Pain Free by Pete Egoscue

Did a search on the forum about this and turned up nada. This book was recommended to me by a 2nd degree black belt Rickson rep and I have to say it's pretty on the money. I've been into posture therapy for a while now and it's helped me understand this bio-suit we all wear in much greater detail.

Example: When I first began playing rubber guard it was because I tried it and it felt very natural, but only on my right side. Because of this book I now understand that this was because I used to walk hunched over in junior high due to being overweight and lacking confidence. I ended up carrying more weight on my left side, and the spinal erector muscles down the right side of my back atrophied. As a result the "Kinetic chain" that connects the load bearing joints on my right side was broken. My right hip rotated outward and my right shoulder began to droop forward.

While all this is terrible for your balance and overall health it made it very easy to get to mission control on my right side particularly since my right knee and hip were already turning out. Obviously though, I had no hubber guardch on my left since I was twisted the other way. A few weeks of incorporating the techniques in this book and I was flippin' back and forth rescue doggin' it like a pro on both sides. a few more months along with stretching and my guard is SOOOOOOO much more dangerous that it used to be.

Not only do I now have many more options and dual-sided FUNCTIONAL flexibility but I KNOW WHY.

Has anyone else heard of or had any experiences with this or similar posture therapy programs? Maybe used them for the relief of chronic pain? I'd be very interested to hear about it.

Side note: what do you hear more than anything else when when you're grappling, particularly when in guard?
POSTURE!!!! Right? Well it's pretty hard to have good posture if you have......bad......posture. lol
Check it out.

Sounds like an awesome way to make yourself unstoppable. Thanks for the info!

If you like the Egoscue stuff then you should check out the Feldenkrais method. It's very good at the sort of stuff you mentioned. It's creator was a Judo master too!

Thanks for recommending this awesome book. I've been reading up on similar ideas on emotions, posture, and body pain this year. So I'll share a few books here.


The first is Emotional Anatomy by Stanley Keleman
It's an illustrated guide to how our emotional state creates our body structure over time. Really fascinating, great illustrations. It's out of print so a little hard to find.

The second is Healing Back Pain by Dr John E. Sarno
It's about how chronic pain, especially lower back pain, fibromyalgia, stomach ulcers etc.. are manifestations of anger and tension.
Here is a quick interview with him from the 1990s.

Another book is Anatomy Trains
This may be more like the book you're talking about. I have not read it but friends have recommended it. I guess it's about myofascial release, massage type stuff. Good for physical therapists. I might read your recommended book before tackling this beast.

Also there is always the Alexander Technique that deals with posture etc... Pretty interesting general understanding of posture if you can resist falling asleep :)

Cheers

It's also good to be skeptical about buying into a "therapy" or "program". There are random therapies like MAT (Muscle Activation Therapy) and a whole host of alternative "therapies" to fix things that might not be wrong with you. That's why I posted the books that address emotions as an alternative to "physical therapy".

do any of these books help with actual back injuries, like herniated discs and such?

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Originally Posted by rock d

Another book is Anatomy Trains
This may be more like the book you're talking about. I have not read it but friends have recommended it. I guess it's about myofascial release, massage type stuff. Good for physical therapists. I might read your recommended book before tackling this beast.

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Anatomy trains really isn't for beginners to Anatomy and it's geared more towards body workers like Massage therapists, Physical therapists, Pilates Yoga teachers + lots of other modalities. If you want something about Myofascial release there are lots more suitible books out there in my opinion. The concept of Myofacial meridians that is talked about in this book is not accepted as being particularly scientific by many in the field.

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Originally Posted by Daniel Valdez

do any of these books help with actual back injuries, like herniated discs and such?

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Daniel, the book Healing Back Pain that I posted a link to addresses herniated discs in detail, as well as "pinched nerves" and any similar causes of pain. His conclusion will surprise you. I think he talks about that in the video I linked to above as well. I can't recommend that book enough.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tension_myositis_syndrome

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Originally Posted by Mike Dewitt Jr

Sounds like an awesome way to make yourself unstoppable.

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This is what I was thinking.

This makes sense. I too had horrible posture all through highschool and college and I would sometimes revert to it while playing video games or working on a computer. When I threw out my back I did my own research and found that my lower back problems, though triggered by jiujitsu, were actually the result of years of misuse, poor posture, and poor core development.

I've drastically corrected my posture, my hamstring flexibility, and my upper bag flexibility and now I'm back at attacking with a stacked rubber guard again but this time without any injury to my lower back.

I'll definitely look into the book.

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Originally Posted by James III

If you like the Egoscue stuff then you should check out the Feldenkrais method. It's very good at the sort of stuff you mentioned. It's creator was a Judo master too!

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NICE! I'm gonna check it out.