It would be another seven years before he got his first clients, and another 11 before he opened his first clinic in San Diego. Today, he has 30 clinics across the world, millions of clients (including an impressive roster of professional athletes) functioning pain-free, and six best-selling books to his credit, with a seventh due out this week, a revised and updated version of his first, Pain Free.

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But it was 50 years ago that he figured out why, despite a year of medical treatment for wounds incurred in Vietnam, he was still in pain and, with that knowledge, began developing the Egoscue Method by which he has helped so many, including himself, become pain-free.

As he writes in this latest book, indeed in all of his books, “Humans are designed as symmetrical bipeds.” Which means we should be symmetrical from side to side, that is, one shoulder or hip should not be higher than the other. We should also be aligned vertically, which is to say that in profile, there should be a straight line from our ears to our ankle bones that runs through the center of our shoulders, hips, and knees.

That is not the case with most of us, and it wasn’t the case with Egoscue 50 years ago. We have eight load-bearing joints—shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles—and he realized that when one of those joints is out of position, some other part of the body has to compensate to enable us to function, which led him to a major discovery that too many medical professionals today still ignore: The source of the pain is rarely the source of the problem.

Related: The At-Home Workout That Will Help You Live Pain-Free

For an event like a car accident or broken bone, yes, the source and site of the pain are the same, but for the chronic musculoskeletal pain that more than 50 percent of all Americans suffer from, the source and site are different and are the result of one part of the body compensating for what another part can no longer do. For instance, if you have back pain, it’s probably because your hip is out of alignment. And yet, most remedies for back pain treat the back, perhaps alleviating the symptom of pain but never addressing the actual source, and therefore never fixing the original problem.

That’s what Egoscue spent years figuring out how exactly to do. Knowing that “bones do what muscles tell them to do,” he experimented with an array of stretches and exercises designed to get our muscles to move our joints back into their proper position. Egoscue had learned that when our hips are where they’re supposed to be, our back stops hurting. Or when our ankles are functioning the way they’re designed to, our knees stop hurting. Or when our shoulder can move as it was intended, we no longer get tennis elbow or carpal tunnel syndrome. It took time for him to learn how muscles move joints, but eventually he learned enough to develop the Egoscue Method, his revolutionary program to return our postures to their original design and thereby relieve ourselves of chronic pain.

Egoscue explores all of this anatomical and physiological information in his expansive new Pain Free, the revised and updated edition of his 1999 best-seller. The book is written in such engagingly accessible prose that one needn’t be a PhD in either field to readily grasp what he’s saying. But much of this information has been available since he wrote his first book decades ago. Why the revision?

“When I wrote my other six books,” he says, “we had a stronger tradition of self-reliance in our country. But we’ve lost a lot of that. We’re more isolated as individuals now than we’ve ever been before, and since the advent of social media, we’ve become more reliant upon the opinion of others in everything, including our pain. We’ve succumbed to this idea that somebody else knows more about our bodies than we do. That’s just not true. But we have to convince people now in ways we’ve never had to before that they really do have the capacity to relieve themselves of their pain.”

That gentle convincing explains, in part, the warmer tone in this updated version: less clinical, more consoling and encouraging.

But he also wrote this revision because, as a society, we are in a different place than we were when he first devised the Egoscue Method—and that place isn’t good. “Many Americans now are physically weak, and by weak, I mean they have lost the ability to remain upright,” Egoscue says. “It’s astonishing to me how many people cannot stand on one foot and, sadly, don’t even know they’re supposed to be able to. We have lost postural stability. Forty years ago, we could treat clients by focusing on strength because they were still stable. Now, we have to stabilize them first before we can strengthen them.” The culprit here is our sedentary lives.

Related: The Simplest Change You Can Make for Better Health

As Egoscue points out in the book, “In the 1920s, manual workers outnumbered knowledge workers by a ratio of 2:1. By 1980, that ratio was reversed.” All that sitting impacts our postures and leads to pain.

