Bodywork Techniques

The Core Program: Fifteen Minutes a Day That Can Change Your Life
by Peggy Wachterhauser Brill, P.T.

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Help, Not a Cure

Many patients who come to me have tried many of the bodywork techniques that are so popular today. All offer some benefits - and a few present some significant drawbacks. Here are some you may recognize:

The Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais, which both feature gentle and rhythmical balance-related movements. Unfortunately, they both lack strength-building components.

Pilates, which is excellent at strength-building, muscle-balancing and alignment. But to use Pilates equipment you have to go to a Pilates studio, usually paying for individual instruction. You can also go to mat classes, but it's hard to master the Pilates techniques without one-on-one attention.

Massage therapy, which helps to relax people while easing muscle soreness, but does nothing for strength. Also, it's not something you can do yourself. In order to get the temporary restorative benefits of massage therapy, you have to pay for the services of a massage therapist.

Tai chi, which focuses on weight shifting and is good for stability, balance and strength. However, the movements of tai chi neither strengthen the arms nor open the spaces between vertebrae so that nerves can avoid becoming impinged.

Yoga, which increases muscle flexibility but doesn't build core muscle strength. It can also overstretch and thereby weaken certain muscles, resulting in imbalances in opposing muscle groups.

Only the movements of the Core Program deliver relaxation and muscle building and flexibility and body realignment. No formal instruction or instructor is necessary, and there is no risk of injury.

A Physical Therapist's Approach to Physical Fitness

I understand how a woman's body can safely achieve fitness because, unlike most other fitness experts, I received in-depth hands-on medical training. I took four years of premed courses in college, where I majored in biology. Then for two years I attended a physical therapy school that was part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, before attaining my degree. I have also done extensive study of the musculoskeletal system in advanced postgraduate courses.

When a patient comes to see me, I use my training as a physical therapist to evaluate her in a particular way. Besides listening to her description of pain and dysfunction, I determine the range of motion of various joints and perform a thorough manual muscle test to assess the strength of all the major muscle groups.

As a physical therapist, I assess a woman's body from head to toe. I know every muscle and joint and can pinpoint areas that need help. I know how to exercise muscles in order to balance them. And I know how to put the joints in alignment, which allows the bones to bear weight as they should, while eliminating any strain on your joints. But I don't just heal injuries. I work with my patients to show them how to prevent future injuries - that's part of my job. I can help women regain strength - without joint injury - in seconds. (See the box on page 12.)

After treating thousands of patients, I can confidently say that there is a recognizable pattern of muscle weakness and tightness that leads to almost all of the common injuries I see. Knowing what has worked well for my patients has enabled me to design a series of exercises to strengthen what tends to get weak and stretch what tends to get tight. This is why the Core Program's effects go beyond mere fitness - they will affect your ability to feel well and function at maximum capacity throughout your life.

While fitness experts can make your muscles strong, they don't look at a woman's body the way I do. Their advice to lift weights to build bone mass makes excellent sense, but they often lack the expertise they need to teach you how to do it in a way that won't harm your joints. And they are unable to address the underlying causes of achiness and fatigue.

I've been a physical therapist for nearly fifteen years. I love what I do for a very simple reason: Every day I work with patients who get better. The smile I often see on a woman's face after just a couple of minutes of treatment tells me she is on her way to feeling great. And that gives me tremendous gratification. I see tension melt away along with aches and pains. I see changes in bodies as women learn to move themselves in more efficient ways. Best of all, I get to listen every day to women who tell me that they feel better than ever before, and that they have found a new trust in their bodies and new hope for the future.

Making such life-improving changes is a huge accomplishment for anyone, but more than a few of the women I treat are recovering from severe injuries and complicated surgical procedures. A number of them are referred to me by physicians at several major New York City medical centers, including the Hospital for Special Surgery, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, NYU Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian, and the University Hospitals of Columbia and Cornell.

My work introduces me to all kinds of interesting people of all ages. In my private practice, I treat children under 10 as well as grandparents over 90. In my waiting room people who haven't exercised in years share sofa space with Olympic athletes. Business people, including top executives from Fortune 500 companies, regularly arrive at my Manhattan office. I also operate a second Brill Physical Therapy office on-site at Morgan Stanley for employees of the company and their families.

On occasion, I travel to my patients. I've been to Beijing to help a high-level government official who had suffered from chronic back pain, and several times a year I fly to North Carolina to take care of the coach and players of the nationally ranked men's basketball team at Duke University.

Still, much of my work is focused on the musculoskeletal systems of women who are probably just like you. They have vague aches and pains that doctors can't explain, or they have minor injuries that have occurred while doing exercise or playing a sport. Included among the common injuries I see are herniated discs; rotator cuff tears; tennis elbow; all kinds of neck and back pain; bursitis/tendinitis (which is inflammation from overuse) in the hip, shoulder and knee; cartilage and ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) knee tears; chondromalacia (dull aching pain behind the kneecap); sprains and strains; Morton's neuroma; hammertoes; bunions; heels spurs; and plantar fascitis (inflammation of the plantar fascia, the connective tissue on the bottom of the feet). By the way, age does not necessarily contribute to these injuries. Thirteen-year-olds get them just as adults do.

But no matter what injuries I am treating, my work centers on building up and protecting the core of the body, because all these injuries are caused or made worse by core muscles that aren't as strong as they need to be.

Copyright © 2001 by Peggy W. Brill, P.T.

About the Author

Peggy Wachterhauser Brill, P.T., is a board-certified clinical specialist in orthopedic physical therapy. Peggy has a private practice in midtown Manhattan and also maintains an office in the corporate headquarters of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. Her expertise is sought after by the Duke University men's basketball team, top executives all over the world and leading physicians at the Hospital for Special Surgery and several other major medical centers. Peggy lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.