By Roseanna Ellis
George, age 50, came to see me for a stretching session. He complained of severe back pain at a 0-10 intensity level of 7, which increased to a 10 when he rotated his waist to perform a golf swing. This problem had caused him to stop playing golf.
He also complained of hamstring tightness at a SUD level of 10 out of 10. Upon inspection, his hamstring movement tested as 60 out of a normal of 90, which meant he was 30 degrees below normal.
He also complained of severe pain (10 out of 10) when he attempted to bend over. He could only touch his
knees and then the pain would shoot up to a 10. He stated with sadness, “I am one bad move away from being bent over.” When I asked how upset he was at saying that comment, he replied 9 on a scale of 10.
We tapped for:
I’m one bad move away from being bent over
This pain in my lower back
This tightness in my back
The pain went down to 0 after 15 minutes.
He tapped on his hamstring tightness, while I performed stretching techniques, until his range was 95 on the scale of 90, meaning he was now above average. That took about 15 minutes.
He still felt tightness in his back, so I asked what in his life was causing his muscles to be so tense. He said, “My job is causing me a lot of stress.” We tapped on the job stress until his SUD level on it went down to 0.
Then I made him twist as if he were swinging a golf club. The pain increased to 6 on the 0-10 scale. We tapped on the issues: Fear of hurting myself, Fear of getting old, Fear of not being able to play golf again.
We continued tapping after each attempt to swing to the right and the left until he reached the full
range of motion without pain.
At the end of the hour session, he had full range of motion in his hamstrings. He could perform a full swing to the right and left without pain through the full 100% range of motion. He could bend over to touch the floor with ease and without pain.
His homework was to go home and think about becoming 40 years old again, and to play golf to his heart’s content … He smiled and promised he would.
The next day he played golf. A few days later, he sent me the following email!
Hi Roseanna,
I am sorry but I nearly forgot that my two children are in a golf tournament tomorrow afternoon so I will have to reschedule our appt. Are you available any other day this week?
I need to tell you after last week’s appt I had a round of golf Wednesday with my usual group. Everyone commented on how ‘fluid’ my swing was. Exactly what I was hoping to accomplish by coming to you. I can’t wait until our next session, so let me know when I can come in.
Thanks,
George