“Evolution didn’t stop once we got upright,” Egoscue explains. “It continues, and our evolving, or de-evolving, depends upon the stimulus of our environment.” Right now, for too many, that stimulus doesn’t involve movement. Sadly, that affects more than just our bodies, a mind-body relationship that Egoscue also explores in this book. “We know that exercise improves our endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health,” he writes, “but movement is also directly connected to feelings of hope, happiness, connection, and confidence.”

The book also contains testimonials from beneficiaries of the Egoscue Method, some famous, some not, including a wonderful foreword from NFL Hall-of-Famer John Lynch, who gives a share of the credit for his success to Egoscue. “Quite simply,” Lynch writes, “Egoscue is the most brilliant person I have ever encountered when it comes to the human body and unleashing its vast potential.” When Lynch was hired as general manager for the San Francisco 49ers, he immediately incorporated the Egoscue Method into the team’s fitness regimen.

And of course, the book incorporates menus of E-cises (Egoscue exercises) to address the issues in your feet, ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders that are causing pain elsewhere in your body or reducing its ability to function at its full potential. The menus come with pictures and detailed explanations to make sure you’re doing the E-cises correctly.

Egoscue is notoriously reluctant to discuss himself, but when asked to reflect on his accomplishments these past 50 years, he said that his favorite fact is that he’s created competition. “You can imagine the ridicule and scorn I endured when I started talking about posture as a source of most of our pain. But now that thinking permeates the healthcare world, and we have competitors, and I think that’s wonderful. We’re figuring it all out together, and in the end, that can only benefit us all.”

True enough. But it all started with Egoscue 50 years ago, and this newest edition of Pain Free (available on Amazon) is the ideal commemoration of how far we’ve come in our understanding of the relationship between our posture and our pain.

The post Pain-Free Reading: The (Updated) New Book from Pete Egoscue! appeared first on Sonima.

Pete Egoscue, alignment expert and author of the Pain Free book series, reveals several 60-second workouts that can be done anywhere and with minimal equipment required. From “rope abs” to “flutter kicks,” these moves are a great way to get a total-body workout and maintain your fitness. “The more in a workout you can engage your entire body, the more stability and strength you will have, the more effective the exercise becomes,” says Egoscue. These creative and simple workouts may only be a minute long, but there’s no doubt they will make you break a sweat!

The post The 60-Second Cardio Workout appeared first on Sonima.

What Causes Vertigo?

Sometimes, vertigo is disease or illness-based, the result of a virus or a tumor, but doctors can quickly determine those cases. Most often vertigo is idiopathic, which is a medical term meaning no known cause or origin. In my experience, though, I’ve found most of those idiopathic versions of vertigo actually have a very specific cause—the position of the head. In other words, vertigo is usually about posture.

Related: How Your Feet Reveal Why You’re in Pain

Humans are gravity machines; like the entire operating system of our universe, we rely on gravity to function, and because the body knows just how important our relation to gravity is, it offers redundant systems to make sure we have an accurate reading on our gravity field, i.e., the ground.

One of those systems is something called proprioception, which is defined as, “The unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself.” In other words, your body knows where it is because it just does, and it’s constantly, instinctively, letting your brain know where the body is in relation to the ground. You have an inner sense of the ground on which you walk, and that’s why you don’t have to watch the ground when you walk.

Another system to modulate our relationship to the ground is the semicircular canals, which are three interconnected tubes in the deepest recesses of the inner ear. (Many of you probably remember this from high school biology). Those canals are filled with a fluid called endolymph, and that fluid flows freely when we are in proper relation to our field of gravity, thereby enabling us to function without losing our balance or getting dizzy. The final system is good old-fashioned eyesight. You can see the ground, and that helps you keep your balance. It’s much harder to walk with your eyes closed, and not simply because you’re worried about running into something.

Still, even with those redundant systems, many of us encounter vertigo, and that’s because of the position of our heads. When the body is properly aligned, the load-bearing joints of the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles are perfectly balanced from side to side and rest directly on top of each other; that enables the spine to maintain its designed “S” shape which in turn enables the head to rest directly on top of that spine, level so that the ears are directly perpendicular to the ground. When one of those joints deviates from its designed position, which is common in our sedentary lives, the body begins to compensate, usually resulting in a spine that morphs from an “S” to a “C” and a head that loses its proper relationship to its field of gravity—those ears are now angled.

