Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain Paperback – February 29, 2000

A MIRACLE HAS HAPPENED!Let me tell you:I have had back problems ever since a car accident at age 24. Add to this 2 minor car accidents in later years. Add to this several rock’n roll accidents with amateur partners pounding me forcefully onto the floor and one dropping me onto my head because of a misunderstanding. Add to this a mountain trek with a way-too-heavy backpack. Add to this quite a few other incidents and circumstances damaging my spine.—Did I get treatment for my bad back? Of course, I did. I had physiotherapy treatment series many a time. It always helped a bit, but the improvement never lasted. One wrong move (such as taking a sharp turn, reaching far over a table, or bending down for longer than a second), and I was in agony again, be it with lumbago, a jammed nerve, or even a slipped disc. Besides, when I used the exercise machines at the last physiotherapy center where I was treated, I ended up with a ruptured rotator cuff. I also tried chiropractors a few times, but their treatments only left me worse. There were also some surgeons who wanted to fuse my spine and one who, after all kinds of costly exams and tests, had his secretary phone me to tell me that I wasn’t a good candidate for surgery; he did not give any reason.And then there was this ordeal, last December (2019), that sent me into pain attacks of severity 11 (using a pain scale of 0-10) and left me a partial nursing case. I won’t tell you how it happened—unless you’ll ask me. So for now, I’ll just say that it started with me accidentally stepping into a little depression in front of our house.—I was hauled to the local ER, where they had to move me with a board (lifted by 4 strong men) from the ER bed to a trolley, to the MRI bed, back to the trolley, to the x-ray bed, back to the trolley, back to the ER bed, where they finally gave me a steroid shot, which eventually enabled me to climb down from the ER bed and sit in a wheel chair, with which I could be wheeled to an ambulance that took me to a better equipped hospital (160 miles away) for emergency surgery. To make it short: The surgeon could not or would not (it was a few days before Christmas) operate. I was told that there was a bleeding risk because I had taken aspirin (which I had already told them at the local ER), and I was instructed to come back for surgery after the holidays.—Again to make it short: I had no confidence in the surgeon who had never bothered to show up at my bedside. So, in early January, I consulted 2 other surgeons (who came once a month to our town to hunt for patients, whom they would operate in a hospital near Salt Lake City) and ended up having no confidence in these surgeons either. They could not precisely tell me how they wanted to fix the problem. Neither did they commit to any clear info about the involved risk. (Mind you, the damage to my spine is a complicated one, I am 80 years old, and due to my asthma, chronic bronchitis, and history of 8x pneumonia, my anesthetic risk is high.) For this reason, I decided to keep looking for a surgeon I might have more confidence in. Yet then came the pandemic, and I would not be caught dead near any medical facility.So here I was—a partial nursing case! Steroid pills and pain pills enabled me to make it from one room to another with the help of a walker and eventually, but not without risk, without a walker, yet constantly in danger of falling. Had I not been lucky to always get hold of some piece of furniture or a door frame whenever one of my legs gave in, I would have fallen numerous times. Getting up from a chair was a major venture that not only required holding onto some support but, quite often, also required my husband’s full strength to pull me up. It usually ended with a loud scream of pain. And these were firm chairs, which are normally easy to get up from. Sadly, I could no longer use my comfy recliner (nor any couch), as it was impossible to get me out of it again. We tried once. Loooong story. Let me just say: Never again! Yet what was worse: Standing longer than 5-10 seconds (!) at a time caused me agonizing pain attacks that might last for many hours. Thus, my husband had to spend lots of time assisting me in the kitchen, that is, retrieve everything from the fridge, wash all veggies, watch food cooking on the stove, lay the table, take care of the dishes, etc., etc.. All I could do was prepare food, while sitting down at the table. As everyone knows, there is other housework beside preparing meals. And I also needed assistance taking a shower and getting dressed. So my poor husband was terribly overworked. (We eventually managed to get some hired help again, as we have always tried to have hired help, but because of the pandemic, this hired help could only do outside work for us.)When I decided against surgery, at least for the time being, I had some hope that the body’s natural power of healing might kick in. But there was only minimal improvement until the end of June (6 months after the ordeal with my spine), when finally I started to make some more noticeable