Key - Back Sufferers Bible

SOME READERS REVIEWS

After months of pain and misery and bucket loads of painkillers this book lifted me out of the hole. Within days of performing Sarahs exercises I was back to work and enjoying a comfortable nights sleep. Three weeks later and it is hard to imagine I have been diagnosed with a prolapsed disc. My recovery is nearly complete. If it had not been for this book I would eventually have had to gamble with surgery. Even my GP is surprised by the turnaround. Many thanks to Sarah Key.
February 2007

I suffer from back pain. This book has been of great help to me. The early chapters describe the back and explain in very understandable terms whats going on. Trying to pin down exactly what condition you suffer from can be a bit tricky, and I would suggest you take the book with you to your physio. However, I have found this is not crucial. Buy the book, use it in conjunction with professional help, but get busy with the exercises and youll believe in your back again.
January 2007

I have been suffering with chronic back pain now for 6 years and have done the rounds of the medical profession to try to come to some sort of diagnosis so that I can get to work on rehab. Unfortunately all of what I have been told and all that has been physically done to me simply have not worked. That was until I discovered Sarah Keys book. It totally opened my eyes to the reality of what exactly was and IS going on with my spine. That mental picture is of great benefit alone, just to be able at last to understand the spinal structure and what exactly CAN go wrong and how it CAN be corrected. This book and Sarahs methods are by far the best I have come across in all my time of back pain. GO BUY IT!!!!
January 2006

Having had a bad back on and off for years, a recent very bad patch made me think it was time to find out what might be causing it, and if there was anything I could do about it. I found this book very informative. I have been doing the exercises described for a few weeks now and feel a substantial (and hopefully permanent) improvement. I like to understand what exercises are supposed to achieve and how this book has explained both aspects.
September 2005

I couldnt put the book down! Loads of information, that is useful and helpful for my back pain. Chapters are detailed and easy to read, not over the top on medical terms. I recommend this book.
August 2005

I bought this book for my mum. She has suffered for 20 years with back pain and takes anti-inflammatory drugs daily. My mum is 58 and I just hate to watch her suffer more and more every year and I am frustrated that I cant help her. Getting her this book is just another book in a long line of self-help and exercise books that I have bought for her over the years. But this book really seems to have made some difference! She has told me again and again how great this book is because she now understands for the first time what is wrong with her back. She has also regained hope that her back can actually be treated! I am so pleased to hear her say that because I know she had almost given up. So thank you so much.
July 2005

I have just purchased Sarah Keys Back Sufferers Bible and I have to say it is absolutely brilliant. I was in absolute agony with my bulging disc and was given one exercise to do from a physiotherapist that did not work. I have now done the two exercises that Sarah suggested for my problem and I am now so much more comfortable and able to manage my back pain. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was hard to believe that the two easy exercises I did would work but they did. Thank god for Sarah Keys.
August 2003

I just wanted to say thank you. I have suffered from minor back problems for years. Last year it got a lot worse and I spent many painful days getting different opinions from doctors and trying to understand my problems. When I finally discovered this book it was like a breath of fresh air. I was recommended for surgery due to sciatica and loss of feeling in my left leg, but managed to avoid it. Now I am steadily getting better via self-help.
July 2003

Well written and detailed. The commonest causes of back pain are explained. Excellent exercises are well described. Useful for professionals and self-help alike.
August 2002

SARAH
KEYS

BACK
SUFFERERS
BIBLE

This edition first published in 2007 by Allen & Unwin

Copyright Sarah Key 2007

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

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National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Key, Sarah.
Sarah Keys back sufferers bible.

2nd ed.
Bibliography.
ISBN 978 1 74175 189 5 (pbk).

1. Back exercises. 2. Backache Exercise therapy. 3. Backache Treatment. 4. Spine Instability Exercise therapy. 5. Spine Instability Treatment. I. Title.

617.5606

Set in 11/14.5 pt Legacy Serif by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

By HRH The Prince of Wales

Anyone writing about anything complicated knows how hard it is to hit the right note; to convey the right amount of information without lapsing into technical jargon so you leave your reading public behind and, at the same time, not dumbing it all down.

In this new book Sarah Key proposes, in readable language, a new framework for the way healthy spines break down through different stages and become painful. In a classic case of not seeing the wood for the trees, she believes that most spinal problems start off as a simple stiff link in the spine but it is so low-tech it escapes the attention of conventional medical wisdom. Despite backpain being universally commonplace, she says it is often ignored until something more serious develops (like arthritis of the spine or a slipped disc) which is more easily recognised and diagnosed.

I find Sarah Key's book makes sense in what to many is a pretty incomprehensible subject. It is such a help to have it explained so one can actually understand what is going on. Visualising what is happening inside the back makes it much more logical and easy to see why Sarah Key's exercises really do work. After all, I should know. As one of her guinea pigs over the years I can vouch for their effectiveness, if not claim some credit for honing the final product.

To Anne Kern, my editor, whose enthusiasm has been my well-spring.

Contents

There is something sublimely beautiful in the way the human body moves which is often played out in sport. Something about the humdrum splendour of each grand action, like a workaday form of ballet: the golfer leaning sideways into his swing and then winding up to the finish, his trunk twirled and elbows held high. Or the swimmer carving a furrow through the water, his body rolling languidly behind as his legs make their slow-motion, thin scissors kick.