When a head is out of balance, either leaning to one side or jutting forward, the systems designed to maintain balance start having an argument; the proprioception instinctively knows where the body and the ground are so conveys the right message to the brain; the eyes can always see where the ground is so confirm the message that proprioception sent. But those inner ears cannot see; they can only register the field of gravity by the position of the head, so when that head is out of position, it sends a message to the brain that is completely at odds with the message the other two systems sent. Enter vertigo.

The body adjusts, though, which is yet another example of how amazing the human form is. It almost always adjusts to a new positioning of the head, which is why, untreated, vertigo often disappears on its own within a day or two. But the head’s position will only continue to get worse, triggering new bouts of vertigo in the future. What’s more, for some people, their head has been out of position for so long that that fluid in the inner ear thickens and even develops microscopic calcifications that affix to the cilia of the inner ear, and that’s what contributes to those long-term bouts of vertigo that can last weeks and even years.

The solution is to return the head to its proper position. I’ve included a brief menu of Egoscue-cises (e-cises) to begin the process of repositioning the head, and they are good for short-term relief from the dizziness that comes with a fresh bout of vertigo. But for long-term relief, you need to realign your entire body and return it to its designed position so that both ears are perfectly perpendicular to the ground, the head is directly over the shoulders, and the spine is that letter “S.”

4 Posture Exercises to Cure Vertigo

Sitting Knee Pillow Squeezes, 3 sets, 20 reps

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Shoulder Rolls, 3 sets, 10 reps each direction

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Known as the Father of Postural Therapy, Pete Egoscue has helped relieve thousands of people from their chronic pain, including many of the world’s leading athletes. For more information on Pete and any of his 25 clinics worldwide, go to egoscue.com.

The post What Causes Vertigo? How Posture Plays a Role appeared first on Sonima.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not dazzled by human ingenuity and what we accomplish because of our inquisitive minds. It’s those traits that lead to our incessant innovations, but in the medical field, it’s those innovations that have, in part, led us to where we are performing these useless surgeries. With cat scans and MRIs and other tools, we are able to see things we’d not been able to see before. We can see the herniated disc, the torn meniscus, the damaged vertebra. But the ability to see on such a microscopic level has led to a myopia in which we do not look past that source of pain. As a result, we treat that source of pain, but barring recent trauma, such as an accident, the source of the pain is never the source of the problem. And the latest research continues to pile on in confirmation.

Related: A Simple Daily Routine to Eliminate Knee Pain

Let me be clear: the problem is not the surgeons. They are doing a great job. With each surgery, they are doing exactly what they intend to do, and they are doing so with a rare and incredible skill. The problem is the surgeries themselves, which should never be performed. If the lower spine is damaged, it’s not because of dysfunction on the part of the lower spine. It’s because of a misaligned body that has adjusted the form and function of the spine, putting more demand on the lower spine than it was designed to withstand. Similarly, if a meniscus is torn, it’s not because the knee is malfunctioning. It’s because there is an imbalance elsewhere in the body that has led to a series of anatomical compromises that have put too much stress on the knee.

Again, when we see a symptom such as a ruptured disc, we’ve stopped asking why and are simply assuming the source and the cause of the pain are the same, which is why 99% of all tears or ruptures or similar maladies in our body are labeled idiopathic, which means no known cause. You will hear causes thrown rather casually about—it’s genetic, it’s aging, etc., but those are never said definitively or with conviction, and further investigation usually reduces them to the hollow explanations they are. One of my own favorites is that the pounding of jogging is causing that problem in the left knee. If that were true, why is it not causing the same problem in the right knee, which is running just as much as the left?

The Alternative to Surgery Most People Ignore

The body is an amazing machine. At the cellular level, it is in a constant state of birth, death, and renewal. Discs are alive. Cartilage is alive. We have lost our understanding of what a magnificent regenerative machine the body is, and if our meniscus or discs aren’t regenerating as they should, it’s not because they don’t want to, it’s because they can’t. In my experience, I have found they can’t because our body is out of balance, out of alignment, and when we restore our entire bodies to their proper alignment, those issues in the knees and lower back and everywhere else resolve themselves, making unnecessary any of those surgeries, which studies are confirming are useless anyway.

