I’m in the process of writing TWO new books, so my life has become pretty hectic and a bit confusing. Today while I was proofing one of the chapters in The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution – A 7 Day Proven Program to Stop Pain FAST!, I was reading about the circumstances of my discovering the Julstro Protocol. A new client had been suffering for two years with low back pain, and he had even had unsuccessful surgery! I called the book section: Needless Back Surgery – How One Client Changed the Face of Back Pain Forever.
But I’ll let you read it the way I’m writing it in my new book:
One particular case in 1996 became the turning point that made me totally change what I had been taught about back pain. This client was the catalyst for the pain relief of many thousands of people both at my office and via my books and DVDs that have reached people all over the world.
Leon had severe and debilitating pain in his low back for many months before he went to his physician. He was sent for several rounds of physical therapy and traditional massage therapy, but it didn’t help. It had gotten to the point where he could hardly walk, and driving the distances he needed to do for work was becoming impossible. He finally went to a top-notch surgeon at a major medical facility in NYC, where he was told he needed to have surgery on his lumbar vertebrae. This is very major surgery so the decision was not made lightly, but Leon was desperate.
After the surgery was completed and the anesthesia wore off, Leon had the exact same pain in the exact same place. He was obviously very upset, but he was told that when the swelling went down that it would feel much better. Unfortunately that is not what happened.
He went for two more rounds of physical therapy, but it still didn’t stop hurting, in fact he reported that it was getting worse. Next he ended up with pain in the front of his hip and he was told “scar tissue from the first surgery has wrapped around your nerve and you’ll need a second surgery to remove the scar tissue from the first surgery.” Leon said, “Your first surgery didn’t work, I’m not going for your second surgery.” He was told that if he didn’t have the surgery that he would “end up in a wheelchair,” but he decided to try something different.
The only reason Leon came to my office was because I was walking distance from his house, but that decision made all the difference – to Leon, to me, and to so many others. I work through clothes, so if a person doesn’t tell me they had surgery, I don’t know about it. Leon decided not to say anything and only told me that he had pain in his low back. I knew that spasms in the Psoas and Iliacus (see Day 1) would cause low back pain, so I worked on that muscle, and also on the Quadratus Lumborum muscle (Day 2) of the low back.
When Leon stood up he told me “My back pain is 80% gone!” He was thrilled and so was I. He left after making an appointment to return the next week. On week two he told me that he had pain in his anterior hip. I know that a spasm in one of the quadriceps muscles (Rectus Femoris – Day 1) will cause hip pain, so I treated that muscle. To our amazement, and Leon’s joy, when he stood up not only was his hip pain gone, but he also had no back pain at all! To add to that success, he bent his knee so he could touch his butt with his heel and told me he hadn’t done that stretch in years!
When Leon left I sat staring at the skeleton in my office, trying to work out why treating Leon’s quadriceps would eliminate his low back pain completely, and that became the beginning of the Julstro Method Protocol that has helped thousands of people eliminate low back pain – as well as: hip pain, groin pain, knee pain, sciatica, and tight hamstrings.
We’ll go into the “why” and “how” this worked in the beginning of Part II – The Julstro Method Protocol.
The bottom-line is that Leon realized he never needed the first surgery, and he was very happy that he didn’t have a second needless surgery. Sometimes surgery is needed, but it’s certainly worthwhile eliminating tight muscles first.
A happy ending – Leon was able to go back to running and plays tennis every week. He’s thrilled, and now that he knows how to treat his own leg and low back, he can be confident that the problem will not return.