Muscle pain and muscle spasm might simply and most of the time have the symptoms of back pain, neck stiffness, hip pain and leg pain.......These kind of pain related to the joints sometimes make the patients confused about the origin of the pain. You have to remember that every bone in our body is attached to muscles either directly or indirectly via a tissue name tendon, hence muscle spasm can cause pulling of bones and feeling of pain in the joints.
The reasons for muscle spasm and bone or muscle pain are many. Before seeking medical attention, try to do some simple steps and ask yourself below questions:

-Have I been under stress lately? If yes try to help yourself by relaxation methods.
-Am I using too much salt in my diet? Try to reduce the salt in your food.
-Am I avoiding sun exposure? Get more sunbath with precaution to avoid burning.
-Am I less physically active? If yes, then try to stretch your muscles and be more active by walking....
-Am I getting enough calcium and vitamin D in my diet? If not, buy OTC calcium+ vitamin D 500mg and take one pill with your food twice daily with 1 glass of water.
-Try to avoid direct cold blowing on your body.
-Try to keep your body hydrated by drinking enough WATER.

If the pain and spasm after few days have not been better or resolved, then you can talk to your doctor. Be honest with your physician in case you are taking any legal or illegal drugs. Some medications or street drugs can cause muscle spasm.
As I said the cause and the reasons of muscle pain and spasm are many, but most of the time by a simple attempt you will be able to cure it.
By the way this is good book to have at home.

Best Regards
Mahmoud Nikoueiha, MD

I am a physical therapist who has been involved in teaching the technique known as Strain and Counterstrain developed by Lawrence Jones, DO on which this book is based. The author is misleading the public by saying no expensive physical therapy required. I have saved patients lots of money by treating them with the technique that fold and hold is based and teaching them how to do it at home. I have to also add that there are many techniques that are really not possible to do on yourself. There are many thousands of Physical Therapists and Osteopaths that use the original technique and have excellent results without great expense as implied by the author.

On a positive note I am happy that this technique is being widely used. Consulting a professional that has been trained in this techniques by the Jone's Institute (Physical Therapist or Osteopath) may also be time and money saving and accelerate the healing process. This book may be an asset to those who respond well to "Fold And Hold" (Strain and Counterstrain). Please consult a health care professional to eliminate other possible reasons for your pain.

I work on a computer and was having career-threatening pain in my hands. I found this book to be more helpful than traditional physical therapy (strengthening and stretching exercises). I had a co-worker who was even worse off than I was and also found Anderson's fold and hold technique to be better than anything his therapists had him try. However, we both still had to be careful about how much we typed. We also worried about whether the pain would get worse again.

Years later, I tried John Sarno's techniques for back pain. His books are entitled "Healing Back Pain" and "The Mindbody Prescription". I found that these back pain techniques also worked wonders for my hand pain. I can now type all I want on "bad" keyboards with only minimal pain and with no worry that it will get worse again.

I would highly recommend considering Sarno's approach over Anderson's. If you do not accept Sarno's approach, then Anderson's is the next best thing.

In an easily understood style the author explains to the user just how to locate and then relieve discomfort. I found that it wasn't WHAT I was doing that was wrong, but HOW I was doing my stretches and exercises. "Fold and Hold" has extended my periods of no pain by a significant margin. Low back, neck and shoulder discomfort has diminished significantly since I adopted the Anderson method.

The reason I'm ordering yet another copy of this book is that I keep giving my copies away...the techniques in this book are non-invasive, quick and effective.

I highly recommend it!.