Back pain is a common symptom that affects millions of people daily. Although some of the pain is acute, many people suffer from chronic back pain. When the pain is constant or frequent, it makes it difficult to do daily activities, and it also affects one mental and emotional health. Some people ignore their back pain, but doing so just makes the issue worse. One of the ways to manage the symptoms is to search for physical therapy near me, as it is effective in treating various types of pain.
Managing Unbearable Pain Effectively
One of the first things that happens when seeking physical therapy in Evansville, IN is the physical therapist will gather more information about your pain. This includes when it started, where it is located, the severity of the pain, what things make it better or worse, and other treatment methods you have tried.
The initial goal is to get you out of unbearable pain as soon as possible. Depending on your specific situation, the PT will usually use a combination of methods to manage the symptoms you have. Pain-specific treatment may include:
- Hot or cold packs
- Muscle stimulation techniques
- Massage
- Manual therapy
- Trigger point therapy
While working on minimizing the pain, the therapist may recommend certain ways to make it through your day without aggravating the pain area. These may include different ways of moving to reduce discomfort.
Participating In Essential Daily Routines With Ease
Once your pain has minimized or gone away, the next phase of back pain treatment is to fix the cause of the pain to prevent it from coming back again. There are various causes of back pain, and some include:
- Unhealed injury due to an accident
- Incorrect lifting
- Poor ergonomics on the job
- Bad posture
- Misaligned spine
For people with chronic back pain, the issue has been there a long time, and often for years. That means that in order to restore function, a series of physical therapy appointments are necessary to fix and strengthen the area of weakness.
Strengthening exercises
To get you back to engaging in daily routines without pain, the physical therapist will design a set of exercises to strengthen your back once your symptoms are gone. Back pain often stems from weak small muscles that attach to the spine as well as weak larger muscles, such as the trapezoids, levator scapulae, and latissimus dorsi.
Muscle training often occurs for both types of muscle. Exercises for the smaller ones are more focused on balancing the core muscles, while exercises for bigger muscles use heavier weights. The therapist will demonstrate how to do each exercise and ensure you are doing them correctly.
Daily modifications
If your back pain is due to poor ergonomics, incorrect lifting, or other daily activity, your therapist will help you make modifications. For example, you may need to rearrange your desk, chair, and computer screen, or you may need to work on lifting with your knees.
Back pain is common, but it does not need to continue. Physical therapy provides a range of treatment methods to reduce the pain.