Customer Reviews

Fibromyalgia: Simple Relief through Movement

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has some very practical and safe exercises for persons with chronic pain. It offers sound advice that can be carried out at home without expense. This disease is very debilitating and some of the exercise programs that we try to enforce in this culture certainly are ill advised. Ms. Bigelow offers very good suggestions to the patient.

An excellent book on how to exercise if you suffer from Fibromyalgia. Offers specific strategies to reduce pain with a careful, gradual approach to movement & then exercise. Explains which movements & excercises to avoid, which one to try, how to deal with flare-ups, etc. I should have read this book years ago - it would have spared me a lot of pain (& weight gain). If you have Fibromyalgia, you MUST read this book.

I was concerned based on the review below that this book would disappoint me, but every concern vanished after reading it. Ms. Bigelow is motivating about movement, but does advocate rest. She does describe FMS as a neuro-endocrine suggestion and there are photographs of stretches, along with very specific exercise recommendations. A trustworthy, useful, refreshing reference!

This book is one of the worst "self-help" books I have ever read concerning fibromyalgia. I was very dissapointed, hoping to find desciptions of specific exercises and stretches that would help ease the pain of fibromyalgia. Instead I find a book that perpetuates the myth that all fibromyalgia sufferers are simply lazy. This book suggests that all of us in pain need only to get off our lazy rear-ends, take our antidepressants, and that will cure us. It is a dangerously simplistic book that advises that the best perscription for fibro patients is to stay on your feet all day, on the move, and take your Dr.s prescribed antidepressants to help you sleep at night. The obsesrvations in this book are incredably shallow and simple-minded, comparing muscles to cement that will become set and hard if they sit still too long, and completely ignoring the new research that descibes fibromyalgia as a neurohormonal disorder, an exaggerated response of the CNS. I feel very sorry for people with fibromyalgia who actually believe this nonsense, try their best to follow the instructions and then feel inadequate when they don't experience the desired results. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! Instead get:"Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome: A Survival Manual" By Devin Starlanyl, M.D. and Mary Ellen Copeland, M.S.,M.A., and "Alternative Treatments for Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" by Mari Skelly and Andrea Holm. These books will give you information that is useful and pertinant. Thanks to the folks at Amazon for making this information exchange possible. Good luck to all of you people in pain, I hope you find something to help!

You might mention the fact that this author has suffered from fibromyalgia since teenagehood. That she writes from experience and knows exercises which are gentle enough to help without causing additional discomfort and pain makes this book a rare find.

After being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, and then told I wasn't allowed to exercise, my body has become stiff and its even hard to bend over to pick something off the floor. I'm excited to see how this will help me - each of the stretches focuses on areas that are specifically difficult to move after the pain has set in.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about a year and a half ago and have read everything I can get my hands on. With as debilitating as this syndrome is, I refuse to let it stop me and after almost a year of medication decided that I dont want to spend the rest of my life medicated. So, I have opted to treat my FMS by eating healthy, exercising and other alternative treatments (like acupunture). I bought this book thinking it would provide me with some additional guidances about exercise and movement. For me, the book was too simple. I already know everything it suggests. However, I do think that it could be something positive for those who are not moving or for loved ones of FMS sufferers, like my boyfriend who found the book quite informative.

Because we are all dynamic, incredibly complex beings, as different from each other as we could possibly be, naturally, with any health issue, from a common cold to schizophrenia, different medications & different therapies work better or worse {or not all} for different people.

With that caveat, and as anyone with FM would tell you, when you've tried everything else, it won't hurt {much more} to try this.

I was one of those who listened to my doctor & jumped right into low-impact aerobics. After a week I would have welcomed death, both his and mine.

I opened this book, as I opened a few dozen other books on FM, with a little hope & a lot of cynicism. I've only gotten as far as the illustrated stretches, which I spent an hour on last night, with these results:
...I slept better & more comfortably last night than in recent memory, without feeling as if I were lying on a bed of rocks;
...I didn't wake up & take inventory of aches & pains that were about to ruin my day;
...I didn't have to spend 10 minutes trying to nerve myself up to get out of bed, with dread at facing another new day with the same old loathing for my body & its lack of cooperation;
...I didn't have to prioritize my entire day based on my pain level, knowing I would feel up to only 1 or 2 small tasks, & trying to decide if I would be able to shower AND still go to my son's school play.

I feel looser in my muscles & joints, clearer in my head, more optimistic about life in general & in my ability to stay this particular course with, well, maybe not grace, but at least without constantly living on the edge of desperation & depression, not living but just putting one foot in front of the other & not looking any further ahead than the next painful step.

Overall - the best investment of time & money I've ever made. It's early days, but I finally feel ready to look forward to the future.

This book was not helpful at all to me. I basically have a good working knowledge about fibromyalgia and this book offered no new helpful advice; in fact, it seems to be very outdated. The author basically speaks about her own actual experience. I would try another book rather than this one, probably a book written in 2005.

Excellent book for fibromyalgia sufferers. Since the author is also a fellow fibromyalgic, you are receiving advice from someone who knows in addition to educational information obtained through her profession. The information is provided in common layman's terms and is easy reading. The information is also common sense and assists you with your efforts to manage your fibromyalgia, instead of "it" managing you. I have recommended this book to other fibromyalgics and they loved the book as well. Fibromyalgics need to educate themselves about this condition in order to continue living their lives as normal as possible, so do not rely solely on this book, but it should definitely be included in your fibromyalgia library.