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Are you suffering from lower back pain? Do you want the best treatment for it? Or do you want to know the best physiotherapy exercises for lower back pain? No need to worry. Here’s your detailed blog about lower back pain and physical therapy related to it. The blog will answer all your questions. Let’s explore. 

Back pain is one of the most common problems amongst adults along with neck pain and headaches. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lower back pain affected 619 million people around the world in the year 2020 and this number is estimated to grow up to 843 million by 2050. One of the best ways to treat lower back pain is physical therapy. It promotes natural and long-term healing. 

What is Lower Back Pain?

Lower back pain is a type of pain that arises due to injured muscles or tendons. It mainly affects the lumbar region of the spine. Our spine is divided into three parts: cervical spine, thoracic spine, and lumbar spine. Any issue in one of these three parts can lead to back pain, excessive back cracking, and more. Lower back pain is so common that almost everyone has suffered from it at some point in their life. It can be acute, sub-acute, or chronic. It has various symptoms and causes. Let’s understand them. 

Symptoms: Lower back pain has various symptoms some of which are mentioned below. 

• Constant or sudden pain 
• Sharp or dull pain
• Stiffness
• Muscles Spasms
• Unknown triggers
• Restricted range of motion
• Numbness or tingling
• Severe pain in the abdomen
• Loss of bladder and bowel control

Causes: Lower back pain has various other causes apart from muscle or tendon injury. Some of them are mentioned below. 

• Muscle strain
• Torn ligament
• Spinal stenosis
• Herniated disc
• Poor Posture
• Arthritis
• Degenerative disc disease
• Sacroiliac joint dysfunction
• Pregnancy
• Sciatica
• Cauda equina syndrome
• Osteoporosis

Benefits of Physical Therapy for Lower Back Pain

Physical therapy offers a lot of benefits to individuals suffering from lower back pain. First of all, it is a non-invasive treatment which means you don’t need to depend on medications. In rare cases, physical therapy is combined with medicines. It also offers various other benefits apart from non-invasive treatment. Let’s take a look at them. 

Restored Mobility

When you have lower back pain you are not able to move freely because when you try to move there’s discomfort or sharp pain. Because of this, you are also able to get into certain positions like bending down, turning sideways or back, etc. This restricts your day-to-day activities. Physical therapy for back pain can help you restore your mobility. As it not only treats lower back pain but also fixes the root cause of discomfort and pain. 

Personalized Care

Personalized care is considered one of the best benefits of physical therapy for lower back pain by individuals who suffer from it. It is also the reason why it is better than medications. Unlike medications where everyone suffering from the same problem is prescribed the same medicine in physical therapy, your specific treatment plan is designed based on your current health condition, age, body type, lifestyle, and stimuli. 

Strengthened Core Muscles

One of the top reasons behind lower back pain is weak core muscles. As they affect your posture negatively. In some cases, individuals also get anterior pelvic tilt because of weak core muscles which makes things worse for them. Anterior pelvic tilt keeps your lower back at a weird angle increasing the back pain. Physical therapy offers a wide range of exercises that help strengthen your muscles and reduce back pain. 

Prevention of Future Injuries

If you want to prevent any future injuries related to the lower back then you must choose physical therapy over medications. Even though medicines help you manage pain, they can not protect you from future lower back injuries. There’s only one option to prevent them and it is physical therapy. It builds strength, brings stability, improves flexibility and mobility, fixes posture, and more. 

Relieves Nerve Irritation

Nerve irritation is one of the main reasons for many types of lower back pain including chronic sciatica. Nerve irritation is caused due to wear and tear of the spine, structural changes in the spine due to aging, changes in spine joints or discs, etc. All of these cause compression in nerves leading to irritation in them. Physical therapy includes various exercises that can reduce the compression relieving the nerve irritation leading to decreased lower back pain.  

What to Expect at Physical Therapy for Lower Back Pain

As you already know your physical therapy for lower back pain is planned according to your current medical conditions, age, lifestyle, and more. This makes physical therapy a preferable choice. Before expecting anything you should know that the physical therapy will not only alleviate your back pain but also will make sure that you don’t have to suffer from it again. Now, let’s see what you can expect from physical therapy for lower back pain. 

