Pain Free (Revised and Updated Second Edition): A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain

This book, or rather this method, completely changed my life after 1 neck injury and 2 repetitive stress shoulder injuries:I had a friend tell me about this book and I had it on my shelf and would thumb through it occasionally and LIKE ALL OF THE PEOPLE LEAVING NEGATIVE REVIEWS I THOUGHT THIS DOESN'T LOOK LIKE ANY HELP. After my first shoulder injury, a year in PT and yoga therapy I tossed this book straight into the garbage. Fast forward a year later and I hurt my shoulder AGAIN only WORSE! PT and yoga therapy got me out of pain but I never actually recovered - I couldn't get back to the computer (I was a graphic designer) or any work. I just kinda blamed the computer for my problems.Welp, after I hurt my shoulder the second time, that really messed up my body. I lost a lot of muscle in recovery and everything got super tight all over my body, even with PT. So I remembered this book and purchased it again hoping it would help my tight calfs and hamstrings. I read it, understood the concepts and then tried the menu for tight calfs. It changed my life. In one day. I could move my back again. My calfs weren't tight. Like it was crazy - these exercises look ridiculous to someone who compares them to any other "normal" exercises or PT. Let me explain the difference to anybody who will hopefully listen.Modern medicine and physical therapy ONLY work on the thing that hurts. They don't take into account the entire body and what could be really causing it. It is not holistic in the slightest. Trust me, I've been in 3 rounds of PT! Sure they might say hey strengthen your core in addition to what you have injured. Um, yeah, not the problem or the solution. Ever.Yoga and flexibility exercises will also not answer your tight muscle problems. Sure you may feel better because you are literally stretching the fibers and the nerves, but it will not cure your problem and here's why: You are stretching the top layers of muscles, the superficial ones. But you are tight because the deep, super tight muscles are tight. You ain't never gonna get those babies to loosen up with normal stretches that only target the top layer of tightness. You're ALSO tight because you, like most people in the world who have a more sedentary and stressful life, have huge muscle compensation problems. Take me for example. Perpetual neck and shoulder tightness no matter what I did! Welp, come to find out, my hips were tight and weak A.F. and as soon as Egoscue fixed that for me, my shoulders released their tightness on their own. Like, so much so, I'd equate a SINGLE MONTH of Egoscue, twice a day, to basically what an ENTIRE YEAR of PT and yoga therapy couldn't even do for me. Yoga may make you more flexible and strengthen you somewhat, BUT, you are still not using the correct muscles to move correctly and exist in the world as your physical body was made to exist and move. My Egoscue therapist tells me on the regular of yoga people who come in and can touch the floor easily but who have crazy back pain and problems because they're body is not moving correctly REGARDLESS OF THEIR FLEXIBILITY. LIMBER DOES NOT EQUAL MOVING CORRECTLY.Also, since everybody loves to try to be skinny and have abs: ALSO not going to help. With weight training and running and the likes, you are literally strengthening your muscle COMPENSATIONS and will eventually be really screwed because you're just asking to hurt yourself. When your joints don't move properly, neither will the rest of your body. And any like "leg lifts" and "squats" and the like are using huge muscle groups. Not the smaller muscle groups that are more like the fine motor skills of movement. BIG MUSCLES DO NOT EQUAL HEALTH OR PAIN FREE OR MOVING CORRECTLY. This is also where PT lacks, hugely. And the health and wellness industry in its entirety.And lastly, manual therapy. Massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, etc. NEVER LASTS. It feels good in the moment but you have to keep going back. Why? Because if you're weak in the areas of your body that need to be strong and strong in the areas of the body that need to be weak or rather, take a back seat, you will always have problems in those areas no matter how good a massage or adjustment feels. It won't help in the long run, ever. Every time you go, you should just throw your money out the window and drive away, because that's the net benefit to your body.After 6 years of increasing back pain, a neck injury, 2 shoulder injuries, and not being able to feel "free" in my body at the age of 31, I took to this like white on rice (after I threw the book away once, hehe). With the amount of PT and yoga therapy I did, I never should have had another relapse of the same shoulder injury. I go to the Egoscue clinic down the street and LIVE EGOSCUE, I do my exercises every day and have been able to completely change the posture of my entire body, fix my shoulders completely and get back to not only working on the computer again PAIN FREE but to be more active PAIN FREE as well. It's incredible. It's like getting handed back my life. Give it a try and reap the benefits! Be a critic and live pain full.

