Corrective Exercises

With a goal of helping our patients strengthen and correct their own unique issues, we teach our patients special blueprint exercises. These exercises can be performed in the patient's home and if they are done on a regular basis, they can help to improve the overall effectiveness of their spinal correction. Connective tissues and muscles may also be out of place from poor alignment and improper use when they have a skeletal misalignment. There are a variety of specific exercises and stretches that can help your body stay more balanced and in the end stay healthier.

Corrective Exercises

It is extremely important to actively participate in rehabilitation measures and to exercise regularly in order to effectively manage back pain and neck pain. By working on areas of weakness to help regain strength that may have been lost, corrective exercises will help to get the patients on the right path towards feeling more mobile and healthy. Exercise programs are most effective when they are tailored to the patient’s condition and pain levels. These programs should ideally include features like a stretching program, aerobic conditioning, and strength training. One of the most important parts of this process is to understand the correct exercises to perform and how to implement them properly.

In order for patients to assist in their own recovery, individuals who are dealing with lower back pains are encouraged to get exercise and physical therapy on a regular basis. These patients however, are simply encouraged but are rarely given the knowledge and tools to accomplish these tasks. Read through the information below to find some information on the causes of lower back pain and how to take the necessary steps to rehabilitate from your current situation.

Feeling better is only the beginning of the rehabilitation process as further episodes of back pain is quite common as time passes. For those experiencing an initial bout of back pain caused by surgery or extensive treatments, the best ways to help minimize the reoccurrence of pains is to perform certain back exercises that are designed to promote the strengthening and rehabilitation of the muscles in that area.

The Causes of Back Pain and Exercise

Within the back, there are a variety of structures that can contribute to or cause discomfort and lower back pains. These areas include:

Intervertebral Discs

The intervertebral disc is versatile and exceptionally strong structure that is designed to act as a shock absorber while we perform our daily activities. Discs can fail, but mainly do so when there is a trauma caused by lifting, an unexpected force, or a sudden fall. The intervertebral disc can also fail with ordinary wear and tear over a long period of time. It can be very difficult to repair a disc that has been injured, which is one of the reasons why chronic back pain has become so common in people.

Pain is often strong enough to interfere with a patient's ability to move and exercise and this lack of mobility will greatly affect the discs nutrition. Disc nutrition is achieved with exercise and physical exercise. The disc works in a similar to the way a sponge works, exercise can cause the disc to swell up with water and then squeeze it out. If physical therapy is limited due to an injured disc, it will degenerate as the disc is being deprived of its nutrition.

Spinal Tendons, Muscles, and Ligaments

In order to maintain proper spinal strength and balance, the soft tissues such as the tendons, muscles, and ligaments become very important. If these soft tissues become less active, the connective fibers and ligaments can begin to lose resilience and actually adhere to each other. When overloads occur, these fibers can tear. However, soft tissues can repair themselves much faster than connective discs or tissues if they become injured.

Muscles are designed to be in constant communication with the central nervous system and certain biological and environmental stressors can lead to muscles spasms, which are excessive tensions in the muscles. Ongoing tensions will eventually inhibit normal muscle function and can lead to stability and muscle wasting problems. These issues are the lead up to chronic lower back pain.

Nerves of the Spine

The muscles that are controlled by the nerves cannot work when the spinal nerves are irritated, cut off, or pinched. A herniated disc or bulging disc on the L4-L5 nerve root for instance, may inhibit the muscles and foot of the ankle. This can lead to the inability to raise the foot or be able to stand on one’s tiptoes, which is known as "foot drop."

Chronic vs. Acute Back Pain

Acute and chronic pains are very different from one another. Acute pains refer to sudden pains that come pains caused by simple things like getting a paper cut or more substantial things like spraining ankles (soft tissue injury). Acute pains will be felt immediately, though it will subside as the injury heals.

Chronic pains do not correlate with an anatomical injury, it is made up of constant low level nervous system stimulations that will eventually become a pattern. These patterns may even persists as a "neural memory" once the source of initial irritation has been resolved. The nervous system adapts quickly to this chronic stimulation, whereby events become a source of pain in areas which previously caused no pain. This pain can sometimes progress and move to other uninjured areas.

This phenomenon can be exacerbated by certain medications in addition to emotional distress. An effective method of treating this issue is to distract the nervous system with exercise. The type of exercise must be a non-destructive designed to produce the needed physiological conditions that will assist the healing process.

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