Egoscue Method Clinic

Egoscue is the pain relief solution for when you’ve tried everything else and it’s failed. It is non-​invasive, non-​pharmaceutical. Your tools will be gravity and moving your body.
During high school and college I trained hard with weights and sacrificed a lot, but knew something was missing. I trained for 5 years and kept getting stuck. Quarter after quarter, the ritual would be — lift hard, bulk up a bit, hit a wall, back off, rinse repeat. By senior year I had a hard time sitting for an hour in class without needing to stand up and stretch my legs. Where was my crisp 5 mile run, my double bodyweight squat, my bodyweight overhead press? How could I put in such effort and get so few results?
The reason is pain. I had broken posture and limited range of motion. Your body is designed to keep itself from getting hurt, so it limits you with pain. And eventually pain becomes normal, your new set point. I knew something was off. Every coach I had, got asked the same questions about how I could improve the way I move. They all said «keep at it,» «get ART,» or maybe «stretch.» Nope. You need a system like Egoscue which strategically gives you drills, stretches, and productive torture ;).
Egoscue’s method is premised on the idea that human bodies are designed with all major joints stacking on top of one another and at forming 90 degree angles with the ground. In our modern world of computers and sitting, our alignment is altered causes us to have pain. For more info check out the many books
This clinic is a franchise, original founder and clinic are in San Diego. Santa Monica is owned by the same person as the Beverly Hills and Boston locations, he operates them along with his wife. The clinic director here, Kai, is a great person and former athlete and bodybuilder. He works well with kids, older people, and with issues like inserted rods, surgically fused spines, and other special conditions.
I would recommend anyone with pain to at least check out the clinic — you don’t risk anything but you might transform your day to day life by getting out of pain.
You get what you pay for. Generally insurance will not cover your treatment here, but it’s worth the price.

This place is a godsend.
After a year of seemingly isolated incidents of pain in my back, knees and the occasional pulled muscle I was introduced to the folks at the Egoscue Method. The instant I got there the therapists were able to diagnose my connected issues just by looking at me. (It sort of felt like that scene in Bourne where he’s rattling off all sort of uncanny knowledge in the diner about how the strangers handle themselves physically just from seeing them out of the corner of his eye.) Being a big Matt Damon fan, you can bet this was awesome.
But more awesome was how the Egoscue folks put me on track to being able to do things again without pain. Don’t wait til you become immobile to go see these people.

In 1980 my dance partner threw me up in the air and «missed» when I came down — I landed flat on my back and had experienced bouts of chronic back pain ever since. The pain had become worse and more frequent over the years until about 18 months ago when I was rushed to the ER in an ambulance because my back had locked up and I couldn’t move. I was in so much pain I went into shock. I was also completely bed ridden for over a month and could barely sit up for the next four months.
Several months of physical therapy and two lumbar injections of cortisone provided relief for about six months and then my back started really hurting again. I remembered that my physical therapist had recommended the book «Pain Free» — and in an effort to avoid more spinal injections or surgery, I bought it and started the exercises. I was not expecting any immediate results, but hoped that eventually I would feel better.
I was shocked to find that after the very first time of doing the 20 minutes of exercises, I got up off of the floor and was completely PAIN FREE for the first time in months! I know it sounds unbelievable, but it really really happened. I’ve been doing the exercises for about 14 days now and am almost completely out of pain 100% of the time.
The idea behind the Pain Free exercises is that misalignment of our bodies is what causes pain. The exercises immediately put you back into alignment — and viola! the pain is gone. I have been recommending the book to everyone I know.
I have had such good results with the book, that I made an appointment at the Egoscue Clinic in Santa Monica for the free evaluation.
At the clinic, Paul took pix of me, put them up on the computer screen and applied horizontal and vertical lines so we could both clearly see what was out of alignment. He then went through the exercises he thought would be of additional benefit to me, having me do each one so he could make sure I was doing them in good form. And then he took the time to have me run through the exercises I had already been doing so he could check my form and posture on those as well.
Paul and Nicole were both very friendly and professional and they are both there to truly help people who come to the clinic.
In short, my experience at the Egoscue Clinic was fantastic and I highly recommend Pain Free and the clinic itself to anyone who wants to permanently end their pain without drugs or surgery.

I used to be a highly ranked and competitive tennis player in my youth and planned to play varsity tennis for my university. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, I had such severe knee tendinitis that I could barely walk. As an athlete, I knew that this had something to do with my body, not the sport. But going through the medical system led me in the opposite direction from where I needed to go. I ended up quitting tennis altogether and taking up swimming and yoga. I studied biology and physiology as an undergraduate to better understand how and why the medical system was unable to treat such a simple condition, as well as more complicated conditions. While I am thankful for my studies, I was always angered how the professors broke things down to such a tiny scale that the human system ended up being reduced to a set of molecular pathways. What about my knees? What about other, more serious and chronic conditions?
The Egoscue Method is the first Method that I have encountered that ‘hits the nail on the head’ and finally provides me with an explanation and a road map for health. I started reading about the Method a few months back, and it hit home. The West LA Egoscue clinic embodies the principels of the Method, namely that the body is designed to move and we just need to work to realign it in order for it do so in a free and easy manner.
The therapists at the Egoscue clinic in West LA determine a client’s recipe of excercises based on his /​her posture and gait. No manipulation or pharmaceutical prescriptions. The clinic is beautiful, and my experience there has been nothing short of exceptional. I am a graduate student in physiology and am as dissatisfied with the state of the medical system as I was at the age of 16. The Egoscue Method has given me not only a ‘menu’ for my knee pain, but a ‘recipe’ for where to take my life. How cool is that???
BTW, I am now running again, swimming, and will soon be picking up my tennis racket again. Thank you Egoscue West LA!

In the spring of 2004, I was in so much pain from arthritis and general pretzelitis that I could not walk without a cane. In the mornings I had difficulty getting out of bed, and even on a good day, I could walk only short distances. Driving the car was torture. On a bad day, I was motionless. It was a nightmare.
I was in a used book store, limping along after my son, when I saw a little book with «Pain Free» on the spine. «Hmmm,» I thought, «I could use some of that.»
The book was written by a guy named Pete Egoscue, and I read a lot of it that night. It sounded too good to be true: heal yourself with simple exercises. Yeah, right.
The next morning, I could not get out of bed. I needed to drive from Santa Cruz to LA, and I could not sit up straight, much less anything else. I pulled the book from the night table and looked in it. The exercises it said I needed to do required I lie on the floor. «OK,» I thought grimly, «I can call the EMTs now, or I can call them later, but whether I’m naked in the bed, or naked on the floor, it is going to be embarrassing either way.» So I rolled down onto the floor with the book and began doing the first exercise.
40 minutes later, I pushed myself to my feet and walked across the room. No kidding.
The Egoscue Method is a series of exercises to correct posture and correct body misalignment. I know it sounds like snake oil, but I’ve not had a day of immobility since I started. The book got me going, but it was the folks at the West LA Egoscue Clinic who got me really moving. Now I can walk for exercise again, and keep up with friends and family. I am no longer a cripple.
If you have chonic pain in your back or joints, check these folks out. They are not cheap, but they work miracles.