If you're in pain and if you've ever thought you’re ‘broken’, it's time to think again.

Do you think pain and limitations are a normal, unavoidable part of “getting old”? Or do you think there’s “something wrong” (as in 'unresolvable')?

What if that’s not the case?

Have you ever said something like:

Just fill in the blanks with your pain or problem and whatever you may have blamed it on. ’Running’ often gets the blame for things like knee pain, but that’s a red herring. More on that shortly.

So perhaps it is time to think again.

You’re Not Broken. Seriously

The premise of Egoscue is simple: you experience symptoms such as lower back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, sciatica... because your body has become imbalanced and is out of alignment (misaligned). What some people call ‘bad posture’.

Why is your body out of alignment and what causes ‘bad posture’?

How well aligned you are — how ‘good’ your posture is — comes down to how well your muscles function. If your muscles maintain balance with their opposites and maintain a good ‘length / tension relationship’, then you’ll generally have good alignment or good posture.

But when your muscles aren’t balanced with their opposites and the length/tension relationship gets distorted, that’s when you experience certain pains and limitations. It’s what many people describe as “getting old”.

Nothing New Under The Sun

Now, you may be thinking that talk of ‘muscle imbalances’ is nothing new. And you’d be right. Egoscue is far from the first modality to identify that balance between muscles is important.

Where Egoscue is different from most other modalities, though, is in the thinking. Three main keys to the Method are:

Let’s say you have lower back pain, which is a common symptom nowadays. And let’s say a friend of yours also has lower back pain. Same problem, right?

Well, not really.

The symptom may be the same, but it’s quite likely the underlying problem (the dysfunction) is different. In other words, your (mis)alignment and muscle imbalances are almost certainly different from your friend's misalignment and her muscle imbalances.

You might have an excessive arch in your lower back (known as ‘lordosis’). But your friend might have a flat lower back (possibly created because of a posterior pelvic tilt, although not definitely).

Images from 'Muscles: Testing and Function' (USA | UK)

Just with that one piece of the posture puzzle (the excessive arch in the lower back versus the flat lower back), is it likely you and your friend will need the exact same exercises? And where the same exercise is used for both you and your friend, is it likely it will be sequenced the same?

Possibly, but probably not.

You’re unique, which means your lower back pain (or sciatica, knee pain, shoulder pain or whatever pain you have) may appear on the surface to be the same as the next person’s. But “underneath the hood”, your unique imbalances mean the underlying issue is different.

And that means the corrective exercises you’ll need to restore proper function — and the sequence of those exercises — will be different.

Identifying Your Dysfunctions and Compensations

The thing with muscle imbalances is that the longer you have them, the more they tend to get reinforced. Ever seen an older person stooped over?

That’s what many people call “getting old”. Here’s a question for you to ponder, though:

It’s a similar thing with symptoms such as knee pain. Many joggers get knee pain, commonly referred to as ‘runner’s knee’. And it’s common to hear people say ‘running causes knee pain’.

But that doesn’t add up...

Just a thought...

So, as your muscle imbalances increase and your posture becomes more and more compromised, so too does the wear and tear and patterns of compensation. And that’s one of the key words when it comes to your posture, alignment, joint pain and muscle pain:

Compensation

If your body was functioning according to its design, you would be balanced from front to back and from left to right...

... Just as you see in the two images below.

But as you slowly deviate from your design, due to your muscle imbalances, some parts of your body become less functional.

Those less functional parts of your body then require help from other parts of your body. That’s the ‘compensation’ part of the equation.

Ever Encountered ‘Lazy Workmate Syndrome’?

Have you ever worked somewhere that had a lazy person who didn’t pull their weight? If you have, then you’ll understand that when one part isn’t functioning as it should be (the lazy colleague), other parts have to take up the slack (you or other colleagues).

When that happens, you have to do your job PLUS the work of the lazy person. You can do it for a while, but it’s not sustainable over the long term. If the lazy colleague isn’t replaced or doesn’t change their ways, you’ll end up with burn out.

It’s the same when other parts of your body do the work of other dysfunctional parts of your body.

So How Does The Egoscue Method Resolve Muscle Imbalances and Correct Compensation Patterns?

Egoscue has 2 main components to it:

An Egoscue Practitioner or Egoscue PAS observes you in two ways:

When I’m working with a client using the tools of Egoscue, I’m taking in all the information to understand their body. I’m looking at:

From there it’s a case of giving your body the stimulus it needs to get it moving properly again.

Your Body Never Forgets...

You see, your body knows what it’s supposed to do and it remembers how it’s meant to function. But as your dysfunctions become greater, some functions become more and more dormant.