Initial Consultation

When you visit your physical therapists for the first time, they will conduct a one-on-one consultation to get an idea about your existing conditions, symptoms, age, lifestyle, and more. They might also run some regular check-ups to find the root cause of the back pain and guide you accordingly.  

Treatment Planning

Once the check-ups are done and reports have been studied. They will start customizing a personalized treatment plan to make sure you get your desired results. The plan can include various therapies like shockwave therapy, dry needling, etc.

Therapeutic Exercises 

As we all know self-study is as important as studying in school, and similar physical therapy exercises at home are as important as physical therapy at the clinic. And therapists know this, that’s why they recommend you do some specific exercises to reduce the back pain. 

Education & Guidance 

Educating patients about their condition is much more important than physical therapy and so is guiding them. When they diagnose the conditions they educate patients about it and guide them to avoid anything that can elevate pain. 

Progress Monitoring

An average period of physical therapy for back pain is from 8 weeks to a year based on how serious the injury is. To make sure physical therapy is working properly they do regular check-ups, monitor progress, and change treatment plans accordingly.  

Physical Therapy Exercises for Lower Back Pain

Physical therapy exercises are one of the most important parts of physical therapy for back pain. They play a crucial role in restoring functionality, stability, strength, and posture as well as in improving them. Let’s take a look at some of the top physiotherapy exercises for lower back pain and how to perform them.

Knee-to-chest stretch

How to Perform:

1. Lie down on a stable surface or the floor. 
2. Relax yourself. 
3. Bend your knees.
4. Pull your right knee towards your chest. 
5. Hold that for 5 to 8 seconds.
6. Get back to the starting position. 
7. Repeat the same with your left leg. 
8. Do this 5 to 10 times.   

Lower back rotational stretch.

How to Perform:

1. Lie down on a stable surface or the floor. 
2. Relax yourself. 
3. Bend your knees.
4. Roll your lower body to one side keeping the upper body fixed at a point. 
5. Return to the starting position.
6. Repeat the same on the other side. 
7. Do this 10 to 20 based on your comfort. 

Bridge exercise

How to Perform:

1. Lie down on the floor. 
2. Bend your knees. 
3. Relax yourself. 
4. Lift your buttocks keeping the shoulder fixed at a point. 
5. Hold that position for 2 to 5 seconds based on your comfort. 
6. Slowly return to the starting position. 
7. Repeat this 10 to 20 times. 

Seated lower back rotational stretch

How to Perform:

1. Sit on an armless chair or a table. 
2. Keep your body relaxed. 
3. Put your right leg over your left leg. 
4. Place your left elbow on the outside of the right knee.
5. Rotate your body to the right. 
6. Hold that position for 3 to 5 seconds based on your comfort. 
7. Return to the starting position. 
8. Switch the leg and repeat the same. 
9. Do this exercise 5 to 10 times twice a day. 

Pelvic Tilt

How to Perform:

1. Lie down on the floor. 
2. Bend your knees. 
3. Relax yourself.
4. Tighten your lower abdomen. 
5. Push your lower back towards the ground while rolling your hips. 
6. Hold that position for 3 to 5 seconds. 
7. Slowly return to the starting position. 
8. Do this 5 to 15 times. 

Curl Up

How to Perform:

1. Lie down on a stable surface or the floor. 
2. Bend your knees. 
3. Put your palms on your thighs. 
4. Slide your palm towards the knee while lifting. 
5. Slowly return to your starting position. 
6. Repeat this 5 to 10 times, twice a day. 

Conclusion

In the end, we can say that physical therapy offers the best ways to treat back pain. There are so many benefits of it like non-invasiveness, prevention from future injuries, relief from nerve irritation, restored mobility, and improved strength. To maximize the benefits you will need experienced physical therapists. You can find them at Town Physical Therapy. Our experts are board-certified and hold experience of more than a decade in back pain treatment. Along with that we also offer quality physical therapy services including chiropractic care, neuromuscular stabilization, cupping therapy, postural re-education, soft tissue mobilization, and more. For all your physical therapy needs you can visit Town PT centers located at Paramus, Maywood, Bergenfield, Clifton, and Emerson.

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