When I was 41, my right hip and lower back started hurting. It started overnight as if something had been strained but I hadn’t done anything in particular to hurt myself. My back hurt for weeks, so I finally went to a hip specialist in Beverly Hills – he was touted as one of the best. He told me I had degenerative disc disease. Agh!!!  That sounded awful! “Disease!”

 

But he told me most women over 40 got it. I did my homework and found out degenerative disc disease is when the discs that make up your vertebrae dry out and shrink, reducing the space between the discs, often causing pain. It’s a natural part of aging.

 

The “hip specialist” prescribed a choice of either a pain killer, a patch or pills. I asked if there were a way to cure it and he told me it might subside but there was no way to reverse it. Well, I’m not a pill-popper. THAT’S JUST ME. I went to another western Medical Doctor. He suggested pain killers, stretching, and possibly fusing my vertebrae. I did not want surgery to my spine! I asked him “Doctor, if this was your wife, would you advise her to have the operation?" and he said no.

 

Decompression, acupuncture, yoga and four chiropractors later I was worse than before. I gave up. I was at my wit’s end. A friend told me about a chiropractor who would give me a free consultation. I said, “But I've been adjusted, pulled, poked, and rubbed with cold gel followed by ultrasound… nothing has worked!” 

 

He said, “Go!”

 

So I went. That chiropractor said it seemed like my problem was more of a quality of life issue, and that I didn’t know how to work-out and stay my active self without pain.

 

So connected me with a PERSONAL TRAINER who was a CORRECTIVE EXERCISE SPECIALIST. Guess what happened? I stopped hurting!

 

As we trained for about a year I would read about fitness, working out, nutrition, anatomy and various ways of training and talk about it with my trainer.  She kept telling me that I should become a personal trainer, that that I needed to become a personal trainer.

 

I just laughed. Then about a year later, I woke up one morning and asked myself, “What do I want to do the next 20 years of my life?” I smiled and realized that I wanted to be a personal trainer. So at the ripe age of 46 I studied my brains out and passed my Certifications as fast as I could. I try to help others not only to not hurt, but to feel good, to feel fit, to be healthy and in shape.  I'm 54, and, I don’t hurt anymore.