Your body never forgets, though.

Those dormant functions are still there, waiting patiently to be reawakened and reminded of what they’re meant to do. And that, very simply, is what Egoscue exercises seek to do:

As those dormant functions are reawakened and restored, your body heals itself and your symptoms — such as lower back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain etc — take care of themselves.

Egoscue treats the underlying issue, which allows your body to take care of the symptoms itself.

What Is Posture?

The word ‘posture’ has been used a few times already, so it might be a good idea to understand what posture is and how it affects you.

The video below gives you a good overview of what posture is and how your body works as a unit:

If you’ve read any of Pete Egoscue’s books or if you used to listen to his radio show (no longer on air), you will have come across the word ‘posture’ many times. I even used a few times in the video above.

For many people, the words ‘posture’ and ‘Egoscue’ have become synonymous.

Even though I talk about 'posture', I’m not a fan of that word.

Why?

Because in my experience, as soon as the word ‘posture’ is mentioned, it usually elicits the same response:

A bit like this guy:

That’s not (good) posture!

What’s a better way of talking about posture without talking about posture? For me, a much better word to describe things is ‘function’. If your main load bearing joints are functional, then ‘good posture’ should follow naturally.

But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves...

A Simple Posture Definition

You can find all kinds of definitions of posture out there. But as with all things, I like to (try) to keep things simple.

For example, if you need to reach up to grab something heavy, the individual part you’d want to function well is the shoulder of the arm that’s reaching up.

At the same time, your shoulder doesn’t function in isolation, and the way the rest of your body supports you as you reach up is also key to the movement pattern.

Your shoulder is the main player in the action of reaching up. But your back (spine), as well as the rest of your torso and your hips and legs are also an integral part of the movement.

On a typical body that hasn’t suffered serious trauma or birth defects, there are 2 of each joint — one on each side of the body — giving you 8 in total.

In other words...

Your Body Is An Integrated Unit

That’s a key fundamental premise of The Egoscue Method.

Many other modalities treat body parts in isolation, which is why they often fail to get significant or lasting results. Before I discovered Egoscue for myself, I'd tried many approaches to resolve the various pains in my body.

True Story

I once had quite a painful shouler, which I visited a physiotherapist (physical therapist) about.

I was given a series of exercises to ‘strengthen the rotator cuff muscles’, which didn't help at all.

Why didn't those exercise help?

For 2 reasons:

First, the underlying reason my shoulder hurt was because of a problem in my hip (remember, the body is a unit and when it's not functioning correctly, other parts will compensate).

Second, the rotator cuff group of muscles are stabilizing muscles — they're not endurance muscles. Giving exercises to 'strengthen' them is futile and a waste of time.

Here’s an article that goes into more depth on that topic.

So Do I Need To Have ‘Perfect Posture’?

No you don’t.

In fact, I highly encourage you not to have that as a goal for yourself.

The primary goal of corrective exercise programs and The Egoscue Method is to get your body moving properly again. Your body does not need to be perfectly aligned for that to happen.

It just needs to be 'good enough'. When you bring your body up to a certain level of function, you'll move more freely and with greater efficiency and ease.

Having worked with many people over the years, it's become clear that that's what most people ultimately want.

Will The Egoscue Method Help Me?

Probably, but the best person to answer that question is you.

The way for you to get the answer to that is to:

Trust your instincts.

Pete Egoscue has always advocated trusting instincts and it’s something I also encourage my clients (and myself) to do.

If you've read any of Pete Egoscue's books and/or if what you've read here 'speaks to you', then trust that.

Your body always knows what's best for you. If it 'lights up' when it sees or hears something, that's its way of communicating with you, telling you it wants to do it.

Get Started With Egoscue Postural Therapy — No Matter Where In The World You Are

Unlike massage, chiropractic, physical therapy and other similar modalities, Egoscue is a completely hands off approach.

As such, we can work together no matter where in the world you are.

For the first few years of doing Egoscue, I saw clients in person only in my London clinic. Now with the advances in technology, along with many more years of experience, I see clients from all over the world on Skype.

As of this writing, I've successfully helped people with The Egoscue Method on Skype in:

What If I Don't Have A Decent Internet Connection or Our Time Zones Are Too Far Out?

In that case, the best way for us to work together is via the 'photos only' approach.

What Can The Egoscue Method Help With?

If the aches, pains, discomfort and limitations you're experiencing are because of your muscle imbalances (misalignments / poor posture), then Egoscue corrective exercises can help.

The Egoscue Method successfully addresses and eliminates pain associated with most conditions, including, but not limited to:

How Do I get Started?

To get started, get in contact and we'll make arrangements and get you going.