About this product
All back pain has a cause – your challenge is to identify your specific cause and address it. The modern medical system, with 15 minute appointments does not provide the opportunity for a back pained sufferer to obtain a thorough and precise diagnosis of their pain mechanism. They are left without a guide of what to do to fix their back pain.
Back Mechanic guides you through a self-assessment of your pain triggers, then shows you how to avoid these roadblocks to recovery. Whether you’re struggling with a disc bulge, stenosis, spondylolisthesis, muscle strain, or even leg pain associated with a herniated disc, you will be able to wind down your discomfort and match your unique symptoms with the approach that is right for you. Then effective exercises are coached in a step by step progressive guide. Many questions are answered that have eluded answers in the past. Spine expert, Prof. McGill used his 30 years of research findings and clinical investigations to create this evidence-based guide that has helped thousands reclaim their lives. This knowledge is now available to you in this richly illustrated book. You will become your own best Back Mechanic and advocate.
About the Author
Stuart McGill, PhD, is a professor at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and a world-renowned lecturer and expert in spine function, injury prevention, and rehabilitation. He has written more than 300 scientific publications on lumbar function, mechanisms of low back injury, investigation of rehabilitation programs matched to specific categories of back pain patients, and the formulation of work-related injury avoidance strategies. He has received several awards for his work, including the Volvo Bioengineering Award for Low Back Pain Research from Sweden.
McGill has been an invited lecturer at many universities and delivered more than 300 addresses to societies around the world. As a consultant, he has provided expertise on assessment and reduction of the risk of low back injury to government agencies, corporations, professional athletes and teams, and legal firms. He is one of the few scientists who, in addition to performing research, is regularly requested by the medical profession to consult with challenging patients from around the world.
Product details
Author: Stuart McGill
Pages: 166
Language: English
AEN: 9780973501827
Publisher: Backfitpro Inc.
Weight: 0.5 kg
Introduction and overview
The way to a pain-free and robust back
Section 1: “Why me?” Understanding your pain
1. Myth-busting
2. Back to basics: Getting to know your back and causes of pain
3. Is surgery for you?: The essential list
4. The Code: Rules and guidelines for back health
Section 2: Self assessment: Finding the cause of your back pain
5. Use the McGill approach to find your pain trigger
6. Your self-assessment
Section 3: The repair job: Using the right tools to make activity pain-free
7. Removing the cause of pain: Learning basic movement tools
8. Spine hygiene: moving without pain
9. Building a resilient back: The non-negotiable “Big 3” exercises
10. The walking program: Nature’s back balm
11. The core program
12. Restoring the hips
Section 4: Tuning the machine for best performance
13. Next level training: Regaining your active lifestyle
14. Special exercises for sciatica, kyphosis, scoliosis, stenosis, the overweight and others
15. Solutions that solve back pain: Case studies and sample programs
16. Q and A with the Professor: Sex, selecting a mattress, and other things you were afraid to ask
17. Conclusion
Appendix: Exercise Logs
18. Pain and activity ability
19. Exercise log
Lysander Jim, M.D. –
I am a pain medicine doctor who sees low back pain in my clinic everyday. So I can say, as an insider, that conventional medicine is failing patients with low back pain.
I would sooner have most of my patients read Back Mechanic and follow its advice than receive the “standard of care” I see most doctors using. This “standard” approach is characterized by using weird drugs like gabapentin (an anti-seizure medication used also for nerve pain), dangerous opioids, expensive and largely ineffective spine injections and general prescriptions to see a physical therapist or chiropractor that leaves you no better, if not worse off.
The reason for this tragic failure is conventional medicine has forgotten that almost all low back pain is a MECHANICAL issue. It’s not a psychological issue to be dealt with through anti-depressants and stress reduction. It’s not a mysterious accident that came from nowhere. Low back pain is almost always caused by flawed or excessive mechanical stress from improper postures, movements and loads.
In my professional opinion, there is no better authority to teach about low back pain and how to fix it than the author Professor McGill. He is one of the best spine researchers ever and also—here is the crazy part—one of the the best spine clinicians ever. It is rare to have this combination of world-class scientific accomplishment and clinical wisdom in one person. More than 300 medical journal articles published and countless elite athletes restored to world-class performance after what lesser clinicians had condemned them to the scrap heap of “career-ending” back injury.”
