Physiotherapy – A Boon To Low Back Pain

Do you know that an estimated 80% of the population worldwide will, once in their life experience low back pain? Today our expert Dr. Pradeep Sharma explains about non – specific back pain and how you can both treat it and protect yourself in your day to day life.

What Is Non – Specific Back Pain?

From students to 9 – 5 workers, doctors to professional athletes, back pain can affect anyone, at any stage of life. There are different types of back pain, of which non – specific back pain is the most common.
This back pain occurs due to muscle strain or injury and movement can aggravate the symptoms and pain.

To relieve these symptoms and pain there are few simple yet very effective techniques that you can be mindful of and practice daily.

PACE:
Pace is one of the most common strategies advised by professional to manage back pain and is very effective at relieving symptoms.

How It Works:

• Make a note of how long it takes during a particular activity for your usual symptoms or pain to flare up.
• Next time you can carry out this activity, time yourself and stop half way before the pain starts.
• This approach will prevent your symptoms presenting before they become painfully unbearable.
• You will also benefit from a shorter recovery period which in turn will allow you to be more productive.

Posture:
Posture is how we position our bodies at any given time, while we are working or carrying out a task and even at rest when we are sitting down. Posture is essential for protecting against injury and pain..

How it works:
If you feel your posture is causing you pain, visit a physiotherapist for postural analysis..
Your physiotherapist will give you specifics to help stretch and strengthen the areas that may be causing poor posture.
If you sit at work, a workplace assessment could be highly beneficial for you.

Stretching:
Tight muscle increase the stress on and workload around the joint where they are positioned. Tight muscles which cause back pain are usually located around the spine.

How It Works:

• Stretching helps to reduce muscle soreness.
• Stretching also helps muscle relax, especially if they are weak, overworked or tight and painful due to other factors such as stress.
• Another benefit of stretching is that it increases the flexibility of tendons and aids smooth muscle movement.
• Even more, benefits include helping good circulation and increasing blood flow to muscles.
• Your physiotherapist can show you effective stretches to do regularly at home to stretch out tight muscles and decrease back pain.

Back Strengthening:
Strength training is important as it builds up muscular strength, improves your posture and endurance of your muscle.This will help you in a typical day to day activities and manual responsibilities, as well as training for sports and fitness.

How It Works:

• As already discussed, pacing, good posture and regular stretching all work together to help reduce back pain.
• We recommend that you include exercises which strengthen your core muscles (buttocks, back and abdominals) into your training program. Together with stretching out your back and glutes your symptoms should reduce even more.
• Visit your physiotherapist for a personalized set of exercises which you can do at home.
• Precision exercise classes such as Pilates can also be very effective at building core strength.

To seek further guidance, you can get help and have all your questions answered in a visit to the physiotherapy department at Metro Hospital, FBD