Related: Watch One Man’s Journey to Becoming Pain Free

Known as the Father of Postural Therapy, Pete Egoscue has helped relieve thousands of people from their chronic pain, including many of the world’s leading athletes. For more information on Pete and any of his 25 clinics worldwide, go to egoscue.com.

The post Why Are “Useless” Surgeries Still So Prevalent? appeared first on Sonima.

By the third trimester of pregnancy, typically the stomach will be quite large, and the sickness of first trimester feels like a distant memory. The goal of all activity in this trimester is to prepare the body for an easy and uneventful delivery. In this video, follow along as alignment expert Pete Egoscue walks you through a very simple yet highly effective workout, that is both low-impact and restorative. The activation of the inner thighs, the contraction of the gluteal and scapular muscles, along with the articulation of the spine, will help with posture, easeful sleep, and a strong, healthy body for the delivery process.

Related: A Pregnancy Workout for the Second Trimester

Photo by Lacy Kiernan

The post A Strength-Building Workout for the Third Trimester appeared first on Sonima.

For many of us, our imbalances elude us. We think we’re healthy, we think we’re aligned, but in fact, everything we do, all day, every day, contributes to our habitual patterns, which in turn affect our state of balance. So, for most of us, we’re perpetuating our misalignments simply by walking down the street. The way we walk, sit, and stand—key elements of daily life—can either hinder us or help us. When we learn to release tension, and distribute weight evenly in our feet and across sides, we are closer to finding center. As such, our walking, standing, and sitting can just as easily be our medicine as our poison.

This 20-minute cool-down, designed by alignment expert Pete Egoscue, will put your body in a neutral position by targeting common areas of weakness and tightness that lead to asymmetrical movement. Spending just a few minutes soothing tension in key areas such as the shoulders, neck, back and hips will allow the healing properties of walking to solidify their effects on the body. For best results, try this 15-minute warm-up sequence before you walk or exercise.

Related: An Alignment Sequence for Before and After Yoga

Follow along in the video above or download a PDF of these exercises below so you do this routine anywhere you go.

An Alignment Cool-DownFor After Walking

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Photo by Hailey Wist

The post A Restorative Cool-Down for After Walking appeared first on Sonima.

When you engage in any form of exercise you want your body to be as balanced as possible. When your body is in balance it can move evenly and symmetrically. Symmetrical movement ensures that your weight is distributed evenly and makes it less likely that you’ll become injured or plagued by pain. Balanced movement also makes you more efficient when you walk, meaning your energy is used optimally to get you from point A to point B, and you’ll reap the most physical benefits from your efforts.

While you may think your body is already in balance, the truth is that anyone who spends most of their time sitting at a desk or in a car is going to have some physical imbalances. This 15-minute warm-up is designed to put your body in a neutral position by targeting common areas of weakness and tightness that lead to asymmetrical movement. Spending just a few minutes creating openness and mobility in key areas such as the ankles, feet, and hips will allow you to make the most of your walk and enjoy yourself even more while you’re out there.

Related: An Alignment Sequence for Before and After Yoga

Follow along in the video above or download a PDF of these exercises below, with step-by-step directions so you do this routine anywhere you go.

An Active Alignment Warm-Upfor Before Walking

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The post A Full-Body Warm-Up for Before Walking appeared first on Sonima.

As your little one continues to grow, it’s important for you to stay active and healthy in preparation for childbirth. “The pelvis has to open up and extend itself so that the baby can turn head down and get into the birthing canal,” says alignment expert Pete Egoscue, the founder of the Egoscue Method and world leader in non-medical pain relief. “Change in the structure of the body is necessary to give the baby room to grow and get themselves in position for birth.”

