People suffering with back pain are given back pain exercises from many doctors and physical therapists. Studies have backed therapeutic exercise for the relief of conditions like back pain for a long time.
As a chiropractor for the past 15 years and owner of Hometown Family Wellness Center in Freehold, NJ, it’s important to note that the exercise doesn’t correct the cause of the pain. For this reason, the back pain exercises are usually difficult for the patient to perform. Many times it irritates the cause of pain while exercising. Therefore patients are hesitant to do the activities.
On top of that, the back pain exercises at best splint the area. There are limitations of this form of therapy because the joints are misaligned. These misalignments restrict the range of motion. Therefore when you do the exercise therapy, muscles can’t contract equally and maintain the instability present causing the pain.
This leads me into new research that shows chiropractic adjustments enhance the benefits of back pain exercises!
Swiss researchers took 42 chronic back pain patients and put them in 2 groups: 1) that received manual therapy including spinal adjustments before going into active exercise and 2) that received sham ultrasound therapy before doing the exercise therapy. 8 treatments were performed over a 4 to 8 week period. Assessments were performed before treatment began, immediately after the 8 treatments and again after 3 and 6 months.
Patients experienced better pain relief when they did back pain exercises after the spinal adjustments. These results continued over the 3 and 6 month period after treatment finished. The patients that received the adjustments also had significantly lower disability and pain scores compared to those that didn’t receive them. This study shows patients benefit more from the back pain exercises when chiropractic treatment is first performed. To read more about the research click here
Freehold chiropractor, Dr. Russell Brokstein, incorporates a combination of chiropractic adjustments and then therapeutic exercise into treatment of low back pain . By correcting the dysfunctions of the spine first, our goal is to correct the cause of the pain, improve flexibility and range of motion. Once this is achieved we know we are ready to then go into back pain exercises to further stabilize the spine. With this approach, you will one again be pain free and be able to enjoy your normal daily activities like many of our other patients. You can read and watch their testimonials by clicking: Freehold Chiropractic Reviews