This email came into my inbox over a year ago and the file sat on my desktop ever since. And I have to admit I don’t remember receiving it and was truly surprised by the story it told.
For what it’s worth, I still give the program away for free to whoever asks, I just don’t advertise it anymore. As it turns out I am far better at helping people with pain relief than I am at being a business man.
I hope you enjoy Ashley’s story.
Hello, My name is Ashley and I signed up for Core Walking about 3 years ago when you had a “I’m in pain and can’t afford the classes” option. I wanted to let you know how much it helped me, even though I never did finish the courses.
I started out “healthy” according to modern medical standards (which I have since learned are VERY low– just because I was not a smoker, obese,
pre-diabetic, or currently cancerous does not mean I was actually
healthy!).
After 6 months of a “perfectly healthy” pregnancy, I lost my
ability to walk and bend. I could not get in and out of chairs, could not
walk to the mailbox, and couldn’t pick up my new baby from crawling on the floor because of disabling Sacroiliac pain when bending. I had as much pain standing as when sitting.
For two years, I completely baffled every Physical Therapist I saw on my insurance, and was feeling hopeless. I was not able to work because of the pain, and was very short on money while my medical bills were skyrocketing. I began seeking help from alternative sources– books from the library, internet searches, etc.
That’s how I found CoreWalking, and my actual journey toward healing began. Jonathan FitzGordon was amazingly generous, and sent me free ebooks, allowed me to login to the program, and even encouraged me to send him video of my walking pattern.
I was shocked by what I learned from his program: My
movement patterns from my whole life may have contributed to my inability to bend enough to unload the dishwasher at 30 years old? It was all new information for me.
Despite being active and practicing Yoga before my injury, I had never heard of a Psoas and none of the physical therapists over the years had mentioned it. I began slowly doing some of the more achievable exercises in his program (though I could not do nearly half of them without hurting myself in the beginning), and overall I just was thinking differently about how to address my pain.
The Psoas Release Party book mentioned that the psoas is related to ‘fight or flight’, and so I began to get treatment for my anxiety disorder— and sure enough, my physical pain related to the psoas was a little lessened. I would never have connected those disorders, or made the progress I did, without the guidance of these ebooks.
Later, I sent in a short video of walking, and it was so comforting to hear
the voice encouraging me to change my gait– not by ‘forcing’ my bones to
move in certain ways, but by releasing the restrictions that were causing
lopsided walking in the first place.
I soon realized that I was a more difficult case than the typical person in this program, and needed much more preliminary work before I could really learn core-walking and gain the benefits.
Because of what the core-walking program taught me, I was able to ask the
right questions of my medical professionals and get the treatment I needed.
I discovered I have a benign bone tumor near my right Sacroiliac joint that
may be contributing to the problems walking, and learned adaptive movements for that.
I learned I had abdominal adhesions that were preventing leg
extension that was affecting my walk in the way that Jonathan FitzGordon
pointed out in the video, and received Barral visceral manipulation
treatment.
I learned that one side of my sacrum was not nutating, and
worked through that with a physical therapist too. I learned how to
self-release fascia from library books that enabled me to walk better, and
live better.
Nearly 5 years later, I am not yet back to 100%. But I am doing REALLY well
given where I was. I go on hour long walks sometimes, and don’t feel pain
after. I can play on the floor with my child, and I can sit down in chairs
without fear of being stuck there.
Now I’m back on track to applying the fine-tuning principals of CoreWalking again, and they are still helping me.
But my healing all started with the comprehensive background of your
program, which lead me to a better understanding of what my body needed.
With all those other treatments under way, I wasn’t able to finish the
program. But I will always be grateful for your generosity in letting me
have a sneak peak when I couldn’t pay.
It pointed me in the right direction, and I am physically functional again because of the effort you put into creating such excellent resources. I would recommend Core Walking program to anyone.
Thank you again for the ways you have helped me, and thank you for what you do for the health and wellbeing of society as a whole. Keep up the great
work!