Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance

The author Stuart McGill, PhD has written the most authoritative books on Low Back Disorders and Low Back injury prevention and rehabilitation.They are "must-reads" for healthcare professionals, physical therapists, clinicians, personal trainers and I believe anyone who has had a low back injury and is entering re-hab (working with a well-qualified physician or therapist.)Dr. McGill's works are evidence-based, thoughtfully constructed and well written.Highly recommended.

best book out there on this subject. informative and worthy of any medical bookshelf.

Excellent book to teach proper technique of exercises to keep your back both safe and in it strongest posture. Will definetly make you think about exercises and your training a lot more and in my case change many things in your approach to fitness and performance. Appropriate for both trainers and athletes

This book is a concise readable anthology on back problems in a form readable for the average person. The last few chapters address different therapy approaches from various countries. Terrific book! Highly recommend to anyone with back issues looking for answers!

This should be a must read for all physical therapists. His two books have more supported spine outcomes and functional information than most of the others put together!Manual physical therapist should be exposed to Dr McGill!Strength, athletic coaches and ergonomic providers should have this on there desks.

MAKE NO MISTAKE - DO GET THE 4TH ED. (2009) INSTEAD,EVEN BETTER, GET THE 5TH EDITION (2014), READ MY COMMENT/ALERT ABOUT IT.The posting for the 4th edition can be found under the title "Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance", typing "&" and not "and". Bizarrely, is is not listed in the "Books" Department, but in "All Departments".Tempted buyers should make sure to get the 4th edition, and not fall victims of the scalpers who use the Amazon market place to extort exorbitant prices for the now obsolete third edition.Prof. Stuart McGill is a professor in the Dep't of Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. He is the director of its Spine Biomechanics Laboratory.His famous textbook, "Low Back Disorders", examines back injuries in the light of biomechanics' scientific knowledge, and prescribes exercises and tests for the rehabilitation of injured backs and the prevention of future injuries.Only in the very last chapter 13 does he consider "Advanced Exercises", those for high-performance workers and athletes, putting the accent on back exercises to be practiced only by athletes who already have established a solid base of fitness and overall strength.This new book, "Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance", picks up from there, amplifying the content of the last chapter of the previous textbook, and gearing the book primarily to top performers in sports and athletic competitions.Aerobic activity has become the dominant trend in popular fitness, and it is unarguably of paramount value for cardiovascular health.But it should not obliterate a concern for musculoskeletal fitness, which is essential in all tasks of everyday's life and sports involving lifting, pulling, pushing, throwing and even hitting. Musculoskeletal fitness calls for a more technical and demanding kind of training, where a thorough knowledge of the biomechanics of the back is necessary.It is amazing how quickly "Ultimate" has become a voguish term in recent fitness literature and on the Internet. You'll find it used and overused all over the place."Ultimate Back" constantly cautions us that, when aiming at the "ultimate" performance of top athletes, progression of training is a fundamental principle, too often disregarded, with injuries as the unavoidable penalty.In this light, "Ultimate Back" is an essential manual for all members of the 3F club (Physical Fitness Fanatics) concerned about the impact on the back of fitness training and athletic practices, and who want to do their best to avoid back injuries.Preserving one's back from injury is vital, the more so that most physical fitness fanatics are urban professionals who tend to spend an inordinate portion of their lives sitting -- not a natural posture for the architecture of the back, and, in the long run, a very damaging one. And, as they grow older, the back becomes more fragile and vulnerable.I have both books by Stuart McGill, and I agree with those physical fitness fanatics who are concerned about their backs, that "Ultimate Back" is the one book we will end up spending more time with.Using his two DVDs, especially the second one, "The Ultimate Back: Enhancing Performance," is also helpful, with good demonstrations of the techniques discussed in the two books.The meat of "Ultimate Back", for readers who want the lowdown on specific training exercises, is in the last chapters, ch. 10 to ch. 15.Stuart McGill rightly assumes that most users of "Ultimate Back" may not bother with the full scientific analysis presented in the "Low Back Disorders" textbook, and will use "Ultimate Back" as a standalone -- that is, a self-contained