Are you one of the many who suffer from low back pain?  Are you looking for a more conservative treatment versus surgery?  Physical therapy may be the answer to your pain. 

There are many conservative treatments available to patients who attend therapy.  The initial focus of physical therapy is to decrease pain.  This is often done with modalities.  Modalities are used to decrease soft tissue inflammation, promote healing, relieve pain, and modify muscle tone. 

There are different types of modalities such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, hot packs, cold packs, traction, and soft tissue mobilization.  The diagnosis of the patient will determine which modality is appropriate.  After pain has decreased, the patient moves into phase two of physical therapy, which involves therapeutic exercise.  At this point in time, exercise becomes the main focus of treatment.  The body and mind greatly benefit from therapeutic exercise. 

You may be asking yourself, how could exercise benefit me?  Benefits of exercise involve the following; increased strength, increased endurance and cardiovascular fitness, increased flexibility, increased balance and coordination.  A major goal of exercise is the development or maintenance of strength.  By strengthening the muscles the likelihood of re-injury is greatly decreased. 

Therapeutic exercise can also improve muscle endurance.  Endurance exercise, also referred to as aerobic exercise is performed to improve cardiovascular fitness.  Endurance is the ability of a muscle to contract repeatedly and resist fatigue over a period of time.  Endurance is required when performing repeated motor tasks in daily living such as walking. 

Flexibility exercises are often incorporated into the exercise program when muscle tightness occurs.  This type of exercise will restore the involved muscle back to the appropriate length.  In addition to strength, endurance, and flexibility, balance and coordination are also a part of most exercise programs.  Balance and coordination must be present for a person to carry out any functional tasks. 

In conclusion, it appears that physical therapy is a great conservative treatment for low back pain.  If you have any further questions regarding physical therapy, please contact TheraCare Physical Therapy at any of our four locations.