Gail McGonigal

I am a retired Occupational Therapist who now practices what I preach, because I have lived through many aches and pains in my life. I am now 56 and wish to share with you the methods that I have used, for leading an active and productive quality of life; without jeopardizing the good and fitness that this lifestyle has created for me. When I was a teenager, X-rays from a trampoline accident found that I had one leg longer than the other by over one inch. This created a scoliosis in my spine, which only became a problem when I started lifting patients as an Occupational Therapist. I went through the medical process of attempts to correct it with shoe raises, but threw them all out when I could not wear fashionable shoes. I took up cycling as a recreational hobby in my early forties, when returning to the UK from Canada to care for elderly parents. This became an exciting new hobby enjoying cycling around the UK, Europe and New Zealand. When I returned to Canada, I moved to Vancouver so that I could cycle all the year round without needing a vehicle. Three years ago, we had a terrible storm in Vancouver that dumped more snow than the city has ever seen. I had to walk everywhere instead of cycle. I slipped on the ice one day and saved myself from falling, but woke up the next day unable to move my back at all. Normally, I would just get on my bike and all my aches and pains would disappear. But being surrounded by so much snow, cycling was not an option. So I visited a spinal Chiropractor and told him about my leg length discrepancy. After taking X-rays, the Chiropractor told me that my spine was perfectly straight, even though he could see the pelvic bones were not level, because of one leg being longer than the other. He told me to keep doing what I was doing as it had strengthened my spine and trained it to become vertically straight. I had no idea that the cycling would cure my postural scoliosis! So for people with back and neck pain, this position of sitting on a bicycle seat or on your pelvic bones; I cam calling it 'Ergonomic Sitting'. 'Ergonomic balance' is created in this position of sitting, so that you can remain comfortable and secure for any productive tasks when sitting in a chair. Please visit my website at: htt://wwww.activelivingsolutions.net