Description
As a physician specializing in treating athletes, Dr. Vijay Vad has spent years researching how to cure back pain using medical yoga and Pilates. Profiled in The Wall Street Journal, his program requires just fifteen minutes a day for eight weeks to restore flexibility and prevent future injuries. Offering a proven alternative to invasive surgery, Dr. Vad’s Back Rx provides the best of mind/body medicine by giving readers three step-by-step exercise series, demonstrated in 130 precise photographs, for implementing his popular program at home. Even readers with severely limited mobility will rejoice in Dr. Vad’s gentle introductory workout. Progressing through his self-paced program, they will discover a new range of exercises, breathing techniques, and tips for self-massage. For those who want to go even further and use this program for more than the treatment of a single injury, an advanced workout is included that puts readers on the road to peak performance. The perfect combination of modern medicine, Pilates innovations, and ancient yoga postures, Back Rx builds important new fundamentals for lifelong freedom from pain. Vijay Vad, M.D. is a sports medicine physician and researcher specializing in minimally invasive arthritis therapies at the prestigious Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan and a professor at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He is also the physician for the PGA golf tour and the ATP tennis tour. Peter Occhiogrosso has been the author or coauthor of more than twenty books on subjects ranging from spirituality to world religions to pain relief, three of which have become New York Times bestsellers. He previously collaborated with Dr. Van on the books Arthritis Rx and Stop Pain. Contents Acknowledgmentsix Introduction: The Back Rx Way to a Healthy, Pain-Free Backxi What to Do If Youre in Pain Right Nowxvii Part one chapter one: How Your Back Works3 chapter two: Why Your Back Hurts9 chapter three: The Four Stages of Low Back Pain Care and Recovery15 chapter four: Flexibility, Strength, and Endurance: the Three Keys to Good Balance and Posture25 chapter five: Power Tips for Healthy Backs35 chapter six: Resuming Activity after a Low Back Injury51 Part two: Back Rx Series A, B, and C chapter seven: Introduction: Doing the Back Rx Exercises57 chapter eight: Return to Movement: Back Rx Series A63 chapter nine: Resuming Full Activity: Back Rx Series B95 chapter ten: Into the Fast Lane: Back Rx Series C 119 Part three chapter eleven: Other Caregivers143 chapter twelve: State-of-the-Art Treatments and the Future of Low Back Care149 Appendix: Resources on the Web156
