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Low Back Disorders: Evidence-based Prevention and Rehabilitation
-- by Dr. Stuart McGill

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Access the latest research and applications to build effective prevention and rehabilitation programs for your patients or clients with Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation, Second Edition. Internationally recognized low back specialist Stuart McGill presents original research to quantify the forces that specific movements and exercises impose on the low back, dispels myths regarding spine stabilization exercises, and suggests prevention approaches and strategies to offset injuries and restore function.

Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation, Second Edition, presents a clear exposition of back anatomy and biomechanics and demonstrates how to interpret the latest research on low back involvement for clinical applications.

The text also contains detailed information on injuries associated with seated work and sport and ergonomic issues related to manual handling of materials. With Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation, Second Edition, you will:

• gain valuable information on measured loading of the back during specific activities and apply it to avoid common—but counterproductive—practices in back rehabilitation;
• learn how to analyze each patient’s or client’s unique physical characteristics and lifestyle factors to tailor preventive measures and treatments to individual needs;
• learn how to help patients and clients progress through the stages of rehabilitation: corrective exercise, stability or mobility, endurance, and strength; and
• acquire the information necessary to design an effective injury-prevention program.

This fully updated second edition expands knowledge of low back disorders and best practices in several areas. Enhanced algorithms guide progessive therapeutic exercise, and specially designed patient assessment provocation tests aid you in determining the cause of back troubles, guide your choices in the best ways to eliminate problems, and improve the development of appropriate activities for functional gain.

Whereas the first edition focused on increasing spine stability, the second edition provides new information on dealing with both regional instability or mobility and regional stiffness present in individuals where most of the motion occurs at a single spinal segment.

With an expanded repertoire of pain-free motion exercises and additional information on ways to find and adjust stabilization exercises, Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation, Second Edition, offers you new tools to help your patients and clients achieve pain-free exertion.

The text includes exercises and activities that provide a solid foundation of physical work in preparation for more advanced activities in sports and occupations. Also, the process of transitioning into performance exercise is outlined with an explanation of the critical stages of the performance pyramid, including the design of appropriate corrective exercise, building joint and whole-body stability, enhancing endurance, training true strength, and transitioning to ultimate performance.

Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation, Second Edition, presents foundational information and corresponding clinical applications in a clear, well-sequenced format. Part I builds your knowledge of lumbar function and injury. Part II demonstrates how to use this knowledge to build evidence-based injury-prevention programs by assessing risks, creating ergonomic interventions, and training personnel. Part III focuses on improving rehabilitation Check Amazon.com for best price, including specific diagnostic and provocative tests, with specific therapeutic exercises proven to enhance performance and reduce pain through a continuum from corrective exercise to stability and mobility, endurance, strength, and power.

Additionally, the text offers these practical features to guide your learning and inform your practice:

• More than 475 photos, graphs, and charts support the research and the scientific basis for the text’s conclusions.
• More than 50 tests and exercises with step-by-step instructions help you develop successful programs for your patients and clients.
• Special sections highlight how the anatomical, biomechanical, and research results can be applied to clinical situations.
• Extensive discussions on individualizing treatment for clients or patients help you improve your assessment skills by learning what questions to ask and what avenues of investigation to pursue with each patient or client.
• Reproducible handout sheets for each of the 25 basic rehabilitation exercises, which include photos and blank lines for instructions, enable the creation of instruction sheets tailored to the current needs and progress rates of each patient or client.

Cutting-edge research and evidence-based application strategies from the leading spine specialist in North America make Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation, Second Edition, the authoritative text for study, care, and treatment of the low back. Its unique approach to back care will guide you in developing intervention, rehabilitation, and prevention programs to address the unique needs of each patient or client and develop a strong scientific foundation for your practice.

About the Author

Stuart McGill, PhD, is a professor at the University of Waterloo at Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and a world-renowned lecturer and expert in spine function, injury prevention, and rehabilitation.

McGill has written more than 200 scientific publications on the topics of lumbar function, low back injury mechanisms, investigation of tissue loading during rehabilitation programs, 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 200 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 consults and to whom patients are regularly referred.

Reviews:

"McGill's text on Low Back Disorders is one that every treating clinician should have for their own professional library." -- AAESS News (Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science)

"This is a fine blend between science and practical application by a credible author. The author is in a unique position to share his own valuable research and clinical experience to advance the treatment of alleviating low back disorders." -- Doody’s Book Review Service

"McGill has created an outstanding scientific work on the prevention and rehabilitation of low back disorders." -- CHOICE

Amazon reader comments:

"Everyone who deals with backs, either in sports (athletes, coaches, trainers), physicians, therapists, and back pain patients themselves, should read this book. I am a physician who specializes in back disorders and back pain. I have followed Dr. McGill's reseach for many years and it has revolutionized my practice like nothing else."

"Using methods based on electromyographic measurements published by McGill and his colleagues in many scientific journals, he ascertains which muscles are activated in a variety of exercises. This becomes important for patients who have low back problems and must avoid heavy spine loads both in the fitness center and at work."

"Clinicians who wish to competently evaluate, manage, and rehabilitate low back disorders will find this book indispensable due to its unique content."

"I refer to this book many times over over the years and has helped clear up that tricky patient that is not getting better as fast as they and you the doctor would like. Great source of information for any doctor regardless of how many years in practice."

And one negative review: "As an avid proponent of evidence based medicine (EBM), I was very disappointed in this book. To cut to the point, I found this title incredibly misleading. Dr. McGill has blatantly disregarded the contemporaneous EBM studies that have conclusively shown that the biopsychosocial model for chronic lower back pain is by far more appropriate model that the outmoded biomedical approach."