Shallan Ramsey was your typical girl growing up; she loved to play basketball, water ski, dance, and socialize with friends. At the age of seventeen she was in a severe car accident on the highway and her car rolled multiple times. Oddly enough the doctors found nothing wrong with her other than minor cuts and bruises. After a few days, she was released with a prescription for some rest and relaxation, and some painkillers.

For ten years Shallan lived her life as if nothing was wrong, but there was. She was vacuuming out her car one afternoon when she felt “like she had been shot,” but this pain was not that of a gunshot. It was her L5-S1 and L5-L4 spinal discs tearing all the way through. An MRI showed just how severe her injury was. At that point the doctors were convinced she would never be able to live a normal life again; they diagnosed her with Degenerative Disc Disease at the age of twenty-seven. Shallan said, “My discs look like that of a seventy-five year olds.”

Shallan had tried everything from physical and water therapy, to acupuncture and psychotherapy to help reduce the pain, but her efforts were mostly in vein. Two years after her diagnoses, she sent her MRI to the Laser Spine Institute in Tampa, Florida. After viewing her MRI, they were convinced they could help reduce the pain in her lower back. The surgery was a success and Shallan gained back some quality of life, but was far from where it used to be.

Two years after the surgery she was still dealing with chronic back pain. Shallan decided to try a somewhat unusual exercise, pole fitness. The day after her first class she realized this exercise didn’t increase her pain level. At this point she made a commitment to herself to go at least twice a week. Three months after her commitment to pole fitness, Shallan started her normal morning routine, but this morning was different; she realized she felt no pain in her back. In this moment she realized pole fitness was “[her] miracle,” and she has a second chance at a normal life. As of today, she is relatively unrestricted and can do everything she loved to do before, all thanks to this zero impact, core building exercise know as pole fitness.