My Talk with Dr. Eric Goodman, Creator of Foundation Training

 A few years ago my friend Dave, who was dealing with back pain, asked me if I had heard about Foundation Training.  I said, I think so, but let me take a look.” So I looked. 

Foundation Training is a strengthening and movement program designed to help people get out of back pain.   After reading Eric’s first book, Foundation, I decided to take a deep dive and signed up for the Foundation Training Certification course in Boulder last spring.  This training changed how I look at both movement and the power of breath, and their roles in creating good posture and a healthy spine. What I like best is the simplicity of the exercises and concepts.  You can easily incorporate Foundation Training into your everyday life.

 I continue to be inspired by Dr. Eric Goodman and his team at Foundation Training.  This is a group of smart and dedicated people who genuinely want to help others.  He was kind enough to take time out of his vacation last week to chat with me. (For the sake of brevity, I’ve condensed or paraphrased some responses.) 

 Dawn: Foundation Training began with your own back pain.  Can you tell me a little more about this?

Eric: I was halfway through chiropractic school and was suffering horrible back pain from playing collegiate ice hockey.  Nothing I was learning in school was helping my back pain.  I was told that I would need back surgery, which was not something I wanted.  Using my training, I was determined to find a solution to stop my pain.

 Dawn: You mentioned that chair pose in yoga gave you some relief and that started you thinking.

Eric: Yes, but chair pose is done with an emphasis on the front of the body and I needed the emphasis to be on the back of the body.  My back started to feel better being in htis pose.

Dawn: So you adjusted the pose to create emphasis on the back of the body, like what happens in Founder?

 Eric: Yes.

 Dawn: How did Foundation Training continue to evolve? 

 Eric: From 2008-2012 Foundation Training was pretty linear with exercises like founder, woodpecker, lunge, and back extension.  In 2011-2012 came the addition of spiral-patterned exercises like internal leg tracing, shoulder tracing, and anchored bridge. The spiral patterns at the hip help to create stability by drawing the muscles toward the center of the pelvis. This is also when decompression breathing was added to aid in decompressing the spine.

Dawn: I know you’ve worked with and helped many professional athletes such as surfer Kelly Slater, cyclist Lance Armstrong and pro basketball player Luke Walton, as well as celebrities like Rob Lowe, Jeff Bridges, and Chris Hemsworth. Can you talk about a few everyday people who’ve had results that really stood out to you?

 Eric: Yes, Alex Daugherty, a young mother with two kids.  She had just undergone surgery to repair a herniated disc.  Months of traditional physical therapy had not improved her recovery and she started limiting important events and simple activities.  She made huge progress in just a few short weeks of Foundation Training. She said that it was the program’s brilliant simplicity that got the results she wanted.

 Jan Hill was a 50-year-old marathoner who discovered that all of a sudden she couldn’t stand up after working at her computer for a few hours.  After seeing three different doctors she learned that she had a degenerative spine and should stop running.  After just one session she started feeling better and then within 3 months her back pain was gone and she started running long distances again. She even summited Mt. Whitney.

Dawn: Thank you for your time Eric, I hope you enjoy the snow!