Relax Your Neck, Liberate Your Shoulders: The Ultimate Exercise Program for Tension Relief

So frustrating! This book is packed with useful suggestions but only about one and ten are illustrated. The rest are described using hundreds of anatomical terms which may have been defined somewhere but quickly become confusing. Instead of relaxing, this book made me feel anxious because of my inability to understand yet another paragraph.

These exercises target alignment and flexibility of smaller stabilizing muscles. Most of us do not benefit from yoga or other types of classes very much because we make the shell of the movement but the guts of the movement are distorted, compensated and out of alignment because of chronic muscle shortening. In a large class, no instructor can give constant individual attention and many do not have the specific knowledge. These exercises, sometimes deceptively simple appearing, are intended to isolate just the movement needed. The value of actually doing the exercises is immense. While visualizations are used as one technique, these are actual movements.As for the writing, as others have pointed out, English is a second language for the author, so instructions sometimes are less informative than the author realizes, but trying the exercise usually clarifies things. Still worth 5 stars because of the life-changing potential of getting release in these areas.

I recommend reading the book first, then reread taking the time to do each exercise. The visualizations and the drawings enhance each other with the exercise. Overall, I have found these exercises more helpful than Feldenkrais ATM. This is a perfect book for anyone who needs to do less without efforting. The exercises are very effective and the discussion of anatomy is not that difficult. Eric Franklin lists Mabel Todd's: The Thinking Body as a reference. It, too, is full of body mechanics, although it may not be for everyone.

don't use it as much as I thought I would

The author uses visualization throughout the book, which only works if you are able to tap into this technique (e.g. "imagine two winking eyes on your collarbones......". I tried, I really did, but I just couldn't get my mind to cooperate, and finally gave up in frustration. However, if you are able to visualize, then you might find this book very useful.

My favorite part is the first section, which has some exercises to help you relax.

Very informative and good exercises for the neck and shoulder, better than Aspiring

love this book havent read all the way through but so far so good

(Updated review 24/01/2018) I didn't know what to expect when I first ordered this book. I happened upon it on Amazon while looking for yoga and posture help.The reason the book has the layout and approach that it does - a lot of text and background information - is because your own clarity and in-depth understanding of your body and how different areas relate to each other is KEY to truly experiencing the full effect of this method - developing a very interesting kind of concentration, awareness and resulting reconnection. It can be a very enlightening experience. As you progress, the exercises and text support each other to give the reader a fresh and subtly holistic understanding which can really help to re-learn natural ways of being, the way we are as children before we start to tense up. These exercises though physically executed are primarily psychological/mental, as is the tension that creates poor posture in the first place.To get the most from this book you're to explore, play and find what works for you, and then evolve your own practice. If you want a book that gives you basic step by step exercises to "strengthen" your back then this one might not be what you expect. Visualisation and concentration take some practice - if this makes any sense to you give it a chance. It's changed my life. It's really fun and self-motivating, the exercises and their very pleasurable effects become quite addictive. The focused experiments working with jaw tension at the end of the book rocked my world - shoulder massage never came close to the effects.. turns out so much of the tension in my shoulders had its "source" in my jaw (and the source of that tension was in my mind, so much that I lost track of what was happening in my body).Most importantly, Franklin discusses how just strengthening areas of the body to pull yourself back into "proper posture" can be counter-productive because it creates a kind of paradoxical 'appearance' of relaxation and proper posture in the body; the true solution is release, and since that is such a mentally rooted issue this approach makes a lot of sense. I have learned a lot from this amazing method. p.s. He has a Youtube Channel :)

If you dont get Dynamic Alignment at first read, a great introduction to the realm - of you. Franklin handles the complexity of his subject matter with amazing ease and profeciency and shares his impressive experience with remarkable generosity and joy. Together with Pelvic Power, the shortest cut to an authentic way of self-development.

Another excellent book, giving you lots and lots of information to help clients and give more ideas of how to help shoulder and neck pain.

Excellent

This book promises to help with neck problems, but I found it difficult to follow and the diagrams were bizarre to say the least.