Chronic Low Back Pain Physical Therapy

  • February 12, 2017

Chronic low back pain has been a debilitating part of your daily life. You want to improve your symptoms but are not sure where to start. As this blog outlines, there are typically two types of pain management strategies that individuals use to cope with chronic low back pain: avoid painful movements altogether, or work through pain until becomes too intense to ignore. Both strategies are incorrect. This week, I discussed effective ways to manage your symptoms to resume enjoyable activities without low back pain.

A common misconception in the chronic low back pain field is that people often do not manage their pain. Family and friends grow tired of hearing about their loved one’s debilitating ailments. Eventually, these people are labeled “unwilling” to fix their symptoms. Based on our clinical experience and literature, we would disagree with that assumption. For us, people typically fall into one or two categories: avoiding pain or beating pain.

“(When) Avoiding pain…the natural response is to stop activity when pain starts. (When) trying to beat pain… pain comes on but you persevere…until suddenly your pain is unbearable and you bust” (Butler, Moseley, 2003)

Both approaches are incorrect. Why? It’s because both strategies eventually lead to the same level of activity before pain occurs. You guessed it… it’s low.

As a quick reminder: low back pain does NOT equal damage to your body. Pain is the body’s response to what is perceived as damage. In cases of chronic back pain, the brain is perceiving a non-threatening activity, like bending over, as threatening, and is reacting with intense pain. We know with persistent chronic pain (more than 6 months) nearly all tissues in the body have healed adequately, but pain is still present.

Read more here: http://rehabrenegade.com/back-pain-road-recovery/

Physical therapy for chronic low back pain in Columbia and Baltimore, Maryland

If you have chronic low back pain reach out to our office today!

Blog Post

Related Articles

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

Chronic Low Back Pain, How Do We Fix It?

February 8, 2017
More often than not, individuals attend physical therapy for low back pain psychologically defeated. They have heard...

Prostatitis

September 20, 2021
Prostatitis Symptoms Pain in the testicles, penis or perineum?

Low Back Pain

February 28, 2022
As physical therapists, we have the pleasure of helping guide patients to recovery in all sorts of musculoskeletal...
Blog Post CTA

H2 Heading Module

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.