Egocuse, Perret and me: an update

November 14, 2012 By Ned Kehde

On Nov. 6, I inadvertently tossed a monkey wrench into my incessant quest to be a pain-free angler. This happened when I slipped on a section of a boat ramp that was covered with some filamentous algae. As I fell and slid into the water, I broke my left wrist. And on Nov.13, a surgeon pieced it back together again.

Six days before the surgeon did his handiwork, Travis Perret of Overland Park, Kansas, stopped by our house to survey the damage and design a series of Egoscue exercises that I can do while the wrist is healing.

Perret is a personal trainer and exercise therapist who specializes in chronic-pain therapy. From 2004 to 2008, he was director of The Egoscue Method Clinic of Kansas City. Now he is an Egoscue affliate with a private practice, working in conjunction with Henry Marquardt, who is a chiropractor in Overland Park, Kansas. Perret has worked on my body since Feb. 14, 2006, and in my eyes, he has performed some miracles. Details about my devotion to Pete Egoscue and Perret's methods for making me a pain-free angler were detailed in a blog posted on Feb. 20, 2012, and here is link to it: www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/20/perret-egoscue-and-me-my-quest-for-pain-free-fishing.

In an e-mail on Nov 8, Perret wrote: "My goal is not to actually help the healing of the broken wrist. That will come with time. The goal of the exercises is to keep the surrounding area from over compensating and creating future problems. When a person gets hurt from an acute injury, they are often so focused on the actually injury the other areas are forgotten.

"Once the injury is healed, and it will heal, a person thinks that they are in the all clear. But the compensation issues of the injury were never addressed, and that is what creates chronic pain, such as tendonitis in the elbow or neck pain and even TMJ. As the injury heals, we can re-educate the compensations issues to prevent chronic pain. Addressing those issues now is a lot easier than addressing them several years down the road."

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Here is the series of 10 Egoscue exercises that Perret prepared on Nov. 7 for me do to execute while my left wrist heals from the break and surgery. It includes photographs of me doing static back reverse presses and wall drop.

(1) Static back

1. Lie on your back with your legs up over a block or chair for five minutes.

2. Place your arms out to the sides at 45 degrees from your body with palms up.

3. Relax your upper back and notice if your low back flattens to the floor evenly

3. Place your arms in a bent position directly out from your shoulders. Bend 90 degrees at the elbows, hands are in a fist pointed up toward the ceiling. Now squeeze your shoulder blades down and together and then release. Try to relax your stomach muscles and do not try just to push your elbows into the floor - focus on the squeezing and releasing of your shoulder blade muscles. Do 3 sets. Each set consisting of 10 repetitions.

Purpose: This exercise promotes shoulder girdle stability for thoracic extension. This Static

Back position creates horizontal load between shoulder and pelvis, which

contributes to thoracic extension by engaging the stabilizers and flexors of the hip.

This position helps prevent compensation.

(4) Sitting floor

1. Sit against a wall with your legs straight out in front of you. Your buttocks and upper back should be against the wall the entire time

2. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and hold. Do not lift the shoulders; only squeeze them back and down.

3. Tighten the thighs and flex the feet back so that your toes are pointing back

toward you.

4. The keys are to keep your blades pulled together, your thighs tight and your feet

flexed back.

5. Hold this position for three minutes.

Purpose: This exercise promotes thoracic extension while limiting the rotation ability of the

lower load joints.

(5) Quad lifts

1. Sit on the floor with your back against a wall.

2. Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your lower back.

3. Tighten your thigh and pull your toes back on one leg.

4. Try to lift that leg up off the floor one to three inches using the muscles in the front of

your hips.

5. Hold the lift for five seconds, if possible, then lower your leg.

6. Do 3 sets. Each set consisting of 10 repetitions.

7. Switch legs and repeat.

Notes: It is very important that you hold the arch in your low back.

Purpose: This exercise promotes flexion of the hip joint under pelvic load.

(6) Quad rotations on pillow

1. Sit on the floor with your hips, upper back, and your head against a wall and both legs

extended straight out in front of you.

2. Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your lower back.

