How I Got My Wiggle Back: A Memoir of Healing [Hardcover]

Anthony Field (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2012

The dramatic personal story of Anthony Field, founder and costar of the world's most popular children's musical group, The Wiggles

With their distinctive look, catchy music, and upbeat message, the Wiggles have performed their way into the hearts and homes of millions of kids and their parents around the world. Their extraordinary success over the last twenty years includes TV shows, the sale of tens of millions of CDs and DVDs, and sell-out live performances for a million people annually as well as honors including being named UNICEF goodwill ambassadors. Now, for the first time, Anthony Field, the "blue" Wiggle, tells his inspiring, behind-the-scenes story of how he overcame depression, life-threatening illness, and chronic pain to get his life back.

• Takes you inside the life of the Wiggles' co-founder Anthony Field and the story of his successful struggle to overcome debilitating emotional and physical health challenges
• Shares practical action steps to help relieve pain, prevent and heal disease, and achieve peak fitness regardless of age
• Reveals groundbreaking approaches to wellness developed by two acclaimed chiropractors
• Includes more than seventy photographs from Anthony Field's personal collection

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Anthony Field was on top of the world. As a founder and co-star of The Wiggles, the most popular children's music group in history, he sang and danced his way into the hearts of countless families around the world. Wiggles CDs and DVDs sell in the millions, the group's TV show is immensely popular among preschoolers, and the band performs to sold-out crowds around the world for hundreds of shows every year. But all was not well.

In How I Got My Wiggle Back, Anthony, the "blue Wiggle," reveals for the first time that as he and his group soared to fame and fortune, he was locked in a downward spiral that nearly ended his career. Anthony tells the story of the years he spent suffering from joint pain, multiple allergies, chronic headaches, and clinical depression. In this book, he also talks about his remarkable recovery and the simple techniques that can help anyone suffering with similar problems to regain their health.

Anthony Field has always been dedicated to The Wiggles and their mission to engage and inspire young children with music and entertainment. In How I Got My Wiggle Back, Anthony reminisces about the band's early years and his life from childhood to adulthood. He introduces his fellow Wiggles and recounts their leap from Australia to becoming world-class superstars. For fans, he describes in detail how the group develops its shows, the different roles each of its members plays, and the excitement of making children and their parents an integral part of every show.

Anthony's story of how he beat the mysterious illnesses that threatened to end his career is both inspiring and instructive. He tells the riveting story of how two wonderful doctors isolated the root cause of many of Anthony's physical problems and set him on the road to recovery; he also provides a prescriptive self-care health program of exercise advice and nutritional information with practical action steps to relieve pain and prevent and heal disease.

Filled with more than seventy-five photographs of Anthony and his fellow Wiggles from their early days through the present, and including photos of the fitness regime that now keeps Anthony at the peak of health, How I Got My Wiggle Back takes you backstage and beyond to experience the joy, pain, and ultimate triumph of a global superstar at the top of his game.

From the Back Cover

How I Got My Wiggle Back

"Anthony Field's success in children's entertainment proves that he is an extraordinarily talented and creative man. How I Got My Wiggle Back, his memoir, reveals that Field is also remarkably generous, sparing no detail of his battle with illness in order to demonstrate the power of the uncommon therapy that healed him literally from head to toe. The astonishing modalities he describes that until now have been reserved for an elite few will transform your view of the human body and the healing process."
—Antonia Felix, New York Times bestselling author of Sonia Sotomayor: The True American Dream

"Anthony Field's journey is the stuff of heroes. He is the quintessence of noble tenacity and bright intellect, capable of pursuing every possible avenue of relief and balance."
—John C. McGinley, actor (Scrubs, Platoon) and author of Untalkative Bunny

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118019334
• ISBN-13: 978-1118019337
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting But Completely Inaccessible March 25, 2012

By Davo36

Format:Hardcover

Well I read some of the other reviews and someone mentioned achilles tension. Well I have this along with plantar fasciitis (sore arches), sore calves etc.

And of course what really brought me to this book was that I also have depression, IBS, other body aches etc.

So when reading this book I got chills down my spine! The symptoms Anthony describes are very similar to my own. Luckily his symptoms were worse, but eerily similar. So similar I had to put the book down a couple of times, I was kind of afraid to read on, because I was fearful not to get my hopes up and that this book would just end up being another dead end.

Essentially Anthony fixes his physical problems with chiropractic treatment of his feet (mainly) and lower body. And then also later on fixes his digestive problems with nutritional treatment from another chiropractor.