Moving Again: My first four months at EgoscueAugust 1, 2014As an introduction, I am a 43 year old male, have been married for 17 years with four young children, am a pediatric doctor specializing in the care of hospitalized children, and a devout Christian involved in medical missions. I would say that my life has not been easy but has been meaningful and filled with many wonderful things. I have always prided myself on being able to overcome life’s obstacles. When I was nine years old I was diagnosed with cancer and subsequently had three and one-half years of treatment. This was of course a difficult time, but it gave me an appreciation for life and established in me a desire to make a difference. It also taught me at an early age how to cope with pain. I have some long-term minor health issues related to it but have been relatively healthy as an adult until I injured my back six years ago. This back pain has truly impacted my life and that of my family. In the past couple years I have felt like I am falling into the abyss. Egoscue is helping bring me out. It is out of gratitude to Elliott, my therapist, that I wanted to share my story.I have “thrown my back out” seven times in the past six years. I have a problem that many people have, a herniated, ruptured disc at L4-5. I initially injured it in 1999, quickly recovered and did not really think anything of it. Then in 2006, at the age of 36, I had just returned from a month of medical work overseas, I was lifting awkwardly and felt a shock in my back. I then fell to the floor and was not able to get up. I spent the next 10 weeks recovering. Needless to say it was awful. After my recovery from that I seemed to return to a pretty normal level of functioning until eight months later when I did it again. That time I recovered faster (only missed three weeks of work) but did not seem to recover to my prior level of activity. Each time I have hurt it seems to follow this pattern. I am better at recovering from the episode but am not able to return to my previous level of functioning. In the last two years I have also developed chronic, daily pain. These episodes have caused me to miss 22 weeks of work.Looking back over the past six years, my decline in functioning is frightening. Before I injured my back the first time, I was a pretty average 36 year old in my ability to do work around the house, travel, play sports, and do just about anything I wanted. Since that time I have seen my ability to move decline sharply. Four years ago I had some pain but was still able to travel to Cambodia and do medical work in villages for a month. Over the past three years I had been having pain on a daily basis and significantly limiting my activity. After work I would often lie down and not be able to help with the kids. I was having significant pain with driving so was not able to take them to their sports practices, go to dinner with my wife, or really do too much of anything. At work I do research and teach residents along with my clinical responsibility. I was worried that I was going to have to give those things up as I needed to lie down and rest anytime I was not taking care of patients. I was honestly afraid to get up in the morning for fear of pain and that I was going to hurt myself even more.I have been to and through many therapies, therapists, and physicians over the past six years. I am a pediatric doctor so I have good access to all aspects of mainstream health care. I have consulted and been helped by some wonderful people. I am thankful that I have excellent back surgeons who have told me to stay away from surgery and a physical medicine doctor and physical therapist who believe in health through exercise. These people have helped me get over the initial pain of not being able to get out of bed and getting back to work, but I have not found anything that can take me the remainder of the way. I had not found any person or program that can help me get rid of the chronic pain and return to my prior level of functioning and an active lifestyle, not until I met Elliott at Egoscue.My wife and I first came to Egoscue on April 7, 2014. We were skeptical at best that Egoscue could help me in any significant way. I had hurt my back pretty badly for the seventh time in the past six years on March 22nd and had been off work since. I felt hopeless about my back ever getting better. At the age of 43, I was investigating long term disability out of fear that I was not going to be able to work. On this day, I could barely get out of the house and down to the Egoscue office. I remember how painful it was just to sit there and talk. One of the first things Elliott did was acknowledge that I looked like I was in pain, tell me that he had been there himself, and ask me if I wanted to lie down while we talked. That was my first indication that this might be different. During what turned out to be a two and one-half hour visit, I started to have an inkling of hope that this could actually help me. By the end of that conversation I felt as if I had met someone that seemed to truly understand what I was going through and