Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Musculoskeletal Disorders, Pain, and Rehabilitation, Fourth Edition is a medical reference book that provides information on the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, pain syndromes, and chronic disabling conditions. It is written by Walter R. Frontera, MD, PhD; Julie K. Silver, MD; and Thomas D. Rizzo, Jr., MD.
The book is divided into five sections:
Part I: Fundamentals of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Part II: Regional Musculoskeletal Disorders
Part III: Pain Management
Part IV: Rehabilitation Interventions
Part V: Musculoskeletal Emergencies
The book is designed to be a quick-reference guide for physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and other healthcare professionals who treat patients with musculoskeletal disorders. It is also a useful resource for patients and their families who want to learn more about these conditions.
Here are some of the key features of the book:
Easy-to-navigate format: The book is organized in a consistent format that makes it easy to find information quickly. Each topic is covered in a separate chapter, and each chapter is divided into sections that cover the definition, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of the condition.
Up-to-date information: The book is based on the latest scientific evidence and includes information on new technologies and treatments.
Comprehensive coverage: The book covers a wide range of musculoskeletal disorders, from common conditions such as low back pain and arthritis to more complex conditions such as spinal cord injuries and brain injuries.
Clinical pearls: The book includes clinical pearls, which are practical tips and advice from the authors.
Case studies: The book includes case studies that illustrate the application of the information in the book to real-world patients.
The book is rich in detail and explains how bodies get "broken" and how to restore them. I am looking forward to applying the recommendations the author suggests for multiple sports and age-related dysfunction. The images, exercises and explanations are clear and helpful.
My only complaint is that the print quality in the last section is somewhat compromised - like the ink was low or something. Still, readable, and the book is worth 5 stars.
So, this book goes into how muscle and connective tissue is generated, inflammation after injury, nutrition recommendations for repairing injured connective tissue, what exercises you shouldn't do (i.e., remarkably benches, barbell squats, and other heavy exercises), etc., all for someone who is looking at just building strength over a longer term (not necessarily for 'muscle beach' type people. There's even a long-term plan for training. Are all the exercises given described correctly - no, world's greatest stretch is actually an advanced exercise for someone older like myself; and one should actually consult the Stuart McGill's back training book for how and why to do bird dog, cat-cow, bridges, etc. exercises for the back - especially if one is building back from a back injury.
But overall, this is probably the best training book of the over 15 books I've purchased. I wish I had read this before I started training after a slight layoff. I was already fit, but not trained properly - so this book would have helped me a lot - especially the advice not to listen to any 20-somthing trainer who doesn't read, and says the exercises are obvious.
This is my initial review. I will update this as needed.
In summary - excellent book and highly recommended.
I've been an athlete my whole life, starting ice hockey and soccer at age 5, playing through high school, getting immersed in endurance and outdoor sports during college, finding and falling deep into the CrossFit world in my early adult years, branching out into more focused gymnastics and mobility and movement-quality based paradigms and eventually transitioning from the hardcore dogma of "constantly varied functional movement at high intensity" to a more mellow, Daoist-like fitness philosophy. And, that philosophy cannot be better summarized than by the words of Lao Tzu himself:
"Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."
Such words fly in the face of today's conventional fitness values that seem to always amount to an egotistical ambition to be 1) appealing to the opposite sex and 2) intimidating to one's own sex (assuming the athlete is heterosexual) and that the pursuit of these ambitions requires you to regularly endure PAIN, as in "no pain, no gain."
What I like about Scott Hogan and others like him (Jerzy Gregorek, Tim Anderson, Dr Eric Goodman, Ben Patrick) is that they take ego out of the fitness equation by waking people up to a fundamental truth: you are not meant to be in pain. Pain, unlike what the ego tells you, is a sign that you're doing fitness wrong, not right. Hogan's book indeed takes this big picture approach and challenges readers to zoom out and reevaluate why they're really training in the first place. For that alone, I'd say it's worth a read.
Another thing I really like about Hogan's work is his emphasis on joint health and range of motion as the non-negotiable foundation of all meaningful health and athleticism. Just stop to think for second: of what use is strength or muscle size if you're unable to simply occupy natural human positions? Any fitness paradigm that does not have mobility and movement quality as its foundation is a house of cards. Strength, power, and speed are all great, but when developed at the expense of natural range of motion, those "gains" eventually become "glitches." Kudos to Hogan for creating a program that will help exercisers of all stripes to repair and rebuild a solid foundation for pursuing their fitness goals. This is a great resource for anyone interested in staying supple and strong for life.