Fitness during pregnancy has many additional perks, including improving mood and energy levels, preventing excess weight gain, and decreasing the risk gestational diabetes, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Working out regularly may help you sleep better, too, reports a 2013 study published in The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association. Added bonus: A new animal study published in The FASEB Journal in March suggests that babies born to fit mommies may be more inclined to be physically active as adults compared to those who have sedentary parents.

Follow this simple 30-minute exercise program designed by Egoscue to reap these benefits while getting ready for the special delivery that’s well on its way.

Related: How to Approach Yoga During Your Pregnancy

The post A Pregnancy Workout for the Second Trimester appeared first on Sonima.

Anyone who drives several hours a day knows what all that time in the car does to the body. Nothing about driving promotes balance—your left foot is doing one thing, right’s doing another, you’re stuck sitting in a fixed position, and you may be stressed out from dealing with traffic. When your body is in balance, you’ll find that you’re more alert, responsive, relaxed, and better able to react in stressful situations. This sequence is designed to improve alignment before or after hours spent in the car.

The simple movements demonstrated in the video above, such as pillow squeezes, shoulder rolls, elbow curls, forward bend, arm circles, spinal twists, cats and dogs, and air bench, gently release tension in the body and improve posture. These exercises for drivers help open up the shoulders and hips and stretch the back, hamstrings, and upper body. Take 12 minutes before your next drive to do these posture exercises so you can retain a sense of balance while on the road and avoid pain after spending time spent driving.

The post A Body-Balancing Exercise Routine for Drivers appeared first on Sonima.

Baseball pitchers, football linemen, and swimmers know firsthand the importance of healthy shoulders. If any of the small muscles that work together to keep the joint in place and protected get hurt or misaligned, they could end up with a sidelining injury. Shoulder pain is less threatening to non-athletes, but can still throw off one’s day-to-day, especially if range of motion has been compromised. Suddenly, reaching for an item on the top shelf, putting on your jacket or picking up your toddler sends a wincing pinch to the area. This could be a sign that your rotator cuff, which consists of four muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis), might be out of whack.

To ease shoulder pain as well as reduce future aches, try this strengthening sequence from Sonima.com’s alignment expert Pete Egoscue, the creator of the Egoscue Method for pain-free living. Start with a static extension stretch to reposition your shoulder blades. From there, perform hand and leg lifts with a synchronized motion to help restore the body’s natural balance and range of motion. Ease into a counter stretch position and hang. Reset your spine with cats and dogs before continuing onto a series of arm circles. Next, perform a sitting floor twist on each side to remind your body how to rebalance itself. Lastly, complete three sets of hero squats , which are great for both your shoulders and (added bonus!) your abs.

Related: A Bridge Sequence to Open the Shoulders

The post An Active Alignment Sequence for Misaligned Shoulders appeared first on Sonima.

Eating out most, if not all, meals is one of the lures of travel whether you’re roaming the planet for business or pleasure. A 2012 survey from TripAdvisor of more than 1,400 U.S. travelers found that 65 percent were more likely to overindulge in food while on vacation, and another 49 percent are likely to binge-drink. Nearly a third claimed to always or often pack on pounds during a trip. Here’s where frequent fliers may have a leg-up on vacationers. Having most likely learned the hard way, they know how crucial is is to do some exercise while on the road to burn off extra calories before they end up with excess baggage (not kind that fits in the overhead bin).

Next time you’re away, try to sneak in a quick workout each morning or evening when you’re winding down from a long day. This is especially important if you’re enjoying feasts daily and not doing any form of activity, like hiking, biking, swimming, etc. Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be an intense sweat-fest. This 20-minute workout video designed by Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s alignment expert and author of multiple books including Pain Free, features a series of easy and effective exercises you can do right in your hotel room—no gym equipment, workout clothes, or sneakers needed.

Related: Simple Airplane Stretches for a Long Flight

The post 20-Minute Hotel Room Workout for Busy Travelers appeared first on Sonima.

Severe or chronic pain affects nearly 50 million American adults, reports a new study prepared by National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which was published in The Journal of Pain last summer. About half of these people are suffering from chronic pain every single day. Steven, the subject of Sonima.com’s new video series called “Becoming Pain Free,” is one of them.

