Anyone heard of the Egoscue Method...?

[Loomer]

I rejoined the gym the other day. I left about 12 months ago after a couple of years keeping fit, because of a reoccuring back problem...

Anyhow, I fancied getting back in shape and as I signed my life away on membership one of the staff members mentioned that they have someone visit the gym on occasions who practices The Egoscue Method and this may help with any problems I might be experiencing...

...now this set my mind off straight away into skeptical mode, but as the session was free (perhaps some kind of sales technique????) I have signed up to it.

A few minutes searching information out on the web leads me to the conclusion that it is unscientifically based, posture exercises that probably relieve pain through placebo etc. It was developed by a former marine called Pete Egoscue who apparently cured his own back problems and then developed his technique... sound's a bit like a Gillian McKeith style guru to me...

However, has anyone any experience of this particular method of apparent woo...?

I am not going to write it off until I have tried it (booked in a week on Wednesday) and I am aware that good posture and core muscle strength/flexibility can help reduce back issues having seen physio's and doctors etc. in the past.

If anyone has any insight please let me know, I will report back after the session to let you know my thoughts...


Rgds


Jon (off to TAM 6 and begining to really look forward to it...!)


Bugger... This should probably have gone in the Alt medicine section...

[Allo Allo]

The 'commercialism' aspect would worry me more - sounds like you could be separated from you money pretty speedily if you have to buy 'products'. ???

[Loomer]

I guess not too many people have heard of this particular method...

I will enquire into the full costs of the treatment following my free 'consultation'...


Rgds

[Loomer]

Well, I went for my consultation at the gym and was met by a nice bloke whom I shall call Steve. Firstly, apologies for the long anecdotal post…

…but I found the whole process quite insightful… and as I describe the ‘consultation’ below I have pointed out some of the techniques used to convince me that using this method was ‘for me’

...but perhaps you can spot others? (sort of a play along spot and tell…)




Introduction

Steve explained his six years experience in ‘Corporate Therapy and Performance’ and started off by asking about me and my particular back symptoms which I duly went through. He then repeated these back with me, but started to discuss the Egoscue Method Therapy (the method) and the fact that he wouldn’t be focusing on my back but on more a holistic approach away from my back area.

The example he gave was of a knee joint being twisted out of shape because or poor feet alignment by placing his knuckles together and simulating the movement of a correctly aligned joint and then one that was moving out of alignment asking for my agreement that “this would be painful, right?”

“Er, yes…”

He then started to discuss the differences between the method and western medicine. Now I cringed (internally) at the use of the phrase ‘western’ medicine, but to be fair, apart from this slip his general patter was relatively woo jargon free.

The method he said would be at the opposite end of a 10 point scale (not sure why the 10 points..?) to western medicine which he equated to operations and surgery on bones where the method focuses on muscle, “because muscle moves bones, right?”

“Er, yes…”

When I discussed the numbing sensation that I sometimes get and the fact that I had been to see a consultant neurologist, he said that “can be a scary experience, right?”

“Er, no, nice Doctor really…”

He then changed tack and discussed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for a little while. He concentrated on how we have no major muscles in our hand and that they are in our arms and shoulders… elluding to the causes being in your shoulder. Now, I happen to know that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is treated through all kinds of different medically proven therapies, but if it does come to it, the surgery success rates are very high, but this wasn’t mentioned…

The Test

We then went into a series of tests involving me standing still and Steve pointing out where me body was out of alignment. Head (slightly forward), Shoulders (not straight) and Hips (quite well aligned… hooray!), feet (one further forward than the other). He emphasized that this wasn’t to be seen as criticism, but something that could be corrected using the method…

Then I shut my eyes was asked to describe where my palms were facing (not aligned) and whether my weight felt unevenly distributed between the balls and heals of my feet. (it did, biased to the left heal).

Now by this point he had asked my so many leading questions and made so many misdirecting statements about how out of balance I am, I was getting annoyed as the whole process seemed to me to lead to only one conclusion… however I kept going as I am reasonably polite and the session was almost over…

The Exercise

We quickly went through one exercise by having me lie on my back with my legs on a chair and to shut my eye and tell him where my body felt heaviest in conection with the floor. As my legs were in the air unsurprisingly it was my hips…. He had my breath deeply (using my diaphragm) and then ask me to stand and asked if my weight distribution had changed on my feet.

Now as I had just got to a standing position from lying with my feet in the air… well I am sure you can guess that my feet did feel different…

End of the session and the Pamphlets and the Price...

The session over, we moved to the bar and Steve gave me some details explaining that he felt that I would need 2/3 weekly 60 mins sessions where he would draw up ‘a menu’ of exercises for me to follow and then a follow up session a couple of weeks later to check up on me. He would take pictures so I could see how my posture had improved.

He gave me the pamphlets which contain quotes from Jack Nicklaus, loads of lovely testimonials and nice meaningless words phrases like “Stress is the number one malady of our times” and “ 4th Dimension Egoscue Method Therapy utilizes a Heart Math system called emWave ”...click the link to see a great video… or here to see a proper review…

and then the price list…

1x one hour Egoscue Method Therapy session = £40
2x one hour Egoscue Method Therapy session = £76
3x one hour Egoscue Method Therapy session = £108
8x one hour Egoscue Method Therapy session = £280

My conclusion

There’s no getting away from it, Steve is a nice bloke… However, I think his technique was a left a lot to be desired, concentrating on the ususal cunning sales techniques, misdirecting statements, leading questions and physical tests with a follow up exercise designed to get me to ‘feel an effect’…

My symptoms can be annoying and sometimes painful, but using these facts to then link into my buying into the method (over £100quids worth…) using all of the above techniques (and others that you may have spotted) made me a little annoyed to say the least…

No sale for me, but I was only one of many consultations that day…


Rgds

Jon

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Very interesting read. Thanks.

