Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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!

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.

My wife has had cronic lower back pain since 1984; due to a degenerated disc that has completely dissolved. Surgeons have constantly refused to operate and only pain pills could mask the pain until (in 1985) we discovered Myotherapy. The recommended techniques for the applicable areas have been and are still being used with great success. Both my wife and myself swear by the technique. What is totally amazing to me is that every back surgeon, back specialist and GP that we have encountered over the years (save one) had not previously heard of Myotherapy. - - - a number of them have adopted it since (as part of their in-office treatments).

Bonnie Prudden was a person light years ahead of her time.What she had to say about fitness and injuries is still applicable today. Her techniques to reduce pain have helped me to get rid of my chronic back pain. This book is a must for reference and techniques that really work.

I had very good results using the techniques in this book to treat my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and some other hand and arm aches and pains. My CTS is virtually gone and the other problems are much better and still improving.

I found it best to combine the methods from this book with those in Sharon Butlers Carpal Tunnel Syndrome book. The two combined plus a little bit of very gentle muscle building (especially of the muscles that open the hand) worked wonders.

I highly recommend this book.

I had intense headaches for years. My MD gave me pain killers. Chiropractors gave me temporary relief -- I'd have to return every two weeks or so. But using the methods in this book resulted in my not having headaches, now, at all! Also I once had a pinched nerve in my neck. A specialist gave me therapy and a traction unit as he said it would return from time to time. I used the traction unit many times. However, one day I was in such pain from the headache caused by the pinched nerve that I had used the traction unit three times before lunch but with one treatment it was gone and I have not had a recurrance.I am a firm believer in its usefulness! Bonnie Prudden"s other book "Pain Erasure" is excellent. We found it first and it was the one we used with such success. We have both, now.

I had intense headaches for years. My MD gave me pain killers. Chiropractors gave me temporary relief -- I'd have to return every two weeks or so. But using the methods in this book resulted in my not having headaches, now, at all! Also I once had a pinched nerve in my neck. A specialist gave me therapy and a traction unit as he said it would return from time to time. I used the traction unit many times. However, one day I was in such pain from the headache caused by the pinched nerve that I had used the traction unit three times before lunch but with one treatment it was gone and I have not had a recurrance.I am a firm believer in its usefulness! Bonnie Prudden"s other book "Bonnie Prudden's Guide to Pain Free Living" is also excellent.

I discovered Bonnie Prudden's books "Myotherapy" and "Pain Erasure" after spending a year being passed from one doctor to another like a baton in a relay race. I think I saw a total of 24 doctors that year. (About 1985) I had fallen, but not broken any bones, and one muscle spasm turned into another until I was one big Charley Horse of chronic pain. I even filed for social security disability.

I saw "Myotherapy" in a book store and laughed at the sub-title, "complete guide to pain relief." I thought, "Old woman, you don't know what pain is!" Still, I opened the book, and discovered she knew what those strange knots in my muscles were, what they were doing, and how to get rid of them. (One doctor had thought maybe the aching stiff spots were blood clots, and sent me for xrays.) Prudden called them "Myofacial trigger points." (So did an arthritis specialist I later saw, but he was not as aware of their power and multiple location sites as Prudden.)

I was so locked up from pain I needed every technique and trigger point in the book. They worked! I felt like a robot having to turn on a zillion switches to get my body moving again, but the time invested in learning those techniques has repaid itself over and over again.

No migraines now. Carpel tunnel, cubital tunnel, calf cramps, shin splints, and TMJ are vanquished. Even my dizzy spells and ringing in the ears responded. If I listed everything, you would not believe it. Did I mention Myotherapy stops hiccups?

Her basic premise is that muscles learn from experience. Else, activities like signing your name, catching a ball, or playing an instrument could never become automatic. A muscle strained to the point of soreness learns to protect itself by refusing to strech quite so far next time. Release that tension, and THEN gently stretch the muscle, and normal range of motion will be restablished.

If you buy Myotherapy, get a good anatomy book too. One with lots of pictures of muscles and the bones they attach to.

I was hit by a train a few years after my first "release" by Myotherapy. I now have to "fix" my back every few days or weeks, but I shudder to think what sort of condition I'd be in now without Myotherapy. Lots of physical therapists, massage therapists, chiropractors and doctors know more about their particular piece of the chronic pain puzzle, but Prudden has fit the pieces together in a system that works.

Everyone has aches and pains. Some more serious than others. This book helped me take control of my body instead of waiting for doctors and physical therapists to fix my pains. I would NOT be without this book. I've bought one for my parents, too.