The book · Free paperback, £5.97 towards printing and postage
If your back pain keeps coming back, nobody has fixed the cause yet.
Unlocked explains the one structural fault that stretching, strengthening, massage and most adjustments never touch, and what it takes to correct it.
- Why a spinal bone can get stuck forwards, and why no muscle in your body can pull it back
- Why "pull your shoulders back", posture gadgets and core work cannot hold, and what does
- How to stand, sit, sleep and move so your body stops re-injuring itself every day
Written by a chiropractor who could not fix his own back for four years, and then found out why. Rated 4.7 out of 5 by readers on Amazon.
Paperback, 266 pages. Posted from Hampton within one working day to any UK address.
- £5.97 goes on printing and Royal Mail postage, less than each copy costs. No subscription, nothing else to buy.
- Secure checkout by Stripe. Posted by the SpineCentral front desk team.
Prefer Amazon? Paperback £12.17 or Kindle
Outside the UK? Use the Amazon link. Your email is always used to confirm your order. At checkout you choose whether to hear from Richard Gliddon afterwards.
Paperback and Kindle, and some of the illustrations inside. Every mechanism in the book is drawn, not just described.
Why it keeps coming back
A bone stuck forwards has no muscle to pull it back.
This is the fact most treatment is built without, and it is the reason relief so often wears off in days or weeks.
Spinal bones can be knocked out of alignment in any direction. From most directions your body can correct the fault itself, because there is a muscle in position to do it. Forwards is the exception. There is no muscle attached behind the spine that can pull a vertebra backwards.
So the body does the only thing it can. It compensates. Other bones shift, twist and tilt to keep you balanced around the fault. Muscles brace to hold the compromise. Over years, injury stacks on injury, and the posture you see in the mirror is the sum of every compensation your body has had to make.
Stretch the tight muscles, strengthen the weak ones, release the joints, and the compensation eases for a while. The bone is still forwards. The pattern returns. That is why so many people say "it comes back every few weeks". It was never corrected. It was managed.
Unlocked explains how this fault is found, how it is corrected, and what happens as the body unwinds through its old injuries once it is.
What changes when the cause is addressed
Most treatment manages the compensation. This corrects the fault.
What you have probably tried
- Stretching the tight side and strengthening the weak side, which eases the compensation and leaves the cause
- "Pull your shoulders back", posture braces and ergonomic reminders, which add effort on top of a structure that cannot hold the position
- Treating the place that hurts, when the pain is usually downstream of the fault
- Accepting stiffness, a stoop and lost mobility as "just getting older"
What Unlocked explains
- How Advanced BioStructural Correction finds the bones the body cannot self-correct and puts them back in the direction they went
- Why upright posture becomes effortless once the structure supports it, instead of something you have to remember to do
- The unwinding process: old injuries resurface briefly and clear, in a predictable order, as the body lets go of its compensations
- Why a forward-stuck posture is linked in the research to breathing, mood, falls and all-cause mortality, with the studies cited
What the book gives you
Understanding first. Then control.
Most people have no idea how their body works, why it went wrong, or what to do about it. So they lurch from treatment to treatment, hoping. Unlocked gives you the information to decide for yourself.
1 · How your body works
The structure everything else depends on
Bones, joints, ligaments, fascia and nerves as one functioning unit, explained in plain English with the illustrations from the book. Once you can see it, you stop being mystified by it.
2 · Why it goes wrong
Accurate, workable information
The forward-stuck bone, the compensation chain, and why relief without correction wears off. Real information, not reassurance, so the decisions you make about your own care are good ones.
3 · What to do every day
Sit, sleep, stand and move well
The practical half of the book: habits that stop the daily re-injury. Not exercises, not gadgets, not willpower. Small changes that work with your structure instead of against it.
4 · Control for the long term
You know what your body needs
When you understand what is going on, the guesswork ends. You know what to keep doing, what to stop, and when to get help. Paired with the right correction, many readers recover function they had assumed was gone for good.
This is not conventional advice. It is a book of hope, and of clear, accurate thinking about the body: why it hurts, why it has not stayed fixed, and what it takes to recover what has been lost.
Ready to see why it keeps coming back?
Get my free copyFree book. You pay £5.97 towards printing and UK postage. Secure checkout by Stripe.From inside the book
Drawn so you can see it, not just read about it.
A few of the illustrations. The sit, sleep, stand and move chapters are built around pictures like these, so the habits are easy to copy.
The author
I could not fix my own back for four years. My colleagues could not either.
In 2009 a snowboarding fall in a half-pipe left Richard Gliddon with two spinal compression fractures. He had been a chiropractor for three years and had built a busy practice. None of it helped him.
For four years the pain and stiffness grew. After a day of adjusting patients he would sit on the train home wanting to crawl out of his skin to escape the feeling of being seized up. Every time a colleague adjusted the site of the injury his diaphragm went into spasm and he could not breathe. Triathlon training became a struggle and the plan to finish an Ironman was shelved.
In December 2013, visiting Cape Town for a friend's wedding, he dropped in on a chiropractor using a method he had not come across: Advanced BioStructural Correction. After a ten-minute session he could stand tall without effort, breathe deeply and twist and bend again for the first time in years.
