Customer Reviews

Arthritis, What Exercises Work: Breakthrough Relief For The Rest Of Your Life, Even After Drugs & Surgery Have Failed

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After checking ARTHRITIS: WHAT EXERCISES WORK out of the library for the third time in a year, I broke down and bought it. It's terrific. The exercises are tied to specific joints, ranging from the small, fingers and toes, on to shoulders, hips, knees, etc. Some you can even do in bed, but many are much more challenging--there is a range. Doing these for just a couple of weeks increased my flexibility tremendously--washing my back, tieing my shoes, and so forth much easier. And I'm a 53 year old professional female who is in "good shape" with aerobics and strength training--but the targeted flexibility/joint exercises here were new to me. I highly, highly recommend.

I suffered for 8 months with inflammatory arthritis in my knees. I saw doctor after doctor, had test after test. The only solution was Celebrex which gave me chest pain. I got this book at our library out of desperation; I felt too young to lose my mobility. I'm thrilled to say these exercises were outstanding and really DO help.
Best of all, the are at least half a dozen helpful exercises for every joint area in the body starting at the top and going down - even the jaw is covered.
My husband started the exercises for back & jaw (he's got TMJ) and they helped him as well.
I can't thank the authors enough for compiling such an honestly helpful book. How refreshing to actually find something that does what it says it does. THANK YOU. I have some relief in life finally.

I suffer with severe Rheumatoid Arthritis in my entire body! With inflammation in my entire body, mobility is very very limited! I tried these exercise every morning for a week. I couldn't believe how much my mobility had improved in that week. Now I do the exercises everyday at least twice a day. This book is definetly worth buying.

Some parts of this book were good and some not so good.

Part 3, 4 and 5 are good. Part Three talks about aerobic exercise and 4 and 5 give details on exercises you can do for specific body parts and in special situations. The instructions are clear and there are good diagrams. Unfortuately, they don't give any advice on how many repetitions to start with and how many to build up to and which exercise to move on to when a particular excercise becomes too easy.


My problem is with Part 1. It has you go through some quizzes to put yourself in a "level" which they claim will help you pick or develop a program of exercises that suits your needs. But after you figure out your level, they never mention it again. There are two sample programs, one for level 4 (in bed) and one for level 2 (moderately active) and that's it. No program suggestions for the other levels and the excercises themselves are not given a label.

A bit disappointing.

But the exercises I am doing for my particular problem areas are good. I think the exercise sections make the book worth the money.

I don't have arthritis. I was just looking for exercises for body parts which don't get much attention in most programs. This book provided just what I was looking for. It has stretching and strengthening (gentle toning) exercises for your neck, jaw, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, fingers, back, hip, knees, ankles, and feet.

The authors' discussion of arthritis treatment is also very interesting. They say arthritis pain encourages immobility. But immobility exacerbates your problem. The solution for the suffering patient is to start moving the affected joints. Movement is much more effective than any drugs or surgery for long term care and even for recovery. The authors provide instruction for simple exercises for all of the most frequently affected body parts. Additionally, the authors discuss how general aerobic activity can also combat arthritis. They provide good suggestions for simple aerobic exercise.

The authors also provide an introduction to body relaxation techniques. They note that high stress is usually associated with arthritis, and so may be a triggering factor for it. I would have liked to have seen more discussion of this interesting theory. I also would like to have seen some discussion of how diet may affect athritis. Nevertheless, this book is a great collection of exercises for joints that you may not have been paying much attention to before.

I purchased this book when I learned I have arthritis in my spine, but I found that the book doesn't recommend anything I'm not already doing in yoga class. I'm going to hand it on to my mother, however, especially for the hand exercises.

The exercises in this book are very basic stretching and flexibility exercises. They work well for me when I am having flare ups of my joints. Normally I exercise more aggressively. There are many varied exercises in this book, exercises cover every motion of every joint. Would recommend.

The best set of arthritis exercises I've found. They work to relieve my pain and improve my flexibility! Provides for individual adaptation, and they can be done in bed, on a chair, standing, or in the water.

I am a retired RN and have been having recurring aggravations from old orthopedic injuries and this book gave me exactly what I needed to know...without the expense of a medical office visit. You might have some of this info in other books if you have some of the better books for athletes, but it is a single most useful condensation of the best of the best and includes some new 'moves' as well. This book will be on my shelf until my kids inherit it! I am no longer limping around in pain, but am moving freely and doing my exercises and stretches several times a day.

Helpful book particularly for those newly given the diagnosis of arthritis. Helpful information on how to help yourself with exercises and other recommendations.