THE LOWER BACK SPRING REPORT by Dennis Denlinger P.O. Box 60431 Sacramento, CA 95860-4539 USA Internet: denlingr.ix.netcom.com Compuserve: 75211,1363 FAX 916/485-4539 Copyright 1995 by Dennis Denlinger ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This report may be copied and distributed by any means, including electronic, with the stipulation that no part may be changed or altered in any way whatsoever, including Shareware announcement. In this report I will tell you how the lower back spring works. This is information everybody needs, whether they have lower back pain or not. Even if the lower back spring looks good, it is possible for it to hurt if the muscles are not being used correctly. I will also report to you how other people's lower back and back spring problems have been fixed. You may wish to use this information. As long as there is no damage such as broken bones, severed tendons, pinched nerves, etc., and all the bones, muscles and nerves are present and operational it may be possible for you to fix your own lower back spring. BACKGROUND My Bachelor of Architecture degree was granted by Carnegie-Mellon University. While studying architecture I learned much about how buildings are engineered to stand up without falling. These same engineering principles can be applied to other structures. I have applied this knowledge to the spine and other parts of the human body. For many years I had immense headaches. Chiropractors would adjust my spine and within ten minutes I could feel it go out of place again. Then one day a chiropractor showed me a picture of the muscles and bones in the neck. Immediately I recognized what two of those muscles should do and at the same time noticed that my muscles were not doing those jobs. When I got home I tried to make those voluntary muscles operate as they should, and couldn't. It took several weeks of playing around to get the nerve messages hooked up to the muscles and get them operating under my control. Then it took more time to strengthen the muscles. This made the headaches somewhat better. Then I got a copy of "Gray's Anatomy" to learn what other muscles were there. Boy, were there a lot of muscles in the neck. Before I was done I had developed a very good understanding of the organization of the neck muscles and found a total of 15 muscles in my neck which were inoperative, atrophied or operating incorrectly. By the time I got all those muscles under control the chronic headaches were gone. Along the way I also looked at the muscles in the remainder of the body. The spine I found to be especially interesting. One thing I discovered was that there are five springs in the body for absorbing shocks similar to the springs and shock absorbers in your car. Three of the springs are in the spine. They are designed to be springs with muscles whose sole job is the operation of those springs. Chiropractic and medical doctors tell about the curves of the spine being necessary to absorb shocks. They actually say that the spine needs to be curved to absorb shocks. The doctors are half right. The correct engineering is that the spine should be straight so that it can go into curves to absorb shocks. If it is curved it has lost its shock absorbing capability. This is not an attack on medical or chiropractic doctors. After all, they were not trained in engineering. You will learn more about the details of the curves of the spine later in this report. By the way, chiropractic doctors may find that this information makes an ideal complement to their adjustment technology. About 15 years ago I wrote a book on the subject. It is now out of print. If there is enough interest, and financial support of these Shareware postings, I will be able to publish additional illustrated texts, courses and videos about this technology. SUCCESSES Here are some successes others have had after learning about my theories: "Over the past 2 years I have had some problems with my neck. Last night Dennis Denlinger explained to me how springs work in the body and how to stand properly and carry my body. It was pretty neat! I realized that I had been walking incorrectly! After we did the demonstrations, I woke up this morning totally >free< of any pain in my neck and able to get right out of bed!! It was great!! Thanks a lot." -V.T. "Dennis Denlinger taught me how to use my lower back spring. Since then I have no back ache, and my abdomen is harder and flat. It bettered the shape of my body. Thanks Dennis!" -D.A. "As a musician with a history of neck and back problems, I had no idea how much weight a baby would put on my back during my first pregnancy. I was extremely fortunate to have Dennis' help with my lower back and hip muscles. Without this data, I would have been a mess! "Since I was pursuing a natural home birth, I had to be in good shape. Daily fast walks were needed and simply would not have been possible without knowing how to use my muscles correctly - especially in the last 3 months! Carrying a heavy baby (nearly 10 lbs.), I still felt healthier than ever in my 9th month! I experienced virtually no back pain the whole pregnancy (and the only times I did have pain were when I used my muscles wrong). "My second pregnancy was likewise a breeze, even when the baby was late and riding low in my pelvis for a few weeks! Especially at that point this data was a life-saver, as you can imagine!" -N.D. "Enclosed is the manuscript that you loaned to me. It's a great book which is very easy to understand, easy to apply. I have started to use your exercises on my patients and myself with good results. "Please let me know when your book is published as I would like to buy a copy. I would like to show the pictures to my patients so they can better understand the mechanics of the body. -M.C., Doctor of Chiropractic "I had an incredible success with Dennis Denlinger's technology on the body and its five springs. My posture was slouchy, and far from straight and correct. Dennis showed me, in a few short minutes, where the springs of the body are, how they work, and how they should be positioned. I immediately grasped what he said