LocalLit book preview: ‘The Rocking Chair Exercise Book’

I remember the first time I heard of naprapathy.

I had met the wife of Joliet naprapath Henry F. Ogle at the park. Our oldest children were the same age and we struck up a conversation.

Of course, I was skeptical of this holistic medicine that addresses tendons and connective tissues, and I’m not here to make a claim for naprapathy. But I will say Ogle did help me in one situation.

He and his family had stopped by the house with a baby gift shortly after I’d had my third child and third Cesarean section. I was in horrible pain from what seemed to be a spinal headache following a filed epidural and two failed spinals. Ogle offered to help, and the pain almost immediately diminished considerably.

The following year, I recommended Ogle to an elderly cousin, who had been in the hospital with leg and foot swelling and scarcely able to walk. He was discharged with no answers. Ogle helped him, too, enough that within a week, my cousin’s feet fit into his shoes and he could golf.

The reason I’m tell these stories is that I recently and randomly found this book Ogle had written on Amazon: “The Rocking Chair Exercise Book.”

The publication date is 2017 but the book may have been revised as the reviews are older than that. Also, Ogle died in 2009.

You should know I’m also skeptical of exercise plans. And that’s the reason for sharing the above story. Because I trust Ogle’s judgment, I trust his exercise book, at least enough to download it and try out the exercises.

It’s this book I’ll review in Tuesday’s LocalLit newsletter.

Here is its Amazon description: As a doctor of naprapathy, Henry F. Ogle was constantly being asked for an exercise plan that was not only fun and easy to do, but also designed for people of various physical capabilities.

“One day while visiting his favorite country store, Dr. Ogle noticed a number of rocking chairs for sale. Dr. Ogle noted the gentle rocking motion and the muscles it affected. He realized that this was the base of the exercise system he had been looking for.

“In this book you will find 49 creative exercises. These fun and simple exercises can be done in several different ways so that you are stretching and strengthening different muscles. “The Rocking Chair Exercise Book” takes you from beginner to advanced and allows you to work at your own pace.”

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Please contact me at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.