Obviously, you weren't taken in by the patter, but I wonder how many potential customers approach it as coolly as you do.

[Loomer]

Glad you liked it...

Not sure I was a cooly able to analyse it all at the induction, but I did manage to pick out the obvious bits whislt I was there...

Here is another tactic that may have been used... The Yes Ladder...


Rgds

Jon

[Julia]

I'm surprised and slightly disappointed that a scale with "Love" at one end and "Fear" at the other wasn't involved...

[pamelaann]

However, has anyone any experience of this particular method of apparent woo...?

I am not going to write it off until I have tried it (booked in a week on Wednesday) and I am aware that good posture and core muscle strength/flexibility can help reduce back issues having seen physio's and doctors etc. in the past.

If anyone has any insight please let me know, I will report back after the session to let you know my thoughts...


The Egoscue method changed my life!
along with 'muscle balance function'
It truly is the most amazing self empowering therapy method
You can read my story if you like
I would like to tell the world about this method of healing and maintaing a healthy 'functional' body

Pam

[Mulder]

"... Postural Therapy program which involves a series of stretches and gentle exercises ... " (from Wiki)

Sounds like MY kind of therapy. I wonder if you have to up out of a comfy armchair?

[pamelaann]

Sure, we do stuff sitting on a chair too.

[Neuromuscular Therapist]

Hey Loomer,

I have never heard of this method, but as a Physical Therapist myself, I always recommend Pilates to my clients with back problems. I recommend Pilates to others without back problems too, so they can prevent them occurring. The more Core strength that you develop, the less likely injury will be.

From what you have described, it seems that what he gave you were a lot of Proprioceptive exercises - knowing and feeling where your body is in space. I am not sure that any exercise such as this will actually correct the posture, but it might make you more aware of how it is/you are.

I use some exercises like this with clients following injury - e.g. following an ankle soft tissue injury I might ask my client to practice standing on one foot to help re-gain balance or even balancing on one foot with their eyes closed. This can help re-gain the co-ordination that has been lost from the injury, where especially with ankle injuries, the ligaments have been stretched.

I would say that if some muscles are short and tight, this can be assessed by a Physical Therapist and can be corrected by the work itself. Sports Massage can also achieve this with muscle lengthening techniques and then stretching exercises. A technique called Soft Tissue Release is extremely good for lengthening short muscles. I use it a lot in my practice.

Just my two cents worth, but if I were you I would stick with Pilates or the Core strength exercises that your Physical Therapist will give you. With that and the gym work you should be well on the road to recovery!!

[pamelaann]

The only problemwith Pilates and things like that, is what is the point of strengthening the core of a dysfunctional structure? Very often you can actually strengthen dysfunction, which is renowned in yoga. People feel better initially, and they may feel better for quite a while, but eventually, unless they address the whole body other dysfunctions will creep in.

If you have ankle pain or injury, treat the whole body, and very soon that injury will start to heal. What happens when you injure any part of the body, is that the whole structure goes out of alignment, it has too, because it has to compensate to allow that part to heal.

I tore a lateral ligament in my right foot, in a gardening injury three months ago. It was excruciating, and really quite a trauma the first thing I did was start working the muscles around my pelvis in a functional way, and also the thoracic, at the same time I kept the ankle moving, although it was incredibly swollen and painful to move, whilst I was using a sequence of postural alignment exercises I kept the ankle mobile, I used these exercises about four times a day which took me about 10 minutes each time. The very evening of the trauma I taught a posture class, I could load through that ankle, albeit quite painful, I could stand and walk reasonably normally because I kept all of my gait and posture muscles functional. That injury healed completely within about eight weeks, had I gone down the conventional route of treating the ankle only I'm pretty sure I would still be having symptomatic problems now.

[mahakala]

The only problemwith Pilates and things like that, is what is the point of strengthening the core of a dysfunctional structure? Very often you can actually strengthen dysfunction, which is renowned in yoga. People feel better initially, and they may feel better for quite a while, but eventually, unless they address the whole body other dysfunctions will creep in.

If you have ankle pain or injury, treat the whole body, and very soon that injury will start to heal. What happens when you injure any part of the body, is that the whole structure goes out of alignment, it has too, because it has to compensate to allow that part to heal.

I tore a lateral ligament in my right foot, in a gardening injury three months ago. It was excruciating, and really quite a trauma the first thing I did was start working the muscles around my pelvis in a functional way, and also the thoracic, at the same time I kept the ankle moving, although it was incredibly swollen and painful to move, whilst I was using a sequence of postural alignment exercises I kept the ankle mobile, I used these exercises about four times a day which took me about 10 minutes each time. The very evening of the trauma I taught a posture class, I could load through that ankle, albeit quite painful, I could stand and walk reasonably normally because I kept all of my gait and posture muscles functional. That injury healed completely within about eight weeks, had I gone down the conventional route of treating the ankle only I'm pretty sure I would still be having symptomatic problems now.

Do you have a link or attachment describing the postural alignment exercises you used?

[pamelaann]

I don't have a link or anything I can send you here. Send me an enquiry on my website and I will reply via e-mail.
Do you/have you had similar problems then?

[Admin]

The Egoscue method changed my life!
along with 'muscle balance function'
It truly is the most amazing self empowering therapy method
You can read my story if you like
I would like to tell the world about this method of healing and maintaing a healthy 'functional' body

I don't have a link or anything I can send you here. Send me an enquiry on my website and I will reply via e-mail.

Well I removed the original link to the website but it should be quite obvious that Pamelaann is an Egoscue method practitioner and not just someone who's used it.

Talk about this method, which looks like total bullshit to me, by all means but please don't tout for business on here.