Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain

• Lower back pain, hip problems, sciatica, and bad knees
  
• Carpal tunnel syndrome and even some forms of arthritis
  
• Migraines and other headaches, stiff neck, fatigue, sinus problems, vertigo, and TMJ
  
• Shin splints, varicose veins, sprained or weak ankles, and many foot ailments
  
• Bursitis, tendinitis, and rotator cuff problems
  
• Plus special preventive motioncise programs for maintaining health through the entire body.
  

I performed some of the exercises for back pain and felt some immediate, but not complete, relief. I knew, though, that I had a lot to fix after being in an extremely severe car accident several years ago. I was extremely impressed, however, with the physiological foundations for this form of therapy. It just made a lot of intuitive sense.

So, I arranged to visit the Egoscue Clinic in Del Mar, about a 3 hour drive from my home. I'm now 3 visits into the 8 visit program and I could not be more impressed. These people are doing AMAZING things and getting people back to living functionally who thought they'd never be functional again.

In the strongest possible terms, I encourage ANYONE to get this book, read it, and use it. And if you suffer from chronic pain that is seriously impacting your life, you owe it to yourself to avail yourself of the clinic's services.

By the way, I've had the opportunity to meet Pete Egoscue and have spent maybe a half hour talking with him one on one. He's a very nice, humble man who has a sincere heart for helping people become pain free.


Pete Egoscue is onto something   April 20, 2001
SanDiegoDude (San Diego, CA United States)
84 out of 103 found this review helpful

"A pain free, active lifestyle is not only possible, but it is the way you should expect to feel and live, no matter your age, no matter your previous experience". -Pete Egoscue

The basis of Pete's philosophy centers around two things (in my opinion):

1. a person is ultimately responsible for their own health, including skeletal/muscular health. The Egoscue method puts you in charge of healing yourself. It's a big responsibility, but ultimately, it's the only real path that works. Being medicated or manipulated by others can help with symptoms, but only you can really address root problems.

2. your body is not supposed to hurt all the time! It's our western sendentary lifestyles that have created postural problems which lead to pain. When Pete sees photos of indigenous cultures, or even modern cultures that aren't so sedentary (like eastern europe), he sees none of the structural problems that are so evident in americans (loss of arch in low back, shoulders rotated forward, tops of hands visible when viewing a person from the front, carrying the head girdle in front of the spine, etc). If you give your body the motion it needs (in a variety of ways, not just the same thing over and over), it maintains proper posture and chronic pains will dissappear.

I'm a client at Pete's clinic in Del Mar, about 3/4 of the way through an 8-visit series. I do about 1/2 hours of his e-cises each day. I've witnessed my low back and neck pain go almost completely away and I literally see things differently because I'm now carrying my head above my spine instead of arched forward - it changes my field of vision.

I had not gone snowboarding for three years until recently. I'm very psyched to now think of moving into middle and old age active and pain free rather than having to give up more and more activities.

Try it, it works.


handle with caution   March 31, 2006
K. Manizade (Salisbury, MD United States)
56 out of 68 found this review helpful

Notice the number of rave reviews for this book, and notice how many of the reviewers describe "The Method" in terms that are more appropriate to religious recruitment. Reviewers here call this book a "bible", talk about "evangelizing" their friends, and there are only a few reviews that address what I think are serious dangers involved in an uncritical use of the exercises in the book.

I've had surgery for a cervical disk that was all over my spinal cord and was causing hyper reflexes and intolerable pain. I still have pain, because even after surgery, nerve roots from C4 to C8 are pinched by narrowed foramina. I also have cervical spine stenosis.

I tried the exercises here, some of which are based on common sense, and for those the author deserves credit. The book advocates movement and warns against hours of sedentary bad posture. Fair enough. Many of the exercises are similar to those recommended by my physical therapist, and used in moderation, could help someone possibly delay or even eliminate surgery. Great. But when I tried the "Cats" exercise, which hyperextends the neck, it caused a lengthy episode of excruciating pain that prevented me from turning my head the full 180 degrees of range that I had before. The nerve-root at C6-C7 flared up, with the familiar stabbing pain under the shoulder blade. It was enough to make me weep. Given the very individual nature of spine problems, to claim that these exercises are a "one size fits all" is a mistake.

I have to agree with the other reviewer who said that putting a big old curve on your spine is a terrible idea if you already have stenosis. Nowhere in this book does the author caution against the very compromising "Cats" position for people with cervical spine damage.

