Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation [Hardcover]

Stuart McGill (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0736042415 | ISBN-13: 978-0736042413 | Publication Date: July 2002

An authoritative description of functional strategies designed to improve back health and restore or maintain back function following injury. The text refutes practices which are contra-indicated in promoting back health and provides appropriate strategies to offset injuries and restore function. For ease of reference, the book is divided into three parts. Part one reviews the issues pertinent to low back injury prevention and rehabilitation, functional anatomy and biomechanics and how the back is prone to mechanical failure. Part two looks at how to develop improved injury prevention programmes by assessing the risks, creating ergonomic interventions and training personnel. Part three deals with how to improve rehabilitation techniques through proper training and exercise programmes. Ergonomic issues related to manual handling, repetitive motion injuries and sport are dealt with in detail and knowledge of content and its application is reinforced with tutorials in each part of the book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

""McGill's text on "Low Back Disorders" is one that every treating clinician should have for their own professional library.""
-"AAESS News "(Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science)
""This is a fine blend between science and practical application by a credible author. The author is in a unique position to share his own valuable research and clinical experience to advance the treatment of alleviating low back disorders." "
Doody's Book Review Service --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

"McGill's text on Low Back Disorders is one that every treating clinician should have for their own professional library."
-AAESS News (Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science)

"This is a fine blend between science and practical application by a credible author. The author is in a unique position to share his own valuable research and clinical experience to advance the treatment of alleviating low back disorders."
–Doody's Book Review Service

"McGill has created an outstanding scientific work on the prevention and rehabilitation of low back disorders."
–CHOICE

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736042415
• ISBN-13: 978-0736042413
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Evidence-Based Book, November 5, 2010

By 

Pam "run2fast" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Low Back Disorders, Second Edition (Hardcover)

This is a great evidence-based book, meaning that the information it covers is backed-up by research. On almost every page you can find multiple citations of published studies- which can provide a great starting point for a literature search if a topic interests you.

The book is divided up into 3 parts:

-Scientific Foundation, where you get a lot of general info about various topics such as anatomy of the spine, back belts, the epidemiology of back pain, and so on

-Injury Prevention, where you learn about, well, the research on preventing back problems

-Low Back Rehab, where you learn about the author's 5-stage back training program

The book definitely emphasizes spinal stability, and rightly so, as the research strongly supports this intervention. Unsafe exercises are discussed as well.

With lots of pictures and a not-too-technical tone, I can certainly recommend that anyone who deals with low back pain patients check it out. Other evidence-based back books I liked include Treat Your Own Spinal Stenosis.

76 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'must read' for everyone who deals with backs, January 28, 2006

By 

T. Jordan (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation (Hardcover)

Everyone who deals with backs, either in sports (athletes, coaches, trainers), physicians, therapists, and back pain patients themselves, should read this book. I am a physician who specializes in back disorders and back pain. I have followed Dr. McGill's reseach for many years and it has revolutionized my practice like nothing else. One of my top priorities with back pain patients is to review what exercises they have been given in the past. I invariably stop them from doing several excercises that Dr. McGill's research has proven to be quite harmful for the back. I Substitute the 'big three' excercises that are described in this book, and many of the patients need no further intervention. There is a great deal of misinformation regarding back excercise, and many of the excercise routines used in sports, schools, military, and fitness centers are harmful. That is why this book is so important; not because it gives another fitness guru's opinion, but because it gives good, scientifically based facts on one of the tougher clinical issues from a world renown expert. Thank you Dr. McGill - keep the research coming!
Also check out Dr. McGill's other book "Ultimate back fitness and performance" for a less technically dense description of many of the same issues.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and Practical Approach to Patient Reactivation, December 11, 2002

By 

Craig Liebenson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation (Hardcover)

This wonderful text focuses on the all important role of activity, exercise, and fitness in the prevention and treatment of low back disorders. In particular, the clinical publications emerging from Australia and Denmark are reviewed and balanced by scientific investigation of spinal loads with different activities. Professor McGill's book is highly practical and thoroughly evidence-based.

This new book fills a void as a perfect cornerstone to the biopsychosocial model of patient reactivation recommended by international guidelines throughout the world (AHCPR, CSAG, DIHTA). Most significantly, the patient reactivation model being advocated by evidence-based experts today is made more clinically relevant as a result of this thoughtful and practical presentation of the "tools of the trade" for presecribing physiologically sound reactivation approaches. This is the ideal complement to simple reassuring reactivation advice being recommended for acute, uncomplicated low back pain patients and more involved cognitive-behavioral strategies being recommended for complex, chronic patients. It is most relevant for those subacute patients who are at risk of becoming chronically disabled.

McGill highlights the recent scientific evidence which has unmasked the failure of diagnostic imaging to find the "cause" of back pain. He instead points clinicians towards the often ignored literature about the methods available for establishing the patient's functional diagnosis. This section is of great clinical value since most health care providers perform a limited functional assessment of low back pain patients.

Popular concepts such as stability are defined, quantified, and made practical. The author explains how he determines spinal load profiles of routine activities of daily living and common exercises. In turn, many common beliefs about exercise are revealed as based on myth rather than evidence.

For example he exposes the myths of lifting with a straight back, the pelvic tilt, performing sit-ups with bent knees, and the prone superman exercise. Other popular approaches such as the use of back belts or abdominal hollowing are discussed from a functional perspective.

This book is most valuable to practicing clinicians for his elegant presentation of safe back exercises for subacute back pain patients. These simple exercises are shown along with the evidence demonstrating their safety and value. For instance, the cat-camel, quadruped leg reach, side bridge, and trunk curl are shown as biomechanically safe exercises which can be prescribed as a beginner program for most low back pain patients. Hopefully, randomized, controlled clinical trials will soon follow to further validate such exercises in patient populations.

Many sufferers of low back pain are engaged in ardous sport or occupational activities. The book concludes with a section on more advanced exercises that have preventive and conditioning value, although would be inappropriate for the subacute treatment phase. This is once again invaluable information for practicing clinicians which can help steer patients away from chronic pain, disability, treatment dependency, overmedication, deconditioning, fear-avoidance behavior, and unncessary surgery. Pr. McGill is to be applauded for this utterly brilliant and practical patient information presented in such a humble, small package.