training manual, without the support of the textbook.So, he starts afresh from the same basics already covered in the textbook, while dispensing with many measurement tables and other biomechanics data. As a result, there's a sizeable overlap of material in the two books -- same facts, same conclusions, same illustrations.This kind of bringing back the basics is unavoidable in fitness books, as a necessary reminder to readers who are not specialists. And it is most justified if you intend to use only "Ultimate Back".But it feels a tad repetitious when you want to use both books simultaneously, which we find is a more efficient approach. In this case, we can only regret that there's no useful cross-referencing between the textbook and this "Ultimate Back" fitness manual.Central to Prof. Stuart McGill's tenets are four important concepts.First: The importance of maintaining the "Neutral Posture" of the spine, respecting the natural lower-back curvature of the lumbar spine ("lordosis"), and not imposing extra flexion to the spine. He wages a relentless campaign of warnings against any motion that tends to bend the spine or round the back.We are taught by him to become aware of spine posture at all times, to learn how to restore the "Neutral Spine" and recognize the lumbar extensors by palpating them.We can then correct untrained ordinary stances by learning how to stand properly (no poking chin, shoulders back), how to sit (an eventually damaging activity for the lower back, and for which, unfortunately, there is no really perfect posture, the best being varying the position), how to walk (fast, with swinging arms)Second: "Abdominal Bracing" is also key, an active (and voluntary) isometric tensing of all the abdominal muscles, thus forming a natural stiffening girdle, while learning to maintain full efficient breathing (not immediately easy). This becomes another fundamental factor for providing stability and protection to the back.This allows us to start using a stable torso solidly "Locked" to the pelvis, thus creating a central relay of forces which are generated mostly by the hips and shoulders, and not by the back. This important "Locking" of the rib cage to the pelvis can be learned by various exercises ("wall roll," "floor roll," "back bridges on Swiss ball," and the tremendous "Turkish Getup").Systematically activating the "Abdominal Brace" and "Locking the Torso" becomes an essential part of the new routine.Third: Developing the "Hip Hinge" is essential for leaning forward and lifting. The motion to learn and train is "hip flexion", leaning proceeding from the hips, to replace the spontaneous "lumbar flexion" and bending the spine.A keen perception of this new motion can be developed with half-squats (bending the knees) and various exercises such as the "short-stop ready position".Knowing how to lean in everyday's life, which seems such a banal motion, is in fact a vital skill, that most people have never learnt nor mastered. This new motion of the "Hip Hinge" has to be constantly practiced in ordinary life until it's grooved and becomes automatic.This leads Prof. Stuart McGill to a vigorous debunking of many traditional exercises, such as classic sit-ups and all varieties of crunches, as they are dangerous exercises that create extreme lumbar flexion, high levels of compression in the spine, and undermine back stability.Fourth: Squatting with good form-- with legs apart ("Spreading the Floor") -- should replace bending the back or stooping that tends to spontaneously occur in most lifting, pulling and pushing activities.In "Squatting," it is vital to maximize using the hips (the "Hip Hinge" as opposed to lumbar flexion), and to activate the powerful gluteal muscles in initiating the movement, even in the simple ordinary act of standing up from a chair. The fundamental muscles are "Gluteus Medius" (developed with exercises such as the "clam," "lateral leg raises" and "one-leg squats"), and "Gluteus Maximus" (developed with "back bridges").Prof. Stuart McGill is famous for his preferred "Big 3" exercises for the back: the "Curl-up," "the Side Bridge," and the "Birddog,' all of them with stages of increasing challenge and complexity.There are quite a few more, nearly as basic as the "Big Three", like "Stirring the Pot", all detailed throughout the book, with an abundance of good pictures. Among them: "squats," "lunges," "overhead cable pulls," all essential to build back stability.For warm-up of the spine, nothing better than the "cat/camel" exercice to reduce the natural viscosity of tissues and discs.Stuart McGill recommends waiting about one hour after getting out of bed before doing any back exercises because of the nightly hydration of discs (the process by which discs get nourishment and water from the vertebral bones through osmosis) which tends to tighten the ligaments in the spine.Squatting can be trained and developed in many stages: from "potty squat" (or "toilet squat" for us non-prudish Americans) to "goblet squat"; from basic "two-legged squats" to "one-legged squats". Practice on wood blocks and wobble boards, and progress to "bowler's squat", "step-up", "one-legged