Rave reviews from adoring groupies notwithstanding, this book should be used with extreme discretion by chronic pain sufferers, if the pain is coming from a known spinal abnormality. If the positions shown here go against what your surgeon or pain doctor recommend, avoid them. Do get off your couch and move a bit! On that score, numquam satis.


This book relieved hip, knee, and shoulder pain for me.   July 27, 1999
54 out of 54 found this review helpful

I must add my endorsement to those of others. Last summer, after two back operations, and hundreds of hours of physical therapy, and facing the prospect of beginning school in chronic pain that required me to lie down for several hours a day, I saw Mr. Egoscue's book. I tried the exercises, doing them exactly as he instructs. Within a few weeks, I noticed significant improvement, and not only in my back, but in chronic knee and shoulder problems. I kept up with the exercises, and, after about six months, I found I could do things I hadn 't been able to do for over ten years--like swim, lift weights, ride a bike. . . I'm not completely pain-free, but I credit the exercises in this book for returning me to about 80% normal. I continue to do the maintenance exercises daily. I'm completely convinced by Mr. Egoscue, and this is after trying conventional medicine and every alternative in the books and quite a few not in the books. His approach works far more effectively than anything else I've tried, from surgery to herbs. I recommended it to a friend who called me one morning in severe back pain--two weeks later she, too, was calling it a miracle. I'm in danger of becoming a bore at parties, because whenever I hear anyone with any kind of chronic musculoskeletal problem I spend about half an hour extolling the virtues of Mr. Egoscue's method. It works!


wow almost   December 20, 2001
53 out of 56 found this review helpful

This book is used as a textbook for a physical education course at the Northern Virginia Community College. The course name and description are:
Topics in: Functional Training
Course covers postural and joint movement assessment & specific exercise techniques to correct deficiencies of strength development or range of motion that may cause injury ond discomfort.

Although I have not started the course yet I have read the book and tried some of the exercises. For me the section on shoulders was most relevant. As a weight trainee I had been having difficulty fully extending my left arm above my head while lifting. One of the diagnostic movements in the book suggested that I had a tightness and/or misalignment in the shoulder that could be the problem. Performing the shoulder movements described in the book brought about almost instant relief. For that I am grateful.

However, the author is not content to confine himself to what he does well which is to describe E-cises (his terminology). He makes a few statements which are not only false, but which could be dangerous.

His statement that "You cannot drink too much water." was proven false a few years ago by some misguided parents who disciplined their children by forcing them to drink water in excessive amounts. I think the resulting death of one of the children pretty much disproves his statement. The problem is not the water per se, but the resulting electrolyte imbalance. Perspiring profusely and only drinking plain water can result in an electrolyte imbalance. The symptoms include a tingling sensation.
It is real. I experienced it one time. Despite many "experts" who advocate plain water I know that there are those among us who would do better following the advice in OPTIMAL MUSCLE RECOVERY by Edmund R. Burke, PhD.

Egoscue sees nothing wrong with impact -- as in high impact aerobics. I do. Also, he is so into using proof by evolution that he uses it as an explanation for any personal opinion for which he can cite no good scientific study. And if evolution doesn't explain it then look for some body misalignment as a cause for a problem. My opinions on impact are these: 1. If it causes pain, don't do it. 2. While a little bit of impact may be good it is easy to overdo and if overdone can cause irreversible damage. It doesn't matter if the people in your family tree didn't evolve with aerobics in mind or if you have some body misalignment. Years of running on hard surfcess have left me with arthritic knees which have resulted in knee operations. One orthopedic surgeon told me that had I been a couch potato the operations would not be needed until thirty more years. Using the evolution argument of which Egoscue is so fond I propose that humans did not evolve on flat concrete or asphalt. They evolved walking on soft irregular surfaces. The universities in the state of Oregon which have produced several outstanding runners credit the use of soft wood chip running paths for part of their success. Likewise, running sand dunes has worked for Australian runners.
Then too there are some people who should limit impact activities because of uncorrectable defects such as bowlegs or knock knees, or because of excess weight, or because of weak cartilage caused by the body's using the amino acid cystine rather than the chemically similar amino acid arginine when constructing cartilage.
This book is definitely a good read. Give the E-cises a try. Just don't blindly accept everything the author says. Like most of us he gets a little full of himself at times.