The Egoscue Method of Pain Relief

My clients often ask, who developed your program? Where did it come from? The truth is, what we do is not completely new. The concept of addressing postural abnormalities has been around for decades. We just made it better.

It all started with a guy named Pete Egoscue.

Who is Pete Egoscue?

The person who really began relieving back pain through treating postural imbalances is Pete Egoscue. He developed the Egoscue Method of pain relief in the late 1970s, after he was injured while in the Marines.

He pioneered the concept of looking at posture rather than the condition that was supposedly causing the pain. He knew that improving posture was the key to relieving pain even while you still suffered from some physical condition, such as scoliosis or bulging disk. To his credit, he really made that concept accepted nationwide. And by the early 1990s his method was very popular. It still is.

As he writes on his web site, "The goal of the Method is to eliminate disparities that can occur when injuries or negative lifestyle conditions affect the way the musculoskeletal system actually moves as opposed to its underlying structural parameters. By restoring muscular balance, skeletal alignment and the harmonious interplay of internal systems, the body takes a quantum leap in healing power, stamina and physical capability."

Sounds a lot like what we do here, right? Well it is. But we take it a big and very important step further.

His way is passive. Our way is active.

We credit Pete Egoscue with revitalizing the notion of achieving a neutral position to relieve pain. But we think he achieves it the wrong way. He does it passively.

He strives to relax the muscles that work together to create your posture. He does this by using special cushions and pads (which he sells) to put people in specific positions. These positions take the stress off the muscles and help break the pain-stress cycle that results in chronic pain. That in turn helps restore neutral posture and continues to break down the pain-stress cycle.

That's all well and good. But it doesn't go far enough. His downside is he doesn't do anything about increasing your physical strength. Relying just on relaxing and releasing muscles to find a more neutral position doesn't make your muscles more flexible or stronger. It doesn't create what we call "functional stability."

The added benefits of Muscle Balance Therapy

We stress an active process to create stability. We believe that the active use of muscles is more stabilizing. It improves your ability to tolerate stress.

Egoscue's focus is not on correcting muscle imbalance from the perspective of strength vs. flexibility. I know this first-hand. I had a client who went through his program for eight years. And not once did his therapist tell him to work on strengthening his gluteus muscles.

To me, that's missing the boat when it comes to real, long-lasting pain relief.

So we took his concept and added to it. Our Muscle Balance Therapy takes his world and builds on it.

MBT identifies postural dysfunctions, and then has you actively work to stretch the tight muscles, strengthen the weak muscles and bring your posture back to a more stable state.

Do you want easy, or do you want effective?

The Egoscue Method is certainly enticing. After all, it is passive. It doesn't require much work. It's pretty easy to lie on your back with your legs up on a pillow.

But you should ask yourself: Do you really believe passive activities can give you the best outcome? Creating core stability with targeted work is harder. But we believe it's better for long-term, lasting pain relief.