PainScience.com Audio Articles
Seven popular articles in audio, about stretching, posture, Epsom salts, structuralism, and trigger points
These seven articles are all available in audio format for members and e-boxed set customers, or on request for visually impaired visitors (email me). Members can download from this page. Already a member? To unlock the downloads just login.
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There’s a theme! Five of these are about a popular but all-too questionable idea: the value of stretching, the importance of posture, the power of Epsom salts, the nature of “trigger points,” and the clinical relevance of biomechanical factors (the deepest one, intended mostly for professionals, but not entirely). Each article is a reader favourite or a personal pick. It’s basically the Greatest Hits from the last decade of constantly fine-tuning my writing about controversial and complex subject matter.
- Quite a Stretch
DESCRIPTIONStretching is not a pillar of fitness: no type of stretching is a warm up, prevents or treats soreness or injury in general, or enhances peformance (but it can actually backfire). It can increases flexibility, but the value of flexibility is low, even for most athletes. Stretch seems to have almost no value in treating any common kind of chronic pain. DOWNLOAD AUDIOYou must have a boxed set or be a logged-in member to download audio versions of my articles, or email a request if you are visually impaired. Already a boxed set customer or member? Login to unlock. 40MB 50min - Does Posture Matter?
DESCRIPTIONPosture matters a little, but not a lot. Many habitual postures are long-term adaptations to anatomical quirks that cannot and shouldn’t be changed. Most other “poor posture” is just coping with bad ergonomics. “Posturology” is a mostly speculative and misguided approach to chronic pain. When people seem to be vulnerable to postural stresses, the vulnerability is usually the problem. DOWNLOAD AUDIOYou must have a boxed set or be a logged-in member to download audio versions of my articles, or email a request if you are visually impaired. Already a boxed set customer or member? Login to unlock. 52MB 64min - Does Epsom Salt Work?
DESCRIPTIONEpsom salt in your bath makes bath water feel “silkier,” but that’s probably all: it’s unlikely to be biologically relevant to aches and pains, and it may not even make it through the skin (osmosis is not even relevant, and it cannot “detox” anything). DOWNLOAD AUDIOYou must have a boxed set or be a logged-in member to download audio versions of my articles, or email a request if you are visually impaired. Already a boxed set customer or member? Login to unlock. 45MB 91min - Your Back Is Not Out of Alignment
DESCRIPTION“Structuralism” is the excessive focus on causes of pain like crookedness and biomechanical problems. It’s an old and inadequate view of how pain works, but it persists because it offers comforting, marketable simplicity that is the mainstay of entire styles of therapy. DOWNLOAD AUDIOYou must have a boxed set or be a logged-in member to download audio versions of my articles, or email a request if you are visually impaired. Already a boxed set customer or member? Login to unlock. 44MB 112min - Trigger Point Doubts
DESCRIPTIONPeople have muscle pain and sensitive spots in muscle tissue — “muscle knots” — and they can be severe. What’s going on? The main theory is that a trigger point is an isolated spasm, but it’s just a theory, trigger point science is half-baked and controversial, and it’s not even clear that it’s a “muscle” problem. I sell a book about trigger points, so it’s an ethical necessity for me to question the validity of the idea. DOWNLOAD AUDIOYou must have a boxed set or be a logged-in member to download audio versions of my articles, or email a request if you are visually impaired. Already a boxed set customer or member? Login to unlock. 34MB 68min - Pain is Weird
DESCRIPTIONModern pain science shows that pain is an extremely unpredictable sensation, heavily tuned by the brain and jostled by complex variables — not the relatively simple response to tissue insult that we tend to assume, and that most treatment is based on. DOWNLOAD AUDIOYou must have a boxed set or be a logged-in member to download audio versions of my articles, or email a request if you are visually impaired. Already a boxed set customer or member? Login to unlock. 34MB 41min - A Stretching Experiment
DESCRIPTIONWhat happens when you stretch your hamstrings intensely for several minutes a day in a steam room? The results of a thorough, careful personal experiment. Your mileage may vary! DOWNLOAD AUDIOYou must have a boxed set or be a logged-in member to download audio versions of my articles, or email a request if you are visually impaired. Already a boxed set customer or member? Login to unlock. 15MB 29min
- Quite a Stretch
DOWNLOAD 40 MB file (M4B), 50 - Does Posture Matter?