squat while pulling up a dumbbell", and "lunge squat while pushing a dumbbell overhead".The "ultimate" level of proficiency would be the famous and challenging one-leg squat called the "pistol".In general, Prof. Stuart McGill recommends the use of free weights, one-handed dumbbells (preferable to two-handed barbells), cables, stretch bands, resistance tubes, and even chains!He favors activating only one side of the spine musculature at a time so as to minimize the load on the spine: asymmetrical exercises, such as "one-armed" and "one-legged" motions are more beneficial and challenging to each side of the body than symmetrical exercises.Switching sides is of course a must to re-establish the balance between both sides, and requires that more time be devoted to the exercise, but with far better results.At a higher level of fitness, traditional "pushups", with their advanced variations, are acceptable abdominal exercises. But some extension exercises ("Roman chair," "superman") put too much load on the spine and should be avoided.Twisting under load is also generally unadvisable, and especially dangerous at the extreme end range of the twisting motion, but twisting torques (without effective twisting) are acceptable if keeping a neutral spine.In the same vein, the good professor warns against the use of most machines available in commercial gyms, not just the "Roman chair," but also all kinds of "back flexing machines" or "back twisting machines," and "leg press-up" machines.He objects to the permanent sitting required for these machines, thus losing the benefit of gravity, and to the fact that they constrain joint motion to a strict mechanical, artificial pattern, depriving all the tissues (vertebrae, cartilage, discs, ligaments, tendons and muscles) of their natural range of movement, while inhibiting the training of neural control that drives real movements.He deplores the perversion introduced by bodybuilding in the current trends of physical training, which focus on isolating and hypertrophying individual muscles.An impressive-looking strongman is in fact too specialized, and does not have overall fitness. Just pull sideways on his sleeve, and the strongman may well lose his balance.Prof. Stuart McGill's famous motto is "Train the Motion, not the Muscle". Functional training that preserves balance and joint stability, not isolated muscle hypertrophy, is the goal.Equally, "Train the Whole Body Movement," in order to train the neural systems that control motion stimulation, which in turn drives muscles. Accordingly he much prefers training that mimics the environment of athletic activity."Proprioception" further enhances the control of movements. Closing the eyes perfects exercises where balance is a key factor.Prof. Stuart McGill criticizes a misguided conception of "passive flexibility" training for the back, and the overuse of artificial "passive stretching" exercises for their only sake. He recommends avoiding the extreme end range of motion in exercises, and in general going beyond the natural range of motion required in specific athletic activities, in order to maintain integrity of the tendons and ligaments.He is thus very skeptical of many practices currently fashionable in fitness vogues, such as yoga, or Pilates, which mostly sell "feel-good" exercises of short-term effect.Loose joints without the tight support of tendons and ligaments are like masts without rigging, or unstable constructions without guy wires, and so dangerous for athletes, only making them injury-prone."Active flexibility" that does not artificially stretch tendons and ligaments is much preferred. It can be developed with specific dynamic exercises: "snatch squat," "the wall squat," and "walking lunges with one-arm dumbbell press".Some specific stretches are found acceptable, as long as they spare the spine, which must always be kept in neutral posture (not easy at all): "quad stretches"; "hip flexions"; "runner's stretches," with careful use of rubber bands; and gluteus stretches with the "hip airplane". Included is a tricky "psoas stretch".Many physical fitness fanatics work too hard in training with wrong programs. They follow exercises invented by coaches, or the fads popularized by fitness celebrities and presented as unquestioned dogmas, or uncritically self-devised.They brutalize their body with the wrong kind of exercises, in the misguided belief that it will lead to better fitness and performance (still victims of the old saw "No pain, no gain"). Unwittingly, they push their muscles too hard, with overtraining resulting in permanent fatigue, and place themselves in the danger zone.Prof. Stuart McGill, in his wisdom, reminds us, eager-beaver "training-vores", of the detrimental and insidious impact of chronic fatigue, of the refreshing value of taking days off training and the irreplaceable benefit of a good night's sleep.He acknowledges the insights of Russian fitness doctrine with its "eight" principles of training, as popularized for instance by Pavel Tsatsouline (Naked Warrior) and Yuri Verkhoshansky (plyometric training, power = strength x speed), and the superior merits of the