So the book contains information on how to diagnose and treat yourself - in terms of your foot and lower body problems - which cause problems right up your body.

The trouble is, it's pretty incoherent in that the section entitled "What Can You Do?" commencing on page 129 is very hard to follow. There are a bunch of photos with captions and textual descriptions which are supposed to go with them. But they're far too brief and don't make a lot of sense to me. For instance there are 2 parts called "Release toe spring #1 and #2" with completely different pictures and explanations and also the photo for the part called "Release Plantar Calcaneoavicular" seems to be the incorrect one. And so on.

Does this make sense to anyone?: "Release Ankle Joint #1 Spring (Subtalar): Apply pressure at the ankle joint. Wiggle foot and ankle to feel the joint line. Move up the length of the joint." Accompanied by 2 photos showing a thumb being pressed in 2 slightly different places.

Maybe to another chiropractor, but not to me!

So right now I'm bitterly disappointed. And frustrated. The whole book outlines the problems, the symptoms etc. very well, but when it comes to the part about what to do it's a bunch of gibberish. Basically you need this exact chiropractor (Dr Stoxen - who only seems to see celebrities) or someone who knows his work and will apply it, to work on you.

And it took 35 hours of work, by this professional over the course of a number of days to fix Anthony. Well how on earth do we reproduce this from a few pages of brief and incoherent instructions?

I'm sure this doctor is correct and knows what he's doing, but he's also completely failed to describe his treatments in a way that a lay person could apply them to his/herself. This section is written by the doctor himself, not Anthony and it shows. Most of the book is very easy to read but this small but vital section is not.

The whole idea is to "unlock the master spring" i.e the arch of the foot. And this is vital before anything else can be done, in fact it's even stated that doing any exercise before unlocking the spring will result in further injury. But it seems to be a far from simple process - and it's not obvious if your arch is locked or unlocked! There are some tests but they're pretty vague.

I've had a couple of goes at following the exercises myself, but I feel I'm groping in the dark. I'd be very surprised if I was able to improve things on my own.

I'm not giving up, I think this book could actually be very important for me. I've had trouble with my feet and calves for years. I'm 42, used to play a lot of sport but now can't even really do a walk around the block without pain. The only exercise I can do is bike riding - no impacts. So if these techniques could be successfully applied to me, it could change my life.

So I'm going to have to try and find a chiropractor that can follow these techniques and sort me out. I've rung one this morning who reference this book on his website. But he hasn't read it. And his approach will be to try his methods first... I think finding someone and getting them to follow this technique of Dr Stoxen's instead of their own methods might be very difficult. All medical professionals have their own ideas and prejudices. Going to one and saying to them "Forget about all the stuff you've been doing the last 20 years, read this book and do that." might not be tenable.

If anyone else who has read this book can understand the crucial "What Can You Do?" section and shed light on how to do the treatment, then please comment. Perhaps we can have a discussion around helping each other?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wonders of Natural Health March 5, 2012

By Stephen Gangemi

Format:Hardcover

What a great overall perspective on natural health care and the impact it can have on the body - especially one that is pushing itself day in, day out, as many entertainers are. Anthony not only got his health "wiggle" back by following the advice of some great chiropractors, but he also turned back the aging clock. Good nutrition, not just following the latest fad diet, and adhering to a fitness program (while barefoot) can result in amazing changes as discussed in the book. Yeah the book is a bit scattered, I don't think there is any hiding that, but other than that it's great to see a world class entertainer not only go against the grain by not resorting to drugs (recreational and pharmaceutical) to function but also promote chiropractors and other natural health care providers. And let's not forget that he extends this some perspective on his entire family; what a great role-model.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Great to See a Major Celebrity Validating Chiropractic and Nutrition May 15, 2012

By David C. Sanders

Format:Hardcover

The Wiggles have sold more DVDs and CDs than the Beatles. They have TV shows in over 100 nations and perform to a million fans every year. Yet Anthony Field, founder of the group who performs as the famed "Blue Wiggle", was about to give it all up due to near physical and mental collapse from the rigors of the road. He had the best doctors and pills money could buy and it just didn't work. He was at the end of his rope.

Enter Dr. Stoxen and Dr. Gringeri, two chiropractors who Anthony credits with saving his life and his career. Their non-drug natural healing approach worked where all earlier approaches had failed. He goes into some detail about the exercise approaches he used and uses as well as nutritional insights that took him from constant pain and stress to a pain-free enjoyable life.

This is an inspiring book, written with humility and rare insight into a warm human being who thrills our kids and grandkids. An easy and fun read.