The 34-year-old independent filmmaker and photographer, who just moved to Los Angeles with his wife, Melanie, and 5-year-old son, Victor, has been battling consistent joint pain in his legs, wrists, and lower back—a byproduct of his profession that requires holding heavy camera equipment for hours—for about nine years. It’s common for Steven to wake up with numb arms and feet and unable to walk. When doctors couldn’t help him address the pain, he turned to Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s pain and anatomy advisor, author of multiple books including Pain Free, and creator of the Egoscue Method, an exercise therapy program—taught at more than 25 clinics worldwide—aimed at healing chronic pain without prescription painkillers or invasive surgery.

In episode eight of the series, Steven brings his family to Del Mar for his final visit to the Egoscue Clinic. In a before-and-after photo comparison, Steven’s progress is obvious to Victor, who points out the noticeable difference in his posture. Melanie, attests to changes in Steven’s energy level and overall well-being. After reviewing this progress together, Brian introduces Steven and his family to the “function run,” a slow-paced conditioning exercise designed to engage the hips and lower body and support better posture and mobility. This simple exercise will be key to Steven’s maintenance program now the the eight-week-program is complete, and it’s also something that the whole family can do together. Watch the video above to learn more about Steven’s transformation, and how this journey has affected him and his family.

Missed the earlier episodes of “Becoming Pain Free”? Watch them here:

• Episode 1: Taking the First Steps Toward Pain-Free Living
• Episode 2: The Surprising Factors That Contribute to Chronic Pain
• Episode 3: Continuing the Journey to Pain-Free Living
• Episode 4: See the Amazing Role That Posture Plays in Pain Relief
• Episode 5: Why Proper Alignment Is Crucial for Pain Relief
• Episode 6: How the “Patch” Workout Aids in Pain Relief
• Episode 7: The Power of Your Mindset in Healing Chronic Pain

The post “I Healed My Chronic Pain Naturally in 8 Weeks” appeared first on Sonima.

It’s odd to consider, but the area where your body hurts may not always be the source of your discomfort. If the hipbone is slightly titled out of position, for example, the misalignment may offset your skeletal structure, which stacks up like Jenga pieces, resulting in pain elsewhere, like your knees. This may explain how your knees can be totally healthy and feel super achy at the same time.

There are a number of ways hip pain can develop, including an injury from high-impact sports such as downhill skiing, football, and martial arts, or from repetitive wear-and-tear motions in activities like soccer and golf, according to the Hospital for Special Surgery. While a 9-to-5 desk job does not create hip pain, sitting for prolonged periods may also exacerbate symptoms.

Correct your pelvic girdle (which consists of both hipbones) and prevent or reduce aches with this balance-promoting sequence from Sonima’s alignment expert Pete Egoscue, the creator of the Egoscue Method for pain-free living and co-founder of the new home workout program Elev8d Fitness.

Start with elbow curls to let your shoulder girdle run through its natural range of motion, allowing the body to keep your head properly aligned over the top of the shoulders. From there, perform a series of cross crawling movements on the ground. This basic anatomical movement looks easy, but it can be challenging as well as rewarding. You may instantly feel taller, lighter, and better balanced after these.

While on the ground, place a pillow or block between your knees and squeeze to recruit the inner leg muscles to reposition both the legs and the pelvic girdle. Follow up with knee drops to get the pelvis and femur (top of the leg) to synchronize their movements. Next, do a minute of hip crossover stretching to loosen your pelvic girdle. Reset your spine with cats and dogs, then lie down on your stomach for hand/leg opposite lifts and supermans. Wrap up the workout with toe raises to fire up the muscles in the arches of your feet to support your balance.

If you like this workout, you’ll love Sonima’s Elev8d Fitness workout program. Each workout is designed to properly align the body and teach your muscles to work together more efficiently, boosting your energy, metabolic rate, and health. Try these fun, effective workouts:

16-Minute Challenge Series

The Ultimate At-Home Total-Body Program

Flat Belly Workout Program

Elev8d Weight-Loss Workout Series

Move Better, Feel Better, and Look Better With These Workouts

8-Minute Strength Series

The post An Active Alignment Sequence for a Misaligned Hip appeared first on Sonima.