progress. I was very happy when by mid of September, I was able to walk for about 100 yards, holding on to a cane or leaning onto a shopping cart. And when I once managed to walk half the length of our local Walmart store without a shopping cart, I felt like celebrating. Yet this had been a risky endeavor. Any 3-year-old could have easily knocked me over.Then, about 4 weeks ago, the above book fell into my hands. It was in one of my many boxes with unread books. A label on the book showed that I must have picked up this book at a 2nd-hand store, at some time, yet I doubt that I had ever opened the book. I was about to put it down again, as I distrusted the claim in the title, but the book I had wanted to start reading next had yet to be disinfected after arriving in the mail, and I did not wish to start reading any other book. So, out of curiosity, I opened the above book and browsed through it a bit. I read the introduction. It made a lot of sense. And since (many of) the author’s special exercises, which he calls “e-cises", looked so simple, I tried one. It required sitting on a chair (or bench) in a certain position, squeezing a pillow between the knees, and holding this position for 5 minutes. Since I did not have a pillow handy, I just imagined the pillow. And since sitting like this felt a bit uncomfortable, as I wasn’t used to it, I did not hold this position for 5 minutes but only for 10 seconds. Yet I repeated this e-cise throughout the day (still with only an imagined pillow) maybe a dozen times (I did not count), always holding the position for 10 to 20 seconds. Then, at the end of the day, I was surprised to find that I could now rise from a chair without any support and without wailing of pain. I showed my husband, and he was stunned.The following day, I partially undid my improvement again by driving our truck that has a worn seat, which is bad for my spine. Back home, I repeated the e-cise (still with only an imagined pillow) numerous times, holding the position now for 10-30 seconds, and my improvement returned to what it had been before driving the truck. I was meanwhile also fiddling with a few other e-cises, improvising them, as I was unable to get down onto the floor.The third day, after again doing this e-cise quite a few times (still with only an imagined pillow and still only for up to 30 seconds at a time), I walked for half a mile without a cane, while my husband repaired a gate. When my husband saw me walking off on the road shoulder, he was worried, but he could not follow me, as he could not let go of the gate. He could hardly believe that I made it back without falling. That evening, I again repeated this e-cise several times, and for the first time, I held the position for 5 minutes, which turned out not to be any problem at all. My husband found me a pillow, but I only used it once, as two of our cats requisitioned the pillow right after. This did not matter, because I am meanwhile rather experienced in imagining the pillow. :-) I also kept fiddling with several other e-cises, still improvising them. I did them while sitting at the table, cutting veggies. And I did some in bed, in the morning. I am sure this is not exactly what the author had in mind when he specified how to do these e-cises, yet I figured that it would be better to improvise these e-cises rather than wait until I was set up to do them in a perfect manner (i.e., on the floor and [some of them] using an exercise cube) .Today, some 4 weeks later, I not only get up from a chair with ease and without wailing, I can now stand without major problems for up to an hour at a time, and I can even pick up items from the floor (but am careful not to stay bent down very long). I brisk-walk without a cane for a mile and have done so about twice a week. (My goal is to make it 5x a week.) Today, I even brisk-walked for 1 1/2 miles. And when yesterday one of our cats met me on the road and got between my feet from behind, I did not fall over him but found myself sure-footed like a mountain goat. As a matter of fact, I haven’t been as sure-footed in decades.And there is something else: The only reason I ever enjoyed walking and hiking was to enjoy the scenery. I never enjoyed the exercise of setting one foot in front of the other (probably because it always involved some pain). Yet this has now changed. And it is NOT for psychological reasons. Walking now gives me physical pleasure. It is as if long-dormant muscles in my hips and thighs area were awakened by this e-cise and are now celebrating that they are finally being used. (I am not sure at all whether or not I used these particular muscles when I was doing competition ballroom dancing in my late teens. Sports involve rather specialized movements and, according to the author of the above book, rarely require the use of all muscles that should be used to retain a musculoskeletal balance.)So how about pain? I am not saying that I am now totally pain free. I still have pain most nights, until my husband massages me in the morning, and occasionally, I still need Aspercreme or pain pills. But I have now much less pain at night than I had