Library of Conditions We Treat: Middle and Lower Back
You come in the right place if you’re experiencing mid or lower back pain. Our library of conditions covers everything you need to know about your back pain and what we can do to help you. Click on the links below for more information on common conditions focused around the middle and lower back, and learn how our expertise can lead you toward relief. Read, learn more, and start your journey to a pain-free life today!
Understanding Back Sprains and Strains
It is relatively common to sprain or strain your back. A sprain happens when you stretch out your back ligaments too much, whereas strain occurs due to the overstretched back muscles. Each bone in your spine has several tiny muscles that direct it and control its interaction with other bones or joints around it. Several activities stress your back muscles and ligaments, especially when lifting heavy loads.
Various factors lead to a back sprain or strain and occur when lifting and twisting. To avoid back strains and sprains, you must bend your knees and use your legs when lifting weights. Also, keep your back straight. And never bend over. If you need to turn when lifting, move your feet and avoid twisting.
Tearing the tissues happens during strained or sprained conditions, but it’s usually partial. If it happens, you will feel intense pain locally, and swelling might occur. The healing can last for a period of 6-12 weeks.
How Sports Therapy Helps
Sports therapy can help you with the recovery process and can reinforce you to prevent future injuries. The inflammation of the sprain or strain area should be addressed at the early stages. There is also limited motion of the mid-back, hips, and pelvis, which causes stress in the lower back.
Our therapists help:
Reduce Inflammation: Early therapy to manage and reduce swelling.
Improve Mobility: Loosening restricted areas and enhancing movement.
Pain Relief: Techniques to quickly alleviate pain.
Core Strengthening: Strengthening core muscles to prevent re-injury.
Completing a full course of therapy is vital to prevent re-injury. Studies show that failing to retrain core muscles after a sprain or strain increases the risk of future injuries.
Message us today to discover how we can help relieve your back pain and get you back to the activities you enjoy!
Understanding Low Back Pain
Low back pain is rather common condition. More than 80% of people will suffer from some sort of pain in the lower back. Causes of low back pain differ; however, in most cases, they comprise one or several factors listed below:
- Muscle weakness, mainly in the spine, abdomen, or hip muscles.
- Poor mobility
- Poor coordination
And it is important to remember that specific lower back pain differs from non-specific pain. Specific back pain needs immediate medical attention. It can result from underlying diseases such as cancer, severe tissue damage such as fractures, or may be referred from other organs such as kidneys. Symptoms such as numbness or tingling sensations along arms, legs, or abdominal area, weakness, and severe pain require medical advice. Non-specific lower back pain corresponds to 90% of lower back pain and can result from the abovementioned factors.
Even though medication can alleviate low back pain, it is important to recognise and address the root causes. The three things listed above are what lead to lower back pain. And this pain will limit activities like reaching and bending down. Due to inflammation, you will feel pain when lying for extended periods, or you might feel pain when getting up from a chair or waking up in the morning.
How Sports Therapy Helps
Sports therapy is a great option for treating low back pain. Addressing the core issues can restore normal back movement and strength. Our sports therapists focus on:
Posture
Strength
Flexibility
Body mechanics
We will detect weaknesses by observing and measuring to address the root problem. Once we identify the main issue, we strategically create your plan to solve these fundamental matters, offering quick relief from pain and muscle strength to reinforce motion. Furthermore, we will guide you through injury prevention by teaching you how to maintain your balance with correct body posture and mechanics.
If you suffer from non-specific low back pain, contact us today for fast relief and a return to your favourite activities!
Understanding Mid Back Pain
Mid-back pain is characterised by discomfort at the thoracic spine, located from the shoulder to mid-back. The pain often results from a poor posture or being leaned forward. These postures stretch out muscles at the back, resulting in reduced strength.
You might feel pain like burning at times at your mid-back, and sometimes, this feeling of burning can extend beneath your shoulder blade. It is rather tricky most of the time to pinpoint the exact source of your min-back pain.
How Sports Therapy Helps
Sports therapy can help you treat your mid back pain. We will assess you to identify areas with restricted movements. We will help you improve your mobility, relieve sore muscles and restore your posture.
Our approach includes:
- Mobility Improvement: Enhancing the movement of spinal joints to reduce strain.
- Muscle Relief: Techniques to soothe sore muscles.
- Posture Restoration: Correcting posture to alleviate pain.
- Strengthening Education: Teaching proper strengthening and postural techniques to maintain therapy gains.
Contact us today to discover how we can quickly relieve your mid back pain and help you return to a pain-free life.
Understanding Sciatica
Radiating pain located at the buttock and travels down the back of the thigh is known as sciatica. This pain can be somewhat diffuse along these areas. Sciatica occurs when the sciatic nerve, which runs deep through the buttock and down the leg, becomes irritated. In roughly 20% of people, the sciatic nerve passes through the piriformis muscle, which, when tight from excessive sitting, can put pressure on (and irritate) the sciatic nerve, causing pain.
However, radiating pain in your leg doesn’t always mean you have sciatica. The pain can spread out and become achy when muscles and tissues are irritated. Sharp, stabbing pain accompanied by numbness or tingling generally represents nerve irritation or compression in your lower back or leg, which can impact certain portions of your leg.
How Sports Therapy Helps
Sports therapy can assist you in treating sciatica. An initial examination will help determine where the pain is coming from. Our therapists will examine how you move your spine, hips, and legs and assess your range of motion, strength, joint mobility, and muscle condition.
Our approach includes:
- Comprehensive Evaluation: Identifying the root cause of your problem.
- Pain Relief: Techniques to quickly alleviate pain and radiating symptoms.
- Strength Restoration: Strengthening exercises will help restore the normal joint motion and muscles around your joint.
- Cryotherapy/Thermotherapy: We might also use heat or ice where possible to decrease inflammation.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you with your sciatica so you can get back to doing the activities you love!