kettlebell for many exercises.A good exercise program must be carefully designed to take into account the fundamentals of biomechanics and constantly remain concerned about safety of the back, protecting the spine from potential damage and injury. It must develop awareness of the danger zone where injury becomes nearly unavoidable.It must favor functional training, make an absolute priority of learning correct motions, grooving them with absolute control to obtain perfect form before progressing to more challenging levels and higher loads in the training program. "Ultimate Back" is sprinkled with tests to detect bad form in motions, and gives us the corrective actions to establish good form.A well-designed training program must also aim at overall development of fitness and thus avoid multiplying redundant exercises that target the same motion.Once good form is acquired and ingrained, endurance comes before strength, and is promoted with a higher number of shorter sets with fewer reps and lighter load, and rest periods in between.This makes obsolete the old-fashioned practice of long sets with too many reps that bring the muscles to exhaustion, and keep the athlete continually fatigued.The "reverse pyramid" of sets with declining numbers of reps, or declining loads, allows the training of endurance without creating fatigue.Strength can be developed only once endurance is established, with higher loads and sets of fewer repetitions, but caution and expertise are paramount as the athlete is entering the danger zone.Then comes the culmination of performance training in developing speed and power, involving Stuart McGill's cherished concept of "superstiffness". Top athletes require training of pulses, a combination of deep relaxation followed by instant contraction in key motions, such as hitting, throwing, sprinting, etc..., all explosive motions in which instant power has to be delivered -- a skill of extreme value to athletic competitors.Stuart McGill wisely warns that Olympic lifting is an expert specialty better left to the professionals in this sport. He bemoans the fact that Olympic lifts are blindly used in schools to "build" strength in youngsters, and he knows from his own practice that many young lifters, even though aware of his warnings, still manage to damage their backs.He insists that regular 3F members, ordinary urban physical fitness fanatics, should be very cautious in trying to imitate too eagerly the training programs of top professional athletes before they have established enough advanced fitness and strength. This is a mistake many physical fitness fanatics make, a sure way to injury and even death.Stuart McGill reminds us that top professional competitors are unlike 3F-club members. They are not into sports for simple fun and fitness, or for health and good looks, or losing weight, but to compete against adversaries. They are modern gladiators, Samurai warriors engaged in intense fights where the only goal is crushing an opponent and "winning" a contest, thus gaining fame and riches.However it remains imperative to study the rest of "Ultimate Back" and to check repeatedly in "Low Back Disorders" for the basics in anatomy, physiology, and the biomechanics of the back.In spite of some readers' objections, I think Stuart McGill entirely justified in insisting on the extreme value of exactly understanding the biomechanics of how the back works -- basic facts about which most people have not the faintest idea. Prof. Stuart McGill does a first-class job at giving us the fundamentals.For instance, he keeps reminding us how vital are the structure and functioning of the discs. A disc between two vertebras is a complex biomechanical link that will inexorably fatigue and deteriorate all the way to failure with enough repeated flexions of the spine.As measured on special herniation machines, herniation is eventually experienced after about 20,000 cycles of flexion at low levels of spine compression, such as encountered in ordinary life.But at higher levels of compressive loads, herniation will occur after only 5,000 cycles of repeated flexions. Workers handling high loads and athletes creating high compressive loads during repeated flexions of their spines are particularly at risk of damage and herniation. Most of them live in the danger zone of biomechanical overload very close to ligaments and disc failure.Guided by the good professor, we get a better look at our key muscles. We encounter our old familiar, reliable "Rectus Abdominis", which happens to be single and not, as we wrongly thought, a family of six. We regain acquaintance with the powerful "Latissimus Dorsi," but also discover our neglected three back supports in extension, "Longissimus," "Iliocostalis," and "Multifidus", which exhibit different properties in the thoracic and lumbar portions.We get a full picture of the "Abdominal Wall," with the silent "Fascia" and the more famous "External and Internal Obliques" and we learn we cannot isolate "Transverse Abdominis." All together they form our natural back belt.We get to meet our new friend, "Quadratus Lumborum", a key muscle involved in stabilizing the