before, and I am rather pain free in the daytime, unless I overdo it and stand for longer than an hour at a time. Yet I am, so far, doing only a very few of the e-cises, and I only do two of them the proper way and about half a dozen others in a very improvised way.I finished reading the book a few days ago, but I still work with it on a daily basis and intend to eventually do most of the e-cises pictured and described in the book. I have since also purchased a dvd to go with the book. (It demonstrates and explains some of the e-cises shown in the book but also quite a few different ones.)The author has a clinic in San Diego, and there are licensed Egoscue clinics all over America. If it weren’t for the pandemic that keeps me from traveling, I would go to San Diego (or Denver or Las Vegas) to get evaluated and taught e-cises customized for my condition, which I would also have to continue after having returned home. Yet because my husband and I are high-risk for covid-19, I, for now, have to make do with non-customized DIY.My husband is still pinching himself to make sure he is not dreaming, seeing my miraculous recovery. He says he wonders whether we have entered a parallel universe.You may find all this unbelievable. If you think I have lost my mind or I am on psychedelic drugs and imagining my recovery, please go to the Amazon website. There you will find 1,207 reviews of this book, and most of them with similar stories of miraculous improvements and recoveries.If you or any of your loved ones or friends have chronic pain or mobility dysfunction due to muscular, nerve, or joint problems, make sure you read this book and try some e-cises before you (or your loved ones or friends) consider joint replacement or any other surgery to your bones, joints, or tendons. Surgery is not without risk, takes a long time to heal, and does not solve a problem permanently that is originally caused by musculoskeletal imbalance, which seems to be the cause of 95% of all muscular, nerve, and joint pain or dysfunction. So I count my blessings that I didn’t have surgery.P.S. If you already had joint replacement or other surgery, e-cises can still be beneficial for you. And should you be pain free and have no mobility dysfunction, you might still wish to do some e-cises, as “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.P.P.S. Dec. 1st, 2020: I, meanwhile, brisk-walk up to 2 1/4 miles without a cane, and this while I still only do some of the e-cises and most of them rather improvised. We no longer take the dog along, because she can't (or won't?) keep up with my walking speed, which is 3+/mph (= 5 km/hour).

I am writing a review of this book, even though I only received the book yesterday, and just did about three or four of the exercises last night.In the reviews of the book, someone said that the exercises (or, as they refer to them, the "E-cises," with the "E" standing for Egoscue) are not like any other exercises they had ever done for lower back pain before.And I think that's the whole point.This man obviously knows what the other people writing books about back exercises do not know - and that is how to fix the problem.After reading Jack Nicklaus' review of the book - and I am a golfer - I could only respect and believe what he had to say, since Jack Nicklaus is known to "tell it like it is," and his description of his experience sounded so authentic that I had no reason to disbelieve it.I will hasten to say that I, like probably every other person with sometimes terrible lower back pain, tend to take with numerous grains of salt anything we read about "curing" lower back pain, because most of the things we have done, in following the instructions in various exercise books about lower back pain, have not actually produced anything remotely resembling a cure.At best, they may have alleviated, for a short time, some of the more serious pain, or discomfort.And, in the back of my mind, I thought that as soon as I go to sleep, in the same bed, and on the same mattress which may have very likely been a contributing factor to my back problems, it would instantly undo any gains I might have made.What I was so encouraged about was the statement in the book that "there are five E-cises for mitigating musculoskeletal pain in the low back", and they take about twenty minutes, and he recommends doing them first thing in the morning.Then he goes on to say to do the e-cises daily until pain abates for 48 hours, and then continue for ten days, before switching to the overall conditioning e-cises in the last chapter.In other words, he is not saying "if," or "maybe," but "when."And so, I not only wanted to believe, but I took on faith, not only on Jack Nicklaus' review, but the hundreds of other reviews, virtually all of which were extremely enthusiastic and positive, that everything he was saying was true.I only actually did three of the five e-cises, because two of them required the use of two blocks - which I didn't have, and didn't want to even try to improvise, inasmuch as I ordered a couple of yoga blocks, which I see are profusely advertised, and are evidently used quite regularly in yoga, and