Rating: 
Summary: Good Reference Material, Not to be Used Alone
Review: The book is full of exercises and other useful material.I used the book to supplement what my PT suggested. I don't think I'd have had a chance to avoid some of the exercises in the book that can cause problems if I wasn't working with the PT. The book was very useful to me in providing a variety to my exercises and helping me establish good posture. Make sure you see a doctor and a PT at least once!
Rating:
Summary: Good Reference Material, Not to be Used Alone
Review: The book is full of exercises and other useful material. I used the book to supplement what my PT suggested. I don't think I'd have had a chance to avoid some of the exercises in the book that can cause problems if I wasn't working with the PT. The book was very useful to me in providing a variety to my exercises and helping me establish good posture. Make sure you see a doctor and a PT at least once!
Rating: 
Summary: American PT Assoc. Book of Body Maintenance by Moffat et al.
Review: This book is an excellent reference for a plethora of spinal
issues from scoliosis to spondylosis. The authors demonstrate
valuable stretching exercises to help alleviate stiffness.
Massages are cited as good alternative medicinal approaches to
increase the blood flow and circulation. Proper posture and jaw
exercises are cited as excellent approaches to controlling TMJ
pain. Lower back pain triggers are cited. These are muscular
inflammation, strain and certain food groups. The low back stretch helps to alleviate back pain. The patient lies flat on
the back, cups the hands between the knees and lifts upward.
Another exercise involves sitting erect and pulling the stomach
in. The cat stretch while on the knees is another exercise cited to reduce lower back pain. The cross-legged spinal stretch
is yet another citation. Finally, the spinal twist is demonstrated ; wherein, the patient places the right leg over the left while lying flat on the back. This work has dozens of
exercises described and drawn to specification for ease of
replication. It is well worth the price of admission for serious
students of the alternative medicinal approaches to classic
back pain problems, challenges and issues. The author's approach
is in keeping with conservative orthopaedic philosophies which
view extensive back surgery as a last option.
Rating:
Summary: Reliable academic information, few flawed presentations
Review: This book would have easily won five stars had its authors strived to respect the intelligence of its readers. Although the book mainly emphasizes body maintenance and repair, it presents extensive tips and exercises to do more than its title indicates. The major flaw with the book presentation is its authors' short-winded style of sloppiness and poor research.
The Table of Contents demonstrates the clear goals of the book in systematic and scientific manner. Chapter One, "The Back", also stresses that clear goal, by making the spine the center of attention of any physical rehabilitation and maintenance. Troubles start from Chapter 2 on, as follows.
1- In the first nine chapters, there is sloppy redundancy of "copy and paste" of paragraphs. You will read the same paragraphs on "rheumatoid arthritis", "arthritis", "spasm", "muscle tightness", "trigger points", "osteoarthritis", "rest", and so on, so many times as if you are reading the same chapter nine times in the same book. Even many of these chapters end with the same paragraph, with the word "mechanics".
2- Although the book graphics are scientific and serve the purpose of simplification and clarification, some of the drawings are poorly labeled and poorly representative. The drawings of the hip anatomy in chapter 7, for example, do not show the hip abductors. Most of the drawings of posture and gait do not demonstrate the real dynamics of human body of scapular, spinal, or pelvic contours during motion. They are drawn by artists inexperienced in human anatomy.
3- Although most of chapters 10 to 17 are informative and concise, some of them are unnecessarily abbreviated. Chapter 13, "Body Weight", for example, is merely two pages. Chapter 12, "Body mechanics", is a clear proof on how academic writers misunderstand physical performance. The authors attempt to explain the proper way of lifting in a flawed manner that might skip the attention of non-lifters. For example, they advise bending the knees and elbows while lifting from the floor. They explain that that would prevent elbow overextension and back stress. The drawing in that chapter shows a man squatting on his toes with elevated heels. They also advise advancing one foot ahead of the other during squatting. The described process of lifting is flawed because of the following:
(i) You should not bend your knees while lifting unless you have trained them to do so. Untrained knees could easily buckle during lifting and cause accidents.
(ii) Lifting with straight elbows does not over-extend them because the gravity pulls downwards with the shoulders positioned over the elbows. Overextension only happens when the shoulders and elbows are on the same horizontal level, like in lying-down chest flyes.
(iii) Advancing one foot ahead creates asymmetric spinal stress. Lifting on evenly positioned feet guarantees symmetric spinal loading.
(iv) The most important tips in the technique of proper lifting are the chest thrusting and spinal arching. These could obviate knee bending as in the "stiff-legged deadlift".
4- The exercises in Chapters 18 and 19, show the depth of academic understanding of human anatomy. The exercises are plenty and diverse and presented with scientific drawings that emphasize the main purpose of each exercise. The main flaw however, is the poor practical knowledge of the authors about real exercise. This is clear in the so many drawings that show people sitting and lifting weights. Shoulder shrugs, Biceps curls, jaw opening, neck exercises, and many others are performed while seated. Too many sitting exercises should have been done while standing in order to enhance overall physical balance and fitness. Lifting weights while seated is dangerous unless the person is highly trained to maintain lower back lordosis during loading.
Rating:
Summary: Great addition to anyones book collection
Review: This is an excellent supplemental book. It provides a wide range of information in a limited amount of text. The chapters are informative and detailed, yet interesting. This would be a great book to have for a reference or quick study. I also found the many drawings of different exercises most helpful.
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