pelvis and the spine in nearly all loading modes and all athletic activities. We acknowledge the vital importance of "Rectus Femoris," "Psoas" and "Iliacus" in hip flexion and stabilization, while greeting the key contribution of "Gluteus Medius" and "Gluteus Maximus" in maximizing stability and power.Surrounded by all the members of this new family, we are in good shape to absorb Prof. Stuart McGill's instruction.This kind of knowledge is really vital and should be taught in high school to all children. Knowledge of the musculoskeletal system is fundamental and vital for all sports and the conduct of our daily lives.Sadly, most people know nothing about the biomechanics of the back beyond the simplistic and conventional dogmas spread by school coaches (remember the hackneyed "no pain, no gain" cliché?) and commercial fitness trainers whose primary interest is making money by popularizing fads and vogues, and not providing basic scientific information on the musculoskeletal function, of which they are lamentably ignorant.In that sense, "Low Back Disorders" is an indispensable companion to "Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance." Both books are essential and complementary, and should be used together.Some critical comments are in order concerning the production and distribution of "Ultimate Back".It is surprising that this 4th edition of "Ultimate Back" is not available directly from Amazon, and tempted buyers should not fall victims of the scalpers who use the Amazon market place to extort exorbitant prices for the 3d edition.Even if Professor Stuart McGill is self-publishing his own book and marketing it through his little commercial outfit "Backfitpro Inc" in Waterloo, Ontario, Amazon's direct marketing participation would be extremely useful to the success of this book.We can only hope that the good professor will retain his scientific integrity and not be tempted to turn his success in promoting the results of his scientific knowledge into just another ordinary kind of commercial enterprise. And thus neglect the benefits to the public and all 3F-club members of a wider distribution of "Ultimate Back" than he can implement on his own alone.And, let's be honest, the English in "Ultimate Back" is often loose and unnecessarily heavy. It uses a kind of engineering/technical jargon that, even though perfectly clear in the author's mind, may not be immediately clear to readers, be they ordinary physical fitness fanatics, competitive athletes, or even coaches.This style tends to replace good "active" English sentences by "passive" ones, and to condense them into long strings of nouns that become quickly hermetic. Reading about "ballistic hip external rotation cable pulls" is no great fun and not easy to remember as a concept.The good professor even mentions that some of the practitioners taking his classes or reading his book misunderstand him. No wonder, the English is hard to digest, occasionally unclear, and sprinkled with quite a few mistakes, or even distortions of the language.For instance, the good professor has the disconcerting habit of mentioning the "athlete who is flexing their backs," or "have the person drop their buttocks to their heels," always using "they," "their," "them," when speaking of one person, to avoid being criticized of sexual bias by saying "he," "his," "him," (not such a big deal, in reality) or to avoid the clumsy "he/she". One happy solution would be to alternate "he/his" and "she/her".This misuse of English is really annoying from a scientist who is otherwise finically rigorous when it comes to his specialty, but does not hesitate to twist the back of our beloved English language. There are style manuals dealing with "Ultimate English Fitness and Performance"."Ultimate Back" is sorely missing those four critically useful features available in "Low Back Disorders" which would allow us to navigate easily and efficiently through what is, after all, a complex technical text:- a completely detailed table of contents describing all the material and concepts;- a complete list of all the exercises mentioned in the book;- an extensive index at the end enabling the reader to zero in immediately on any item of interest.- a glossary of technical terms, which could include as well a complete list of the various acronyms used throughout the book.Some technical books would even add a full list of illustrations and tables, with the relevant captions.Of course self-publishing tends to omit all those essential features because of the cost involved.It is especially the absence of a comprehensive index that is a drastic inconvenience, hugely diminishing the usefulness of the book for us readers, and extremely frustrating as soon as we start digging seriously into the text. This neglect is mind-boggling and a major nuisance. Why was this oversight tolerated?For instance, where are all the instances of analyzing and illustrating the "Neutral Spine Position", the "Abdominal Bracing", the "Hip Hinge" and "Activating the Glutei", the four key concepts of Stuart McGill's doctrine?Same for any other kind of research: Where are all the variations of "cable