someone that felt confident that he could help me. And through his confidence, I actually started to believe that I could get better. He put me through a set of E-cises that day that I would not have thought I could complete, and unbelievably I actually felt better when I left the office.I remember Elliott talking to my wife at that first visit, wanting to know how she felt and how it was impacting our family. He let both of us talk and tell our story. It was incredibly emotional for us being able to give voice to the pain that our entire family was experiencing as a result of my back. He just got it. He was able to convey to us that he got it, that he cared, and that he had a solution for us. He introduced us to Mita and Brittany and they were wonderful as well. When we left that day, we had a plan, in writing and online. We had specific instructions for the remainder of the day. He said he would call the next day and he did. He was available and helpful. He told us it would get better and it did.It seems that at Egoscue you understand that relieving my pain is not just about putting my body in a position that makes the pain go away. The pain has been emotionally debilitating and physically oppressive. It affects the way I view myself and interact with those around me. Healing is of course about taking the pain away, but it is also about taking the fear away, and about empowerment and control. That is what I feel that Egoscue and Elliott are giving me. I know that Elliott will not want his name in here like this, but to me he is Egoscue. Our relationship, his encouragement, his getting it, has been critically important in these initial stages of my recovery. My wife, who is a far better judge of character than me, just loves him. She appreciates how much he cares about me. I feel like in him, we have someone to walk this journey with.Probably the biggest change for me has been getting control over my fear. I used to not want to get out of bed in the morning for fear of the pain and fear that I was going to injure my back and not be able to work and take care of my family. Fear affected my mood, my ability to take care of my patients at work, my interaction with my wife and kids. Today I still have fear but it is minute compared to what it was. Instead of thinking about my back multiple times an hour, I now think about it off and on and often when I do I am just excited about how good it feels. I am trying to transition my fear back to being that rational thing that keeps me safe, motivated and humble, and away from the thing that it became that caused so much anxiety and paralysis. I am on the way.So what is my life like four months into Egoscue? I am not in pain all the time. I can work a 14-hour day in the hospital and concentrate on taking care of my patients. I can drive my kids to sports and stay and watch them play. I can go out to dinner with my wife. I can get out of bed in the morning without stiffness, pain, and fear. When I walk I feel good, straight, and comfortable. I can sit evenly and upright. I can help put my two year old son to bed. I can do yard work. My wife and I are talking about overseas missions work again. Life is good. I still have a long way to go. And I know, as Elliott has reminded me, that I am going to tweak my back again at some point, but I will take that if I can have my life back.I feel hopeful about my ability to return to and stay at a level of functioning that I want, hopeful that I am going to be able to work for many years to come, that I am going to be able to take care of my family, participate in my kids lives in a meaningful way, be a good husband, father, and son.I feel like Egoscue, and Elliott in particular, have given me my life back. It is rare to meet a person that truly cares and that can and wants to help. I want to thank you, Egoscue and Elliott, for giving me my life back. I honestly did not think it would happen but it is. I look forward with anticipation to what is ahead.Thank you Pain Free, Pete Egoscue, The Egoscue Method and my therapist, Elliott Williams

Very helpful

Libro utilissimo! Lo consiglio veramente a chiunque abbia dolori ovunque nel corpo. Utilizza un approccio completamente diverso da come siamo abituati avendo successo. Chiaramente il libro è in lingua inglese

I’m following it exactly with a little help from You tube so that I can make sure I’m doing the exercises correctly. My hip has definitely improved. So I’m happy with it.

A great book if you want to be pain free. A whole lot of easy exercises to do as well.I do Egoscue Anywhere Exercises everyday includingArm Circles: do 40 with your palms down, then 40 with your palms upElbow Curls: do 20-25 repetitionsOverhead Extension: hold for 1 minuteGreatest Abdominal Exercise Ever, the "Running Man"Use them to help if:Your body feels stiff or tight from sitting through long work hoursYou start having nagging pain somewhere while doing yard work or playing golfYour body is craving some movement but you are stuck in a confined space (like during travel)

Rehabilitated a slipped disc with this book. Can't recommend it enough! 10 stars!