Originally Posted by ElyseHart

Hi there. Regarding Egoscue, last year I read three of the Egoscue books from the library and tried the exercises on my own. I had trouble getting into the proper positions so I called their clinic in Chicago and got the name of a trained Egoscue therapist (massage) in my area. I scheduled an appointment with her ($155.00 per session) and gave it a try. I think I saw her 3 or 4 times. I had mixed results from the experience. I felt it was a great way to stretch and strengthen weakened areas, but I felt the upper body exercises were far too rigorous for me in my current condition. I have TOS on both sides with arterial compression on the right. I had a lot of flares with pain and numbness in my arms and neck so I did not continue with the therapist.

However, I was so impressed with the program I scheduled my husband to go and give it a try since he suffers from lower back pain. I would guess he has had six appointments with the therapist over the past 10 months. He has had great success and relief of shoulder and back pain when he does his exercises. However, this summer he has been so busy he has not done them in over two months and the back pain has returned. He plans to get back to them after Labor Day.

We bought the Egoscue tower (Google Egoscue) and some of the blocks for positioning. We both love the tower. I can feel it ease pain in my hips (which ache) when I devote the time to it. I also just started doing the series of exercises for the ankles. I felt this is something I can do without hurting myself. When I stick to it and do the exercises, I do feel better. I think working out the muscle imbalances in any area of the body helps the other areas indirectly.

I would encourage anyone to check it out, but to proceed with caution if you have TOS. Like all things, it is so individual in what we can handle.

Elyse