5 Tips to Relieve Back Pain Through Physiotherapy

5 Tips to Relieve Back Pain Through Physiotherapy

Patients with back pain often ask me, “How will physical therapy help me with my back pain?” and “If I’m in pain, how does exercise help me?”

Not all physical therapy programs are right for everyone. Therefore, patients should discuss their medical history with their qualified healthcare professional before starting treatment. However, a well-trained physical therapist can use a variety of treatments such as heat, ice, electrical stimulation, and muscle energy techniques to areas of back pain origination.

There are five areas where physical therapy can be of great benefit in treating back pain:

1. Teaching proper body mechanics

2. Providing husbandry recommendations

3. Teaching specific exercises to increase flexibility and strengthen abdominal and lower back muscles

4. Improve weight control

5. Providing manual therapy techniques.

If you think you don't have the time to participate in a physical therapy program, these benefits may change your mind.

1. Understanding proper body mechanics

Understanding proper body mechanics can reduce your need for medication and keep your spine healthy. An individual physical therapy program can be helpful. Physical therapists help patients learn how to care for their backs and how to manage recurring episodes of pain, thereby reducing the need for medication.

Body mechanics describes the way we move as we go about our daily activities. It focuses on how we sit, stand, bend, lift, and even how we sleep.

Poor body mechanics can be the cause of back problems. When we don't move properly, the spine is subjected to abnormal stresses, which can cause degeneration of spinal structures such as discs and joints and cause unnecessary wear and tear over time.

It is very important to understand proper body mechanics to keep your spine healthy.

2. Providing husbandry recommendations

In my many years of experience treating patients with back pain, I have seen again and again how important posture recommendations are in relieving their pain.

Good posture is key to preventing and controlling back pain, and who better to teach patients posture recommendations than the physical therapist?

Although often overlooked, a good understanding of proper sitting and standing posture can largely eliminate back pain. People often associate this pain with lifting, but poor posture is also a culprit.

Although lifting incorrectly can cause back pain, correcting your posture is crucial. The harmful effects of sitting incorrectly can cause significant pain. It's easy to develop bad habits. However, good body mechanics are based on good posture.

Being aware of your posture in all of your daily activities is the best way to ensure you are practicing good body mechanics. Training in proper posture and body mechanics is an essential part of reducing and preventing back pain, thereby helping to avoid surgery.

3. Teaching specific exercises

As your back pain improves, your physical therapist can teach you specific exercises to increase flexibility, strengthen back and abdominal muscles, and improve your posture.

Stretching increases flexibility, and increased flexibility helps you perform activities of daily living comfortably and fluently. This will also help reduce the risk of muscle, joint and tendon injuries.

Stretching can also often relieve back pain. Muscle tension in the quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors, and lower back muscles is a common cause of back pain. Stretching these muscles often eliminates the pain.

In physical therapy, strengthening the abdominal, back and leg muscles helps reduce symptoms of nerve compression.

4. Improve weight control

As you gain strength in your lower extremities, abdominal and back muscles, your endurance will improve. This gives you more energy and can improve weight control and often weight loss if you monitor your calorie intake.

As your body tones and your endurance increases; You will improve your exercise tolerance and lose some body fat. Studies have shown that back pain decreases when you are at your ideal body weight.

5. Providing manual therapy techniques

Physical therapists use a variety of manual techniques to restore normal alignment and joint movement. A well-trained manual physical therapist can mobilize joints in ways that a patient cannot. They teach patients how to maintain good alignment after it has been properly restored.

Physiotherapy offers several benefits when treating back pain. One of the benefits of exercise can be reducing back pain. By following your posture recommendations, maintaining good body mechanics, and completing your home exercise program, you can better control your pain.

Regular use of these techniques can help prevent recurring pain, correct current back problems, prevent new ones, and relieve back pain, especially after an injury. Proper exercise strengthens the back muscles that support the spine and strengthens the abdomen, arms and legs, reducing strain on the back. Exercise also strengthens bones and reduces the risk of falls and injuries.

There are many different causes of back pain. Therefore, it is important that your physical therapy program is tailored to your specific needs. An individualized physical therapy program in which your doctor works closely with your physical therapist can help you control your back pain.

For lasting benefits, it is important that you continue your home exercise program even after the physical therapy program has ended.

Working with your doctor and physical therapist can help relieve your back pain.

©2011 Winifred D. Bragg, MD. All rights reserved.

Inspired by Winifred Bragg, M.D.