and started using the technology. It was the easiest thing I've ever seen. And immediately my posture was 100% correct, and has been ever since. It was pretty incredible to have the tech needed be so easy and so easy to apply! I am 44 years old, by the way! Many thanks to Dennis and his tech!" -K.R. "About 3 weeks ago Dennis D. showed me some things about posture and I had some great realizations about myself. #1) I have realized that I am in very good shape and that my poor posture made me look overweight. #2) I've become more aware of my body and now can control it to a much greater degree than before. I've been able to work out more and confront heavy work for the first time ever because of 10 minutes going over my posture." -M.A. "Dennis Denlinger showed me a few diagrams and I became aware that although most of my muscles are plenty strong, I haven't been using some muscles correctly and my posture has suffered as a result. I became familiar with the correct position of my neck, upper back, and lower back. At the start of his briefing my lower back hurt, having a pinched nerve at the time. Within a few minutes of positioning my spine correctly with the use of these previously unknown muscles, I realized that my back didn't hurt any more! Through his brief instruction I did what a chiropractor has not been able to do. "Putting my body's posture straight takes very little effort, just a little concentration. I look better and feel better. This is great data, put together by an engineer who applied his ability to the human body." -D.M. Dr. Gerald Henson, D.C. of Sacramento, California, U.S.A., has this to say: "As a practicing chiropractor of 47 years, I have made a point to keep abreast of the chiropractic as well as the alternative therapy literature. Yet, I recently came across a new body of knowledge which I have never seen referenced in the literature. I would like to introduce this new subject to you. "There are patients whose adjustments will not hold at all, no matter what we do. There are other patients whose adjustments, it seems, should hold longer than they do. This new subject addresses these problems. "What is this new subject? "It is the correct use of certain exact voluntary muscles on the part of the patient. "For example, when a patient contracts voluntary muscles which should be relaxed, he can be literally pulling his own bones out of joint. In this case we are not talking about spasmodic contractions, but trainable muscles which are mis- trained. This also applies to muscles which he (the patient) is relaxing when they should be contracted. "Thus, when the patient uses certain voluntary muscles correctly, he will likely retain his adjustments better. "One subject which...addresses covers shock absorbers in the neck, upper back, lower back, shoulders and feet. Five main shock-absorbing muscle-bone assemblies or groups are located in these areas. When the voluntary muscle groups (informally called "spring" muscles") are not working correctly, there most likely will be pain - as a signal to the patient that something is wrong. You can see phenomenon of incorrectly working shock absorbers all around you: prominent Adam's Apple, slouch, "Buffalo Hump", saggy belly, swayback or toe out, and duck-waddle when walking. When the five main shock absorbers are working correctly the belly muscles will be tight, the feet will be well arched and the body will have beautifully straight, comfortable, relaxed posture." TERMS OF THIS REPORT SHAREWARE: This report is offered to you similar to shareware computer software in that you get to try it and if you like it and are ethical about paying your debts you will pay me, the author and discoverer, for my work. I want $10 (US) for my work from every person who gets any kind of benefit from this report. That means, if you were given a hard copy by someone else and got benefit, you also send me money, even if the person you got it from also did. You can send the $10.00 (US) shareware fee to me in cash (any hard currency), check (US funds) or money order (US funds), gold or other exchangeable item at the above address. Although I will hold nothing back in this report, without adequate drawings it may not be possible for everyone to understand it and to do it correctly. Since this report is intended for posting on the Internet, drawings are not possible. I am currently working on an illustrated booklet on the subject. The booklet will be more of a home-study course on how to get your own lower back spring to working correctly. It will be designed for a sixth-grade reading level with many drawings and workbook type questions to answer. You will check off each step of learning as you do it, and when you are done you will have a good understanding of how to work your lower back spring correctly. Anyone, whether they have lower back problems or not, should understand how this part of their body works. Keep in contact with me at the above address to learn when the book is published. DISCLAIMER There are laws in most states and countries requiring that health care professionals be licensed as qualified in the field of care which they provide. I have not been licensed as a health care professional. Therefore, I may not give you any advice nor may I promise or offer to alleviate any pain or physical condition. If you feel you need that kind of care, go see a health care professional. In the USA, the First Amendment to our Constitution does give me the right of free speech which I am exercising. In this report I am talking freely about my discoveries of how the human body's lower back works. I have studied structure in architecture school and have studied the placement of muscles and bones in "Gray's Anatomy", a standard medical and chiropractic school textbook. I have experimented on my own body to develop the theories. I have freely spoken to others who have then tried the theories on their own bodies with results similar to mine. In giving you these data and theories I am doing my best to ensure that you understand what I have to say. It is up to you to evaluate the truth of what I say and