Back Mechanic is a distillation of over 30 years of knowledge and wisdom in an engaging and accessible text intended for the lay public.
There’s a reason this work is one of near-universal acclaim: it has the ability to help normal people solve the riddle of their own back pain. Back Mechanic breaks down low back pain to its foundational components. It explains how back pain happens. It instructs patients on how to diagnose themselves, albeit with the supervision of a doctor. It tells patients how to treat themselves through avoiding certain postures and movements and what exercises to perform to restore their spine health.
This is the single best book on low back pain for the general public.
Eddie Williams –
I had back pain for 30 years and did everything the physical therapists asked me to do religiously and it just made my back worse!
I would give this book a six star rating if I could. I had back pain for 30 years and did everything the physical therapists asked me to do religiously and it just made my back worse. I went to all kinds of back specialist doctors but wanted to avoid surgery if anyway possible. After much research and reading everything possible about back pain, I found Stuart McGill’s book about lower back problems and all the study and research he had done. His book was very technical and hard to read for the average person. I read it completely and started doing the exercises and the lifestyle changes. It was an absolute miracle as my back pain went away completely in a couple of months. I recommended the book to a lot of people I knew with lower back problems. Most of them wouldn’t make the effort to buy and read the book. I contacted Stuart and suggested he write a book normal people could easily understand. He said that was in his plans and he was already working on it. I made a three page summary of his complex book with pictures of the exercises and started giving those to people with back pain. It helped almost everyone that followed it! I was very excited when I learned Stuart’s new book finally came out. I read it and it is a wonderful book that is very understandable. I think if people would read and follow his book about 80 to 90% of back surgery’s could be avoided completely. If the medical establishment and physical therapists would start teaching his exercises and lifestyle changes our country could save a fortune on the cost of medical care. Back problems are a giant expense to our country and the world. If you have lower back problems this book could be the best money you ever spent on curing your back pain for good.
Sunny Soleil –
A friend recommended I purchase this book because I’ve been seeking ways to remediate my back/referred pain issues. After 6 weeks healing a broken fibula bone, my back had gotten worse from limping, and just as I was going to hire a physio/physical therapist to help me, lockdown arrived in the UK.
This book has shown me that I can be my own therapist.
I started doing one simple exercise… to use when getting out of a chair. Instead of walking feeling as if my back is jammed, it was released.. made a huge difference.
I’ve recently started the 3 major exercises and a walking program. I could not walk far without my back hurting me, so I cycle everywhere, but now, using the walking technique I found it a little challenging but I made it..
I teach yoga and regularly went to pilates and yoga classes. This book revealed to me and made me understand [most importantly] why some of the stretching exercises I’d been doing weren’t great.
Fantastic section on how the back works, so important to understand the actual mechanics and although I did an anatomy course as part of my yoga qualification, this goes into the kind of detail [and simply explained] that I needed to know. NOW I know why the muscle that spasms does so and what these exercises are doing to strengthen all my back muscles and core stomach muscles.
And the book has options on the exercises for those who can’t get down on the floor – simpler forms, or using a chair. I feel motivated for the first time and as if I’m in charge of my healing.
Dylan J –
Back Mechanic quite literally saved my life. I suffered from an L5/S1 herniated disc (see attached photo). I was in immeasurable pain, literally 24 h a day. I could not walk, I could not stand, I could not sleep. I spent most of my days laying face down on my floor with a pillow under my hips, trying to wait for the pain to subside. Sitting was manageable at times, but only made things worse. I tried PT, which helped marginally, but was proving to be quite useless.
After 14 LONG weeks of suffering, nerve damage, and indescribable frustration, I discovered Back Mechanic. After 2 weeks of DILIGENTLY following Dr. McGill’s plan (as outlined with in the book), I could walk and stand for 3-5 minutes (as opposed to radiating pain after ~30 seconds upon getting up). After 3 weeks, I was ~90% pain free and could stand for roughly 30 minutes without discomfort. By week 4 I was completely pain free, and I am happy to report that I am now 5 weeks completely pain free. I do the McGill Big 3 EVERY DAY. I have even begun to start weight training again – albeit with much caution.
If you are a back-pained individual, this is the best use of your money, hands down. I cannot promote the information contained within this book enough.