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Wear and Tear: Stop the Pain and Put the Spring Back in Your Body
Wear and tear erodes your joints and stiffens your ligaments and tendons. It's the main reason many of us feel old and creaky. Bestselling author Dr. Bob Arnot designed a revolutionary program to overcome his own advanced case of wear and tear, one that had led to arthritis. His exciting new blueprint dramatically improves strength and vigor, helps you become more supple and limber, and puts the spring back into your step. Whether you are sixty years old or twenty, this book can help you beat wear and tear. Based on the latest scientific research and decades of his own experience, Dr. Bob Arnot's easy-to-implement plan provides the steps to repair damaged joints, muscles, and ligaments and eliminate the pain associated with infirmity and injury. Wear and Tear includes easy-to-follow guidelines to help you select the right shoes, incorporate highly effective new supplements into your diet, and kill the pain associated with sore joints and even moderate arthritis. For the more athletic, Dr. Arnot provides a regimen of nutrition, diet, and exercise to reverse the damage to joints and overcome stiff man syndrome. You'll even find customized yoga poses and a chapter on joint-friendly sports. Dr. Bob Arnot will show you how to slow, stop, or even reverse the effects of wear and tear.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Bob Arnot
27 books7 followersDr. Robert Burns Arnot M.D. internal medicine, known worldwide as Bob Arnot, is a journalist, author, and previously a medical and foreign correspondent for NBC and CBS.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 27, 2013
A delightful book. A solid book. A useful book. Highly recommended.
His target audience is those with Osteoarthritis, which he calls Wear and Tear. This book is also for those who don't yet have symptoms.
I appreciated that he clearly evaluates what has been proven to work. This is not just some clinical philosophy, but based on his own experience of needing to do something to stop the pain.
He describes the pro and con of a host of medications, but the book makes it very clear that increasing range of motion, and using that range of motion is much more likely to be effective in reducing or eliminating pain.
I liked his Yoga section, but kind of skimmed over it because I have been doing yoga for years. My motivation for starting yoga was to reduce/eliminate the occurrence of training injuries from running. It works. Perhaps he said it best:
"Yoga is making a major comeback. Although it may seem the latest fad, it's a medicinal art thousands of years old that can have remarkable effects on real patients with real diseases." (Page 160)
This is one of the few "health" books that I didn't have any reservations about. So, why not 5 stars? Because 5 stars means I want to reread it. I'm already doing yoga and because of this book I started taking glucosamine. It is a solid book that I recommend.
His target audience is those with Osteoarthritis, which he calls Wear and Tear. This book is also for those who don't yet have symptoms.
I appreciated that he clearly evaluates what has been proven to work. This is not just some clinical philosophy, but based on his own experience of needing to do something to stop the pain.
He describes the pro and con of a host of medications, but the book makes it very clear that increasing range of motion, and using that range of motion is much more likely to be effective in reducing or eliminating pain.
I liked his Yoga section, but kind of skimmed over it because I have been doing yoga for years. My motivation for starting yoga was to reduce/eliminate the occurrence of training injuries from running. It works. Perhaps he said it best:
"Yoga is making a major comeback. Although it may seem the latest fad, it's a medicinal art thousands of years old that can have remarkable effects on real patients with real diseases." (Page 160)
This is one of the few "health" books that I didn't have any reservations about. So, why not 5 stars? Because 5 stars means I want to reread it. I'm already doing yoga and because of this book I started taking glucosamine. It is a solid book that I recommend.
October 22, 2021
A bit dated, for much has happened in orthopedics in the last twenty years.
August 9, 2012
I enjoyed Dr. Bob Arnot's "Wear And Tear: Stop The Pain And Put The Spring Back In Your Body." It's called a complete anti-aching program on the cover, and I find it a very useful book of advice for those who have the aches and pains from using your body the way it was meant to be used, to the fullest. It focuses on the wear and tear that erodes joints and stiffens ligaments and tendons and what you can do about it.
The first part of the book deals with what causes wear and tear. The five chapters are Heal Pounders, Stiff Man Syndrome, Fatal Flaws, The Weak Link, and Overload. These chapters focus on proper biomechanics, the lack of stretching and becoming stiff, skeletal malalignment, loss of muscle strength, and overloading your body with excess fat. The chapters are easy to understand and informative.
Part two is the section of the book I liked the most, it focuses on beating wear and tear. The first chapter of part two, chapter six, contains methods for killing the pain. Dr. Arnot discusses the options of painkillers like Acetaminophen, NSAIDs, and Aspirin. He also addresses other methods including topical analgesics, injections, acupuncture, and massage.
The next chapter is one protecting your joints and the chapter makes the case for taking glucosamine and chondroitin. Dr. Arnot addressed why they work, side effects, and the Arthritis Foundation recommendations among other things in this chapter.
