Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance

An excellent book for any athlete recovering from back injury, or wanting to improve their performance.

This is a must read for anyone interested in sport or exercise. It has genuinely enriched my understanding of the human body and my approach to training Its worth noting that this book is orientated toward health and fitness professionals such as physiotherapists or coaches/personal trainers. If you are interested in aiding your own back troubles the author advises another book from his series 'Back Mechanic'. Similarly, if you are a physiotherapist or medical professional looking to aid common back dissorders, there is another indepth book for this purpose ' Low Back Disorders Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation'.

I tried Gentle Pilates, Gentle Yoga, Physio exercises, and a bunch of other stuff for my bad back. I couldn't understand why all those things made it worse. I found Back Mechanic really useful. Stuart McGill doesn't promote a one size fits all approach for back pain. The book addresses different strategies for different types of back pain. I think Back Mechanic, with videos is a good foundation. Moving onto this book feels like a natural progression.McGill has a documented history of successfully treating back pain.

Highly recommended for physiotherapists and all other practitioners who deal with spinal pain.

Excellent book

anther great book by stuart back expert

Definitely one for the book shelf - latest version, a must-have!

I found out later that pilates flexibility would solve my forty year my back problem but not Stewart McGill's rather limited 'strengthening is the answer' type books. This book didn't help at all and I sold my copy and the other versions of his books. Strengthening isn't a cure-all. Far far from it.

My tennis trainer/coach introduced me to the work of Dr. Stuart McGill through what I came to know as “The Big Three” (well represented on the internet). This is a set of core exercises that includes the “curl up.” The curl up is a substitute for the sit-ups and crunches we’ve been brought up on – but which Dr. McGill has found can injure the spine. One thing led to another and I wound up buying and studying his most recent book, published in 2017. To cut to the chase, my back remains in excellent condition and my tennis game has improved. I link these directly to a greater understanding of how to protect my lumbar spine and how to strengthen my core without hurting myself. Dr. McGill extensively discusses “stiffness” as a way of protecting the spine and also for allowing the most effective flow of energy and power through the kinetic chain. Particularly fascinating and useful is his presentation (on p. 187) of how you can generate tremendously increased grip strength by calling stiffness into play, evoking “neuronal overflow.” In trying this out, be careful you don’t crush someone’s hand or allow yours to be crushed. I have found, and continue to find, this book to be tremendously interesting, well documented, and useful. I suspect that physicians, trainers, and athletes will, too.

Great book! However not a pocket book as stated - large and heavy.

Sehr viele gute Tips

This gave me an easy to read understanding of my back issue and more importantly what not to do to worsen my issues.

Particularly in the area of health care, the publishing market is flooded with unreliable information. This book is careful. It is based not only on extensive academic studies, but on academic studies carefully correlated to clinical treatment. It recognizes the difference between muscles whose function is to stabilize the body during movement and muscles intended to create movement. Recognizing physical reality and correlating it with years of successful rehabilitation of many back difficulties, I see this as very reliable information. A person who simply wished to avoid injury could use this book to help structure a good exercise program. A person who was injured but could not afford the increasingly inaccessible medical system, might buy this book for less than a treatment session and accomplish a good portion of self-rehab. It is, of course, never optimal to avoid medical treatment. Not everyone can afford it these days.