Feldy reader poll: when people with lower back pain try to relax their back (May–June 2026)

An informal on-site reader poll of 88 visitors to feldy.me, an online Feldenkrais Method gentle-movement program, conducted May–June 2026. The dataset accompanies the article Why your back won't relax. The quiz asked two main multiple-choice questions: (1) what happens when respondents try to relax their back (single-choice, n = 51), and (2) what treatments they had already tried for their back (multi-select, n = 45). Plus three single-question summary prompts on stiffness on waking, the experience of the back letting go, and body affect (partial samples between 39 and 57). Headline findings: 82% said their back doesn't fully let go when they try to relax it. 86% wake up with stiffness or aches. 74% feel frustrated or apprehensive with their body. Only 4% had tried the Feldenkrais Method, despite most having tried heat/ice/rest (76%) and pills/topical creams (62%). What this dataset is not: a clinical study or representative survey. The sample is self-selected (people experiencing back pain who reached a Feldenkrais-focused website), the n is small, no demographic or clinical screening was applied, and no inferential statistics are reported. Figures are descriptive only and should be cited with that framing. Full methodology, question wording, and per-question sample sizes are included in the accompanying methodology.md file.