Healing Our Backs with Yoga: An Essential Guide to Back Pain Relief is a book we should all have on our bookshelves, or at least the 80% of us who will experience back pain should. Yes, experts say that 80% of the population will experience back pain at some point in time. I know I have before and probably will again. You probably have at some point in time, also.

Let me be up front. I am not a yogi. I have never had a consistent yoga practice. I am, though, starting a yoga practice now. I also want to be sure you realize I work for Lillah Schwartz but she had no influence over my review.

Healing Our Backs with Yoga is a great reference for starting a yoga practice and for helping relieve back pain. Schwartz doesn’t just give you photos and poses and sequences. She gives you information, muscle groups and reasons for different poses.

The book starts with whether the book is for you. 80% of people will experience back pain. Yoga is a relief mechanism but it is more than that. Yoga connects the body and the mind. If, like myself, you are just beginning your yoga practice, you have to develop this connection. You need to listen to your body as you move through the poses. It takes concentration but is easily done.

Schwartz, then, goes into how to use Healing Our Backs with Yoga. She discusses pain levels and where the yoga and the healing journey will begin. She moves on to building motion and strength. Then, stabilizing the sacrum and pelvic floor are discussed.

When poses and sequences are in the book, there are ample photos of the body. These photos are of real people as opposed to drawings. Schwartz also has hints and modifications in the book. She explains when you should back off a pose and how far to back off.
For a new practitioner of yoga, I appreciate the detail Schwartz goes into in talking about muscles and the body. I also appreciate the photos of the poses and the hints and modifications noted in the book. I find it easy to follow and my back, which has bothered me since a fall down stairs in 1993, is feeling much better.

I strongly suggest you put Healing Our Backs with Yoga: An Essential Guide to Back Pain Relief on your bookshelf and into practice.