Say Goodbye To Back Pain is a specialized exercise program developed by Hans Kraus, M.D., and Alexander Melleby, M.S., especially for the YMCA's "Healthy Back Program" which was implemented on a national and international level in 1974 by approximately 4,000 carefully trained instructors. This program resulted in the largest study of low back pain and its causes ever conducted in the U.S.A.

This unique system of sequential, subtle and effective exercises, designed specifically to strengthen weak key postural muscles induced by stress, was implemented into a six-week course and administered by trained instructors to more than 300,000 individuals in Y's throughout the U.S.A., Australia and Japan. The success rate was phenomenal and proved without question that this unique exercise program, which incorporates relaxation techniques, could restore qualified patients to a normal, active and pain-free life.

A controlled computer study of 11,809 people who fully completed questionnaires revealed that at least 80% (including post-operative surgical cases) experienced improvement in their condition, having either eliminated pain entirely, or considerably reduced their pain to the point whereby they could go about their work and live their lives, when previously it was impossible to do so.

Since the implementation of the original "Say Goodbye to Back Pain" program, and after the retirement of Alexander Melleby, M.S., a new version was implemented by the YMCA that included the introduction of additional exercises that would have been contraindicated by Hans Kraus, M.D. It is therefore critical that the original program be maintained not only for the benefit of the general public but also to maintain the integrity of the original works of Dr. Kraus that resulted in an exercise program that has been thoroughly tried, tested, and proven to work for hundreds of thousands of back sufferers throughout the world.

Note: In most civilized countries today, lower back problems have now jumped from No. 2, to become the No.1 leading cause of absenteeism in the work-place.