Customer Reviews

Release Your Pain

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This is merely an introduction to Active Release Therapy and its potential in the treatment of Repetitive Strain Injuries. There is NO INSTRUCTION on how to apply ART. Consider it promotional material for Dr. Leahy . The bulk of the book is made up of an overview of common Injuries (causes, treatment options, selected exercises and stretches). One has to train and test with the author to become an ART practitioner.

This book is nothing more than a lengthy brochure written by chiropractors to promote the sale of continuing education seminars to other chiropractors. As one of the prior reviewers stated, there is NO INSTRUCTION on how to provide or perform an "ART" technique. The bulk of the book is simply a review of common repetitive strain injuries and treatment options which are common physical therapy techniques.
"ART" itself does not appear to be anything specifically special other than a type of manual technique designed to release adhesions in soft tissue, of which there are many. All that is presented here is a treatment technique that has been labeled as something specific so that is could be legally protected as a specific type of treatment, then marketed and sold to other chiropractors. Indeed, the foreward is written NOT by a neutral third party but by the actual chiropractor who markets and sells the technique via seminars. The actual authors are people that have taken his course, become instructors and have basically written a text to support the marketing of the continuing education classes. There appears to be no actual scientific studies that prove "ART" techniques are any more successful than other manual techniques. The only supporting evidence provided in the book is done through case studies. Other than the promotion of "ART" and how is it "superior" to other treatment options, the remaining information in the book is again, actually common physical therapy treatment techniques (which is the book's only redeeming quality). This book and others like it would like you to think that "ART" and other "patented" techniques are something new. Most, if not all of these type of treatments, are nothing more than modifications of existing tried and true techniques that have been renamed, repackaged and sold to newer generations of clinicians. Indeed, as some chiropractors are moving closer to mainstream medicine, they are incorporating techniques used commonly in physical medicine/physical therapy but most chiropractic schools/chiropractors would never admit this, so the end result is that existing techniques are given new names so that they can be marketed with a chiropractic twist from whomever is promoting it at the time.

I'm returning this book as this is more like a brochure advertising this special 'patented' technique. I understand you can't learn this type of thing from a book but still i would like to see the actual techniques in there. Its just advertising for this special 'patented' technique which i'm not going to waste anymore money on.

i'm very much into "DIY physical therapy, ie: myofacsial release, trigger point therapy etc and thought that this book would be good to add to my arsenal, but all this seemed to be is a book that instructs you to go and find a ART practitioner, not how to do any of it yourself.I understand that some things should only be done by trained professionals, but the books premise is misleading.

Release Your Pain is a book about Active Release Therapy (ART), a soft-tissue procedure created, developed, and patented by Dr. Leahy.

ART as a procedure is amazing. I have computer related Repetitive Strain Injury, and, slowly but surely, am getting better. It has literally changed my life. This book, however, is useless.

I bought this book in hopes of better understanding and learning ART techniques to do on myself since my bills are piling up and I haven't worked in nearly a year. I was hoping to be able to better mimic the work that my practitioner does on me, since he can't feel my pain.

Much to my dismay, 15 pages define what Repetitive Stress Injuries are, another 15 describe ART. The rest is devoted to 2 things:

1) Identifications and definitions of specific injuries
2) Stretching and strengthening exercises you should do in conjunction with ART.

Not a single page describes how to do ART on yourself. Since you're forced to see an ART practitioner, these people are also supposed to give you a workout regimen, thus making this book redundant.

There is something to be said for seeing a medical professional and having him determine and fix your problems. It's just a smart thing to do. Unfortunately, my ART Professional (as listed in the ART website), has had me come back 20 times when ART is supposed to work much quicker than that. Either he's not much of a professional, or he's looking to drain my money like everybody else.

If someone is so bold as to patent a life-renewing technique, charge a few thousand for certification yearly, and have this useless book out in your honor, I suggest you get on the stick and make sure your practitioners deserve the certification.

Quite simply, the stretching and strengthening exercises listed in this book have a greater possibility for injury than ART does, so legal ramifications of self-injury due to ART are, at best, extremely minimal.

The previous reviewers gave this book 5 stars, one of whom gives the book out to all his patients. Interesting considering it just came out a month ago, and none of the major bookstores have it. To me, it's little more than an ART brochure.

Buyer beware.

This book is absolutely misleading and a waste of anyone's time and money. Nowhere will you find ANY information about Active Release Techniques, only vague references to how wonderful and effective it is. I'm appalled that anyone even took the time to write such worthless material. Avoid this book and save yourself a few bucks!!

This book is nothing more than a lengthy brochure written by chiropractors to promote the sale of continuing education seminars to other chiropractors. As one of the prior reviewers stated, there is NO INSTRUCTION on how to provide or perform an "ART" technique. The bulk of the book is simply a review of common repetitive strain injuries and treatment options which are common physical therapy techniques.
"ART" itself does not appear to be anything specifically special other than a type of manual technique designed to release adhesions in soft tissue, of which there are many. All that is presented here is a treatment technique that has been labeled as something specific so that is could be legally protected as a specific type of treatment, then marketed and sold to other chiropractors. Indeed, the foreward is written NOT by a neutral third party but by the actual chiropractor who markets and sells the technique via seminars. The actual authors are people that have taken his course, become instructors and have basically written a text to support the marketing of the continuing education classes. There appears to be no actual scientific studies that prove "ART" techniques are any more successful than other manual techniques. The only supporting evidence provided in the book is done through case studies. Other than the promotion of "ART" and how is it "superior" to other treatment options, the remaining information in the book is again, actually common physical therapy treatment techniques (which is the books only redeeming quality). This book and others like it would like you to think that "ART" and other "patented" techniques are something new. Most, if not all of these type of treatments, are nothing more than modifications of existing tried and true techniques that have been renamed, repackaged and sold to newer generations of clinicians. Indeed, as some chiropractors are moving closer to mainstream medicine, they are incorporating techniques used commonly in physical medicine/physical therapy but most chiropractic schools/chiropractors would never admit this, so the end result is that existing techniques are given new names so that they can be marketed with a chiropractic twist from whomever is promoting it at the time.

I read this book and it gives no information about how do you do this technique. I have been to numerous frauds for my soft tissue problems and this book adds to my list. In fact it gives a bad start
to someone who may want to get ART done on them. Sometimes people want to make a quick buck by writing a book in the hopes that some sucker will fall for it!

I thought from the title of this book that it would be like a synopsis of how to do the ART technique. Instead, most of it was info about how wonderful ART is with some useful information about injuries in general. It does inform about specific anatomy but I didn't really need that part, although it was nice. I just wanted to know how to use the techniques, and I was a bit disappointed.

I have to agree with some of my precedessors here, the book is a well-written brochure that stops short of explaining how to actually treat RSI. While I am fully aware that you can not learn such a technique from a book, it would be helpful if the author had gone more into detail in regards to pressure points etc.
On the other hand the book offers a decent overview over the most common RSI's and how they occur, which can be helpful if someone is just starting out in the field. The exercise setion is probaly the most useful part of the book/
However, I feel most people would get more out of a book on trigger point massage such as Donna Finados: Trigger Point self care manual" if your goal is actual pain relief.