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I thought I'd post this in the yoga forum, since the book is in essence about yoga techniques!! smile

======

The first thing to know about reading 3 Minutes to a Pain-Free Life by Dr. Weisberg is that you are going to get to page 132 before you learn ANYTHING about those 3 minute exercises! That is a lot of slogging you have to do to get to the reason you bought the book.

The book discouraged me right from the beginning. The introduction talks about how just 100 years ago people did not practice preventative dental care. What?? I study history and even in medieval days they had tooth cleaners, mouthwashes, and tooth whiteners. Apparently the first toothbrush equivalent traces back to 3,000 BC and it may simply be that we can't find earlier ones because they've decayed.

The same introduction states that "the very notion of preventative care [for the musculoskeletal system] is nonexistent" right now. Again, what?? The six exercises presented in this book are pretty much exactly what I do in my yoga practice every day! The very things discussed in this book - the importance of synovial fluids, the flexing of joints - are things I find in every yoga book I read. This is hardly new stuff.

This introduction is by someone who says she's sedentary and in constant pain - but she's in "excellent health." Is there a serious disconnect here?

So to get all of this in the first two pages of the book is exceedingly disheartening. Then we move on into the main content.

Pain is an alarm system for your body. Sure, acute pain, like if you cut your finger, is something you can see the source of and know how to fix. However, with chronic pain, you don't know what's causing it. You don't know what to fix. So it goes on and on and you start to want to just drug out the pain. However, this will just make it worse! Whatever is really causing that pain is going to keep growing.

It's important to realize this pain is not caused by one action, like a slipped knife. It's the end result of a long buildup. You have to research and investigate what is causing that buildup and undo it. To use pain meds is like turning off a fire alarm when a fire is in your house. It lets the fire keep raging. You have to examine the alarm signal and figure out what it means.

Now the book goes into a furious hatred of chairs. You get far more pages about chairs and their evils than you could ever want to read. Was this necessary to fluff the book out to a given size? Was having a book of six pages - with the main exercises - just too light to make a book? You hear how cultures without chairs would all squat constantly which is good for your spine. Cultures with chairs would sit which damages the spine, creating a C shaped spine which hurts. Even sitting up straight still doesn't have your legs as "shock absorbers" beneath your rear, so you've lost that benefit.

Again, this made me start to question the content. I study medieval Japan and the screen paintings I've seen has everyone sitting on the floor. They don't have chairs - but they weren't all squatting all the time either! The chair fury seemed quite extreme.

There are also strange analogies like "every living thing is in motion ... cats scamper ..." - he's trying to tell us that we are too sedentary. However, cats tend to sleep at least 16 hours a day! I'd have avoided the cats example and focused on animals that are constantly in motion. For example, focus on sharks which have to stay in constant motion.

About this time I was yelling at the book, "get on with it already!!" I'd had enough of cats and chairs and the joys of squatting. I wanted to learn something useful.

On to a full chapter on anatomy. This is what bones are made of. That is what muscles are made of. Cartilage sits between your bones to cushion them, and synovial fluid helps to keep that lubricated. They need to flex fully each day to stay healthy. Similarly, muscles need to be stretched to their optimal length each day to retain their health. This needs to be done for at least 30 seconds to give them the healthy stretch. So here we have some glimmers of information!

Back to the bulk dump of information. The book explains why every single medicine, both man-made and natural, is bad in some way or another. Again the purpose is to push you to use his technique and to avoid medicines. He has certainly hammered that point home. We learn how different foods can damage our health. For example a diet of processed grain, flour, and sugar can increase arthritis symptoms.

Then the book says that stress has no impact on a well tuned body. If your body is healthy, stress has no effect on it. I found that suspect, but by now I was too deep into the book to turn back.

Finally! The six exercises! I was expecting something new, phenomenal, and extraordinary after all this buildup of "nobody has ever done this in the history of mankind." Then - pose 1 - child pose! The most basic pose of yoga! I do child pose every day. Heck, this is the Muslim prayer pose as well. Pose #2. I won't reveal it, because it seems a little unfair to reveal the key steps when he's trying to sell this book, but I'll say that it was no more "new" than pose #1. I do every single pose in his secret routine as part of my normal yoga routine, and we're not talking about stand-on-head-twist-your-legs types of poses.

Next, the book offers specialized exercises for specific pains. There's also modified exercises for seniors and kids and so on. It seems like they cover all the bases. However, interestingly, there isn't a good amount of information on the exercises. It's odd. I have a lot of exercise and yoga books that I've read. Usually if they tell you how to do a pose, they then follow it with a series of modifications - "if you can't do X, you can always do Y instead." However, here, you're just left on your own if you can't do what they say.

So for example, pose #3 is "Lizard". It involves laying on your stomach and pressing your torso up with your hands until your arms are straight. You get descriptions of what body areas this exercise helps. You get the straightforward instructions. "Your elbows are straight." Then you go into a long description about how wonderful this pose is for you. But wait!! What if I can't get my elbows to be straight? There's no guidance. Should I keep my lower stomach on the ground and allow the elbows to bend? Should I make sure the elbows are straight and not worry for now about my stomach staying on the ground? I'm completely on my own. The book has 50 pages on the evil of chairs but the information on the actual exercise - the key purpose of the book - is sparse.

Then we get into the summary area - and now the book says that stress DOES cause issues for your body and that you should work to reduce stress. I knew that before, and it contradicts the "stress isn't really a problem" message from earlier in the book.

So, with all these issues, why would I give the book four stars? The key is that I do these exercises already as part of my daily routine. I believe in them. I've read tons of yoga books. I understand why rotating joints and keeping synovial fluid on the cartilage is key. My yoga teacher mentions synovial fluid regularly in our classes. So I absolutely believe in the message in the book. I'm just grumpy with the off-putting introduction, the PAGES AND PAGES of fluff, and the lack of full instruction for the exercises. Luckily since I have numerous yoga books, I was able to fill in the gaps myself.

Since this book is aimed towards an audience who wants a quick, easy solution, I think the book could be much better laid out to make the information quick and easy to read. Skip the chair diatribes. Skip the anatomy lesson. Explain about joints, synovial fluids, and then show the exercises in FAR more detail.


Lisa Shea, Low Carb and Video Games Editor
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OK I posted this on the 27th and did the exercises on the 27th. I've also done them on the 28th and 29th. I do agree that they are quick and easy to do, that 3 minutes is always available, and that I feel good after doing them. So I do recommend doing the 3 minutes of exercise. I think it's very good for you.

I could equally say to do 3 minutes of basic yoga exercises every day and that is good for you too smile


Lisa Shea, Low Carb and Video Games Editor
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Hehe - I had to laugh at this part - "I'd had enough of cats and chairs and the joys of squatting."

Personally I think one can never get enough of squatting. wink

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Jill - interestingly enough out of the six exercises the only one I don't enjoy is the squat. The rest feel good. The squat doesn't feel much off anything and that is the one "get it over with" part for me. So I would be happy if they came up with an alternative to stretch whatever muscles that is supposed to work. Maybe I have to expand it somehow into a happy bouncy squat...


Lisa Shea, Low Carb and Video Games Editor
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