Good-Bye to Bad Backs: Stretching and Strengthening Exercises for Alignment and Freedom from Lower Back Pain

I suffered from lower back pain for years, and nothing seemed to help. I got this book as a gift, and didn't read it right away, thinking "I don't have time". It wasn't until I became pregnant and realized that I would not be able to deal with the added stress on my back if I did not do something. I began the exercises, and almost immediately noticed an improvement in my back pain. I went through my whole pregnancy doing the stretches (the book gives modified stretches for really pregnant women), and rarely had any issues with my back, unless I skipped the stretches for a couple of days, and then I could notice the difference. The book gives several routines of varying difficulty, plus modified stretches for pregnant women. The routines generally took me about 20 minutes to do, so it is not a huge time commitment. I got into the habit of doing them daily, but the book also says you can do them every other day. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to control their back pain without drugs.

Ten years ago I bought the second edition of this book to help me resolve severe back pain. At the time I could not bend over the sink when brushing my teeth without putting my hand on the counter because of the pain in my lower back. I used the exercises every day for about 6 weeks. At the end of that time I was back to jogging and being pain free. The book went onto my bookshelf. Now I am taking the book out again. I haven't been maintaining the exercises and have low back pain again. I am confident that I'll be feeling good again by returning to the exercises that Judith Scott presents so well. The pictures and descriptions are wonderful.