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Stage #2—Manipulation: Correcting soft-tissue damage or adhesion using tools or pressure with the hands

Stage #3—Medication: Ingesting, injecting, or applying medication

Stage #4—Mechanical reconstruction: Surgical repair

Below is just a small sample of the approaches I tested for this book during a five-month period in 2009, as well as following shoulder reconstruction in 2004 (which accounts for most of the intramuscular injections). Injections were performed with blood test reviews every two to four weeks.

Part of the drive to experiment was fueled by positive experience: I knew what was possible. Post-surgery in 2004, I used a careful combination of therapies that produced incredible results: my surgically repaired shoulder ended up superior to my uninjured “healthy” shoulder.

Sometimes it’s possible to not just restore but exceed previous capabilities, making you “better than new.” It can be life-changing.

I have put asterisks next to what had the most immediate and lasting effects, with the areas fixed in parentheses. The most effective of all will be explained in detail afterward.

MOVEMENT

Feldenkrais

Pilates

Assisted stretching

Tai Chi Chuan

Yoga (Ashtanga, Bikram)

*Barefoot/Vibram walking (lower back)

*Egoscue (cervical/neck and mid-back)

MANIPULATION

Massage (from Swedish to Rolfing)

Acupuncture and acupressure

*Active-release technique (ART) (shoulders)

*Advanced muscle integration therapy (AMIT) (pectorals, glutes, and calves)

Graston technique

MEDICATION

Topical

Androgel® (crystallized testosterone)

DMSO (a solvent popular among sprinters and racehorses) combined with MSM

Arnica

Oral

Cytomel® (liothyronine sodium = synthetic T3 thyroid hormone)

High-dose L-glutamine (50–80 grams per day)

High-dose bovine and chicken collagen (types 1, 2, and 3)

Intra-articular (in the joint) injections

PRP

Cortisone

*Prolotherapy (left knee, right wrist)

Intramuscular injection

*Deca-Durabolin® (nandrolone decanoate) (left shoulder)

Delatestryl® (testosterone enanthate)

Depo®-Testosterone (testosterone cypionate)

Sustanon® 250 (testosterone blend)

HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin)

*Biopuncture protocol using microdoses of Traumeel and lympho- myosot (Achilles tendon, infraspinatus)

Subcutaneous (under the skin) injection

HGH (human growth hormone)

*Biopuncture protocol (same as above)

It’s quite the laundry list.

The Chosen Few

All of them helped to some extent, but only a few of them produced relief that lasted more than 48 hours, and some of the exercises were impossible to perform alone.

There were just five treatments that reversed “permanent” injuries, either as 1–3 sessions or as viable solo exercises. Here they are:

1. SHOE HEEL REMOVAL AND VIBRAM TRAINING. AREA FIXED: LOWER BACK.

Ugly, and ultimately painful, postural compensation is unavoidable when wearing shoes that elevate the heels. This simple observation somehow escaped me for 30 years, until CrossFit Chicago instructor Rudy Tapalla introduced me to Vibram Five Finger shoes, which look like gloves for your feet.

Chronic use of high-heeled shoes usually results in some degree of kyphosis-lordosis and related pains in the lower back and mid-upper back. Kyphosis-lordosis, seen in the second illustration to the right, is posture characterized by “convex curvature of the thoracic spine and an inwardly curved lower back resulting from the pelvis being tilted forward.” This is an academic way of saying hunchbacked and swaybacked at the same time.

This is how both men and women with less than 10% bodyfat can end up looking potbellied. It’s the overarching of the low back, not excessive bodyfat, that causes this unfortunate optical illusion.

The fix is simple: most of the time, wear flats or shoes with little difference in sole thickness from toe to heel. Shifting to wearing Vibram Five Fingers® and Terra Plana Barefoot Vivo shoes completely erased low-back pain I’d suffered from for more than 10 years. To the degree it was possible,