My lower back has been bothering me increasingly for several years. Its not quite pain. More like discomfort. It seems to have been aggravated by the construction work that I do.

I began heating my back and stretching in the evenings. I saw a spinal doctor at the Veterans Administration several times. I went through a course of physical therapy. I went through a chiropractic sequence. I tried an inversion table. I’ve used a Med Massager. I went to a masseuse for most of a year.

These treatments provided me with some temporary relief but none of them had lasting effects.

Somewhere on Facebook several months ago I came across Donna Farhi, Leila Stuart and Yoga U Online. I bought the Pathways to a Centered Body book and then the Anatomy of a Centered Body online course.

I began reading the book. I was struggling to get through the anatomy and happened to catch Donna on Facebook. She said to not worry about the anatomy and to try the exercises on pages 168-9 in the Pathways book. I did and my back has been much happier since I began integrating these practices.

Many thanks.

The Number One muscle to know if you have a back pain of any kind, or physical practice of any kind, is the psoas. There’s a tremendous buzz about core strength in the fitness world, usually limited to building abs of steel, but there’s so much more to it. This book is the best way to get to know the psoas in all its subtlety, all its versatility, all its crankiness, and all its power and glory. Your body will be grateful.

If you want to go deeper into your understanding of how your body works, to find blind spots and start working with the core buy this book! I now approach my personal Asana practice and teaching with much more confidence. Several long-standing issues in my body have been addressed and improved.

Fifteen years of strong Asana practice left me in a lot of pain (sacroiliac joints, lumbar, dorsal, meniscus and cervical spine). My science background led me to look outside my lineage for answers. I return again and again to this book, re-read and re-experiment. Now the core is central to my work. My favourite new insight is that “Mobility of the periphery depends on the stability of the core”. It is NOT strong abdominals that give stability, but the sense of the central cylinder.

I now understand my own imbalances (scoliosis, QL, psoas) and have found new ways to balance them. Daily, I can help my students find new ways to move with ease, some of these students have been with me for a decade.