Travis Perret's "Pain-Free Life"

October 10, 2017 By Ned Kehde

Since Jan. 8, 2006, I have penned 10,738 words in various publications about the genius of Travis Perret.

Many of those words focused on his abilities to help me and hordes of others to become free from pain. And a byproduct of his genius has made me a better angler, and my wife, Pat, a better tennis player.

Pat and I are in our late seventies. During the past 20 years, we have noticed that an astonishing number of our friends, acquaintances, and family members have had hip and knee replacements, as well as back, shoulder, elbow, foot, and wrist surgeries.

In our eyes, it seems as if orthopedic surgery has become a fad. For instance, one of Pat's bridge-playing acquaintances told her that he and his wife have had five hip and four knee replacements, and he hinted that they expected that another replacement might be in the offing.

After our friends have endured the grueling aspects of the surgery and weeks or even months of physical therapy sessions, some of them were still bothered with pain and used assorted pharmaceutical products to dull it. Eventually, some of them begin to worry about how these pharmaceutical items can wreak havoc with their internal organs. For instance, it has been reported numerous times that some everyday pain-killers, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), can cause acute liver failure.

Moreover, we also noticed that surgery did not significantly improved some of our acquaintances' sense of well-being and nimbleness. Therefore, we could not understand why they would opt for surgery without consulting with Perret at his Exercise Therapy of Kansas City clinic in Overland Park, Kansas.

According to Perret, the reason why many of the surgeries and the physical therapies fail is because the surgeons and physical therapists primarily focus on the point of the pain rather than the source of the pain.

For example, if a person is enduring knee pain, it might be because the knee is not tracking correctly, which causes the knee to deteriorate. Perret notes that the fundamental concept of the human body is that muscles move bones, and his exercise-therapy program will cure chronic knee pain by focusing on the postural alignment of the hip, knee, ankle, and feet and reeducating the muscles to move the bones correctly.

The therapy method that he has devised is called the Pain-Free Life Program. He also calls it the Natural Design Therapy System. It revolves around "low-demand exercises and corrective positions," which are aimed at adjusting postural alignment, defective muscle balance, and dysfunctional movement that create pain.

Perret received a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science/Pre-Physical Therapy from the University of Kansas in 1998. While he was a student, he was also a decathlete on KU's track team. When he discovered the work of Pete Egoscue of San Diego, California, he abandoned his aim on attaining a master's degree in physical therapy. In 1999, Perret began working with Egoscue and studying his ideas and methods about posture, pain, and performance. After working with the Egoscue Method for seven years and treating pain-ridden clients from all over the world, Perret moved to the Kansas City metropolitan area and opened an Egoscue franchise in 2005. Perret closed the Kansas City Egoscue clinic in 2008 and began his Exercise Therapy of Kansas City program, which incorporates many of the Egoscue Method's techniques and many of the other postural concepts that he has discovered and developed.

In 2015, Perret began to ponder about writing a how-to book that describes how readers can conquer the chronic pains that bewitch them. At the behest, encouragement, and helping hands of his many clients, he began the task of creating a book that focuses on our anatomical disorders and how we can eliminate them. Ultimately, he created a 160-page chef-d'oeuvre, which is entitled "Pain Free Life: Eliminate Chronic Pain: Get Back to a Younger More Active You!"

His system of exercise therapy will make us flexible, but not too flexible. It will make us stronger but not too strong. In other words, it aims at making us as perfectly balanced as is humanly possible, and then all of our bones and muscles will be in a condition that Perret calls functional.

(1) Vivien Jennings is the founder and president of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kansas, which opened its doors in 1974. She is one of the clients who guided him through the entangled rigors of publishing a book. He began helping her in 2015 with the chronic pains that she has endured for decades from the aftereffects of an automobile accident. Once she became one of his clients, she quickly became well aware of Perret's wizardry at taming the dastardly effects of pain, and she quickly concluded that a book would be an efficacious way to tell the world about his expertise.

The book can be purchased at Rainy Day Books, 2706 W 53rd Street, Fairway, Kansas, 66205-1705; 913-384-3126. It can also be purchased from this website: http://www.rainydaybooks.com/book/9780692956038.

(2) Scott Wedman who resides in the Kansas City metropolitan area is another one of Perret's clients who helped him bring this book to fruition.

Wedman played in the National Basketball League for 13 years. He was an All-Star twice and helped the Boston Celtics win two championships. During those 13 years, he was privy to cutting-edge therapy and rehabilitation.

Wedman wrote an insightful foreword to the book, and straightaway he heralded Perret, proclaiming that his "skills as a corrective exercise therapist are unparalleled," and it "is a therapy that puts you in control of your health" rather than relying on the pharmaceutical industry and doctors. Perret coached Wedman through the aches and pains associated with his bulging disc and other back pains. Wedman is eternally thankful that Perret kept him from falling into the hands and ways of a surgeon. Wedman concluded the foreword by stating, "If chronic pain issues are limiting your life, I would highly recommend reading this book and doing the exercises provided. They are easy to do and a great first step to moving better and feeling better."

(3) Across the past 13 years, Perret has created a series of exercises that have eradicated the pains that have erupted in my shoulders, knees, hips, elbows, ankles, feet, and neck. What's more, he developed exercises that eradicated headaches, balance woes, and dizziness. Until I slipped and fell on an algae-laden boat ramp on Nov. 6, 2012, and severely broke my left wrist, I had not consumed an aspirin or other pain medication since mid-May of 2009, which was when I was waylaid with an intense temporomandibular joint disorder, which is called TMJ or TMD. When the TMJ erupted, Travis gave me eight exercises to do twice a day, and within two days, the TMJ was completely tamed. Since then, the TMJ has erupted twice, but those eight exercises quickly tranquilized it. Before that first bout with TMJ, I had not taken an aspirin or other kinds of pain medication since 2005. And those two short-time entanglements with pain in 2009 and 2012 are the only times that I have consumed a pain pill during the past 13 years.

He has worked similar wonders with Pat and the various pains that have afflicted her across the years. Like Vivian Jennings, some of Pat's woes stem from a severe automobile accident that occurred on May 19, 1989.

We must say, however, that Perret's "Pain-Free Life" is not as easy as consuming a pain pill. Since 2005, we have spent 20 to 30 minutes every morning doing the exercises Perret created for us.

(4) The book contains a series of descriptions and photographs of the standard exercises that he has developed to alleviate pains that afflict our feet, ankles, knees, hips, backs, shoulders, neck, elbows, wrist, and hands.

He has also devised a series of exercises for those who play golf and tennis and for those who walk and run. He also notes that walking is the best exercise for the body.

For radical and special problems contact Perret at 913-424-9354, or 7802 Foster St, Overland Park, Kansas, 66204, or http://exercisetherapykc.com/.

(5) Perret is a talented angler. He has been an original member of the Finesse News Network.

In 2017, he created a Facebook page for the Finesse News Network, which can be seen at this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1790450444537568/.

Perhaps in a future Midwest finesse column, we will publish a series of exercises that he has created for anglers to do before and after they fish.

(6) Here is a link to what one angler has to say about Perret's abilities to conquer back pains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SZEABTrxOs or http://exercisetherapykc.com/page-1/.

(7) Here are links to some of the many words that we have written about Perret in the past:

http://cjonline.com/stories/010806/out_kehde.shtml#.WddqDztrwdU.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/perret-egoscue-and-me-my-quest-for-pain-free-fishing/.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/brent-chapman-and-travis-perret-team-up/.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/brent-chapman-and-travis-perret-team-up-an-update/.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/pain-free-fishing-an-update/.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/the-genius-of-travis-perret/.