Fixing You: Neck Pain & Headaches [Paperback]

I read half the book and even though Rick advises to read the whole thing before doing the exercises, well, I couldn't help myself...I jumped right in. I did most of the exercises for the first time yesterday. Today I looked at a few of his on-line videos and did all of the exercises in the book. I can't believe how good my neck feels! It hasn't felt this loose and pain-free in many, many years...as far back as I can remember, practically. The concept of my shoulders being responsible for neck pain simply never occurred to me and was never mentioned as a possibility when I tried to get help through chiropractors, massage therapists, orthobionomy practitioners and acupuncturists. I really like the idea of helping myself too...going to all these health care practitioners can get really expensive and very frustrating when they don't "fix" you. I'm not a couch potato and I do stretching every day when I get up, but what with a couple of minor car accidents long ago, and falling down on our rocky terrain while hiking more than a few times, plus some bad posture habits, my whole body has gradually gotten so out of whack I didn't know where to start. Lately I've been constantly gulping down ibuprofen due to almost constant headaches. My neck was at the very least chronically tense, but also usually quite stiff and sore. I'm looking forward to Rick's books that focus on hip problems and shoulder problems because I need both of those too! I've had an extremely painful shoulder for the past month or so due to too much time at the computer, I think. But the exercises in the Neck Pain book have helped this as well.

This book is extremely easy to read and understand. You're given a batch of exercises as well as helpful tips to follow during your daily routine. The videos Rick presents on his website are very clear and well-executed.

Do yourself a favor: get this book and do the exercises. You won't believe the difference it makes. I'm going to recommend it to everyone I know with any problems along this line. In fact, I've already recommended it to three people!

Before I launch into this review I'd like to give some context to my comments, a frame for what follows about what I see as a remarkably helpful break-through approach to pain management and healing:

Context -- As someone who has lived and worked in chronic pain(CP) since 1984 following a botched lumbar fusion (back) surgery, I think I've read more books and articles on the subject than I care to remember, many of them redundant, overly theoretical or simply not helpful to me at all. So I began this book with a jaded eye, a sort of "show me something I don't know" mind-set.But after reading and using two books in this "Fixing You" series by Rick Olderman I felt compelled to spread the word so that more people might take advantage of this substantive yet practical handbook for dealing with specific pain areas. So here goes:

If you or someone you love is in CP then you already know that long-term intractable pain - at any degree of intensity - is a totally different creature than episodic pain. In fact, in my own and many other CP sufferers' cases, what works well for most episodic pain simply does not work for long-term pain. In fact, what works with episodic pain (tooth ache, broken bone etc) when applied to chronic conditions often leads to a whole secondary set of problems. Narcotics are perhaps the best known example of this compounding effect, for in chronic pain cases the dosage must be increased over time to provide the same relief. Then, unless guided by the holistic perspectives such as those of this book, so often CP worsens and leads to depression, sleep disorders, anxiety, suicidal ideation and anger control difficulties and more. It is a hell I would not wish on my worst enemy.

For me, aside from the obvious benefit of exercises which work, the Fixing You series provides a way of thinking which can help the CP sufferer manage the pain and start on a healing process - all by a shift in how one experiences one's own body and movement. This is treated up front in the book(s) before even beginning the physical therapy aspect. The author makes it clear that each person is responsible for their own healing, that how they visualize themselves and how they think about their pain has a direct impact on how well the physical therapy exercises do their healing work.

For me the take-aways of the book are as follows:

1. You own your own healing process, self-awareness may be difficult when racked with pain, but it will be the key to your fixing yourself.

2. Focus on your whole person and not the pain site itself (again, not an easy task).

3. When it comes to healing the body, function trumps structure: meaning that a structural defect on your MRI need not be a final verdict. Rick Olderman's solutions lie in teaching the body more ergonomically correct postures and movement, optimizing the body's innate ability to heal itself.
Another valuable bonus of the Fixing You books is that you can access videos on-line via a password-access website provided when you purchase the book. The style of writing is personable and clear, void of preaching or philosophical verbiage which can often muddle rather than clarify. With these books a CP sufferer has a better understanding of what they must think -- as well as do -- in order to truly fix themselves. Even if your pain is not in the neck or back, this is a must-read for all with chronic pain. Perhaps the biggest problem I have with this book is that Rick is not down the street so that I can visit him when I need to! I give this book five stars!

I love this book. It is short, easy to read and has immediately useful suggestions on how to deal with headaches and neck pain. I am a Physical Therapist and a Pilates Instructor who is always looking for ways to help my clients. This book is a gem. I have found it to be a useful tool in helping people understand concepts I studied while getting my Master's....you do not have to have an anatomy or biomechanical background to understand Rick's book. He makes understanding human movement fun and gives people the gift of comprehending how movement works. I recommend this and all of the Fixing You series to those in pain and those who want to understand more about the human body and how it moves.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 15 reviews  4.9 out of 5 stars