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They say that exercise is the key to health. I have had a bad back for about a year now and when I move in odd positions or get out of a car or a soft chair I have spasms. I think it is the nerve next to the musule that causes the shooting pain.
My pain doctor suggests I get a physical therapist and said within a year if I follow his advice to the letter then I will be healed of my back pain.
Anyone here with back pain that were cured due to going to a physical therapist and following his advice to the letter? Tell us more!
It depends on what the physical therapist tells you to do. If they don't tell you the right things, you won't heal. If they tell you the right things, you will likely heal.
It's complex.
How do you know what the right things are? It's very difficult. Everyone is trying to sell something, so information is asymmetric.
You have to educate yourself. Have you not exercised before? If not, why not?
Your body is all you have. You need to respect it.
From personal experience, you're getting theoretical information that's polished up a bit. You will almost certainly never be 100% healed. The situation that causes the pain is established, the chance that it will Never happen again is non-existent.
BUT, doing proper exercise, strengthening your core, adjusting posture and How you move can get you as close to completely healed as possible. To the point where you can easily think you're 100% healed, only to slack off on the exercises and have a reoccurrence.... this is my viscous cycle. Hard to stay motivated to do my Daily exercises when I haven't had a back issue in over a year, then I skip a day here and there only to find that I suddenly have back pains again. I've been going through this for more than a decade and still can't seem to learn. :/
Alternate hot and cold compress to alleviate the spasms.
Get a therapeutic massage with cupping. It was the big round bruises on the olympic athletes. I have been getting it done for years and was shocked to just see it used at the last olympics. It helps bring blood into the muscle.
Stretch, yes yoga. Don't hold yourself to doing the poses in those videos, they are professionals and limber to begin with. You may need to work with a spotter to help you into and hold a position depending on your overall condition. Overtime you will be able to get there yourself. I am stiff as heck so I am talking from experience.
Eat a healthy diet and keep a healthy weight.
Exercise your glutes! My lower back pain went away when I concentrated on training my glutes.
Embrace your getting older! All those little injuries throughout your life are coming back to haunt you.
So yes your therapists advice can be helpful but listen to your body, if it hurts change it up a little or do a different exercise.
My pain doctor suggests I get a physical therapist and said within a year if I follow his advice to the letter then I will be healed of my back pain.
OP - It depends on the PT whom you will see. If s/he does a thorough and careful examination and finds out that the condition can be addressed with physical therapy, and if you follow the treatment plan closely, then chances are your pain will decrease and may even disappear.
But if the PT is not thorough, or if the condition is not curable through PT, or if you're lax on doing the exercises, then most likely you will continue to have pain.
As you can see from the above, there are lots of unknowns in the equation. Too many to give you a simple answer.
I just went through surgery for back issues that had plagued me for decades. The answer to your question is that it depends on what the problem is. Physical therapy has helped me at times over the years but until someone knows exactly what's wrong, they really can’t knowledgeably prescribe anything.
I visited so many doctors over the years who kept telling me I had just pulled a muscle and could work through it. It took a long time and I eventually (I thought) got better, Ha! I was slowly destroying my back. I was quite fit by the way. Anyway, it got so bad after a number of more years, that a friend told me I needed to see an orthopedist. I made an appointment, he ordered an MRI, first I had ever had, and discovered I had 4 discs in a row ruptured, L2-S1. Three of the four causing spinal stenosis, and one of the four badly damaged from degenerative disc disease.
Anyway, my recommendation would be to quit fooling around with it and go see a person who specializes in spines, either a neurologist or an orthopedist. Some prefer one over the other but I think the main thing is that he/she just be a top notch person in their field.
Sometimes only surgery will substantially correct a back-problem. If a nerve is hitting something back there, you can do a lot of things to remedy the problems it causes.....but it will most likely not be 100%
I have a bad lower-back, nerves are whacked in that area. Chiropractic-adjustments did help, but only temporarily. Now I do lower-back exercises and stretch at least one a week, helpful but not magic.
You can achieve amazing relief with the help of a good PT. I work with chronic pain patients and PTs vary greatly, you have to find one that works well for you. Sometimes you have to "shop around." In general once you have a "bad back" you will be prone to issues in the future but using the proper exercises to get strong can keep you feeling good and mostly pain free. The worst thing you can do is nothing. A little rest during an acute episode is fine but you want to get up and moving soon.Learning the best exercises to strengthen the area is the best thing you can do to improve your health and life.
Sometimes only surgery will substantially correct a back-problem. If a nerve is hitting something back there, you can do a lot of things to remedy the problems it causes.....but it will most likely not be 100%
I have a bad lower-back, nerves are whacked in that area. Chiropractic-adjustments did help, but only temporarily. Now I do lower-back exercises and stretch at least one a week, helpful but not magic.
Sometimes surgery is necessary and helps people but try absolutely everything before going under the knife. As I stated in a previous post I work with chronic pain and I see many peple after surgery who feel the same or even worse.
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