This is a fairly short book with a lot of good basic information about back care and a recommended set of simple back exercises and stretches, several of them with different alternatives for different fitness levels and situations. (Plan on buying a Swiss/stability ball, although you can do alternative exercises without one. I actually use a stability ball as my computer chair at home anyway for my back's sake, and for a year I needed to use one at work since I couldn't find any regular chair that worked for me when my back was at its worst.)

For me these exercises seemed to make a huge difference. I'd been given about 3 times the number of exercises by my osteopath, but it seemed like some helped and others hurt my back and the result was neutral; plus the long list of exercises was tedious and intimidating. Various yoga and stability ball DVDs were the same way. By contrast, here was a nice simple set of 6 exercises and 4 stretches that I was quite willing to do every other day or so, and they helped and none hurt and I finally found myself functional again! (I add pelvic tilts to the six exercises for a total of seven.)

Hard to say how much was the timing after 2 years of back pain, but this sure SEEMED to help me more than the osteopath, chiropracters, massages, acupuncture, or attempts at trigger point self-therapy.

This is a fairly short book with a lot of good basic information about back care and a recommended set of simple back exercises and stretches, several of them with different alternatives for different fitness levels and situations. (Plan on buying a Swiss/stability ball, although you can do alternative exercises without one. I actually use a stability ball as my computer chair at home anyway for my back's sake, and for a year I needed to use one at work since I couldn't find any regular chair that worked for me when my back was at its worst.)

For me these exercises seemed to make a huge difference. I'd been given about 3 times the number of exercises by my osteopath, but it seemed like some helped and others hurt my back and the result was neutral; plus the long list of exercises was tedious and intimidating. Various yoga and stability ball DVDs were the same way. By contrast, here was a nice simple set of 6 exercises and 4 stretches that I was quite willing to do every other day or so, and they helped and none hurt and I finally found myself functional again! (I add pelvic tilts to the six exercises for a total of seven.)

Hard to say how much was the timing after 2 years of back pain, but this sure SEEMED to help me more than the osteopath, chiropracters, massages, acupuncture, or attempts at trigger point self-therapy.

I found the book to be informative and well-written. I have some of her other books, so I like this author very much. She gives you some suggestions for exercise and meals. I would recommend this book for any woman who is interested in taking care of herself, especially to prevent osteoporosis.

This book provides good general information, a large section on exercises to help your back, and good guidelines to follow to know if you need surgery. It will not help you diagnose yourself.