Based on results from scientific research, this volume offers back pain sufferers a series of simple excercises that target muscles that have been identified as being a common source of back pain. Line illustrations accompany each exercise. Physical therapist Jim Johnson reviewed the double-blind back-pain studies published since 1987, and found that it suggested a specific set of muscles played a key role in the majority of back pain. It showed 90 per cent of back pain sufferers have underdeveloped multifidus muscles. If these muscles are weak, inflamed or in spasm, they can cause chronic back pain. In response to these findings he devised a simple set of exercises that focus on strengthening these muscles - and had good results with his patients. This book is the result.

Author Biography

Jim Johnson is a licensed physical therapist with over fifteen years of research, teaching, and clinical experience with chronic back pain patients. Currently he is an instructor in physical therapy at Emery University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Scott D. Boden, M.D., is the Director of the Emery Spine Center and Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Emery University Hospital in Decatur, Georgia. He is the deputy editor of The Spine Journal.