legs started tingling. My coworkers would notice me periodically stomping the floor with my feet but I kept working and ignored that my body was trying to tell me something. I would get up from my desk and my lumbar spine would feel numb. I was not aware how bad ergonomics and not taking care of myself was negatively affecting my body over the time I had spent working.
One night I woke up with excruciating pain radiating from my neck into my shoulders and down into my arms. I ‘ve never experienced such intense level of pain before and it scared me to the point where I thought I would never get better again.
Then I was aware of acute pain 24 hours a day. I couldn't sleep, sit, walk, or exercise without severe pain in my entire upper torso. I didn't know it then, but it would take several years to regain some sort of normalcy.
The pain was so debilitating I had to take an extended leave of absence from work to heal. I was shocked and surprised when I was diagnosed with a repetitive stress injury. I went to see workman's compensation doctors, started taking an insane amount of painkillers, got an MRI, had multiple steroid injections into my spine's damaged disks, did extensive physical therapy, as well as got regular chiropractic care. The medical bills started adding up, but I wasn't getting back to normal as quick as I hoped to.
After I returned to the office from my medical leave there was an expectation I was ready to jump back into the way things were before I left. As soon as I started to sit for prolonged periods of time at my desk again the pain started creeping back into my spine's weakest points: my neck and my lumbar. I had extensive ergonomic evaluations and ended up getting a new desk and chair designed to fit my height.
Having heard good things I then turned to Pilates. I found it helpful in strengthening my spine and correcting my posture. It helped me get through the work week but I was still dealing with a considerable amount of pain and had to rely on anti inflammatory drugs on a regular basis.
After much soul searching I decided to resign from my job giving up a successful and lucrative career in advertising that was causing me an incredible amount of pain at the same time.
I then traveled to Europe and discovered the Redcord therapy system. I spent a month doing an intense treatment course to correct the imbalances in my spine and help me target the problem areas that were still lingering with pain.
This was the perfect compliment to my Pilates workout routine to reeducate my body how to use all my muscles properly. Redcord is very targeted work that gets you in-tune with muscles that have gone dormant. Using Pilates and Redcord I found myself stronger in my spine and having better posture I can sit at a desk again.
I am back to share the knowledge that I've gained through my struggles. So many of us have back and neck pain. I want to help folks like you to find a path to healing. Redcord works effectively in providing relief of chronic back and neck pain symptoms so many of us have. I know and understand because I struggled through it.
I am the first Redcord Active trainer in Northern California and I am looking forward to sharing this medically proven suspension exercise system from Norway with you.