Do you experience chronic back pain? It has been published that there are everyday habits that create back pain. With physical therapy and changing your habits you can decrease the pain in your back.
These 7 habits, as published in Every Day Health, by Kristen Stewart can cause back pain and need to be avoided
- Non-Exercise
- Poor Posture
- Incorrect Lifting Techniques
- Overweight
- Smoking
- Lack of Calcium and Vitamin D
- Being Sedentary
By avoiding these habits you will help protect and strengthen your back muscles. While working to change your habits, you may continue to experience back pain and physical therapy may be of benefit to use. The advantages of physical therapy to help reduce back pain are as follows:
- Decrease Pain Quickly
- Increase Function
- Provide Education to reduce occurrences
A physical therapy program for back pain should consist of the following
- Passive physical therapy
- Active exercises
Passive physical therapy’s main goal is to focus on decreasing the pain. This type of treatment will consist of
**Heat/Ice Packs: Helps reduce inflammation and muscle spasm
**TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator) units: Electrical stimulation to the lower back area that overrides the painful signals sent to the brain.
**Iontophoresis: Steroids applied to the skin to produce an anti-inflammatory effect in the general area that is experiencing pain.
**Ultrasound: Relieves acute episodes of pain and enhances tissue healing by using deep heating in order to penetrate into the soft tissues of the skin.
Active Exercises is also a key component in the rehabilitation of the spine. A few examples of active exercises to decrease back pain are as follows:
**Stretching Exercises: Stretching should be pain free and you should not force your body. Simple stretching exercises like stretching hamstring muscles, back flexion and knee to chest stretching are important stretches to conduct daily in order to reduce pain.
**Strengthening Exercises: These exercises should be taught by your physical therapist to ensure proper technique. Exercises might include 15 to 20 minutes of prescribed exercises and core muscle strengthening.
**Low Impact Aerobics: For long term pain reduction you should consider low impact aerobics. These include walking, water therapy, swimming and bicycling. They should be done 30 to 40 minutes three times a week.
At Oklahoma Physical Therapy, we take pride in patient care and we want to help reduce your back pain and increase your everyday mobility and functionality. Please contact us for more information and to set up an appointment today.