Finding out why that worked when everything else had not meant admitting that the methods he had trained in were incomplete. He retrained, rebuilt SpineCentral around the new approach, went on to finish an Ironman distance triathlon without pain, and wrote Unlocked so that patients and practitioners would not need four years and a lucky trip to find out what he did.
"Richard has proven himself an excellent practitioner, repeatedly getting fantastic results in cases others have long abandoned as hopeless."
Dr Jesse Jutkowitz · Founder of Advanced BioStructural Correction · from the cover of Unlocked
What's inside
Ten chapters. Half explain the problem. Half show you what to do about it.
Written for the reader, not the practitioner, with every research claim referenced at the end of each chapter.
Introduction
The fall
Richard's own injury, the four years of failed treatment, and the ten minutes that changed his understanding of the spine.
Chapter 1
In Order To Build Tall, You Must Dig Deep
Structure determines function. Why the shape of your frame sets the ceiling on energy, breathing, mood and performance.
Chapter 2
Alignment Matters
What the research links a forward-stuck posture to: lung function, falls, fractures and all-cause mortality. The studies are cited.
Chapter 3
Why Posture Goes Wrong
The bone that goes forwards, the muscle that is not there, and the compensation chain that follows.
Unwinding Stories
Patients in their own words
A builder, a dance teacher, an office worker with lifelong nose-breathing difficulties. What changed and in what order.
Chapter 4
The Primary Domino Effect
How correction works, why old injuries resurface briefly as the body unwinds, and how long it takes.
Chapter 5
Lifestyle Choices
The daily habits that either re-injure a corrected structure or protect it.
Chapters 6 to 9
Standing, Sleeping, Sitting and Moving Well
The practical half of the book. Feet and footwear, the right mattress and pillow position, the chair and the seat wedge, and how to move without heel-striking your way into the next injury.
Chapter 10
Conclusion
"Good health is a crown on the head of a well person that only a sick person can see."
Readers
What people say after reading it
"This is a brilliant book, well written and very informative about a process that I'm going through at the moment and I know works. Read it and find out for yourself."
Verified Amazon review · October 2019
"I loved this book. It has changed so many things that I do day-to-day to get a better life. Very well written, and funny. It's had a huge impact on me."
Verified Amazon review · October 2019
"An absolutely brilliant book. I would advise strongly to read it and it might change your health and life in general. It helped me unlock my health further. A life changer."
Verified Amazon review · October 2019
"It's incredible how effective it's been."
Kane · Publican
Join the readers who finally understood their back.
Get my free copyFree book. You pay £5.97 towards printing and UK postage. Secure checkout by Stripe.Is it for you?
Read it if
- You have had physio, osteopathy, chiropractic or massage and the relief did not last
- You cannot stand up straight without effort, or you notice yourself stooping in photographs
- There are things you could do ten years ago that you have quietly stopped doing
- You want to understand why your body hurts before you spend more on treating it
Skip it if
- You want an exercise programme. The book explains why exercise alone cannot correct the fault it describes.
- You are looking for a quick fix. Correction is a process, and the book is honest about how long it takes.
- You have an acute injury or red-flag symptoms. See a clinician first. A book is not a diagnosis.
After you have read it
Understanding the fault is step one. Correcting it needs a practitioner.
Near Hampton, south-west London?
Richard's own clinic, SpineCentral, assesses new patients on Ashley Road in Hampton. Teddington, Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston, Sunbury and Walton are all close by.
Book a consultationElsewhere in the UK or Europe?
ABC Europe trains and certifies practitioners across the continent. Find a certified practitioner near you.
Chiropractor, osteopath or physio?
If fifteen to twenty per cent of your patients never fully recover however hard you work, the book explains why, and ABC Europe teaches what to do about it.
Questions
Before you order
Is the book really free?
You pay £5.97 and nothing else. That is cost price: each copy costs about £3.75 to print and about £3 to post by Royal Mail, so the £5.97 goes on getting the book to you and Richard covers the rest. There is no margin in it, no subscription, and nothing is added to your order.
Why do you need my card details for a free book?
Only to take the £5.97 for printing and postage. Payment is handled by Stripe. SpineCentral never sees or stores your card number.
Where do you post to, and how long does it take?
UK addresses only, by Royal Mail. The front desk team at SpineCentral posts orders within one working day, so most copies arrive within two to four working days. International postage costs several times more, so outside the UK please order the paperback or Kindle edition from Amazon, which ships locally.
Is this the same book as the one on Amazon?
Yes. Unlocked: Release Your Peak Potential and Rebuild a Body that's Future-Proof, published by Finn-Phyllis Press in 2019, 266 pages, ISBN 978-1733033749.
Will reading the book fix my back?
No. The book explains what is wrong and what correction involves so that you can make an informed decision. The correction itself is done by a trained practitioner. The chapters on standing, sleeping, sitting and moving will help you stop adding new strain in the meantime.
Do you share my details?
No. Your name and address are used to post the book, and your email to confirm dispatch. At checkout you are asked whether you would like short emails with reading tips and news from Richard Gliddon, SpineCentral and ABC. Choose No and you will only receive messages about your order. You can unsubscribe at any time. See the privacy notice.
Find out why it keeps coming back.
Free paperback, £5.97 towards printing and UK postage, posted within one working day. Or read the first chapter free and decide afterwards.