When Deanne Bhamgara took a tumble off her electric scooter on a pier in new jersey, she didn't make much of it at first. The fall left her sore, but she felt only a little pain. But over the next several days, she slowly began to hurt more and more. "What started as a tingling sensation in my thighs had soon become sensitive to touch," says Bhamgara. The new jersey resident later learned that the fall affected her lower back, tailbone, pelvic areas, and her hip joints. In a few days, Bhamgara's pain had radiated to the rest of her back and to the thighs as well.
Almost all Americans get back problems at one time or another. You might sleep awkwardly or wrench your back while lifting something heavy. Or, like Bhamgara, you might hurt your back in an accident. But often these injuries stem from too much sitting and not enough moving—and physical therapy lodi know how to fix that problem with exercise therapy.
Almost all Americans get back problems at one time or another. You might sleep awkwardly or wrench your back while lifting something heavy. Or, like Bhamgara, you might hurt your back in an accident. But often, says by physical therapy lodi, DPT—a spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)—the culprit is too much sitting and not enough moving: “We're largely a sedentary society."
Almost all Americans get back problems at one time or another. You might sleep awkwardly or wrench your back while lifting something heavy. Or, like Bhamgara, you might hurt your back in an accident. But often—and Robertson agrees—the culprit is too much sitting and not enough moving.
“We're largely a sedentary society," says Robertson. "So that sedentary lifestyle is the primary thing that we have to work on."
To keep things moving for healthy backs: walk around a little every day; try standing desks; look for opportunities to sit less; and make sure you have access to a physical therapy lodi who can customize programs for each individual's needs (Robertson is one).
If you've been feeling more pain in your lower back lately, chances are good that it's because of your poor posture and habits—habits like sitting on the couch for hours every day to watch TV (or work) and not getting up until bedtime. Or perhaps you're spending too much time sitting at your desk because your job requires constant computer use—which means lots of hours spent looking down at a screen rather than into the eyes of the person across from you.
When Bhamgara went to doctors, physical therapy lodi, and chiropractors about what to expect with her recovery, they gave her conflicting opinions. It might take 6-12 weeks, she heard, or it could take a full year before she was back to normal.
“I was mostly in bed after the pain started,” Bhamgara says. She had inflammation on her thighs right up to behind the knees, groin, butt, lower back, and sometimes in her shoulders.
Confused and worried, Bhamgara tried a host of treatments to ease her pain. She went to physical therapy lodi twice a week. She got trigger point massage and acupuncture—which she said helped—and even tried yoga classes at home. But nothing could stop the pain from worsening each day.
Pain is a symptom, not the diagnosis. If you have back pain, it means something is wrong—but what? If your back pain is related to something serious, like disk degeneration or a spinal stenosis, then you should talk to your physical therapy lodi. But if you have back pain that's not related to an underlying issue (like sciatica), then there are things you can do on your own to reduce the pain and get back into activities as soon as possible.
There are a few steps you can take to feel better with a back problem:
The first step is to avoid bed rest. Studies show that lying down too much can slow recovery and raise the pain. "Over the last 25 years or so, probably the one thing we've learned definitively about back pain and bed rest is that is not OK,” says William Lauretti, DC, an associate professor at New York Chiropractic College and a spokesperson for the American Chiropractic Association (ACA). Instead, “you want to be as active as you can be with your back pain."
You also should move. You may not want to move when you're in pain, but it's important to do as much as you can handle. "Most back pain isn't serious—even if it may be very painful," says Robertson of the APTA. "So not being afraid of motion and continuing to move despite the pain is something that's really important." Walking is a good choice you can do on your own; you also can work with a physical therapy lodi who knows how to spot dangerous levels of pain and which moves are best for you.
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