Forever Painless: End Chronic Pain and Reclaim Your Life in 30 Minutes a Day (Aging Backwards, 2)

***** As someone who lives with chronic pain, I found this book to be uplifting and encouraging, giving me hope for the first time in a long time. I have tried and tried to exercise but always injure myself and end up with an additional problem contributing to my pain syndrome. After so many years of doing this I basically had given up. Now I have what I believe is a way to feel better. It will take hard work and time, and so I will post updates here. With the exercises in this book, you start where you can--wherever that is--and work up from there. The author gives many examples of people with issues like mine who start at a low level and after a matter of persistence and patience end up with less pain and greater mobility. I am encouraged. The first part of the book discusses chronic pain--what it is and what causes it. The author reviews the new research about fascia and how doing simple "esssentric" (muscle lengthening and strengthening) exercises is the best way to renew and rebalance our bodies and get out of chronic pain. Today 20% of all people in the U.S. are suffering with chronic pain! The author explains scientific concepts in such a simple, clear way. She describes the "pain loop" and how to break it. She explains the new scientific discoveries of how fitness industry standards can cause injury and how all concentric exercise (the exercise that most exercise Americans do that shortens and strengthens our muscles) needs to be balanced with eccentric exercise to avoid injury and pain. The author explains much about the fascia--our connective tissues--and how new science informs how we must care of it if we want to age well. Throughout the book there are examples of people who struggle with chronic pain and about how through the "Essentrics" technique (developed by the author) they conquered their pain syndromes. The author has been featured many times on PBS and is also the author of a previous book, "Aging Backwards". She has DVDs out demonstrating the techniques, as well as a channel (for pay) that live streams all of her workouts. However, anyone could figure out how to do the exercises from the book, as they are illustrated and described in detail, along with correct and incorrect postures for the exercises. The first 60 or so pages of the book is explanation of the theory behind the Essentrics technique and the rest is specific workouts for: warmup, foot and ankle, knee, hip, back, upper back and shoulder, connective tissue, immune system, arthritis, and stress. Most of the workouts (if not all) use all of the body's 650 muscles and 384 joints. And you might need a few commonly found props like a chair or a blanket, but no special equipment at all. Highly recommended. *****

This is Miranda Esmonde-White's second book and like her first AGING BACKWARDS, it is extremely informative and has many excellent photographs of the exercises she recommends to ease or end chronic pain. She discusses in clear detail the causes of pain and the ways to overcome it with specific exercises. You can either try all the exercises which are beneficial whether in pain or not, or target specific areas of your body which are causing pain. The exercises seem simple but are more demanding than appears at first and do have, if done regularly, beneficial effects. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST BOOK BY MIRANDA ESMONDE-WHITE. For those of you who have her first book AGING BACKWARDS you will recognize most of these exercises; however, they are presented here in a different order to target specific areas of the body and with some new variations. In spite of these similarities you may enjoy having both books to work with.

Very thoughtful examination of the anatomy and science of the body with a really easy and down to earth presentation on how you can take control of your pain conditions. This enlightened approach needs to be promoted as an alternative to more traditional approaches. The exercises are modest yet yield great results, anyone can follow and benefit from these exercises.

I also have the companion book, Aging Backwards. At first it seemed I'd made a duplicate purchase by having the two, but Forever Painless is a worthy companion. I find it to be a bit less detailed but it is still a good anatomical reference and a guidebook as to how holding ourselves in different ways, repetitive use of joints, limbs, etc. and other factors cause imbalances and ultimately chronic pain. Forever Painless is primarily focused on these painful issues whereas Aging Backwards explores everything about the body and the aging process. There are chapters with recommended exercises for conditions such as arthritis or shoulder pain with photographic demonstrations and explanations. MIranda is enthusiastic about her Essentrics program, as she should be, and that enthusiasm is reflected in this book.

I enjoyed this book immensely because although I have read widely about diet, health & fitness I have never heard of this approach. It makes so much sense & the personal stories have me convinced that no matter how long you have been in pain or how long your body has been abused/ neglected, this approach can and will work. I am recommending it to many of my friends and relatives who are suffering. I did a few of the exercise sequences while reading the book and felt energized. I could also feel relief from a frozen shoulder. This is an easy and motivating read. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone who wants to better understand how their bodies systems can work harmoniously together in a pain free way.

I saw Miranda work out on PBS. She's amazing, but little did I know she was a dancer, which explains her fantastic flexibility--and would have given me second thoughts on buying this book. I work out 3-4 times a week since in my 50s, and I"m same age group as Miranda. These stretches are difficult , or at the very least, many can be challenging. Go slowly if you decide to buy this. That said, it does detail the stretches clearly.

I am a fan of the Classical Stretch/Essentrics workouts, so I bought this book as a quick reference. I would recommend buying the Classical Stretch DVDs, especially the TV series versions. My favorite is Season 11. I have gotten much pain relief from doing the exercises and recommend Miranda Esmonde-White's stretches for anyone who wants to feel better and look better. It has kept me from having any recurrences with Sciatica and has gotten rid of my severe foot pain. I can walk barefoot on hard floors without pain. In the past, I had to wear shoes indoors because my feet were so painful. Now, that's a thing of the past.

I’ve just started reading this. Some good ideas like what to drink and eat. Got bored with that and jumped ahead to the first exercises. They were warm ups and easy to do. Did help with my back pain. Form probably wasn’t very good. Better pics of the form and step-by-step would help me. Snuck ahead to the spine/back exercises and they were helpful. Again better pics of form. I skipped over a lot of exercises for knee, hips, shoulders, who knows how much. I’m going back and read what I missed. The exercises were helpful there’s probably more helpful tips. Painless Forever is a tough promise to keep so there’s got to be more

well-written

Very important reference for anyone living in chronic pain.

Good advice

A very good book ! It has simple but affective exercises for every joint in the body. It also provides a series of exercises to target injuries and gives a warm up program. I am presently working on the knee exercises with positive results.

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