3. Place one of your feet on a pillow that is about four to six inches high.

4. Keep the leg on the floor relaxed while you tighten the thigh on the elevated leg and pull

your toes back.

5. Rotate your elevated leg in and out, initiating the motion from the hip. It is similar to the motion of windshield wiper.

6. Do 3 sets. Each set consisting of 10 repetitions.

7. Switch sides and repeat.

Notes: Try to remain relaxed in your upper body.

Purpose: This exercise promotes internal and external rotation of the hip while under pelvic load and in extreme hip flexion.

(7) Sitting scapular contractions

1. Sit up straight on the edge of a chair or bench.

2. Keep your feet and knees pointed straight ahead and hip width apart.

3. Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your low back and hold throughout the

exercise.

4. Squeeze and release your shoulder blades together. Back and down, not up and down.

5. Do 3 sets. Each set consisting of 10 repetitions.

Purpose: This exercise promotes proper scapular position and thoracic extension.

(8) Sitting shoulder rolls

1. Sit up straight on the edge of a chair or bench.

2. Keep your feet and knees pointed straight ahead and hip width apart.

3. Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your low back and hold throughout the exercise.

4. Circle your shoulders forward by pulling your shoulders back then up and then forward. Do 3 sets. Each set consisting of 10 repetitions.

5. Now circle backward by raising your shoulders then circling them back and then down. Do 3 sets. Each set consisting of 10 repetitions.

(9) Wall stork

1. Stand with your back against the wall with your feet pointed straight and hip width apart. Your heels, hips, upper back and head should be against the wall

2. Place one foot upon a chair in front of you. Your knee should be bent to 90 degrees, thigh parallel to floor. Make sure that your foot is pointed straight. Do not allow the down leg to bend. Do not allow the leg/hip of the down leg to shift out to the side.

3. Hold this position for one minute.

4. Switch legs and repeat.

Purpose: This exercise reseats the hip and re-educates the lumbar spine to stabilize

(10) Wall drop

1. Stand on a slantboard (or a step-ladder will do), feet pointed straight and hip width apart with your head, shoulders and butt against the wall. Let your arms hang down at your sides. Relax your stomach and upper body. Do not allow your knees to bend. You will feel a stretch in your calf/lower leg muscles

2. Hold for three minutes.

Purpose: This exercise promotes proper position of all the load joints while placing a demand at the ankle, knee, and hip. This activity causes an increase in extension in the lumbar spine and upper thoracic spine.

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Even though this series of Egoscue exercises that Perret devised are aimed at what he called compensation issues, they have made my left shoulder, arm elbow, wrist, hand and fingers feel better after I completed them. Because they make me feel relaxed and relatively pain-free, I have been doing them two to three times a day.

Now some of the four hours that I would normally spend fishing will be spent doing these ten Egoscue exercises.

I have always been a sorry typist, but now typing a blog is more difficult with just my right hand than it was with two hands. Thus, many minutes of those four hours will also be consumed with awkward ways at typing blog. This awkwardness at the computer's keyboard also creates some of the compensation issues that Perret addresses in the 10 exercises he assembled for me. And once I put the final period at the end of this blog, I will do my second series of these exercises for the day, and I will do a third series before we have dinner.

Anglers who are interested in becoming pain-free can talk to Perret at 913-424-9354. You can also examine his Web site at felixfishing.com. He can work with you via e-mail at travis@exercisetherapykc.com. What's more, he can help you no matter where you live on this planet through the Internet.

I am not the only angler who trumpets the virtues of Perret's methods. Brent Chapman of Lake Quivira, Kansas, who is the 2012 Bassmaster Angler of the Year, will attest that Perret's methods made him a better angler. (For more information about Perret's work with Chapman see: www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/14/brent-chapman-and-travis-perret-team-up; www.in-fisherman.com/.../more-on-brent-chapman-and-travis-perret; www.in-fisherman.com/2012/04/24/brent-chapman-and-travis-perret-team-up-an-update)

We are hoping that the combination of the surgeon's craftiness and Perret's methods will have me fishing devoid of pain and with a flexible left wrist well before the first days of spring unfold.