Myotherapy: Bonnie Prudden's Complete Guide to Pain-Free Living [Paperback]

Bonnie Prudden (Author), Desmond Tivy (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 1985

America's #1 fitness expert will help you get rid of pain forever!
Myotherapy -- muscle therapy -- is a safe, drug-free way to eliminate pain caused by stress, accidents, sports, disease, and job hazards. It is the cornerstone of Bonnie Prudden's total program for lifelong fitness, health, and freedom from pain.
First, you'll learn the "Quick Fix" -- how to find and press your "trigger points" for immediate pain relief.
Then, you'll be ready to begin a complete, head-to-toe, day-to-day program -- the "Permanent Fix" -- designed to re-educate your muscles, toning and stretching them to prevent the recurrence of pain. Prudden has developed exercises you can do at home, at work, while gardening, even while waiting for a bus. By making these exercises an integral part of your life, you can enjoy pain-free living andslow down the aging process.
Profusely illustrated with step-by-step exercises as well as detailed photographs and diagrams, Bonnie Prudden's Myotherapy is a state-of-the-art fitness program that anyone of any age can follow and enjoy.
"The amazing thing is that it works!" -- Prevention Magazine

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

America's #1 fitness expert will help you get rid of pain forever!
Myotherapy -- muscle therapy -- is a safe, drug-free way to eliminate pain caused by stress, accidents, sports, disease, and job hazards. It is the cornerstone of Bonnie Prudden's total program for lifelong fitness, health, and freedom from pain.
First, you'll learn the "Quick Fix" -- how to find and press your "trigger points" for immediate pain relief.
Then, you'll be ready to begin a complete, head-to-toe, day-to-day program -- the "Permanent Fix" -- designed to re-educate your muscles, toning and stretching them to prevent the recurrence of pain. Prudden has developed exercises you can do at home, at work, while gardening, even while waiting for a bus. By making these exercises an integral part of your life, you can enjoy pain-free living andslow down the aging process.
Profusely illustrated with step-by-step exercises as well as detailed photographs and diagrams, Bonnie Prudden's Myotherapy is a state-of-the-art fitness program that anyone of any age can follow and enjoy.
"The amazing thing is that it works!" -- Prevention Magazine

About the Author

Bonnie Prudden has been actively involved in the physical-fitness movement for over six decades. Her studies on the unhealthy fitness level of American children and her report "The Report that Shocked the President" led to the formation of the President's Council on Youth Fitness under the Eisenhower administration. She had a weekely exercise spot on the "Today" show and wrote the exercise column for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. In the 40s and 50s she became a world class rock climber putting up 30 first ascents in the Shawangunks and was the first woman to earn a National Ski Patrol badge. She is the author of fifteen books, including two bestsellers PAIN ERASURE THE BONNIE PRUDDEN WAY and HOW TO KEEP SLENDER AND FIT AFTER THIRTY. In 2005 she was inducted into the Fitness Hall of Fame. In 2006 she was the first person to be inducted into the massage Hall of Fame and in 2007 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sport. At age 97 she continues to give lectures and interviews on safe, productive exercise for the prevention and relief of muscle pain. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 115 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 12, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345326881
• ISBN-13: 978-0345326881
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #873,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite massage, not quite acupressure - but it works!, March 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Myotherapy: Bonnie Prudden's Complete Guide to Pain-Free Living (Paperback)

Bonnie Prudden has written a detailed "how-to" for the control and removal of muscle spasm pain. She states in one chapter, "Acute pain rarely allows us to be stupid about our danger. Chronic pain doesn't either, but it takes longer to get its message across." She describes how old injuries, occupational demands, emotional stresses, and poor postural habits become locked into the body's memory to produce "trigger points" for pain years later. Example: she worked on some long-standing pain in cardiologist's lower back, and commented that his back was more like a violinist's than a doctor's. His reply: "Oh, but I was a violinist before I became a doctor."

The heart of this book is 200 pages of well-described and clearly illustrated technique. "Quick fix" is localized pressure on trigger points for short-term relief of muscle spasms. "Permanent fix" is a determined and more time-consuming effort to find and relieve both primary and secondary trigger points. Anyone who can read can follow the instructions and illustrations, and can give much-needed relief to a friend or loved one in pain.

Bonnie Prudden's technique, called "Myotherapy," has a few flaws. It requires some common sense; pressure point massage could cause real damage to a person with an injury rather than a chronic muscle spasm. Prudden writes as an intelligent layperson rather than a scientist or a physician, and has given totally anecdotal evidence rather than controlled studies. And finally, the technique is accessible to the general public, with no opportunity for anyone to build a profitable enterprise around it - so there is no incentive for anyone to popularize it.

However, if you have a stiff neck or back - you're sure you don't have a serious injury - and you have a friend who can read and follow directions - try this! The technique is surprisingly effective and long-lasting, and the price of the book can save you an expensive round of medical visits and therapies. Recommended.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly thorough!, July 23, 2000

By 

"darshank2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Myotherapy: Bonnie Prudden's Complete Guide to Pain-Free Living (Paperback)

I am very impressed with this book and have been recommending it to all my friends. Although the techniques described will not be learned in an instant, or on the first read, it should not be too hard for most people to figure them out from the detailed, thoughtful explanations in this book. Recently, I read a couple of books in the same vein that got me interested in the idea that chronic pain is largely created by muscle tension, so I was open to hearing her experiences ... and the conclusions she has come up with make a lot of sense. I especially found the corrective exercises to be *excellent*. I wish, though, that the exercises were presented together in one section .. it's a little hard to jump from page 20 to page 43 to page 67. However, this way of presenting it forces you to read the in-between text, which has much valuable information. I can't say much about the efficacy yet because I have only begun to apply it, but I expect it to be very helpful for my chronic "computer-neck" problems. Check it out!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars been doing exercises for years and they changed my life, October 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Myotherapy: Bonnie Prudden's Complete Guide to Pain-Free Living (Paperback)

I have various problems: a bad upper back, minor arthritis in the knee. Years ago, I started "freezing up" from muscle tension and the inactivity that came from being immobile. I discovered this book and have been applying it to myself ever since. I haven't had any contact with her organization lately, but back then, they sold a curved piece of metal with rubber tips on each end called a "shepherds crook." I have been using it on my own back ever since. The technique combines pressing on points of the various muscles for 5 seconds or so, along with stretching exercise. It works.