During strength training I got an injury in my back. The doctors judged that I had a curve in my spine and I had lot of pain. I became stiff and had difficulties to bend or move the body. I felt like having a thorny thick sock from my right knee and downwards. I worked at Volvo and one of my friends now asked me to visit him and his wife because she had cured her back problems using Zhineng Qigong. After the visit I was still sceptical but I registered for the February course 2005.
Before the course I had visited a physiotherapist. She had tested my possibilities to bend down with my hands towards the floor. My hands reached down to my knees and she measured 28 centimetres between my hands and the floor.
On the Qigong course I did the movements in spite of the physiotherapist’s words not to bend the body forward too much. My feelings were mixed. On Sunday, at lunchtime I put on my shoes, bent down and knit them. Afterwards I suddenly started to think: What did I do now? Such an action has not been possible for me since long.
After practicing for one month, my back felt very soft and I decided to visit her once more to get a new measure that confirms the result. She asked me to bend down, got silent, and rushed away for a tape measure. She measured – 8 centimetres between my hands and the floor. And she commented that I bent my back very well. Before I started to practice qigong I bent my back mostly like a sheet knife. Now I bent it in a new way and I only felt slight resistance in the lowest part of my back. 
I had now the evidence I needed to be convinced. I registered for the summer course 2005 and then I participated in group training and trained myself at home. And I get better and better. During summer course 2006 I finally reached all the way down with my hands to the floor. I myself believe more in a squeezed sciatica nerve than a curve in my spine as both my job and my hobby is still sitting.
Actually, I can split my life in before and after the first weekend course. I have come back to my job again, that may not have been possible without Qigong. I have taken up everything again except for my strength training and I can drive my motorbike again.
Peter Nemeth