Too bad my mother didn't know about this 25 years ago

I saw this today about scoliosis and egoscue. When I was 15 and had an S curve rapidly increasing in my spine, my mother took me to three doctors for three opinions. They all said surgery and Harrington rod, which is what happened. Too bad we didn't know about this 25 years ago:

http://egoscueportland.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/scoliosis/

2nd day on the Tower

This am I did it again. Top three levels for right leg, five minutes each level. Then repeated on left leg. I felt nothing in back area. I did feel it in my hyper-extended knees. I have to gingerly bend my knee out of a level when time is up. When standing, it takes a couple of seconds before knees feel normal again. BUT, I did ten jump squats afterwards, and I think my knees cracked less! We will see. Also it seemed like my left foot was not acting its usual everted way as I walked around the living room.

Good thing I asked my husband to take this photo b/c I was able to see that I needed to turn my left foot in more, which is easy to do in that easy chair.

So, once again, my routine this morning was:

Static Back - 5 minutes
The Tower - 30 minutes total
Air Bench - 2 minutes

The Tower

It's been sitting, assembled, in my living room for weeks. I finally did the exercise this morning for the first time. I played this video while I lay there. I did five minutes on each of the top three levels on the right leg, then the same for the left. Good thing I was listening to the video as I lay there because my knee felt hyper-extended, and that was addressed by the therapist. He said that the tower doesn't feel great for people with knee issues while they're in the exercise (and I don't have pain there, but I do have very creaky knees as we all know) but afterwards you feel good.

I didn't notice much in my back. Then again my back doesn't arch at all because of my spinal rod. I really just felt the hyperextension of the knees. Also my foot was turned out a bit but I couldn't manage to pull it back in. I'll take a picture next time.

A half-hour for this exercise is pretty good! I'll work up to the hour. I also did Static Back for five minutes before the Tower, and I did Air Bench for two minutes after that. Of course, my body felt better after doing these three ecises than it did before. Then I did ten jump thrusts. My knees didn't creak for the second half of those. I believe that I need to strengthen my muscles (in addition to egoscue) in order for the creakiness to fade. Sitting at my desk all day doesn't really strengthten muscles. Just so you know.

On to "The Tower"!

I had stopped doing my egoscue exercises for weeks. Then started again with the Pain Free book ecises for foot pain. Which was great because it only took 12 or so minutes. Then when my heel pain lessened I started doing the ecises for the allover body conditioning. Which was also great because it too only took me 12 minutes. I have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the egsocue ecises make my body feel significantly better.

Then why oh why do I not stick with the program?? We all lead busy lives and so many of the things to do each day are priorities - I guess my pain/discomfort is not now great enough to make me do the exercises. But I do fully intend to start them up again. Actually I still do two ecises a night - the static back, which I love, and the heel/toe flexes. I do those every night before I get into bed. Two I can handle.

Nicole from Egoscue Santa Monica called today to ask how it was going. I told her the above. She said do what you can, two ecises are better than none, and if I'd like them to shorten a menu somehow I should call. I do plan to do this at some point. She also told me about "The Tower" and how fantastic an ecise it is. If she doesn't do it regularly she will feel it. I googled it and see that it is an improvement upon the older ecise, called Supine Groin something I think, in Pain Free. I also see that you can buy the Tower for $130.

So I just now called Nicole, to ask if she thought I should buy this thing. She said absolutely. It's very recommended in fact for people with scoliosis. She said try to do it for an hour (!!! I guess I will use the time for meditating! or hgtv) 3-4 times a week. Do static back first, then the Tower, then the Wall ecise (I forget the name!).

Jeez, an hour. I'm sure it will be worth it though. Nicole said to be prepared for possible burning and discomfort etc as the back learns to let go and flatten. Oh and even more exciting, I can buy a timer to count down my ecise moments. Which is something that will be quite handy and helpful!

Heel Pain Has Subsided Again!

For the last three days I've been doing those four ecises for foot pain AND my heel pain is definitely much better. Egoscue does work. Doing only four ecises feels much more manageable to me. There's just something about a 40 minute routine (needing to be done every day) that is just so off-putting! Even if it does make you feel so much better afterwards! Isn't it crazy? Anyway I will continue these four Foot ecises til, just like he says in the book, the heel pain goes away for 24 hours. Then will do them for a week longer. Then switch to the body routine. Does anyone think that's a good idea? Thanks.