expect to receive in short order, courtesy of the very quick delivery through Amazon.Anyway - my point is, which I realize is taking me a long time to get to - this morning I got up with maybe half of the morning discomfort that I have been feeling for longer than I even like to think about.I'll call it "discomfort," rather than pain, because even if it never got any better than it was this morning, that is a head and shoulders improvement over what it has been.But my point is that this is the "real deal." This man knows what he is talking about, and we are the beneficiaries of his knowledge and expertise.Hooray for that.I guess what I'm really saying is that I already feel - at least in my mind - the feeling of relief that I have finally gotten out from under the terrible yoke of low back pain, even though I certainly have not arrived there yet, by any means.But just what little I've done, and the relief I do feel, is more than encouraging: It tells me that this is absolutely the right direction, and that it's just a matter of time (and not even a lot of time, either) until I can truthfully say that my terrible lower back pain is a thing of the past.One other thing I wanted to add: My thinking about my own lower back pain has been that since my mother passed away, and since I had taken care of her due to her having had a stroke, for six years before her death, I had been severely restricted as to the amount of physical exertion I had done for quite some time. And which has been almost nil since, as I went on to retirement after her death.And then, when I did resume playing golf, I just naturally assumed that my returning to physical activity after such a long layoff had been a major contributing factor to my back pain problems.The whole premise of Pete Egoscue's position is that inactivity is the cause of our pain; that with the modern conveniences of the automobile, elevator, etc, etc, that modern man simply does not move enough to utilize all the muscles he is blessed with, and consequently, they wither away and we lose the ability to use them. He advocates movement, above all else, to keep the pain away.However, when you think about Jack Nicklaus, who has been continually active for his entire life, and much more so than the average person, being a professional golfer, and realize the shape he was in concerning his back, to where he had been told that he would almost surely have to undergo back surgery, it makes you wonder.What is very sobering to realize is that even an extremely physical person, such as a professional golfer, and especially a very well-known golfer as Jack Nicklaus is, could be as active as he has been for his whole life, and still develop back pain, to the extent that it had a negative impact on his even being able to play golf.And then for him to find out from Pete Egoscue that back surgery was not necessary, and that his problems could be solved by undertaking certain exercises, which Pete prescribes, is staggering in its implication.Mind-boggling from a number of angles: First, that several medical doctors had told him that back surgery was necessary, and secondly, that simply doing the right exercises would alleviate the back pain, and eliminate any need for surgery, tells you a number of things: That the medical doctors either don't know what they're talking about, or that they are more interested in furthering their own agenda. Or both, which is undoubtedly the case.And so although there is no doubt that Jack Nicklaus has certainly been extremely physically active, he still had not incorporated into his daily routine the particular moves that would have insured that he would not incur lower back pain.And of course, the reason he had not done so is very simple: He didn't know about them.That is the brilliance of the program instigated by Pete Egoscue; that one can simply include certain moves into their daily life, and mitigate the problem of lower back pain, just as a regular routine.Instead of thinking that playing golf is the cause of the lower back pain - which is quite naturally the first thought that comes to mind - it would appear that it's not the swinging of the golf club, but the absence of many other movements, that even a professional golfer does not necessarily do in his daily life. Nor do most people, it appears - because the moves he shows us how to do are simply things that nobody does, in their normal everyday life.Which may be the very reason that almost everybody has lower back pain!In short, it's not the things you do that cause lower back pain, but the things you don't do. If we never move the muscles that will ensure that we don't develop lower back pain, that means that we fall into the "use it or lose it" syndrome: If we don't move the muscles, they get weak and become painful, because we are failing to exercise them, and thereby strengthen them.My point is that even Jack Nicklaus, or any other person, active or not - and in his case, with all the walking that all professional golfers do, it's not just the physical activity that is required to sustain optimal health, but the specific types of exercise that we all are