Book Review: Pain Free for Women – The Revolutionary Program for Ending Chronic Pain by Pete Egoscue with Roger Gittines
About the Book
Women today not only deserve but should expect a pain-free, active lifestyle, no matter their age, no matter their previous experience.
In his famed San Diego clinic, Pete Egoscue has taught women of all ages and from all walks of life how to use the Egoscue Method for safe, effective, and permanent relief from chronic pain without prescription painkillers, physical therapy, or invasive surgery. Now he shares his specially adapted “Pain Free” program for women to use at home.
Whether you suffer from back or neck pain, joint discomfort or sore knees, or need more stamina, improved balance, and extra strength, here is a revolutionary and proven approach to self-care that promises optimal health through a simple set of exercises that will transform the way you move and feel — forever!
Egoscue shows women how to take back their bodies by recovering and restoring a precious health asset — full, free, flexible motion — that he believes has been drastically reduced by our modern lifestyle.
As Egoscue explains, motion not only develops a woman’s body but also maintains and rejuvenates it. Yet as her motion-deprived muscles disengage and weaken, it is common for a woman’s body to lose alignment, leading to repetitive stress injuries, persistent pain, and general bad health. Even the simplest activities — how she sits, stands, walks, works, lifts, and sleeps — can trigger problems.
Focusing on proper alignment, posture, and muscle engagement, Egoscue provides simple but powerful techniques to restore flexibility and function while at the same time boosting energy, revving up the immune system, even raising the body’s metabolic rate.
The remarkable “E-cises” included within have also been linked to improved ability to fight disease, cope with aging, and recover from accidents and injuries. The “miracle” cure Egoscue offers is, simply, correct motion.
Organized by the seasons of a woman’s life, Pain Free for Women pays particular attention to age-specific concerns such as puberty, childbirth, and menopause, as well as special issues such as arthritis, PMS, and depression.
At the same time, Egoscue shows how women can build a framework of healthy movement that will prevent illness and maintain pain-free good health throughout the journey of life.
According to Egoscue, reversing the effects of poor musculoskeletal fitness provides astonishing benefits, including:
•Better balance, posture, and breathing, as well as increased resiliency
•Effective and safe weight management
•Healthy bone density and visual acuity
•Heightened sex drive
•Delayed symptoms of aging
•Peace of mind and general tranquility
Extensively illustrated to demonstrate proper placement, posture, and movement, Pain Free for Women offers women of every age the possibility of feeling better than ever before.
Women from every walk of life praise the Pain Free advantage:
“Thanks to Pete Egoscue, I’ve been pain free for ten years. But even more important, the Egoscue Method has empowered me with the tools to stay that way! It’s freedom in the truest sense of the word.” — Carol LeBeau, news anchor and health reporter, KGT-TV, San Diego
“I was an eleven-year-old aspiring athlete when I first started working with Pete Egoscue. At eighteen, I made tennis history by winning nine straight matches to become the first woman qualifier to get to the semifinals at Wimbledon, a feat only John McEnroe had performed in men’s tennis. What a season! The Egoscue Method is a gift to women in every season of their lives.” — Alexandra Stevenson, professional tennis player
“Pain Free for Women answers the many questions I have about my health and my children’s well-being. It has encouraged me to trust my instincts as a mom and to take charge of my family’s health.” — Linda Lynch, former professional tennis player and mother of two
“When I first met Pete Egoscue, I had just had my fourth baby by C-section and was in the hospital recovering from emergency back surgery. I was so weak that I would lie on a futon in the family room as my children played around me! At twenty-nine, I didn’t think I would ever be able to play and be active again. Pete and the Egoscue Method showed me how wrong I was! Not only did Pete rehabilitate me and take me out of the severe pain I had dealt with for years, but he also enabled me to enjoy activities I never could in the past, such as riding horses, playing tennis, soccer, and basketball, running, and practicing yoga. I cannot rave enough about the Egoscue Method. Anyone who is in pain can change their life — it has been proven!” — Sonia Jones, former model, and mother of four
“Pete Egoscue changed my life in the most positive ways imaginable. Pain Free for Women is a must read for women of all ages — it’s a brilliant blueprint for enhancing the quality of one’s life.” — Sheila Grant, arts patron, cofounder of a regional ballet in Texas, and civic leader.
About the Author
Pete Egoscue is an anatomical physiologist with more than four decades of experience healing people in pain and removing the emotional limitations that result from it. A former Marine Corps Major who served in Vietnam, Pete has devoted his life to helping others alleviate chronic pain and the physical and psychological suffering it imposes.
The Egoscue Method is based on the fundamental belief that the body is perfect by design and that most pain is the result of imbalances due to overuse or injury. Pete believes the human body has amazing regenerative power and can heal itself if postural alignment is restored.
Over the years, Pete developed hundreds of gentle exercises that—when done with proper form in the right sequence—can restore posture, eliminate chronic pain, and increase functional mobility.
Pete Egoscue has discussed his method in great detail in his books such as Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain, The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion, Pain Free Living, Pain Free for Women, and Pain Free at Your PC.
The Egoscue Method was created by Pete Egoscue through his efforts to find solutions for his own chronic pain. His story is familiar to anyone who has suffered without being able to find relief, and the solutions he discovered on his journey can help you be pain-free for life and live the life you want!
More than four decades ago, Pete Egoscue returned from Vietnam with a Purple Heart and ongoing nerve pain due to wounds suffered in battle. Like many of us, Pete was conditioned to rely on medical experts, but they focused on his symptoms and were unable to help him. So Pete began his search for a way to live pain-free, finding the true cause of his symptoms—his posture and balance. (Source: Egoscue Site)
Book Review
As a Hashimoto patient since 2014, I have dealt with chronic pain on and off. Needless to add I have also tried more or less every possible alternate therapy to get rid of it. Bath salts, aromatherapy, massages, hot water bags, cold compressors, physiotherapy, etc. They all provided relief, albeit temporarily. Last year around the same time I found this book and have been practicing the exercises mentioned there almost every day since then. In simpler words, this book has changed my perspective on chronic pain.
It is only when I looked him up in Google did I realize how famous his technique is (Egoscue technique) and how people actually vouch for him across the world. Till then it was just another attempt at trying to find a solution for my chronic pain.
From a pain-sufferer who felt this pain was beyond my control, I now know it is in my control and I can do something about it. It is a slow process but one that has long-term results.
I have always been wary of books that give too much gyaan without much action or results to show. This is where this book earns brownie points. The language used is extremely simple and to the point. He does not make it too complicated and to add to it, the pictures are depicted as so clear and easy to follow. The best thing is, he has dealt with women across age groups (including babies and toddlers) highlighting various issues which could lead to chronic pain and what kind of exercises should be done keeping in mind both, the age and the condition.
One of the most beautiful aspects of this book was the fact that it addresses how women are different, by nature in terms of body parts and the body cycle they go through in their lives which includes menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, etc. And that emotions play a huge role in our ailments. This book felt like a long-lost friend who understood my pain and wanted to help me work on it. It never felt like a generalized statement applicable to one and all pain sufferers.
These exercises helped me in my muscle degeneration, and stamina building and also increased my capacity to walk as before I was barely able to walk around the house.
Though I know there is still a long way to go, my complete healing or freedom from this pain might just be another pipe dream but the fact that there is a beginning somewhere helps me stay hopeful and keep working on this every single day.
If you are someone who is keen on knowing more about this you can check on their website on How to Get Started?
I would recommend this book to all chronic pain sufferers, this book doesn’t promise to be the ultimate solution to a pain-free life but it surely promises to be that friend you need at every step as you chase your goal of a pain-free life.