Pete Egoscue learned a lot about pain when, as a Marine officer, he was wounded in Vietnam. He segued from patient to physical therapist, and now runs a famous clinic in San Diego, where he claims he's helped 95 percent of his patients cure chronic pain--including Jack Nicklaus and Charles Barkley, whose athletic careers he helped prolong. At the heart of his program are stretches and motion exercises to restore proper function to muscles and joints. His methods are often surprising and counterintuitive. For example, for foot pain, he suggests a series of hip exercises. In fact, this is one of the most startling books you'll read about the human organism. Egoscue has strong opinions about how modern life is changing the way our bodies function, reducing the tasks we must perform and thus reducing the functional range of motion of our muscles and joints. Fortunately, he offers movement exercises to restore what nature meant us to have.
Pain Free shows readers how they can readily self-diagnose, treat and eliminate agonizing conditions such as stiff necks, sore shoulders and elbows, aching backs, hips and knees, shin splints, twisted ankles, and a variety of foot problems. Even many symptoms of arthritis can be eased, along with TMJ, severe migraine headaches, asthma attacks, and repetitive stress injuries. In this natural, head to foot guide to musculoskeletal pain, Pete Egoscue demonstrates that the body is designed to maintain and renew itself through adequate and correct motion, and then leads the reader through brief sequences of motioncises matched to each pain symptom, combatting the root cause of the pain: motion starvation. Each chapter covers a portion of the body vulnerable to chronic pain, leading the reader through the movements that ultimately solve the pain problem, without resorting to drugs, traumatic surgery or expensive physical therapy.
