Customer Reviews

Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries: A Self-Care Program

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was written by a massage therapist who no doubt has had a lot of experience dealing with repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel. A key idea of the book is that tight tissues, particularly the fascia, are responsible for your pain and symptoms. The cure then, is to stretch them out and get things back to normal. The book intends to accomplish this goal by taking you through a series of stretches for your particular symptomatic area.

A major strength of this book is its sheer ease of using- in other words, its laid out extremely well. The stretching technique is very well explained and the bulk of the book consists of pictures of stretches that you can do for your troubled areas. Additionally, I like the fact that the author discusses the topic of your posture- which is very important because it could be contributing to your problem AND correcting it will help keep you out of trouble!

All-in-all a great resource for people suffering from repetitive strain injuries- and not just for the infamous carpal tunnel- I could see this book being of good use for a lot of other aches and pains as well. Also recommend Treat Your Own Tennis Elbow for those looking for a good resource on that particular condition.

First I would like to say that Sharon Butler's description of how to stretch gently and effectively is fabulous - her book is probably the best resource for stretching available and I actually think everyone who uses a computer should have this book. It is incredible for prevention I think, healing up to a point, and for body awareness in general.

However...

I want to warn that if you are injured so severely to where you actually can't function (like I was) these stretches are probably not going to be what you need at first & you might be misled into thinking they will cure you. I think that to truly heal yourself from this kind of malady there are two other books that I would say are REQUIRED reading along with this one (ideally, I would recommend reading all 3 at the same time):

IT'S NOT CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME! by Suparna Damany and Jack Bellis - to understand the problem from many different angles and

THE TRIGGER POINT THERAPY WORKBOOK by Clair Davies. This book is amazing! Absolutely amazing because it shows you exactly how to get rid of these things called trigger points (yourself) which are usually at the root of MUCH of the pain and dysfunction of RSI's and Carpal Tunnel. He even says that if you have active trigger points, stretching of any kind can actually do more harm than good. I found this to be true, and it looks like some other readers have as well.

Once you have those other two books, Sharon Butler's would be the 3rd I'd recommend (and I think it is essential). I also at a certain point got her online book for healing the thumb injury called DeQuervain's (she has a 6-week stretching program aimed at different injuries) and I thought it was even better for me than CCTS because it was geared towards my particular unremitting problem.

Oh, be warned that if you do get one of her online book one of your first assignments in the program is to order a particular CD. Some might find this irksome, having just purchased a book - but mostly I was just glad to be given such a good program for stretching. I do recommend both this book as well as her online programs.

Well, good luck. Take this SERIOUSLY and save your hands. Go to Barnes and Noble and look through these books there if you're not ready to buy them - but INFORM yourself from all angles because otherwise this can become an incredibly serious problem.

I'm a computer geek, having been typing for over 20 years, and also a drummer, so I have been prone to carpal tunnel symptoms for a very long time. Suddenly I went through a terrible ordeal with bilateral carpal tunnel symptoms; terrible pain around the clock in both arms (from the shoulders to finger tips). I was beside myself in pain and was really panicking since I could barely function in the office or at home. Pain killers did not work so it was very frightening and starting to cause depression.

I was forced to get very educated on the subject quickly and found the majority of information on the Internet on how to combat this problem is absolutely FALSE, including vitamins, massages, chiropractors, wrist braces, wrist wrests, and even surgery in many cases. I tried all of these (aside from the surgery) and actually got worse. All it took was finding this ONE book on proper stretching exercises, and I went from 0% to 95% improvement in just 10 days. If you have carpal tunnel symptoms, drop everything and get this book!

No wonder doctors don't mention this solution; it would put them out of business! The Internet seems filled with websites saying to take B-vitamins etc, but most claim you won't see results for up to 3 MONTHS? Yet vitamin testimonials are difficult to find on the Internet at the same time which is odd. Complete nonsense if you ask me; I took B-vitamins faithfully for a month, at the correct dosages and you'd think I'd see SOME improvement, but I only got worse. Wrist braces may help prevent further aggravation while sleeping, but they do not fix the underlying problem! I tried the chiropractor which did nothing, and massages of the forearms absolutely KILLED me the following day.

With this book, simply just follow the exercises VERY gently and slowly. If any pain is felt, don't do that particular exercise and move on to others. There is no set schedule on how often to do the exercises, so I chose to do them morning and evening (took me about an hour each time). At first you may feel like you don't want to do them, like they may do you more harm. For example, doing exercises to bend your wrist backward when you have painful carpal tunnel symptoms, just seems like a bad idea and is uncomfortable to do and your initial gut feeling may be to stop. Again, if you do them VERY gently and softly and stop the exercises just before the pain threshold hits, THIS is what cures the problem. Every day you will go farther and farther this way.

I am shocked out how much misinformation there is on the Internet on this topic. This book was all I needed. However I did also use the product called the "Carpal Solution" at mycarpaltunnel.com while I slept. I am convinced this helped as well. It basically pulls the lower, fatty parts of the palm apart slightly while you sleep, allowing the median nerve to breath a bit, and heal faster. Great concept and I recommend it, but it is this book I am writing a review on that is most essential.