missing out on, if we don't know and perform the precise types of movements that Pete Egoscue advocates, and which are so effective for the problems that they fix.We could be as active as a professional golfer, but if we're not doing the right kinds of movement, we will undoubtedly get lower back pain, whether we ever swing a golf club or not.In other words, we may be extremely active, but if none of the movements we make are even close to the moves that Pete has incorporated in his lower back workout, those muscles are never going to get utilized, no matter how active we are, and therefore, lower back pain is inevitably sure to follow.So, it would appear, and he even states, that once we get our problems fixed - whether it's lower back, or whatever, we need to continue to do the exercise regimen that he prescribes, to ensure that we continue to provide the necessary support for our muscles that will keep us in good health, and avoid the pain that is so awful.In other words, just being active, even as active as a professional golfer, is no guarantee that we will provide enough of the right type of exercise to keep us pain-free.As Pete tells us, we have 187 joints, and over 600 muscles in our bodies, and it's a pretty safe bet that we use only a small fraction of them in our everyday life.Probably only a circus acrobat would even come close to using every muscle in the body, but even then, they would have no reason to use anything more than the particular muscles they need in their act.The muscles that we utilize in his specialized e-cises, designed specifically to work muscles that have long been ignored - which is what has finally, after years of disuse, led to the condition we find ourselves in, enables us to get back some of the movement we have lost through lack of use, and remove the pain.Pete advocates constant movement, to strengthen our muscles, and thereby eliminate pain. This assumes that we will strengthen the correct muscles, which will assure us that we bypass lower back pain.But unless we target the muscles that would otherwise get ignored, and make it a point to include them in our daily workout, they will not get the attention they need, just as they are not getting the attention now, no matter how active we may have otherwise been.Only deliberately adopting a particular regimen, such as Pete Egoscue lays out, will do the trick.But the very best part is that none of them are difficult; in fact, they're all very easy to do, and not even tiring.We don't even raise a sweat!

I have no affiliation with the author, and my approval can't be bought. That said, this book is seriously life changing. Pete essentially figured out some critical connections in the body that resulted in a huge aha moment that where you're actually hurting isn't where the pain is originating from. Like say your upper back is killing you-- turns out that's caused by misalignment of your shoulders and hips. Or your hands/wrists are burning when you game too long... that's a shoulder issue, so you can chuck the wrists braces (which apparently make things even worse), do the recommended exercises in this book and WOW, noticeable improvement within DAYS (not weeks or months). He also has YouTube exercise videos which are great. He believes repetitive motion injury is a crock, and that the body can do endless repetitive motions if it is correctly aligned. As for the exercises, they feel practical, not ridiculous. Plus the RAPID improvement totally keeps you going.Huge pros for me are as follows: he addresses UPPER back pain (find it via the index in the back). That's what hubby needed help with, and everyone just wants to focus on lower back, so this was a total score. I always run internally cold, which indicates low metabolism. Hubby was putting on some padding due to being immobilized so long from back pain. We have been doing his "total mobility" YT video maybe a month now, only every other day, and my metabolism is revving. I'm wearing shorts in winter, hubby is starting to lose weight again-- it's just a winner all around.Of course no one's perfect. While Pete marvels at the body's ingenious design, he fails to see a DESIGNER behind it, and instead credits the whole thing too dumb luck (aka evolution). Another minor beef is his promotion of Yoga's "cats and dogs" pose, which is a horrific exercise that will give you severe lower back pain after a short while. But every field has its politics, and you can't be pro-God or anti-yoga if you want to get popular, so there it is. Yoga wasn't designed to help the body, its designed to move magical fluids around your body so a specific supernatural entity will slowly slither from the base of your spine into your brain (sounds creepy, I know, but some people feel this is a great goal). Yoga is a religion that puts spiritual goals over physical health. So I'd recommend skipping the few yoga poses that he throws in (easy to do, bc they are rare). But the majority of his stuff is bang on and you'll be shocked at how much it can ease your misery. I highly recommend this book before you go see another doctor or buy another brace. Definitely a rare gem.

