Search - Egoscue: Pain Free Workout Series Vol. 1 and 2 (2 DVD Set) on DVD

Useful - But Production Values Low

G. Charles Steiner | San Francisco | 11/20/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD consists of a Beginner Level and an Advanced Level.



The Beginner level I can attest to as being wonderful in that right from the first session, the positions you learn and the exercises you practice are simple and easy yet they provide, each time, surprisingly more ease of pain and better postural alignment than you might ever hope to expect from any single session or effort. The pacing is calm and harmonious -- at least for the first half of the session, and it feels much like a one-on-one Pilates class or a Yoga session for beginners.



The Advanced Level I merely previewed. It is a much more intense level of exercise requiring a lot of strength and stamina, particularly in the abs, moreso than any Beginner level participant can expect to exhibit.



I got a lot of ease of pain and better postural alignment with the Beginner level, a level of ease that lasted for hours and sometimes the whole day. The results I achieved were astonishing, surprising, and wonderful.



The production values for this DVD are, sadly, weak and irritating, however.



In the Beginner level, two people help you with the program to become pain-free. One is a woman performing the exercises and the other is a male instructor explaining the exercises. About half-way through the session, the male instructor begins to talk more volubly than at the beginning and he begins to talk in more of a militaristic tone of voice than he did at the beginning. Increasingly, the voice becomes unadulteratedly louder and more robotic. The calming and harmonious experience one first experiences with this DVD and with this pair of people begins to dissipate rapidly. The male voice distracts and annoys. His voice is such that you cannot bear listening to him upon further playbacks of the session. This is a production problem that interferes with one's motivation to repeat the session for the next day.



The DVD offers you the choice to turn the sound off -- wonder why!? --- and listen to programmed music instead. However, the programed musical offering is but a single folk song that repeats and repeats throughout the entire session. It is also a piece of music that is set up to cue you when the next exercise is coming up. I found the musical timer inadequate. I found it better to memorize the entire repertoire of exercises for the Beginner level and turn the sound off completely.



In the Advanced level, there is only one person to help you with the exercises, which is actually quite fine and really a relief after partaking of what's (irritatingly) possible with two people helping you at the Beginner level. This one person is the same woman from the Beginner program, acting now as both performer and instructor. Her body is slender and lithe, athletic and natural, and her speaking voice is clear and natural as well. Her cues are well accented, but she moves quite fast. It is not a calming, harmonious experience she is delivering here; she is offering you a work-out.



Shamefully, there is no Intermediate level in this DVD. The difference between the Beginner level and the Advanced level is so stark and dramatic, there is no way a Beginner can, even after months of practice, transition easily to the Advanced level. You're completely on your own as to how to manage this trick. The Advanced level requires such strength and demands such intensity, it also can't be used by anyone who truly is in severe pain, no matter how fit he or she is. It can only be used by the fit and the already well individual who wants to improve his or her postural alignment.



I found that the DVD does do what it says it will do: make you pain-free. However, the means this particular DVD uses can be taxing and annoying for the viewer.



My advice is to write down all the exercises and memorize them, put your own music on your iPod or CD player, and perform the program yourself without the DVD.

"

Great Program, please try it, you will be very impressed.

EK | Philadelphia, PA | 08/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I only wish I started this program earlier. I spent almost a year doing PT, visiting orthopedic surgeons/sport medicine specialists, and going through massages, acupuncture, and chiropractors. It was all palliative. This is eliminating my shoulder and hip pain, addressing the etiology. I am a medical professional with very physically demanding, ergonomically- stressful job. I was also exercising and doing yoga a lot.

Egoscue is a genius."

Excellent Instruction with great results!

Claudia Hafner | 11/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am already a fan of the Egoscue Method and their products and services and I found this product to be, by far, very instructional and beneficial. I found the attention given on how to do the exercises correctly to be the key to benefiting from these exercises. Pain that had resided in my lower back for years, is suddenly gone. The stretches induced by the exercises are WONDERFUL. And this review is just about disk 1! I haven't gotten to disk 2 yet. I don't know if this is for everyone, but I do know that it's for me and I expect to enjoy these disks for many years to come."

Not what you think

J. Kercher | Spokane, WA. USA | 07/26/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"While the egoscue program is a good one this DVD is NOT for everyone and definitly should NOT be used until an individual has achieved proper realignmnet. I give this DVD a 2 star because it implies you can achieve proper alignment using the exercises on this DVD when in fact you can not. Most of the exercises in the DVD are for building strength and flexibility once you have returned to proper alignment through the use of the exercises in the book or with a certified egoscue instructor. The exercises on the DVD are NOT the same as the ones in the book and can actually cause more pain if you are still out of alignment and use them as was the case with me. Sadly there is nothing in the editorial review or on the DVD package that tells you this.

This information regarding the DVD exercises was told to me by Michael Bellofatto from Egoscue.

Get the book FIRST and do those exercises first, that's where you need to start before spending money on this DVD!

The best would be if Egoscue would make a DVD of the exercises in the book so we all could learn how to do them correctly and help ourselves, for those of us who can't afford or don't have access to and Egoscue clinic or instructor. Plus exercising from a book is just darn awkward!"