Life is straight ahead,

but only if you point your feet that way.

About 9 months after my first Olympic Distance Triathlon I raced my first Half Ironman in June of this year. I finished in a respectable time but my body was busted. My left achilles felt like a rubber band that had been stretched too far, my left hip constantly ached, and I couldn't swim without a nagging pain in my left shoulder. At the time I figured pain was just a part of this whole endurance thing. I'd take some time off and recover. But, as fate would have it, Herbalife came calling and asked me to be one of their ambassadors for the L.A. Triathlon that was about 10 weeks away. I'd be expected to train and race all with a smile on my face. This is hard to do when every step, pedal, or stroke causes you pain. My experience with other forms of physical therapy in the past had been less than enjoyable. After a general diagnosis and a treatment of the symptoms of my pain I'm told to come back tri-weekly and empty my wallet until I'm out of pain. The money usually leaves before my pain does.

As I entered the Egoscue Santa Monica clinic I was impressed by the cheerful staff, but in a fearful state that I would never be able to achieve my athletic goals. When I can't be active everyday I'm not my full self.  Paul gave me the book, "The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion" by Pete Egoscue.  No hard sell, no pressure, no nothin'. I guess when you know you're sitting on a gold mine giving out a nugget is no big deal.

The next morning I saw the book on my desk and figured I'd skim through it before I threw it away. I half heartedly did the prescribed exercises in sequence and....Holy Heavens, I felt better. After many visits with Kai I realized Egoscue was giving me all of the tools I needed to do this work on my own instead of being completely reliant on the clinic. As my posture improved so did my fitness. Within a few weeks I was putting out more power on the bike, I was swimming more effortlessly, and I dropped my running mile time by 55 seconds! I wasn't training any harder. I was just training with my body in a position to do work as it was intended. Amazing!

The Herbalife Triathlon Los Angeles Race day came and I was READY.  For the first time ever, I had total confidence in my body's ability to fire on all cylinders. All my hard work paid off and I bested my previous personal record by 7 minutes!  That's a huge gain considering 8 weeks prior I could barely walk. It was a sweet victory. And who was there to cheer me on?  The team at Egoscue Santa Monica!

From skeptic to fan; that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.  I now have the tools to keep my body pain free and know where to turn when I'm ready to reach the next level. The team at Egoscue Santa Monica holds the keys to unlock your body's true potential. If you're up for the challenge, we'll see you on Team Egoscue.

Love,

Martin Soole (The Tipsy Triathlete)

 To see Marty's full story with pictures, CLICK HERE 

Q: Is there a point of diminishing returns when it comes to exercise and movement? I have heard that a workout lasting longer than 30 minutes is a waste of time and energy. 

A:  First of all, just moving-any old movement-isn't enough. I'm talking about design movement. Where the people go wrong is that they decide "Okay, I've got to get back in shape." They start running or hitting the basketball court after years of being on the sidelines. By that point, the necessary functions are on "hold." To run or play basketball, the body starts compensating, using muscles and joints that weren't intended for the job. Pretty soon there's pain.

     As for 30 minutes of exercise, it's ridiculous to think that the body has an internal stopwatch ticking away, and precisely at 30 minutes-not 29 or 31 minutes-says "Wait, that's enough." But the body does, in fact, know when it's had enough. It will tell you. More and more effort will be required to run or row or operate the StairMaster until the motion stops being pleasurable.

     I'm not saying that it's time to stop when you begin sweating, working at it, and growing short of breath. There are plenty of pleasurable activities that require work, sweat, and wind - sexual intercourse, to name one of them. My contention is that by deliberately pushing an exercise past the pain threshold, we are simply engaging in a form of masochism which does not yield any real fitness benefits, and may in fact be injurious.                                                   -Pete Egoscue