Factory Reset Part 4 – Egoscue

I recently read an article about a study that found the cushioning, protective discs located between each of the spine’s vertebra are thicker, more fluid and overall much healthier in runners than in people who live a mostly sedentary lifestyle. The discs in the sedentary people were dry, thin and brittle, leaving the people much more prone to damage and injuries. The article proclaimed this as big, shocking news. I thought, really? How many millions of dollars were spent on this study to determine something that, to me, was common sense? Unfortunately, the mainstream understanding for many years has been that high-impact exercise hurts and damages joints in the long run. Why? Because athletes and others who exercise extensively tend to suffer these injuries and joint damage. Therefore, the weak, flawed human body obviously can’t handle such strenuous activity and must be mollycoddled. Sorry mainstream folks, but this is dead wrong.

Not long after reading the above-mentioned article, I read another – an ask-the-doctor advice column. In this, the reader said he had been diagnosed with arthritis in his spine and his doctor had told him his running days were over. The reader couldn’t believe this, saying he was an avid runner, absolutely loved it and always felt great afterward. He asked the doctor writing the column for a second opinion. This doctor said, sorry, the first doctor was correct, running damages the spine and will lead to far worse complications than arthritis. But fear, not!, she continued, plenty of low-impact exercise options are available, such as bicycling, swimming and using an elliptical machine. While it’s true people can achieve great low-impact workouts, my head was about to explode over what was said about running and other high-impact exercises. How many people would read this article and say, gee, I better stop running because I don’t want arthritis or worse? Head exploding.

So why do athletes and others suffer injuries and joint damage? I promise it’s not because the body is innately flawed just waiting to self destruct when someone actually uses it. The human body was made and has evolved to walk and run. Period. It has evolved to run toward prey and away from predators and other dangers. It was designed to walk for hours on end scavenging for food. The injuries and damage occur as a result of a domino effect that boils down to the body’s load-bearing joints (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders) being out of alignment. And they’re pulled out of alignment by weak/tight muscles, poor posture, sitting too much, etc.

Pete Egoscue, a Vietnam veteran and renowned anatomical physiologist, over his long career extensively studied the movement of the body and what is actually occurring when joints become dysfunctional. He stresses that, except in cases of rare genetic disorders, joints should never have a reason to wear out or go bad, and joint replacements and other surgeries should never be needed. He developed the Egoscue method, a series of simple poses, movements and stretches that allows the body, using gravity, to naturally settle back into alignment. His “E-cises” also allow the body to restore balance by engaging and strengthening long-atrophied, unused muscles for which other muscles have been compensating. He explains in his book, “Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain,” exactly how the body’s musculoskeletal system is supposed to function, what happens when dysfunction occurs and then how to fix it using his E-cises.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I think every person should own it and follow it. Staying active and maintaining an exercise program for my entire life is so crucial to keeping my brain (and the rest of my organs) working optimally. Therefore, it only makes sense to make sure my joints stay functional and healthy. Nothing destroys a person’s prospects of a lifetime of healthy movement like painful, dysfunctional joints. People don’t even need to read the book from beginning to end – I never have, though I intend to eventually. People can read the opening chapters to understand his method and then jump to whichever chapter covers the joint with which they are having issues. If a person has no pain or joint issues, he or she can jump to the chapter that describes Egoscue’s overall maintenance program that keeps pain from occurring or returning.

“In the case of the musculoskeletal system, there are two stages to pass from a normal functional state to a pathological condition,” Egoscue writes. “First the body shuts down muscles it does not use. … Therefore even today, muscles that are not being regularly stimulated are put on hold to atrophy until they are needed again. The second stage is purely adaptive. Every now and then, even the most sedentary (person) is asked to run, climb stairs, bend over, or pick up a heavy object. To perform such a task, … the body, aware that the assigned muscle is not capable, borrows another muscle to get the job done. Driven by certain knowledge that it must move, it hijacks peripheral muscles to do the work that should be done by major postural muscles were they not atrophied.”

The result? The borrowed muscles take a beating over time, performing tasks they were not meant to perform, driving dysfunction even further, pulling and rotating joints out of alignment and wearing down the joints’ cartilage – the protective barrier that prevents bone from hitting bone in the joint. This leads to pain and even more muscular compensation that degrades the joint further until it’s damaged to the point of needing to be replaced. Interestingly, Egoscue says contrary to popular belief, cartilage can be regenerated after being worn away. So even if a person achieves the very painful dysfuntional status of bone-hitting-bone, the joint can still be restored to full, healthy function by following his E-cises, eating a healthy diet and drinking plenty of water.

My hips have always given me the most trouble with my knees coming in second. I’ve never really had any major pain associated with either of them, but my hips have always been very tight, offering limited flexibility and range of motion, leading to occasional dull pain and stiffness in the hips and knees. As for my shoulders, though I’ve never had pain associated with them, at least not pain in that specific area, my right shoulder is higher than my left and the end of my right clavicle (collar bone) sticks up rather prominently. It’s been like this for a long time, for most if not all of my adult life. I never thought much of it because of the lack of pain. I’ve always joked that I’m a Picasso because my face is very asymmetrical, so it only makes sense that the rest of my body should be, too! The problem is, it shouldn’t be.

