Chronic pain is often associated with poor posture. Egoscue postural therapy is a treatment designed to provide relief from acute and chronic pain. It was designed by Pete Egoscue around 40 years ago. The Egoscue postural therapy is now taught worldwide by trained and certified therapists.

What is Egoscue Postural Therapy?

Egoscue, a postural therapy, treats chronic pain without medicines or surgery. It is based on the principle that all pain in the bones and muscles is due to misalignment and bad body posture. Through a series of exercises, Egoscue postural therapy can help people regain their alignment and reduce pain.
The exercises in the Egoscue therapy are chosen for each person after a complete evaluation of the body and the misalignment causing the discomfort. The exercises may not directly involve the muscles where the pain has originated. For example, Egoscue exercise for back pain or tendonitis may involve you holding a position with your legs or arms in certain angles not directly related to the pain point.

An Egoscue therapist identifies the muscles responsible for the pain and chooses exercises based on those muscles.

Uses and Benefits

Egoscue postural therapy is useful for pain in the knees, legs, hips, ankles, back and shoulders. People suffering from conditions such as osteoarthritis, sciatica, spinal stenosis, scoliosis, tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome can benefit from Egoscue postural alignment therapy exercises. Back and shoulder pain due to poor posture is quite common. Back pain treatment often involves surgery, medicines and hours of physical therapy. Practicing postural exercises for back pain relief can be of tremendous help for those who are in occupations requiring them to sit for long hours at a stretch. Chronic shoulder pain can cause discomfort in the rotator cuff (tendons in the shoulder joint) requiring surgery. Egoscue exercises can treat shoulder pain in a gentle manner. Anyone who has frozen shoulders, tennis elbow or any kind of pain in the upper limbs can benefit from Egoscue postural therapy.

You can utilize Egoscue postural therapy to treat disc degeneration and jaw pain as well.

Postural therapy can improve posture and provide long-term relief. With regular practice of postural exercises, it is possible to keep chronic pain at bay.

Recommended Read: Dealing with Chronic Pain: My Story

Egoscue Exercises

There is a whole set of Egoscue exercises that people can do based on their pain. You can learn the exercises from certified Egoscue trainers.
The main point to understand in Egoscue exercises is that the posture for each is extremely important. The posture is the key to improvements using Egoscue therapy.

Examples

For shoulders

• Standing with feet fist-width apart, holding hands in half-fists; thumb-out position, shoulders gently pushed back, and then rotating the arms sideways for 40 repetitions.
• Elbow curls with half-fists on the forehead and bringing elbows together in front of you for 20-35 minutes; feet still, fist-width apart.
• Arms extensions in the same feet position as the above two exercises; fingers locked, arms stretched upwards, and then looking up while holding the position for 30-60 seconds.

Recommended Read: 10 Yoga Poses for Pain Relief

Other examples

For abdomen

• Standing in sprint position with the back feet at 45 degrees; moving arms at the elbow in a stationary position for 30 seconds on each side. It works the abdomen muscles along with back muscles but not in an apparent way. This is an example of exercises including positions/muscles that may not seem related to the pain point.

For back

• Sitting against the wall with knees at right angles and maintain the position for at least two minutes.

Start doing these exercises if you are suffering from chronic pain and nothing else seems to be working for you.

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