Fixing My Low Back Pain With Physical Therapy
What Can Physical Therapy Do for Low Back Pain?
Low back pain (LBP) commonly affects the muscles, ligaments, and spinal segments. It can result from various issues including strains of the muscles, herniated discs or degenerative changes due to aging or common wear and tear. This pain often interferes with activities of daily living such as standing, sitting, completing transfers or lifting objects. If not addressed, the problem can progressively worsen and lead to decreased strength and mobility, decreased independence, decreased participation in activities you enjoy, and decreased quality of life.
How Can You Recognize Your Low Back Pain?
Do you wake up in the morning and have a stiff low back? Does sitting or standing for too long bring on a sharp pain if you’re in that position for too long? Do activities like lifting, pushing or pulling also bring that discomfort? Sometimes the pain can stay localized to the low back but can also spread down into the leg. This makes people believe that it is not a back problem. However, you could be dealing with a discogenic issue from your back. The first step is finding out where this low back pain comes from and how we can address it. Imaging like an MRI or a full evaluation at our Physical Therapy clinic can help pinpoint the cause of your pain. From there, we can create a personalized treatment plan for your physical therapy.
What Are Some Causes of Low Back Pain?
Low back pain can be caused by several different factors including:
- Muscle strains: Overuse of muscles of the back caused by overexertion of force.
- Herniated discs: Herniated discs can occur with improper movement patterns or lifting techniques leading to pressure on the nerves of the spine.
- Degeneration of discs: Lack of exercise or aging process can lead to decreased thickness of discs
- Ligamentous disorders: Ligaments can be damaged in the spine, specifically after a traumatic injury including a crash or fall
- Spinal stenosis: Narrowing of canals within the spine leading to compression of nerves in the area
Physical Therapy Treatment for Low Back Pain
In physical therapy, our goal is to reduce your current pain to promote stronger muscles and proper healing of the affected tissues. We also focus on preventing these injuries from recurring.
Pain relief: We use techniques such as dry needling with electrical stimulation, winback (Tecar therapy) and soft tissue mobilization (STM)/ Instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM), and joint mobilizations in decreasing the pain and guarding of surrounding tissues and kick-starting the healing process.
- Dry Needling is a technique used to target trigger points and relieve muscle tightness. By inserting thin needles into specific target areas, we can help your body to reduce pain and improve muscle function. Combining dry needling with electrical stimulation enhances the body’s natural pain-relief mechanisms, boosts blood flow, and promotes tissue healing.
This helps for chronic, acute or anything in between to help release tension and restore proper movement.
- WinBack Tecar Therapy uses radiofrequency currents to help promote heat, speed up the body’s healing process, and reduce recovery time. It increases blood flow, bringing in oxygen and nutrients while removing waste byproducts. It helps relax muscles, realign collagen fibers while also reducing inflammation in the injured area. Combining Winback with other techniques such as dry needling, and STM/IASTM help significantly enhance the healing process and provides a comprehensive approach for low back pain.
Strength and Stabilization for treating LBP: Once pain has diminished, emphasis shifts to strengthening and stabilizing the muscles that may be affected. Many people believe that this is just core strength. This is not true. The approach focuses on strengthening the core, sides of the low trunk, lower back muscles, and lower extremities, especially the glute muscles that stabilize the pelvis.
Posture and Movement Training: Involves teaching proper movement and lifting patterns during and after strengthening to prevent further injury or re-injury. This includes squats, lifting, pushing, pulling, and other impaired movements. We focus on fully restoring function and mobility to help patients safely return to their normal activities. Our goal is to ensure patients can perform higher-level functions, pain-free.
Why Should I Address My Low Back Pain?
Low back pain often becomes a debilitating condition, regardless of the affected tissue. Physical therapy provides an effective, complete approach to overcoming it. By addressing the root cause and participating in targeted treatments, here at Symmetry Physical Therapy, we can help you regain mobility, strength and a pain-free lifestyle. If you suspect you have a back injury, and are looking for a Physical Therapist, come see us at Symmetry Physical Therapy, located in the Miami/Brickell downtown area, where we provide an in-depth assessment and treatment strategies so we can help you get back to normal.
Feel free to give us a call at (305) 331 2277 to schedule an appointment.