Customer Reviews

The Back Pain Book: A Self-Help Guide for the Daily Relief of Neck and Low Back Pain

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This revised review is written in August 2010 about the original 1992 edition.

The Back Pain Book is clearly written and contains wise advice about exercises and daily activities. That the illustrations are so simple yet so precise makes them both memorable and a reliable guide.Just before describing and illustrating how to do an exercise, the Back Pain Book describes and illustrates how not to do it. It's almost like having a physical therapist in the room with you.

The recommended exercises strengthen both the back muscles and the other supportive muscles of the torso and upper thighs. When my back hurt doing curl ups, the isometric exercise for the abdominals did the trick. When my pelvis and lower back needed more stability, the sideways hip strengthening exercise was a strain free way to do it.


I like this book so much I would like to update it. Where Hage encourages us to walk tall and provides a very memorable illustration, I would like to refer to Esther Gokhale's superb description of just how to activate the muscles that enable walking tall (See the excellent, 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back). Where Hage recommends a straight leg raise, I'd like to substitute a more back sparing exercise from Stuart McGill to accomplish the same goal (See MCGill's, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance and his more research oriented, Low Back Disorders). Where Hage has a whole section of stretches, I'd like to be more selective as Gokhale is. Why? Because as McGill points out, stretching has limited usefulness for the back. Once you stop hurting the back and develop the right muscles and postures much of your mobility returns without any stretching.

A sample of some of the information an update could provide is taken from McGill's, Low Back Disorders.

1. Keep the natural curve in the lower back during exercise, i.e., avoid flattenning the back

2. When it comes to backs, endurance has more protective value than strength;
3. Stability is much more important than flexibility;

4. Increasing repetitions is a more effective way of increasing endurance than increasing the length of the hold during any one repetition;

5. Back exercises should not be done during the first hour or 2 after arising. And,

6. As much as possible, exercise only one side of the back at a time.

McGill enables me to do his own exercises and those in other books with greater comfort and safety.

In summary, read Gokhale first, then McGill. After that you can profit from Hage's book while being aware of its shortcomings.

This book was recommended by my husband's Physical Therapist, to help him learn proper body mechanics to protect the spine. The illustrations are a big help in learning how to do everyday moves in a safer way, and so far, every time we've had a question, we've found an illustration addressing our concern.