Over the course of my adulthood, I’ve also developed bunions on the big toe’s first joint on both of my feet, the right foot noticeably worse than the left; weak – not fully fallen but failing – arches, worse on the right; and, since I switched to barefoot-style shoes, two corns right in the center of the ball of my right foot. Does anyone else see a pattern? Does anyone think it’s a coincidence that the foot with the worst of the issues is the same side as the higher shoulder? Now let’s go back to my poor tight hips. Guess which hip has the least range of motion, causing the most tightness and pain? Nope, not the right. It’s the left, wearing itself out as it overcompensates for my weaker, dysfunctional right side. (I am left handed.)

Egoscue claims that all forms of foot dysfunctions – bunions, corns, calluses, hammer toes, fallen arches, everything – can be corrected and fully restored to healthy function through his E-cises. Very intrigued by this, I jumped to his chapter on feet. His solution is simple — and yet not so simple. He says every foot dysfunction has the same cause: improper foot strike. Improper foot strike occurs when one, or a combination, or all of the load-bearing joints are out of alignment. He offers a few E-cises to help mitigate any existing foot pain, and then says to follow the E-cise programs he provides for all four load-bearing joints. Happily, the program for each joint tends to follow a lot of the same E-cises, so the E-cises Static Wall and Static Back, for example, benefit every joint.

I’d be doing a disservice to Egoscue if I tried to describe or explain how to do his E-cises. I seriously just urge everyone to buy or borrow his book and try it for themselves. My sister, Jo, a physical therapist, gave me the book as a gift years ago, urging me to follow his program. I learned so much about my own body’s alignment and what was happening with all my aches and pains by reading the book. I learned that I have misalignment and dysfunction happening from head to toe. I’m just still young and healthy enough that it hasn’t deteriorated any joints to the point of any major pain and needing surgery. If I had never heard of Egoscue and never taken the steps I have to follow his program, multiple joint replacements likely would have been my future, just like my father before me.

I don’t have time to follow the Egoscue program to the extent he recommends in the book, so the misalignment keeps returning and the bunions persist. But I’ve seen a very noticeable difference just with the small amount of time I do dedicate to E-cises: It keeps me pain free and improves my flexibility and range of motion. I try to spend at least some time after every workout doing the E-cises that I think are most important for my issues and also couple them with a lot of stretching. When I’m able to keep up with this (spending anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes depending on how much time I have) I feel absolutely great. My body feels fluid and mobile and, as I just said, pain free. When I just don’t have time at all, however, and skip a few days, that dull pain returns in my hips, knees and even my ankles and feet. Someday I’ll have time to really dedicate to Egoscue and then perhaps I’ll watch my bunions and corns disappear over the course of a few months, which Egoscue described happening in one of his patients. Someday.

Just a few words on stretching: Do it! As often as possible. Do light stretching when you first wake up in the morning to help warm up those muscles and get them ready for the day. And keep doing them every chance throughout the day. Save the more thorough, intense stretching for only after workouts when your muscles are plenty warmed up and can handle it. Doing intense stretching any other time can lead to muscle tears and injuries. Just know your limits and ease into the stretch. Jo once used a cat as an example on good stretching. Cats are known for being very limber and agile. They are also known for their great stretching. Every time they stand up after sitting or laying for any amount of time, they always allow a nice luxurious full-body stretch before they move. I think there’s a lesson to be learned in that.

And the barefoot-style shoes mentioned above? Just one more thing I think everyone should adopt. Shoes with any form of cushion or support are just bad for your feet and the alignment of your entire body. Period. (And don’t get me started on high heels.) Shoes with thick, cushy soles and lots of support may alleviate pain in the short term, but it further drives dysfunction and misalignment. The human foot was meant to freely flex, stretch and wiggle without being bound in shoes that hinder movement and prevent proper muscle development.

Please note, however, that people usually can’t just switch from wearing shoes with heavy support to barefoot-style shoes without feeling some disturbances. Most people who switch and then jump right into their usual workout routine report muscle pains and cramping. These are caused by suddenly working those above-mentioned atrophied muscles that are not used to being worked. This does not mean the shoes are bad, it just means those muscles need to be worked and strengthened. People should gradually transition to barefoot shoes, starting by wearing them a short amount of time and slowly increase that time until the muscles have acclimated. I had no muscle issues when I switched, but as I said, I developed a couple corns. When I developed them, I didn’t just dismiss the shoes, blaming them for the corns. Instead, I knew my feet were alerting me to the continued dysfunction and improper foot strike that need to be addressed.

The shoes I wear and recommend are Xero brand (pronounced zero) I have them in running/hiking shoes and in sandals with the intention of buying additional styles in the future. They are a wonderfully comfortable, high-quality shoe that are also stylish. Merrell also makes a great barefoot shoe. Really, any shoe that offers room for the toes and ankle to properly move and a flat, relatively thin sole in which the heel is not raised any higher than the ball of the foot is ideal. I have an inexpensive pair of Keds that offer just that. Since going barefoot, I’ve started taking notice of other shoes, running and workout shoes in particular. All of them, even the high-quality name brands like Nike, have thick, cushioned soles with the heel raised higher than the ball. The heel is meant to me flat against the ground with the ball! Whenever possible, people should forgo shoes altogether and embrace being barefoot. But when shoes are needed, go barefoot-style.

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