Strong Women, Strong Backs: Everything You Need to Know to Prevent, Treat, and Beat Back Pain

This author has suffered back pain in addition to having top credentials in the medical field. It should be in everyone's library for reference, especially if they have a long term problem and/or are considering back surgery. The advice will save many a back from surgery and gives a good overview of the various procedures to pursue first. It is honest about success rates and potential risks. Read this first and follow the guidelines. It is not a quick fix but for some people sure to be a magic wand.

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.