DOWNLOAD 52 MB file (M4B), 64 - Does Epsom Salt Work?
DOWNLOAD 45 MB file (M4B), 91 - Your Back Is Not Out of Alignment
DOWNLOAD 44 MB file (M4B), 112 - Trigger Point Doubts
DOWNLOAD 34 MB file (M4B), 68 - Pain is Weird
DOWNLOAD 34 MB file (M4B), 41 - A Stretching Experiment
DOWNLOAD 15 MB file (M4B), 29
The articles are all read by me, professionally produced (by Vancouver film-maker and creative-polymath Kennedy Goodkey), and embellished with some original music (by Vancouver composer Phil Mahoney). I used to be a theatre and radio guy, so these recordings were a hoot for me to make, and they don’t suck. I will probably do more, and some will be updated (especially the trigger point doubts project, which is on-going and has already been updated once).
Many audio versions of blog posts
I also started recording audio versions of some blog posts for members in early 2022. These are much shorter than the featured articles listed above, but they will soon also greatly outnumber the audio versions of the featured articles. As of mid 2022, there are 14 of those. Audio versions are clearly marked by 🔈 in the blog index.
Two audio books too
I have audio versions of two of my books as well: plantar fasciitis and IT band syndrome. Those are available to anyone who purchases those individual tutorials (or the boxed set, of course).
How do I get the audio? Three ways
- Buy a boxed set of ebooks.
- Buy a PainSci membership.
- If you're visually impaired, just ask.
Details…
Unlock the audio … with an “e-boxed” set of e-books
I created these to be a nice perk for all e-boxed set customers and perks, so to get them you have to purchase one of those.
Paying in your own (non-USD) currency is always cheaper! My prices are set slightly lower than current exchange rates, but most cards charge extra for conversion.
Example: as a Canadian, if I pay $19.95 USD, my credit card converts it at a high rate and charges me $26.58 CAD. But if I select Canadian dollars here, I pay only $24.95 CAD.
Why so different? If you pay in United States dollars (USD), your credit card will convert the USD price to your card’s native currency, but the card companies often charge too much for conversion — it’s a way for them to make a little extra money, of course. So I offer my customers prices converted at slightly better than the current rate.
Unlock the audio… with PainSci membership
Membership is USD $6/month (or $60/year to save $12) and includes:
Almost everything on PainScience.com is free, including most blog posts, hundreds of articles, and large parts of articles that have member-areas. Member areas typically contain content that is interesting but less essential — dorky digressions, and extra detail that any keen reader would enjoy, but which the average visitor can take or leave.
PainScience.com is 100% reader-supported by memberships, book sales, and donations. That’s what keep the lights on and allow me to publish everything else (without ads).
- → access to many members-only sections of articles +
And more coming. This is a new program as of late 2021. I have created twelve large members-only areas so far — about 40,000 words, a small book’s worth. Articles with large chunks of exclusive content are:
- Quite a Stretch
- Does Epsom Salt Work?
- Heat for Pain and Rehab
- Your Back Is Not Out of Alignment
- Trigger Point Doubts
- Does Fascia Matter?
- Anxiety & Chronic Pain
- A Deep Dive into Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness
- Why Does Pain Hurt?
- Repetitive Strain Injuries Tutorial
- Chronic, Subtle, Systemic Inflammation
- Reviews of Pain Professions
- Articles with smaller members sections (more still being added):
- → the audio versions described on this page
- → premium subscription to the PainSci Updates newsletter +Sign-up to get the salamander in your inbox, 0–5 posts per week, mostly short, sometimes huge. You can sign-up for free and get most of them; members get more and their own RSS feed. The blog has existed for well over a decade now, and there are over a thousand posts in the library. ❐
Cancelling membership is easy & stops future charges. Payment data handled by Stripe.com. More about security/privacy & refunds. PainScience.com is a small publishing company in Vancouver, Canada, since 2001.