I'm Back

Okay I'm back on the egoscue, as of last night before I went to bed. The whole day yesterday I had heel pain in my right heel. Not excruciating, but not fun. I find myself compensating by shifting weight to my left foot. Not an ideal situation. I haven't done any ecises in three weeks. But last night I picked up my copy of Pain Free and read the section about feet. And then proceeded to do the four ecises:

Foot Circles and Point Flexes
Supine Calf/Hamstring Stretch
Static Extension
Air Bench

and lo and behold my heel pain was gone for those last five minutes before bed. And still absent this morning. But is with me a bit right now in the late afternoon. The book says to do these four ecises until the pain is gone for 24 hours. Then continue for one week before switching to the overall conditioning program in Chapter 13. Which I might do. Or I might call Paul again and pay another $200 for the next five skype sessions/menus with him. But for now, definitely, I will do these foot ecises each day. Just fifteen minutes and my body feels better after doing them!

The book makes a lot of sense - I'm surprised the therapy is not more well-known.

On again off again

Sorry to say this but I've slipped again. I'm not about to quit the blog, however, I hope to get back on the ecises soon. I wonder why it's so tough to keep on it!

Running and Egoscue

I don't know about other people, but it's tough for me to do Egoscue every day. I'm travelling, or I feel unenergetic, or I have too many other priority things to accomplish that day, yadda yadda. But I did do my fifth menu tonight, and this is my third day in a row back to being in the swing of Egoscue.

Supine Foot Circles & Point/Flexes - I can still only do 30. Ankles get so tired during the flexes that I have to stop at about 20 or so.

Hand-Leg Opposite Glides - takes some major coordination. Feel like I did when I learned how to play a drumset, with each limb doing something different.

Airbench - 2 minutes of it is manageable, a far cry from when I first started doing it, when I could only do 30 seconds.

I'm rereading the book about Blood Type diets and the part about exercise really got my attention this time. So much so that five days ago, in the hotel at 10pm, I ran on the treadmill in the tiny gym. Ran/walk for 30 minutes listening to music. And it was fantastic. Have run three times since and I am so happy to be back. Intense exercise makes me happy, that's all there is to it. And I have a strong suspicion that exercise like this will decrease my creaks. That's what it feels like so far anyway.

Of course my next question would be: is running too harsh on the body or not? Would love to hear people's opinions on this.

Skipped three days but now am back

I hurt my lower back playing bball three days ago, so I had to skip the last three days of egoscue. But tonight I started back on it and all is well. Just couldn't do Hand-Leg Opposite Lifts.

I'm still quite glad to be back on egoscue. My creaking seemed to increase during those three days, no kidding!

Ankle Cracks and More

Today made three days of Egoscue in a row after taking a month's vacation from it. The first two days I did Menu 5, and today I did Menu 4. I think they both take me about 35 minutes, which is a good length for me. I also jumped on the tramp and of course did my five shoulder-cracking pushups a few times today. You'll be happy to learn that I can do these five pushups a bit faster now than I could four days ago. I only go down halfway (if I touched my nose to the ground I would not be able to pull myself up) but hey it's better than not doing five halfway pushups at all. No motion every day = dysfunction and death.

Another goal I have is to get up off the floor from a cross-legged position with flair and abandon, unlike I do now (I look like a sedentary old person using her hands and elbows and all her might to push herself on her legs to stand up. Okay not that bad but close.)

The video below is my left ankle. It only cracks a little here but I took what I could get for this video. Do you like how I cut off the top of my foot? I hope in a few months from now I can show you a quiet Supine Foot Circle and Point/Flex. I bet I can.

My body feels good after doing my ecises and I am glad to be back on them. I know they are helping me.

I Started Up Again!

I am very very glad that tonight I started Egoscue back up again after not doing it for a month. I could tell a positive difference in my body after the first exercise. And then even more so after a couple more. It just makes my body feel right, letting me know how not right it was before. This past month I was just getting creakier and older feeling. And now thank God I've finally seen the light that yes I DO need to exercise every day and yes I DO need to do Egoscue to make my body feel the best that it can. I think in the back of my mind I was thinking that I don't need to do anything because I've always been tall and slim and muscular but here I am, at a bloody creaky 40, realizing that I must use it or lose it.

So today I jumped on the trampoline for twenty minutes, and did some pushups on the pushup bars (left shoulder creaking the whole time), and then tonight my fifth menu of Egoscue for the first time. I am very grateful to be back.

Awareness Brings its Own Action: Moving the Body

So basically for the last month I've not been moving my body. I sit at my computer and work, I go to the bathroom, I go back to the computer, I make a meal, I go back to the computer, I go to bed. Where is the walking outside, the Egoscue exercises, the jumping on the trampoline...? They've not been happening. But today I realize something, yet again, that I already knew quite well: I have to move. Especially if I want my creakiness to go away!!

So today I did five push-ups. And I jumped on the mini-trampoline. And I'm going to set my computer clock to ring every few hours and say: "okay time to move!" And I'm going to take my printer in to get fixed so that I can print out Paul's Fifth Menu. And work up the courage to start back on the routine.