Crooked by Ramin

Hi Lori, 

I just ordered a copy from my library.  I'll post again after I have a chance to read it.  

Did you have an opinion to share?

Cecily

I really enjoyed reading the book. It has lots of data about why so many main-stream back pain techniques fail to resolve back pain.

The author also found that the methods that work the best are those where the student takes charge of their health with feedback from a highly skilled practitioner who is not teaching what the majority of other mainstream professionals are. This a lot of resonance with our philosophy.

I had only wished that the author had a chance to try the Gokhale Method since our technique yields such amazing results in such a short amount of time compared to most other methods. The author found success with postural modification techniques like the Alexander technique and Feldenkrais. The author also found strong results with more agressive methods of targeted functional movement workouts. 

I hope more people read this book, Crooked, 2017, before electing surgery, epidural steroids, and opiod drugs or before feeling despair that there is no hope for them.  We should all be informed consumers, but it can be difficult in the midst of back pain (sometimes debilitating) to do all the research and ask all the clear-headed questions.  Ramin did us a service with her investigative reporting and we have access to 6 years of her efforts condensed and clarified in her book and available at our public libraries.  I also like that she split the book in two and invites readers to start with the second half of the book (which gives advice on what to try to get rid of back pain including postural work).   Ramin is also a fan of the biomechanist Stuart McGill, and she posts 3 of his strengthening exercises on her website.  

Among many other practitioners, Ramin visits a disenchanted MN orthopedic surgeon who becomes dedicated to nonoperative (emphasis mine) care of back and neck patients and instead promotes medical strength training:

"Taking it easy didn't work for back pain, he said, because it promoted muscle atrophy, cartilage degeneration, stiffness, and depression. People with chronic spinal pain, Nelson said, quickly became experts at protecting their backs, and the longer a patient experienced chronic pain, or depended on passive care, administered in physical therapy or by a chiropractor, the more extreme the weakness, stiffness and perceived fragility."