By Kyra-lin Hom

According to the National Institute of Health, Americans spend more than $50 billion a year on treating or relieving lower back pain. In fact, as far as neurological (having to do with the nervous system) health goes, only headaches are more common.

Young, old, athletic or sedentary – it seems that any and everyone are susceptible.

Not too long ago, I myself over-exercised my way into one herniation and one bulging disc (stacked one on top of the other). After extended rest only exacerbated the problem, I ended up having surgery on the herniation. That was a blinding success, but I do still have that minor bulging snag that flares up every once in a while with a nice little cold and numb howdy-do.

Parkour has really helped me since it's an extremely agile activity that focuses on minimizing impact and body control (using all those little stabilizing and core muscles that a gym routine often misses), but it's not always enough. Some days – or weeks even – I can't make it to my parkour class. Besides, I have to be doing something wrong in my daily life, because my problem keeps coming back. I refuse to believe that I'm doomed to back pain for the rest of my life.

Enter a book by Esther Gokhale called 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back and heralded by Helen Barkan (M.D., Ph.D., Neurology, Mayo Clinic) as the “greatest contribution ever made to non-surgical back pain treatment.” This book is all about relearning our bodies. Gokhale's self-proclaimed '8 Steps' focus on relearning how to sit, stand, walk, sleep and bend. I'm only partially through her process, but step 1 alone used muscles in my feet I didn't even know I had. And yes, I said feet.

Her theory is deceptively simple. She argues (quite convincingly) that around the 1920's, the modern western posture began to shift. We adopted the slouch, which actually begins from your pelvis not your shoulders. Try this yourself. Stand upright and imagine yourself wearing a belt (if you aren't wearing one already). What direction is the flat of your belt buckle pointing: is it angling up or down?

For demonstration purposes, intentionally angle your 'buckle' upward in a slightly exaggerated slouch – how you might stand if you had to wait in line for 10+ minutes. Notice that your chest caves in and your hips, shoulders and head push forward. This jams the ball of your hip joints against their sockets, puts strain on your lower back and knees, diminishes circulation to your arms (contributing to carpal tunnel) and tenses the muscles in your neck, which can lead to, you guessed it, headaches.

This is obviously all kinds of bad for your body and is an approximation of how the average westerner stands, sits and walks. It's also why sitting or standing for long periods of time can quickly become uncomfortable. Now shift so that your imaginary belt buckle is angling slightly downwards and feel how just that tiny adjustment shifts your whole stance. That's only the tip of the iceberg. Whether you believe her social and anthropological theories or not, Gokhale's 8 step method feels amazing – weird at first, but amazing.