Health blog Category: lower back pain
Stand up Straight, Don’t Slouch!
By: Alyssa Burke, PTA
These instructions sound familiar to anyone? I don’t know about you, but growing up, I constantly heard both of these and, “keep your shoulders back” all the time. Good posture is something that we are taught but don’t always think about as we carry on with our daily activities until we start to notice aches and pains. It’s often easy to see and point out signs of bad posture in other people. It can be harder to notice and break poor postural habits of our own.
Changing positions constantly because of a back muscle strain?
Lower back problems are one of the most common complaints we encounter in physical therapy. The majority of adults will experience back pain at some point in their lifetime. The back pain they experience may only last a short time or it could linger for months. Back pain affects men and women equally and can even be seen in children and teenagers. There are many different structures that are at risk for injury in your back.
Read full blogBack Discomfort Making it Difficult to Complete Our Daily Routine
Back discomfort can be debilitating no matter what your walk of life. People living with back pain are often plagued by the inability to sleep, stiffness or difficulty with activities that they love. These may include running or hiking, gardening, walking the dog or playing with their grandchildren. Back pain is something that can affect anyone; they may be young athletes, active parents or older adults.
Like many conditions, when we have pain or discomfort in one area of the body, if we don’t handle it, it can start impacting another area of the body. Back pain is no different.
Ever have an ache that seemed to start for no reason?
Believe it or not, your hips play a large role in the health of your back and limited hip mobility can cause back pain. Do you have an aching back at the end of the day and wonder where the source of your pain is coming from? You are not alone! More than 80 percent of the population will suffer from back pain at least once in their life, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control.
Read full blogDifficulty Sleeping, Exercising or Working?
By: Jason Makoutz, DPT
Q&A
- How does back pain usually start?
Many times back pain starts from a specific incident where you overexerted yourself, lifted something improperly, performed more of an activity than you were used to, sitting/standing more prolonged amount of time, or a traumatic incident. Often times it is a combination of several of these things. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt right away, but may begin to bother you several days later.
Read full blogMuscle spasms happening in the back?
Lower back pain is very prevalent in our society and can greatly limit your ability to bend over to empty the dishwasher, tie your shoes, or to sit at your desk at work or stand in line at the grocery store. Unfortunately, many people think it is just something they have to “live with.”
The number one complaint is pain and stiffness localized to the low back which is worsened with standing, walking, or prolonged positioning.
Carrying a heavy back pack or purse everyday?
By Devin Wurman, DPT
Back pain is one of the most common complaints that patients have when they are coming to physical therapy. It is not only affecting middle-aged adults, but becoming more prevalent in the younger adult population. Most patients that come in report dealing with the pain for at least a month or more because they believe “it will go away on its own”, however more and more people have sedentary desk jobs or are performing activities without addressing core muscle strength.
Missing a good night’s sleep because of discomfort?
By: Cierra Washington, ATC
Let’s take some time to talk statistics. Roughly two-thirds of Americans suffer from low back pain in particular, yet only 63 percent actually take the steps to relieve their pain, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). Of those two-thirds, 69% say their lower back pain affected their daily lives in different ways such as exercise, sleeping, working and time with family and friends. Those four activities alone make up almost the entire day for most Americans.
What are the core muscles and what do they do?
By: Rachel Herrmann, DPT, PT
When most people think of the core, they think of the abdominals and doing sit-ups and generally know that one needs to have good core strength. Beyond that, most people don’t know much else about the core.
So what are the core muscles and what do they really do?
The core muscles consist of the muscles surrounding and providing stability and postural control to the torso, abdomen and pelvis.
Discomfort radiating down the lower body?
By Devin Wurman, DPT
Back pain is one of the most common complaints that patients have when they are coming to physical therapy. It is not only affecting middle-aged adults, but becoming more prevalent in the younger adult population. Most patients that come in report dealing with the pain for at least a month or more because they believe “it will go away on its own”, however more and more people have sedentary desk jobs or are performing activities without addressing core muscle strength.