I have suffered with chronic back pain for many years due to a injury i had in the gym in my lower back, as a result it has had a massive effect on my life, i have tried every remedy there is, seen a dozen orthopedic surgens (most of them said no to a operation as my problem was mechanical) I am always willing to try any form of self help treatment especially one recommended by a fellow sufferer, the best so far is the Mcenzie routine, but alas this does not help sometimes. I have tried the Ogoscue method on and off over the last four years, but have had very little improvement if any, so good luck and i hope it works for you, i will keep looking and trying anything i think will help

As a back pain sufferer, having gained little relief over the years from pain killers, back operations, numerous chiropractic/osteopathic appointments, I started to educate myself on alternative treatments. Having attended courses & trained to deliver massage (Swedish, Sports & Remedial) and myofascial release methods I found all the modalities started to relieve my back pain. About 8 years ago I also started to look around for 'self help' methods that could assist me in maintaining my back and pelvis from further injuries apart from physio stretches . This is when I found Pete's literature. Having read all of his previous books (and internet site), I believe in this new edition book he provides excellent guidance for any person suffering muscular pain to possibly gain relief. Simple instructions and pictures demonstrate the sequences of exercises recommended by the author.

After getting on for two decades, this book is still the best help any sufferer from the pain of a misaligned body can get without registering at an - expensive - Egoscue-certificated physiotherapy clinic.Most people's bodies are misaligned because of bad posture or because some muscle groups are overdeveloped and pull your body out of shape. This results in pain, and it can become very serious for some: slipped discs, RSI and a host of other bodily pains are caused by this imbalance, and whether you're an athlete or a couch potato, an office worker or a manual labourer, you're almost certain to have misalignment pain at some time of not permanently. The Egoscue Method is designed to persuade those muscles which should support the skeleton to take up this task again, and as often as not, the pain simply vanishes as your body gets back into proper alignment. People with deformities, serious arthritis or other incurable misalignments and pain won't get back a perfect body, but by following the Egoscue Method they can minimize both the pain and the problem. Egoscue-approved consultation and treatment are expensive (see www.egoscue.com for a quote), but this simple book can take you most of the way towards the pain relief you want, and maybe provide the full cure.'Pain Free' is simple to follow. It is organized by the kind of pain you have, and the instructions prescribed are graduated and simple to follow; most of them involve little more than keeping a bodily position while your muscles relax (so they're called e-cises as you don't need to exercise!) After reading the introduction, you just follow the most appropriate chapter for you, usually using a few simple props like a chair and a clear wall, then as the pain eases, add in other sections as suggested. When the pain's gone, there's a 'maintenance chapter' at the end to help you avoid a recurrence of the trouble.I'm now buying my fifth copy - I tend to lend them out and not get them back - and I still find this the simplest way to get rid of those nagging aches and pains. Many people with more serious problems have got much more help than I need.You might ask why there's no new edition out over all these years. The answer's simple: it still works as it is; there's nothing more to say. Egoscue has published other more general and more targetted books, appliances to make using the Method easier and useful videos on the website. But this is the starting point, and for many it will be all you need.It is, in summary, the one book on physical health and pain relief you really need on your bookshelf if you have no others.

I read about Pete Egoscue and his 'E-cises' by accident when I was searching for 'ways to alleviate lower back pain'. I was in pain having spent two days with a hot wheat bag almost strapped to me and really at my wits end. I found a blog that recommended some moves/positions taken from 'Pain Free' and they worked after a couple of days! They didn't cure the problem but certainly alleviated the symptoms so I sent for the book. It's been two months now of doing e-cises every day; I am pain free and understand so much more about the root causes of my pain. I have found some useful sets of e-cises on You Tube too. There are no short cuts and you have to be prepared to give the time up for the sets of exercises but it is well worth it. I've also recently sent for 'The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion'.