Overpower Pain: The Strength-Training Program that Stops Pain without Drugs or Surgery (edit title)

• Rated 3 stars

“The author is a physiotherapist (physical therapist) and personal trainer. He has helped thousands of patients avoid unnecessary surgery and drugs through strength training. In this book (and through several articles and lectures) he shares his approach to pain relief by physical therapy, strength training (of muscles).

The book is well illustrated with photographs of various exercises that he recommends to overcome specific problems.

When I had a fall in 2006 I was unable to put my weight on my left leg and had to be hospitalised for about 10 days. After x-ray tests established that there was no fracture and after drugs helped with the initial pain management, I had the benefit of seeing first hand how a good physiotherapist can help in rebuilding the range of muscle movements through exercises of the affected muscles. When I was reading this book, I could thus relate very well with the explanations of the author in Chapter 3.

The approach is quite technical at places and some readers may not be able to follow the same but the main part of the book in Chapter 5 that covers the work out sessions (and which is well illustrated) will certainly hold the attention well.

In any case, it is imperative that any such exercise program should be taken up after a thorough evaluation by a physiotherapist (physical therapist) and a qualified training instructor.

The book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on pain management. Readers of this review may also check out

"The Journey to a pain relief - A hands on guide to breakthroughs in pain treatment" by Phyllis Berger

(http://swamyreviews.blogspot.com/search?q=Phyllis) and

"Painfree 1-2-3" by Dr. Teitelbaum (it disucsses many approaches to pain management).

Alternative and holistic healing methods also play an important role in pain management.

The reviewer is an amateur homeopath, a Bach Flower Instructor, Reiki Master and a Spiritual Healer, with interests in all aspects of healing.

”

• Rated 5 stars

“We often assume that chronic pain relates to a particular physical injury such as a herniated disc or arthritis when the real culprit is muscular imbalance. According to Mitchell Yass, author of Overpower Pain, it is often very difficult to diagnose such conditions. On an x-ray, the bones may actually appear to be misaligned or otherwise damaged. However, this data can be misleading. Often muscle mass is concentrated in certain areas which causes shortenings in opposing muscle groups. This can actually cause the types of alignments seen on x-rays.

Overpower Pain looks at the very common problem of chronic pain being caused by muscular imbalance and weakness. The information that the author presents could save the average person a good deal of money while quite possibly relieving their pain symptoms, all without surgery.

However, the thing that interested me most about this book was that I learned about how the muscles work together. For years, I have had lower back pain. I have tried everything to strengthen my back. After reading this book, I now understand why these exercises never worked. I was working the wrong muscle groups. The scary thing is that in doing so, I was actually making the problem worse.”