Most of us take the acts of sitting, standing, and walking for granted, but for those suffering from back, muscle, and joint pain, even these seemingly simple actions can be extremely uncomfortable. Poor body alignment or habitual movement patterns that crop up when we compensate for a bad back or painful neck can only further exacerbate existing issues—and create new problems. In this accessible workbook, Craig Williamson demonstrates how by just doing these three basic actions with optimal body alignment and attention, you can help free yourself from existing pain and prevent further injury. The protocol is simple but extremely effective, and step-by-step photos guide you through every exercise. Williamson’s approach has been praised by physicians, physical therapists, coaches and sports trainers, yoga instructors, and patients.
Here's an innovative and practical approach to eliminating chronic muscle pain, written by a popular occupational therapist with thirty years of experience freeing people from the discomfort of tendonitis, lower back pain, and neck and shoulder tension. These types of chronic pain can be caused by a number of factors, including old injuries, habitual movement patterns, problems with body alignment, psychological causes, and inability to sense your own body movements accurately. Muscular Retraining for Pain-Free Living clearly and concisely explains the causes of persistent muscle pain and offers a therapeutic exercise program to address these problems and end pain. This book explains the basic principles behind Williamson Muscular Retraining, which helps people to use their bodies more efficiently and gracefully, in a way that is practical and easy to understand. The problems of poor posture, muscle tension, and stress-caused pain are corrected by seeing them through the lens of kinesthetic awareness. The importance of kinesthetic awareness is typically overlooked precisely because it is lacking in so much of our population, including health care practitioners. Retraining for Pain-Free Living presents case examples of how people have used body awareness to improve how they sit, stand, and move - to rid themselves of ongoing muscular pain.
Starting today, you don't have to live in pain. “This book is extraordinary, and I am thrilled to recommend it to anyone who’s interested in dramatically increasing the quality of their physical health.”—Tony Robbins That is the revolutionary message of this breakthrough system for eliminating chronic pain without drugs, surgery, or expensive physical therapy. Developed by Pete Egoscue, a nationally renowned physiologist and sports injury consultant to some of today’s top athletes, the Egoscue Method has an astounding 95 percent success rate. The key is a series of gentle exercises and carefully constructed stretches called E-cises. Inside you’ll find detailed photographs and step-by-step instructions for dozens of e-cizes specifically designed to provide quick and lasting relief of: • 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 programs for maintaining health through the entire body. With this book in hand, you’re on your way to regaining the greatest gift of all: a pain-free body!
Restoring healthy posture from childhood for relief from chronic pain, easy flexibility, and enduring strength and vitality well into old age • Offers 12 physical exercises to become mindful of your posture and discover pain-free alignment of your pelvis, rib cage, shoulders, neck, and back • Provides simple yet detailed instructions on how to sit, stand, walk, bend, get up from a chair, sit to meditate, sleep, and practice yoga with proper alignment • Includes detailed diagrams and posture photographs from around the world Our bones are the framework of support for our bodies, much like the wall studs and beams of a house. Yet the alignment of the skeleton along the vertical axis of gravity is largely overlooked today, even by fitness experts and yoga teachers. In a culture of cocked hips, sauntering models, and slouching TV watchers, where “chin up, shoulders back, stomach in” is believed to be good posture, we have forgotten what healthy alignment looks and feels like--leading to chronic neck, shoulder, and back pain for millions. Sharing photographs from around the world of “gurus” of natural posture and authentic strength, such as women in their 80s who easily carry heavy loads on their heads and toddlers learning to walk, Kathleen Porter shows what natural skeletal alignment truly looks like. With insights based on the fundamental laws of physics and detailed diagrams, she guides you through an understanding of the body’s naturally pain-free design. She explains that when the body is aligned as nature intended, your weight is supported by your bones rather than your muscles, allowing a blissful release from chronic muscular tension--which you may not even be aware you had. She offers 12 physical exercises to become mindful of your posture and discover healthy alignment of your pelvis, rib cage, shoulders, neck, and your body as a whole. Providing easy-to-follow instructions for mindful alignment during the most ordinary daily activities, even sleeping, as well as a chapter on practicing yoga safely, Porter shows how returning to our forgotten alignment from childhood can offer relief from chronic pain and tension and can provide easy flexibility, enduring strength, and vitality well into old age.