Chapter eight is called Fix the Flaws and discusses correct shoes and other solutions for different problems causing wear and tear. This includes some expert picks for shoes, but since they come out with new models faster than new cars, actual shoes may have changed, but the advice as what to look for is still good.
Chapter nine, Restore Your Joints, is a very good chapter about how yoga can help reduce the pain of wear and tear. Dr. Arnot tells why yoga works, how to do a yoga program, warnings regarding some postures, breathing, and targets. The chapter contains some drawings of simple postures to begin with. I think the chapter is enough to get a person motivated to seek out further yoga instruction or resources to incorporate into a health and fitness program.
The next chapter, Build Protective Strength, is a short chapter on the importance of strength training and includes a few exercises. I agree this is very important, and think one should seek out resources that focus on strength training to further their education in this area. The next chapter continues with this theme and has a little on plyometrics and lunges. Again, there are better resources out there, but this book should get you motivated to seek them out and start doing strength exercises.
Chapter 12 is a primer on diet. It' called Lighten the Load and has the basics of sound nutrition. It's very short, and there are more resources you'll want to get on this too, but it let's you know that diet and how much you weigh effects your joints.
The last chapter suggests some joint-friendly sports and then the book ends with an appendix on joint nutrition and a glossary.
As we age, we seem to have little aches and pains creep up on us. Dr. Arnot's "Wear And Tear" is a practical guide on slowing this wear and tear down, as well as preventing it in the first place.
The first part of the book deals with what causes wear and tear. The five chapters are Heal Pounders, Stiff Man Syndrome, Fatal Flaws, The Weak Link, and Overload. These chapters focus on proper biomechanics, the lack of stretching and becoming stiff, skeletal malalignment, loss of muscle strength, and overloading your body with excess fat. The chapters are easy to understand and informative.
Part two is the section of the book I liked the most, it focuses on beating wear and tear. The first chapter of part two, chapter six, contains methods for killing the pain. Dr. Arnot discusses the options of painkillers like Acetaminophen, NSAIDs, and Aspirin. He also addresses other methods including topical analgesics, injections, acupuncture, and massage.
The next chapter is one protecting your joints and the chapter makes the case for taking glucosamine and chondroitin. Dr. Arnot addressed why they work, side effects, and the Arthritis Foundation recommendations among other things in this chapter.
Chapter eight is called Fix the Flaws and discusses correct shoes and other solutions for different problems causing wear and tear. This includes some expert picks for shoes, but since they come out with new models faster than new cars, actual shoes may have changed, but the advice as what to look for is still good.
Chapter nine, Restore Your Joints, is a very good chapter about how yoga can help reduce the pain of wear and tear. Dr. Arnot tells why yoga works, how to do a yoga program, warnings regarding some postures, breathing, and targets. The chapter contains some drawings of simple postures to begin with. I think the chapter is enough to get a person motivated to seek out further yoga instruction or resources to incorporate into a health and fitness program.
The next chapter, Build Protective Strength, is a short chapter on the importance of strength training and includes a few exercises. I agree this is very important, and think one should seek out resources that focus on strength training to further their education in this area. The next chapter continues with this theme and has a little on plyometrics and lunges. Again, there are better resources out there, but this book should get you motivated to seek them out and start doing strength exercises.
Chapter 12 is a primer on diet. It' called Lighten the Load and has the basics of sound nutrition. It's very short, and there are more resources you'll want to get on this too, but it let's you know that diet and how much you weigh effects your joints.
The last chapter suggests some joint-friendly sports and then the book ends with an appendix on joint nutrition and a glossary.
As we age, we seem to have little aches and pains creep up on us. Dr. Arnot's "Wear And Tear" is a practical guide on slowing this wear and tear down, as well as preventing it in the first place.
November 12, 2010
My favorite therapist, wife, got her favorite weekend warrior,
me, 'Wear and Tear' from the library. The focus is on
managing Osteoarthritis, OA, which is the wear and tear
arthritis not to be confused with the 'other' arthritis.
An informative read, covering the folks who may already
have symptoms and those who don't but can take preventative
measures.
Good info on the benefits of Tylenol type pain killers
versus Advil types; the benefits of glucosamine, Dr. Bob is for it,
chondroitin, kinda for it; benefits of Yoga over just stretching;
analyzing the way you walk - could that aggravate your wear and
tear?
He gets detailed enough to provide a list of sports
shoes that would be good for you. Though this book is a
2003 edition, I'm sure that list needs updated, so
there may be more recent editions out there.
I'm going to try a variety of his ideas, good stuff.
Read
January 13, 2011excellent advice, and easy to read too
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews