Common Back Injuries and How Physiotherapy Can Help
Back pain is the scourge of existence for many people, sometimes back injuries appear out of nowhere and other times, they’re something that people simply live with and manage every day. Almost anyone can obtain a back injury, though it is more common among those who participate in high-impact sports - such as weightlifting, football and hockey - or those who use the same back muscles repetitively, causing strains. Back injuries can also just occur without warning due to age and overall muscular/skeletal health.
What Are Some Common Back Injuries?
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries are most common across the spectrum of people and refer to muscle, ligament or tendon injuries in or around the back. These types of injuries break down into two different categories: overuse injuries, and traumatic injuries. Overuse injury occurs from repetition - a muscle may become strained/inflammed after prolonged periods of use, causing the muscle to elongate for longer than it would normally stretch, causing microtearing to the soft tissue. These types of injuries are common workplaces injuries covered under workers compensation. Traumatic injuries are normally the result of a fall, or a sudden twist, or sudden impact. Both of these types of injuries can cause mobility issues, sharp pains, tightness and muscle spasms.
How Can Physio Help?
If an overuse injury then the initially way Physiotherapy can help is by identify the cause and ways that this can be amiliorated to assist recovery and prevent reoccurance. Following this Physiotherapy can reduce the pain and inflammation associated with the injury and then insure the tissue is strong and resilient to prevent re-injury. If you have a traumatic injury and your range of motion is directly affected, Physiotherapy can help to show you what movements and activities need to be limited or avoided to maximise recovery initially. Following this your Physio may choose to provide some direct soft tissue work alongside a individualised home exercise program to endorse a full recovery.
Herniated Discs
A herniated disc is a more serious back injury than anything soft-tissue related. Your spine is supported by intervertebral discs, they provide cushioning and support to your spinal bones. Each disc is supported by a jelly-like substance within a ligamententous complex. Tears can occur in this nucleonic structure, causing it to push through the disc and into the spine. Typically, herniated discs occur as a result of repetitive bending or ageing - through daily wear-and-tear. Disc material often presses against spinal nerves - causing painful, shooting sensations down either or both legs or arms, depending on the site of the herniated disc.
How Can Physio Help?
Physiotherapists like those at Aevum Health - one of the best Sutherland physiotherapy clinics - will help you to work out a gentle exercise routine to help get your spine moving again. Seeing a Physiotherapist early is very important, your Physio can show you the correct exercises to do in order to assist the herniated disc to reduce back, removing the pressure from your nerves and spine. They can also tape your lower back or posture to support the injured area in the acute phase. Once the initial painful symptoms have settled a gentle exercise program can be implemented to regain your lost range of motion and gradually build up your core strength again. At Aevum our philosophy is not to simply fix the initial injury, but to hopefully make you stronger than before to limit future potential injury. This can either be done with a home based exercise program or supervised with one of our highly trained Exercise Physiologists.
Arthritis
Most common among all back injuries - and indeed all musculo-skeletal injuries - as humans age - is arthritis. Arthritis is the inflammation and swelling of joints - which happens naturally as we age. But can also occur, or be accelerated by traumatic injury. Arthritis is often described as “wear and tear” but is frequently seen as an excess build up of bone tissue called osteophytes. These osteophytes can hit one another or compress on other tissue causing significant pain and dysfunction.
How Can Physio Help?
The goal of any physiotherapy for back pain is to increase movement and muscular function, while decreasing pain levels. Arthritis may also be called osteoarthritis which is a degenerative condition, meaning it can become worse over time. The goal of arthritis treatments in physiotherapy is to increase muscle around the joints affected, providing them with more manoeuvrability and cushioning, decreasing the pressure placed on bones that have been affected by arthritis. Thus enabling you to live your best life and maintain involvement in the activities you love.
Exercises You Can Do To Ease Back Pain
Sometimes, your physio in the Sutherland Shire will provide you with exercises to ease your back pain that you can do at home. These include stretching your back muscles using yoga poses such as downward dog or touching your toes, these can also include laying flat on your back, stretching upward with your arms and downward with your legs to create pull on muscles at both ends of your back.
If your back injury is due to a workplace injury, then be sure to consult the Aevum Physiotherapy staff, who have taylored physiotherapy options, so that you can focus on getting better and back to work. Aevum Physiotherapy also offers physiotherapy for kids, so if your little one has a spinal injury - whether caused by trauma or birth - we’re able to work with them and help them to live their best life.
If you’ve got a back injury that isn’t going away, be sure to consult one of our Aevum Physiotherapists before starting any new exercises and book an appointment at one of our Sutherland physiotherapy clinics.