Severe or chronic pain affects nearly 50 million American adults, reports a new study prepared by National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which was published in The Journal of Pain last summer. About half of these people are suffering from chronic pain every single day. Steven, the subject of Sonima.com’s new video series called “Becoming Pain Free,” is one of them.

The 34-year-old independent filmmaker and photographer, who just moved to Los Angeles with his wife, Melanie, and 5-year-old son, Victor, has been battling consistent joint pain in his legs, wrists, and lower back—a byproduct of his profession that requires holding heavy camera equipment for hours—for about nine years. It’s common for Steven to wake up with numb arms and feet and unable to walk. When doctors couldn’t help him address the pain, he turned to Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s pain and anatomy advisor, author of multiple books including Pain Free, and creator of the Egoscue Method, an exercise therapy program—taught at more than 25 clinics worldwide—aimed at healing chronic pain without prescription painkillers or invasive surgery.

In episode seven of this video series, Steven travels to Florida to meet with Pete Egoscue, founder of the Egoscue Method, and together they discuss some of the psychological underpinnings of why so many people remain in chronic pain for years. By empowering the individual to examine and correct the source of pain, the Egoscue Method makes it possible for people to live their lives free of limitations they once considered inevitable outcomes of their physical makeup or lifestyle.

After meeting with Egoscue, Steven returns to Los Angeles to meet with his Egoscue specialist, Brian. This week they focus on relieving symptoms Steven is experiencing in his arm and wrist after moving a large tree in his house. The exercises, combined with Steven’s new perspective on pain, allow him to make more progress on his journey. As Brian says, the exercises are important, but once you change the belief system it’s an easy transformation from there.

Missed the first episodes of “Becoming Pain Free”? Watch them here:

• Episode 1: Taking the First Steps Toward Pain-Free Living
• Episode 2: The Surprising Factors That Contribute to Chronic Pain
• Episode 3: Continuing the Journey to Pain-Free Living
• Episode 4: See the Amazing Role That Posture Plays in Pain Relief
• Episode 5: Why Proper Alignment Is Crucial for Pain Relief
• Episode 6: How the “Patch” Workout Aids in Pain Relief

The post The Power of Your Mindset in Healing Chronic Pain appeared first on Sonima.

Severe or chronic pain affects nearly 50 million American adults, reports a new study prepared by National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which was published in The Journal of Pain last summer. About half of these people are suffering from chronic pain every single day. Steven, the subject of Sonima.com’s new video series called “Becoming Pain Free,” is one of them.

The 34-year-old independent filmmaker and photographer, who just moved to Los Angeles with his wife, Melanie, and 5-year-old son, Victor, has been battling consistent joint pain in his legs, wrists, and lower back—a byproduct of his profession that requires holding heavy camera equipment for hours—for about nine years. It’s common for Steven to wake up with numb arms and feet and unable to walk. When doctors couldn’t help him address the pain, he turned to Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s pain and anatomy advisor, author of multiple books including Pain Free, and creator of the Egoscue Method, an exercise therapy program—taught at more than 25 clinics worldwide—designed to treat chronic pain without prescription painkillers or invasive surgery.

In episode six of this video series, Steven is introduced to the Egoscue “Patch” workouts, which leverage specially designed equipment to create an obstacle course of sorts. Because of the apparatus’ uneven structure, seemingly simple maneuvers over, under, and around the patch challenge the body in unique ways to help build strength, agility, and better posture. Watch as Steven attempts a patch workout for the first time and hear how it affects his body.

Missed the first episodes of “Becoming Pain Free”? Watch them here:

• Episode 1: Taking the First Steps Toward Pain-Free Living
• Episode 2: The Surprising Factors That Contribute to Chronic Pain
• Episode 3: Continuing the Journey to Pain-Free Living
• Episode 4: See the Amazing Role That Posture Plays in Pain Relief
• Episode 5: Why Proper Alignment Is Crucial for Pain Relief

The post How the “Patch” Workout Aids in Pain Relief appeared first on Sonima.