Strengthening your Spine with Physio rehabilitation
Back pain is a very common condition but is often poorly managed. The advice for back pain has taken a full 180 in recent years as traditional advice was to protect the spine and rest. Suffers would often be advised by their doctor to perform weeks of bed rest until their back had recovered. More recent research has found this to be detrimental to your recovery and that keeping moving as best you can is actually a better approach. Despite exercise being promoted more by physiotherapists, it will take a cultural change in doctors and the public before it becomes common knowledge.
If you are suffering with back pain this blog will hopefully increase your confidence to start moving more and worrying less about making your back worse.
The spine is made up of 33 vertebrae and between each vertebra are joints that attach them together. Around the spine are a whole host of muscles which like to be loaded and stretched. Due to the sedentary nature of life these days, you may not be moving as much or as well as you could. This can lead to the joints in your spine becoming stiff and the muscles going into spasm. When this occurs, you will likely want to stop and protect your back, however as mentioned this might not be the best solution. Physiotherapists will likely give you gentle exercises for your back to encourage some movement to ease your pain and suffering. In the short term, these exercises might hurt, but if you can persist with them, you will likely start to see some improvements.
Once your pain settles it is so important to start to make changes to your lifestyle to reduce the chances of this happening again. For many, going back into old habits and behaviours is common as change is difficult. If this is you, then you are likely you experience recurrent episodes of back pain. The best thing to do after a bout of back pain is to keep up with your back exercises to mobilise your spine regularly. Not only this, but you should also start a strengthening exercise programme for your spine, core, legs and upper body. This can be performed at home or in the gym and will build strength and confidence with lifting weights and putting load through your back.
If this is a daunting prospect, then working with an exercise professional is a great thing to do. Even better, working with a physiotherapist who offers exercise rehabilitation and training sessions will provide you with the expertise to overcome back pain.
If you would like to find out more about how we can help you, please get in touch.
Many thanks for reading.
Dave Adkins
Chartered Physiotherapist