Note the book "It's not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome" also found on Amazon also had some really good info on things to do. I think the ergonomic info was most helpful. After getting so educated on carpal tunnel syndrome, I am convinced poor ergonomics while sitting at my computer (and on my drums) was the source of the problem. You MUST sit up straight at the computer, use a keyboard tray, and do NOT use arm wrests on your chair, and do NOT use a keyboard cushion, and do NOT lean your body forward and wrest your arms on a table as you type, or against the tables edge while typing. That was my whole problem. Elbows MUST be at your sides as you type, and NOT leaning on anything. Follow these guidelines and also using the exercises in this book, you will be set. I will continue to do these exercises for the rest of my life - they feel good and are the right thing to do as you get older. You have to offset all hand/finger/wrist activity on a daily basis with stretches, period. Hope this helps!

P.S. I did seriously consider carpal tunnel surgery as a last resort, as a few people I know had success with it. However, come to find out, carpal tunnel surgery does not have a big success rate overall, or it may only help temporarily. This is because carpal tunnel syndrome in most cases originates in the neck, shoulders and chest (pinched nerves), where pain then travels to the hands. In this case the surgery often doesn't work or only provides temporary relief because the source of the problem is actually elsewhere in the body. Once I found this book on proper stretching and saw the results, I realized surgery is not needed.

UPDATE: Now 3 months later, my carpal tunnel symptoms are still gone and I can do everyday tasks normally. Though if I type for a long time, my hands do get a bit achy. In that case, I pull out the exercises from this book and do them and I always feel much better. One solution I found in the meantime to lessen my typing is software called "Dragon Dictate" which allows me to dictate everything and the computer writes for me. Worth every penny and saves SO much stress on my hands so that I don't have to do the exercises as much.

Carpal Tunnel and related stress injuries struck me in mid-August and left me practically helpless for nearly 3 months. After 3 days of doing the stretching exercises in Butler's book, I was back to doing simple activities and completely off the high dosages of anti-inflammatories recommended by my doctor. I cannot recommend this book too highly. The exercises are super simple and can be done throughout the day whenever you have a moment - in front of the TV, while laying in bed, in the car at a stoplight. The exercises deal with the entire upper body, including arms and wrists. You can choose those appropriate to you and your activities. If you are not sure, Butler has a list of which exercises apply to certain lines of work. An excellent - and inexpensive - book.

The good: The exercises are categorized and easy to understand. The exercises probably are effective for most people.

The bad: Following the exercises precisely for three weeks, I felt much more numbness and weakness. For some, these stretches may actually exacerbate the problem.

Beware, and begin slowly. If you are one who finds benefit, then gradually increase the number of stretches and the time you spend stretching. If, however, your symptons increase, slow down or stop.

Good luck!

After 3 years of suffering RSI from working at a PC, I was desperate, and had tried regular medicine, and even acupuncture (this last, I'm still on, and it works) but the best relief I have found was from the series of exercises found on this book. From upper-body to hand-fingers, this book (Comprised of mostly full-page illustrations) helps you relieve the symptons of your RSI. I can't say I don't have any pain anymore, but I can say it has greatly reduced, and improving.
There is little text in this book, dealing mostly with how you should do the repetitions and how to avoid further injury, then it is right ot the action with the diagrams and instructions for every exercise.
If you have an RSI try this book, and also check for your posture while working, seating, and standing. I have a great non-commercial link about this for you, write me if you want it.

Health and peace to you.

I found this book a great help with a Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and a variety of other hand/arm aches and pains. My CTS is virtually gone and my other problems are significantly better - and still improving. I loaned the book to a friend who has had similar results.

I particulary appreciated the non-technical approach (shame about the title which does not make it obvious that you don't need to be a health professional to understand and use the info in the book).

I got best results combining the techniques in this book with the ones in Bonnie Prudens, Myotherapy and a little bit of gentle muscle building (especially of the muscles that open the hands).

I heartily recommend this book.

I wouldn't have bought this book if I had had a chance to look at it, since it uses words like "bodywork", which turn my stomach, and has a somewhat new-age-y tone which repels my mind. But as it turns out, I bought it sight unseen from Amazon, and thought I'd try it out. I had started experiencing RSI symptoms about a month earlier. One evening I picked up the Butler book and did a few of the exercises. The next morning I woke up without pain in my forearms for the first time in several weeks. I still have some symptoms which these exercsises have not (yet?) alleviated, but it's definitely alleviated some, and perhaps prevented others from getting worse. The exercises are easy and non-stressful (physically or mentally). Even I -- who ordinarily hate physical exercise of any kind -- enjoy them.END

This is the book I return to again and again, since the exercises, which are gentle and easy to do, really do help on tense and injured muscles and tissue. The book is very much focused on the drawings of the exercises with helpful text on the sides and references to important intro text scattered throughout to help you remember the essentials of safe stretching. Very easy to use book, and the exercies do help! If you need more information in general about RSI, the physiology of it and treatments, I have found "It is not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!" to be a very informative book.

I don't know why this book isn't in every house in the country. It's simple, brilliant, and effective, and I recommend it to everyone. I have had doctors tell me that my only option is an arm operation, only to rid myself after about a week of 75% of the pain and discomfort. I spend hours a day at the piano and the computer, and this book probably saved my professional life. Thanks Sharon!!