Spinal Stabilization - The New Science of Back Pain - is a book for all ‘back owners’. This easy to read manual, written for the non-medical professional, describes cutting-edge advances in the field of back injury rehabilitation and athletic conditioning. Complete with over one hundred illustrations and photos, this new approach allows people with back pain to gain control of their symptoms, often more effectively than with more traditional methods including sit-ups, back extensions, pain medications or spinal manipulation/adjustment.
For readers interested in using the popular ‘SwissBall’ as part of their fitness or sport conditioning programs, Spinal Stabilization includes a chapter on stability training for athletes. Regardless of your sport or whether you consider yourself a recreational or a competitive athlete, increased trunk stability will lead to improved sport performance. Runners, swimmers and other endurance athletes will notice improvements in their aerobic efficiency while football, baseball, hockey and other power-sport athletes will be able to generate more power in their legs, shoulders and arms as a result of improved energy transfer through the trunk. Athletes who require a high degree of balance skill (gymnasts, figure skaters, rowers) will benefit dramatically from stability ball training as they develop stability-based strength and improved body-position sense. Many of the more advanced exercises demonstrated in the book will challenge even elite level athletes!
Whether you are a person recovering from spinal surgery, a person with chronic ‘non-specific low back pain’ or an athlete looking for improved sport performance, this unique book will help you achieve your goals!
Background ...
Over the past decade researchers from around the world have redefined how the human spine works in healthy people and how back injury affects normal spinal function. The result of this work has been a dramatic change in the way rehabilitation professionals use exercise to treat people with low back pain.
While textbooks, videos and courses on the topic of spinal stabilization training are now widely available for health care professionals, there is little in the way of comprehensive, accurate information designed for the lay person with back pain. Spinal Stabilization - The New Science of Back Pain, addresses this problem. For people with either acute or chronic low back problems, the book is best used in conjunction with direct treatment by a health care professional. For people with a healthy back but who want a stronger, more functional and injury resistant spine, the techniques in the book may be used with or without the guidance of a rehabilitation professional.
Concise, understandable chapters on spinal anatomy and biomechanics as well as common spinal conditions and diagnoses provide readers with an appreciation for the unique benefits of the spinal stabilization approach and why it is more scientifically sound than any traditional form of rehabilitative exercise. The techniques of spinal stabilization training are then described, both in words and pictures, leaving the reader with a more complete understanding of ‘how to do it right’.
Ultimately the book will serve as an excellent home exercise guide for people who want to own a high-functioning, injury-resistant spine. All information presented in the book is supported by high-quality research studies; a complete reference list of over 100 scientific articles and texts is included.
From the Author
My colleagues in the rehabilitation professions will recognize the concepts utilized in Spinal Stabilization - The New Science of Back Pain as having their origins in the clinical model developed by Carolyn Richardson, Paul Hodges, Julie Hides and Gwen Jull which of course was based on the basic sciences work of Panjabi, Vleeming, Gertzbein, McGill, Solomonow and others. As we are all too well aware, evidence-based treatment models are few and far between thus it has been a pleasure to develop this book for our patients with spinal pathology.
The book expands somewhat on the Australian model by incorporating axial proprioception training as an integral component. I feel this is warranted in that motor control cannot possibly be improved without accurate proprioceptive feedback, and what we are really doing of course with these patients is motor re-training in light of the inhibition of multifidus which has been so well demonstrated in the literature.
I feel confident that the book does an excellent job of presenting the segmental stabilization approach in a clear, understandable and accurate manner. I hope you find this to be a useful patient education tool - I welcome and look forward to your comments and suggestions for future editions.
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