Whether you wrestled your BFF for the coveted Prada shoes at the last sample sale, you tried to impress your hot new yoga instructor with a perfectly-executed backbend or you simply lost your mind, your balance and a bet at the sports bar last week, the end result was the same — you threw your back out, and it now feels like the victim of a voodoo doll in the hands of a grudge-bearing ex. After 22 years of teaching fitness classes, and injury free the entire time, I finally experienced back pain that left me breathless and almost unable to move. The oddest thing about it was that it seemed to come out of nowhere. I didn’t slip and fall, I didn’t lift too much weight and I didn’t try to impress anyone with my physical prowess (at least not this time). I noticed my lower back was a little sore after class and becoming stiff one day. Then, after vegging out on the sofa that evening, I sneezed and it just locked up. I was stuck on my sofa like a fly in honey. The next day I met a miracle worker. I made an appointment with Dr. Mindy Mar with San Diego Center for Health and hobbled into her office like a 90-year-old woman without her trusty cane. After explaining to me that our bodies are like cars, and mine happens to have a lot of intense workout miles on it, she told me that regular maintenance is necessary to keep us all in good running condition. Did I stretch outside of my classes? Nope. Did I get regular massages to work out knots in my muscles and the lactic acid build up? I wish. Did I give my body time to recover after hard workouts? Not really. And there you have it. I didn’t practice what I preached to my students and now I was suffering the consequences. In three curative steps, Dr. Mar began my healing process. She put me face down on her table and began my first treatment known as TENS, or Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. She placed two sticky pads connected to electrodes on my lower back and told me the electrodes emit an electrical signal which stimulates nerve ending to help control the pain. She said I would feel a tingle that would gradually increase in strength and to tell her when I reached my limit. I took the tingle as high as I could, I soon felt the therapeutic benefit taking over. While I was receiving the TENS therapy, Mar applied ultrasound to my lower back. Therapeutic ultrasound is a form of deep heat therapy created by sound waves. When applied to soft tissues and joints, the sound waves are a form of micro-massage that help reduce swelling, increase blood flow and decrease pain, stiffness and spasms. These two treatments together utilize and encourage the body’s natural healing mechanisms and can drastically reduce the dependence on medications, which was great news to me since I’m not one to take medications unless absolutely necessary. Fifteen minutes later the treatments were over. But before I was sent on my way Dr. Mar put Kinesio Tape along the injured areas of my back. When applied to an injured body part, Kinesio elastic tape expands (or sometimes contracts) injured muscles, allowing them greater movement and flexibility as they heal naturally over several days. Kinesio taping is done over and around muscles in order to assist and give support or to prevent over use or over-contraction of the injured muscles. The taping of professional athletes such as David Beckham, Lance Armstong, Venus and Serena Williams and the U.S. Olympic team has made the public more aware of its therapeutic effects. As I got up to leave, I could already feel some relief in my lower back as the blood flow had significantly increased to the area. I made a follow-up appointment for four days later and I was amazed the way my back responded to the therapy. Each day was remarkably better, and my mobility returned almost to its pre-injured state. When I returned to Dr. Mar’s office, with a slight bounce in my step this time, she added one last treatment to my regimen known as the Graston technique. This method breaks up underlying scar tissue in the muscle using stainless steel instruments that glide along a patient’s muscle, tendons, or ligaments and acts like a “scar tissue” stethoscope. When knots or bands of scar tissue are encountered there is a sense of restriction or granular feeling. The instrument can then be used to “break up” this restriction or adhesion. It was a painless procedure, but I could definitely feel the scar tissue that had built up in my lower back. Now that I am back on my feet I am certainly a fan of prevention, but I’m a bigger fan of Dr. Mar. I can now empathize with those who are suffering from back pain and can confidently recommend they visit their chiropractor to receive the same treatments I did. As they say, an ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure, but in my case the pound of cure was worth its weight in gold.