With a fresh approach to a common problem, this self-help guide to overcoming back pain advocates adopting the natural, healthy posture of athletes, young children, and people from traditional societies the world over. Arguing that most of what our culture has taught us about posture is misguided—even unhealthy—and exploring the current epidemic of back pain, many of the commonly cited reasons for the degeneration of spinal discs and the stress on muscles that leads to back pain are examined and debunked. The historical and anthropological roots of poor posture in Western cultures are studied as is the absence of back pain complaints in the cultures of Africa, Asia, South America, and rural Europe. Eight detailed chapters provide illustrated step-by-step instructions for making simple, powerful changes to seated, standing, and sleeping positions. No special equipment or exercise is required, and effects are often immediate.
A fully revised and updated edition of the program that’s sold more than 5.5 million copies worldwide—plus a new chapter addressing shoulder pain Since the McKenzie Method was first developed in the 1960s, millions of people have successfully used it to free themselves from chronic back and neck pain. Now, Robin McKenzie has updated his innovative program and added a new chapter on relieving shoulder pain. In 7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life, you’ll learn: · Common causes of lower back, neck pain and shoulder pain · The vital role discs play in back and neck health · Easy exercises that alleviate pain immediately Considered the treatment of choice by health care professionals throughout the world, 7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life will help you find permanent relief from back, neck, and shoulder pain.
This groundbreaking new medical work demonstrates how modern sedentary lifestyles contribute to poor health, obesity, and diabetes, and how health can be dramatically improved by continuous, low-intensity, movement that challenges the force of gravity. Citing her original NASA research on how weightlessness weakens astronauts' muscles, bones, and overall health, the author presents a simple and effective plan for maintaining good health throughout life by developing new lifestyle habits of frequent gravity-challenging movement. Written for everyone who spends most of their lives sitting in chairs, at desks, and in cars, this practical, easy-to-follow action plan outlines simple gravity-challenging activities such as standing up frequently, stretching, walking, and dancing that are more healthful and effective than conventional diet and exercise regimens.
Relieve and prevent chronic pain forever with this simple, safe, and sure-fire three-minute daily program! Imagine a world free of aches and pains...no back pain, headaches, joint stiffness, or arthritis; no expensive ergonomic equipment or pain medications. With Dr. Joseph Weisberg's revolutionary new system, a pain-free life is now within reach of everyone—even those who have endured chronic pain for years. At the heart of Dr. Weisberg's system is the 3-Minute Maintenance Method--a unique program for all ages and fitness levels that eliminates the conditions that cause pain in the first place. By utilizing six different thirty-second therapeutic movements the program makes it possible for the body to keep itself free of pain. Thanks to Dr. Weisberg's groundbreaking program, relief—and a lifetime of healthy muscles and joints--is finally at hand. In fact, it's just three minutes away!
Sitting can wreak havoc on your health, and not just in the form of minor aches and pains. Recent studies show that too much sitting contributes to a host of diseases—from obesity and diabetes to cancer and depression. The typical seated office worker suffers from more musculoskeletal injuries than those workers who do daily manual labor. It turns out that sitting is as much an occupational risk as is lifting heavy weights on the job. The facts are in: sitting literally shortens your life. Your chair is your enemy, and it is murdering your body. In this groundbreaking new book, Dr. Kelly Starrett—renowned physical therapist and author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Becoming a Supple Leopard—unveils a detailed battle plan for surviving our chair-centric society. Deskbound provides creative solutions for reducing the amount of time you spend perched on your backside, as well as strategies for transforming your desk into a dynamic, active workstation that can improve your life. You will learn how to: • Easily identify and fix toxic body positions • Eradicate back, neck, and shoulder pain • Mitigate carpel tunnel syndrome forever • Organize and stabilize your spine and trunk • Walk, hinge, squat, and carry with peak skill • Perform daily body maintenance work using fourteen mobility templates for resolving pain and increasing range of motion Whether your goal is to maximize your performance in or out of the workplace, lose weight, or simply live pain-free, Deskbound will work for you. It is a revolutionary cure for death-by-desk.
The Feldenkrais Method is a presentation of the system of Functional Integration devised by the Israeli scientist Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. This system is a way of handling the body by communicating specific sensations to the central nervous system in order to improve the functions of the motor-system. Functional Integration is unique in that it evokes changes in the human brain at a level heretofore thought unachievable by any known educational technique.