whether it applies to you. If you decide to try to apply this data to yourself, it is totally your responsibility. After all, although I do not believe it, I may be totally wrong in what I wrote in this report. Therefore, please heed this warning: There is NO GUARANTEE, written or implied, that any physical condition of any kind will be alleviated or improved by using the data included herein. There is not even a recommendation that you, or anyone else, use the data included herein. This report is merely a reporting on the discoveries of the author and how the data was applied in some few specific instances. The actual use of the data included herein is done entirely and totally on the responsibility of you, the reader. If you want help with a specific physical condition, go see a licensed health care professional. BASIC UNDERSTANDING - LIGAMENTS A joint is where two bones meet. Muscles can hold bones together at the joints - when they are working. However, muscles are not always working such as when you sleep. Ligaments are the backup system which holds bones together at the joints when the muscles are not working. Let's do an experiment to get more understanding. Hold your right arm out with the palm down. Relax the muscles in your right arm so that the hand flops limply down. Now, using your left hand, push on the back of your palm, forcing your right wrist to bend more than it was meant to. If you push enough, the wrist will hurt. Only do it enough to get the idea. Contract the muscles in your right arm which pull your hand up until your wrist is not so much bent. Do not make your right wrist completely straight, but keep it somewhat bent. Then, with your left hand, press on the back of your palm again, trying to bend your right wrist. This time, using the muscles in your right arm, Do Not Let Your Right Wrist Bend any more than it already has. You will find that your right wrist does NOT hurt, no matter how hard you push with your left hand. You can now relax and I will tell you the theory of what is happening. In any well-engineered machine such as a jet plane, space shuttle or even many cars the important systems, such as brakes in cars, have back-up systems which operate when the main (primary) system breaks down. When the main system has failed and the back-up system starts operating, there are loud bells and bright flashing red lights to let the operator know that there is something wrong which needs fixed. In the human body, when the muscles stop operating and the ligaments start carrying a heavy load across the joint between bones, pain is the loud bell and flashing light which lets the operator (you) know that something is wrong. Later we'll come back to this concept. BASIC UNDERSTANDING - SPRINGS IN THE SPINE As I mentioned earlier, the spine does its shock absorbing job by being straight and going into a curve to absorb a shock. To get a better understanding of this, we will make a model of your head and neck using your hand and index finger. Be seated at a table or desk or standing at a counter. Hold your arm parallel to and about 12 inches above the desk (etc.) surface, with the palm down. Make a fist of your hand with the index finger extended (i.e. pointed straight out parallel to the surface). Bend your wrist so your index finger points down. Make a very slight inward curve of your index finger - just so it isn't perfectly straight and try to not let it bend any more. Lower your arm until the tip of your index finger just touches the surface. Let your fist represent your head, with the back of the palm being the front of your face and your index finger your neck. Lower your fist/head with arm still parallel to the surface and notice how the index finger/neck resists. This is the spring action. As you raise and lower your fist/head you can feel the springing action of your index finger/neck. This is the shock absorbing motion of the neck. Now, lower your fist/head while allowing your index finger/neck to bend until there is no more bending possible. Notice how your index finger/neck is now well curved. At this point the shock absorbing capability has been used up. To revitalize the finger's/neck's shock absorbing capability it is necessary to bring it almost straight again. Notice that if it were totally straight or even bent backward that there would be no capability of bending in the forward curve, thus negating the shock absorbing capability. The engineering and/or physics principle at work here is: The greater the distance of deceleration, the less the shock. Let's try a demonstration to see this principle at work. Pick a wall. Hold up your hand some distance from the wall, palm flat and facing the wall. Get your hand moving at a regular speed toward the wall. Keep it going at that speed and your palm will hit the wall and suddenly stop moving. Here there was very little distance for deceleration to occur and there was quite a shock. Next, move back from the wall again, take the same position and get your hand moving toward the wall at a regular speed again. This time, however, start slowing down your hand (this is deceleration) before it hits the wall so that by the time it "hits" the wall it is barely moving. Here there was much more distance for deceleration to occur and there was much less shock. So, keeping the neck, or upper back or lower back, nearly straight as a normal position, it will be more prepared to absorb a shock than if it is already curved. Now to return to the concept that ligaments stretch and hurt when muscles are not being operated correctly. Again, make the model of your neck and head using your fist and index finger. Allow your index finger/neck to curve (curl in) as much as possible. You will notice that the ligaments on the back of the index finger/front of the neck are now being stretched by the weight of the fist/head. These stretched ligaments may hurt. I see evidence in my old x-rays that these ligaments grew very heavy when I wasn't operating the spring muscles and melted away after I started using the spring muscles correctly. HERE IS WHAT YOU DO These are the steps to follow to ensure