Back Pain Requires Rehabilitation for Continued Relief

Receiving chiropractic care as soon as you begin to experience back pain can be tremendously therapeutic. However, once your pain goes away, you still need a maintenance plan. That’s where rehabilitation comes in. Both physical therapy and exercise go a long way toward helping you recover from back pain and prevent its reoccurrence. In fact, exercise and rehab can stimulate the healing process.

The Benefits of Rehabilitation

Pain is usually an obstacle to exercise. However, not exercising at all may actually make your pain worse because of stiffness and weakness. When it comes to back health, movement keeps your spine, ligaments, muscles and joints in shape.

When your pain is due to an injured disc, for example, exercise promotes the exchange of fluids in the spine and reduces the swelling that naturally occurs around the disc. Nerves that are already irritated by the inflamed disc don’t need further irritation from swelling.

Exercise and Rehab for Healing

Your chiropractor can recommend a scheduled exercise program that gradually and progressively helps you to heal. Other therapies are important and worthwhile, but they do not encourage healing the way controlled exercise can.

Types of Exercise for Back Pain

A rehabilitation program to relieve back pain may include:

• Stretching
• Strengthening
• Aerobic Conditioning

Stretching will help with the stiffness you may be feeling, but be patient with yourself. Sometimes chronic pain requires weeks or even months of dedicated stretching to mobilize your spine and soft tissues.

Strengthening exercises are the best way to prevent the recurrence of back pain. If you’ve been having low back pain for more than two weeks, then a strengthening regimen is essential to your extended recovery.

Finally, aerobic conditioning exercises are helpful because when you are aerobically fit you are likely to have fewer and less severe episodes of low back pain. The conditioning these exercises provide also gives you the energy to engage in daily activities over the long run.

Remain Calm

You may feel a little anxious about exercising when you have back pain, and that’s perfectly normal. However, managing anxiety is important in order to regain normal muscle function. Anxiety comes from the central nervous system, which reacts to pain by signaling muscles in your back to protect against another injury. Your chiropractor can design a rehabilitation program that coaxes these muscles to improve function so the neurological barrier comes down, anxiety dissipates and movement improves.

If you’re experiencing back pain and would like to learn more about what a rehabilitation program can do for you, contact your chiropractor in Naples for a consultation.

Meet the Doctor

Dr. Wills provides chiropractic care in Naples, FL. For back pain, he offers chiropractic treatments, therapeutic exercise, weight loss and management, soft tissue therapy and strengthening and rehabilitation. To get in contact with Dr. Wills, click here.