If you suffer from back pain, you owe it to yourself to read Back Mechanic by Stuart McGill. I was recently introduced to this book, and it is a fantastic read. In this book, Dr. McGill discusses the secrets to a healthy spine that your doctor isn’t telling you (his words, not mine). Now, this is not because your doctor is trying to keep something from you, but rather, a lot of doctors don’t know how to get to the source of your back pain. If you suffer from back pain, please stay tuned!
Back Mechanic by Stuart McGill
I have been dealing with back problems since I was 26 years old (about 20 years). My pain was a slow onslaught and got to the point that I had surgery. I really wish I would have had a tool like this book at my disposal when I was first dealing with my back issues. I possibly could have avoided back surgery if I would have had this information prior.
I continue to have back problems even after surgery, so again this book would have come in very handy for me.
In Back Mechanic Stuart McGill has broken the book into the following parts:
- “Why Me?” Understanding your pain
- Self-assessment: Finding the cause of your back pain
- The repair job: Using the right tools to make activity pain-free
- Tuning the machine for best performance
In Part 1 McGill does some serious myth-busting such as “back pain is always hereditary” or “lying in bed is good for back pain” or “my friend uses XYZ therapy so that must be good for me.” These are among the several myths discussed in the first section
He talks about finding the right clinician to give you a proper diagnosis. So many doctors just take a look at the MRI and provide pain pills or recommend surgery. He compares looking at an image from an MRI or CT only and determining the cause of pain to looking at the outside of a car to understand why the engine won’t start.
Dr. McGill really gets into finding the source of your pain and then working on pain-free movements. Building on these pain-free movements is the key to getting on with your active lifestyle.
The next section of Part 1 gets into the anatomy of your back and spine as well as the causes of pain. This is pretty in-depth but is actually simple to understand. It’s a very comprehensive look at the back, including bones and joints, nerves, muscles, and connective tissue. There is a lot of information here, and I have read it a couple of times already.
The book continues on with different types of injuries, like a bulging disc, sciatica, stenosis and many other conditions. Some illustrations accompany the dialogue in this section.
Finally, Dr. McGill discusses surgery. The vast majority of patients he sees DO NOT need surgery. In rare cases, when he understands where surgery is the best option, he talks about choosing a surgeon.
Part 2 shows you how to complete a self-assessment. Now, admittedly, this can be difficult, and Dr. McGill says so himself, but he does give a step by step approach to doing this. The goal here is to find your pain triggers and make a note of movements in your day to day life that cause you pain. The illustrations walk you through some of the techniques for discovering the cause of your pain.
There are a series of questions to ask yourself, to get you thinking about loads or movements that cause your pain. Illustrations also walk through the evaluation process. The goal here is to figure out what types of patterns lead to pain and eliminate those. The book talks about scenarios like:
- Do you have pain when walking a specific distance?
- Is there pain with bending backward?
Again, the meat of this section is to help you understand which movements and positions cause pain so that you can make adjustments going forward and live pain-free.
Part 3 talks about “The Repair Job.” The gist of this section is removing painful movements and finding positions that are comfortable for you and help to remove your pain. If you are like me, you might have a lot of bad habits to break!
You find positions that help to “reset” and this means that if you are experiencing pain, there are positions which you can put yourself in, like lying on the floor with your chin propped up on your fist, which will help to remove pain. These are your “go-to” positions to help you reset and find relief. Then you can build on these positions and find movements that will not cause pain going forward.
Dr. McGill also talks about body mechanics in this section and maintaining a neutral spine while moving. He talks about proper ways to bend and offers suggestions for how to pick items up off the floor or put your shoes on. This is what McGill refers to as “spine hygiene,” maintaining proper form when you are performing everyday tasks like doing a load of laundry or vacuuming.
The next concept in this section is “The Big 3” exercises that Dr. McGill recommends to broaden your range or pain-free activities. He discusses at length how to complete these exercises, and how often to do them. I will not give you these exercises, but they are pretty simple and make a lot of sense. I encourage you to buy the book if I have piqued your interest.
“The Big 3” is an essential part of the book and are great exercises for those looking to build on a pain-free lifestyle.
Toward the end of section three, Dr. McGill discusses other activities including walking, core, and hip exercises to expand your repertoire and get you moving without pain. These activities help you build toward a long life being pain-free.
Finally, Part 4 gets into special conditions, such as sciatica, stenosis, and scoliosis and explains what to do and how to move forward with these conditions.
In wrapping up the final section, there is a discussion on case studies with real stories from real people and also a Q&A section that deals with things from mattresses to traveling to chiropractic care.
Conclusion: Back Mechanic by Stuart McGill
I will reiterate that if you suffer from back pain, this book is an excellent tool for discovering your pain triggers and how to move forward toward a pain-free life. I have definitely learned a lot from reading this book, and I plan to read it a few more times focusing on the areas that affect me specifically. I am going to review the stenosis and sciatica sections as that is what ails me.
One cool thing, you can access Dr. McGill’s website https://www.backfitpro.com/ and find a trained clinician. There may or may not be someone in your area, but it’s worth a look.
I also emailed backfitpro.com, and I got a response from Dr. McGill himself, which I thought was pretty cool.
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