pulls" mentioned and illustrated? And the "one-leg squats" or the "dead bug"? You have to waste precious time just leafing through the chapters to find them.The self-references within the book itself are extremely poor, and the cross-references between both books practically non-existant, which is another considerable drawback, and a sheer disservice to Stuart McGill's students and followers, considering that both books work best as a pair.In addition, "Ultimate Back" uses a much larger font, with huge blocks of blank space. Many of the same publication references are repeated after each chapter, instead of being all combined at the end of the book. And occasionally you find 3 or 4 consecutive pages that are blank, empty of any text. I counted about 15 in all for the whole book. This feels like the packaging in many supermarket cartons, where a good part of the box is empty.All these gimmicks -- too frequent these days in fitness book publishing -- are used to push the book to 318 pages. But the quantity of text and information is simply not comparable to that of "Low Back Disorders." And "Ultimate Back" has no hard cover, unlike "Low Back Disorders".All this is a shame, because it makes "Ultimate Back" look amateurish, whereas in fact, the content is high-quality and highly professional.How to edit, publish and market "Ultimate Back" seems to have been a questionable decision. Self-publishing is most likely the reason for the book's obvious deficiencies and also a serious obstacle to the general distribution of this important book.If we compare Stuart McGill's two books, it is obvious that "Ultimate Back" has been skimpily edited, and that its presentation is nowhere as professional as that of the first-class "Low Back Disorders".The textbook has been superbly fashioned by a full-staff editing team at Human Kinetics. It is a joy to read, and easy to consult again and again. It is an indispensable textbook on the back.It makes us only regret that "Ultimate Back" was not also produced by the same team at Human Kinetics and given the same quality treatment -- clear and fluid text, superlative presentation, key editing features -- that "Ultimate Back" deserved as well. Even if the result might have been a slimmer book, but a far better one.So, let's hope that some of these deficiencies will be corrected in the next, 5th, edition, enabling us, readers, to start using this important fitness manual easily and efficiently.And only thus can Stuart McGill hope to spread among the larger public the teachings of his new fitness training gospel.In spite of our legitimate reservations concerning the disappointing presentation and the absence of key editing features, Prof. Stuart McGill's "Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance" still deserves five stars for the extreme quality and the uniqueness of its content.Three aspects of this manual are indeed truly unique, and of great value to physical fitness fanatics:- It defines for the training athlete the correct motion and good form in any fitness exercise or any task of lifting, pulling, pushing, throwing and hitting.- It also allows the trainer to detect those mistakes that prevent the athlete from achieving perfect form of movement, with various tests illustrated throughout the book.- It details precisely how to observe the progression of increasingly challenging levels of exercise with heavier loads, that is an intrinsic part of a good training program.There is just nothing else like it on the market.But make no mistake, GET THE 4TH (2009) OR 5TH EDITION (2014), and not the 3d one.ROO.BOOKAROO

Over the years several exercises for back strength and flexibility have been promoted to rehabilitate injured backs or to improve athletic performance. McGill's work has shown that many of these exercises will actually injure backs or decrease performance. As examples he shows that the leg press machine found in most gyms puts the back at risk. The seated trunk twisting machine found in many gyms is a potential disc wrecker as well as training athletically counterproductive movement patterns. Olympic weigthlifting movements currently promoted as part of functional training are discouraged at least without the qualifying the athlete under a certified Olympic lifting coach. A hallmark of McGill's work is his emphasis on endurance of back muscles and on trunk stability.Several exercises are illustrated and described although I think the presentation could have been better. Given the large number of weight training books that have really bad advice this might be a worthwhile purchase to possibly prevent injury and maybe encourage some the use of some exercises to enhance back health and athletic performance. The price is not cheap -- about $[..]. To order see McGill's website [...] Payment is by PayPal or calling the publisher. Given the price I do not see many casual athletes buying it. For personal trainers. coaches, and authors of fitness books, etc. I think it should be required reading.

It is a very descriptive book but it’s not easy to apply since as it states every case is different but I would recommend it as a reference book