proper operation of the lower back. These are NOT exercises to be done regularly. They are steps to follow to learn the correct operation of the lower back and to repeat only as needed to verify that correct operation is continually being done. Once the lower back is habitually operating correctly there is no need to continue with these steps. Rock your pelvis back and forth front to back. The lower part of the pelvis will move toward the front and then toward the back. When it is rocked to the front the back will become more straight and when the pelvis is rocked to the back the back will become more swayed. Rock back and forth until you can identify the extremes; then find the mid-point of the extremes. Place the pelvis in the approximate mid-point and keep it there. Then rock the right side of the pelvis forward and the left side back. Reverse and rock the right side back and the left side forward. In doing this the ligament which holds the two sides of the pubis (bone structure just above the middle of the crotch) will be stretched. Find the extremes of this motion, then locate the approximate mid-point and keep it there. Next put the fingers of one hand on your lower back to feel the curve of the vertebra bones. You want to be sure to feel the curve of the bones, not the muscle structure. While feeling the vertebrae with your hand, rock your pelvis forward and you will feel your lower back become straighter or even curve to the rear. Then, while still feeling the vertebrae with your hand, rock your pelvis toward the toward the rear. You will feel your lower back curve forward. Do this several times until you feel certain you understand it. There is a slab of muscle tissue on each side of your lower back. This muscle starts at the top of the pelvis and continues upward. At about the ribs it divides into two prongs on each side of the spine and continues up over the ribs. This is what I call the lower back spring muscle. In my copy of "Gray's Anatomy," published by Bounty Books (ISBN 0-517-223651) this the big slab of muscle is called the 'erector spine', one prong up over the ribs is called the 'longissimus dorsi' and the other prong the 'ilio-costalis'. There is more to this structure than this, but for now with only text (no illustrations) to work with, it will have to do. Have someone trace the pattern of these muscles on your back with their fingers so you can feel and identify the lower back spring muscles. Put your hand back on your lower back so you can once again feel the curve of the vertebra bones. Do exactly as this statement says: "Using the lower back spring muscles just described, keeping your pelvis in the mid-point both ways, pull your lower back straight." Then check your belly muscles. If they are tight(er), you are using the lower back correctly. You now want to keep it operating this way all the time. It is now ready to absorb shocks. As you never know when a shock will come along, it needs to be continually operating when sitting, standing or moving. This bone-muscle structure is designed to absorb physical shocks in the lower back area as you sit, stand, run or walk, thus protecting the body from jars, vibration and shocks. Get used to keeping it operating this way. Train your body until it is a habit. Repeat the above steps again if at any time you are uncertain that you are doing it correctly. Oh, yes. Go take a look in a full length mirror and admire how your belly has become slimmer looking. EXERCISES For the most part special exercises are not needed. Merely using your lower back as described above while doing your normal exercise program will give the muscles ample exercise. Just make sure you DO use the lower back correctly. In case your lower back spring muscles are extremely weak, you can increase the strength as follows: 1) Back up to a wall. 2) Keeping your pelvis in the mid-point both ways, using the muscles I just described, touch the wall with the middle of your lower back. 3) Relax. 4) Do this again, relax, do again. Start with doing a little each day and then gradually build up to doing more and more. Once it is functioning normally you can discontinue these exercises. ASSISTANCE & ETC. Some people, of which I was one, may have the lower back so out of shape that they need a chiropractor's or osteopath's adjustment to move the bones into the correct position. Excessive pain while getting the lower back to working correctly may indicate the need of adjustments or that other problems need to be resolved. Once that the correct position is achieved, and the muscles are strengthened, it should be possible to maintain the correct position on one's own. While getting the lower back spring to working correctly the body may feel weird and mis-shaped; the back may feel out of place. I found this to be normal & disappears as the body becomes used to the new situation. SHAREWARE AGREEMENT Remember our agreement, that if you get benefit from this report, you will send me $10.00 US to the address at the top of the report. When I get some money ahead I will have the time to prepare an illustrated course book for the lower back similar to the one I have prepared for the foot. For more information on the foot, download the Report mentioned below. ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR A report on the operation of the foot arch is available via FTP at: etext.archive.umich.edu in the /pub/Zines/PracticalNutrition/ directory, file name >footpst1.txt<. It discusses the foot arch in a similar manner to the discussion of the lower back spring in this report. You may also be interested in "Practical Nutrition+", a monthly electronic newsletter about care of the human body. Back issues are available via FTP at: etext.archive.umich.edu in the /pub/Zines/PracticalNutrition/ directory. To subscribe to the electronic version of "Practical Nutrition+" send both your e-mail AND Paper Mail addresses to denlingr@ix.netcom.com or to Dennis Denlinger, P.O. Box 60431, Sacramento, CA 95860-0431, USA. Your address will Not be distributed to others, but we may send you other pertinent information from time to time.