Back pain is one of the most common conditions that we see in our physical therapy office in Greenville, South Carolina.  It’s so common, we created a free guide to help people kickstart their recovery process.  The types of back pain we treate include degenerative disc disease, sacroiliac (SI) pain, stenosis, disc herniations, spinal arthritis, back strains, and a variety of post-operative cases.

Back pain can have many contributing causes, but can be associated with stiffness or weakness of the back, abdominal, hip, and buttock muscles.  These imbalances may affect movement mechanics.  Active people often notice back pain lifting weights, bending, or playing  golf or tennis.  Back pain may also be noticed with prolonged bouts of standing or sitting.  There are three types of back pain:

• Acute – pain lasting less than 3 months
• Recurrent – acute symptoms come back
• Chronic – pain lasting longer than 3 months

Fortunatley, the majority of back conditions do not require surgery and respond well to physical therapy.

People with back pain may describe the pain they feel as:

• Pain along the base of the spine or radiating pain to the side of the back or down the legs.
• Pain that worsens when prolonged bouts of sitting or standing
• Pain when twisting at the trunk
• Pain when getting in and out of bed

Some of the common signs of back pain include:

• Difficulty bending forward.
• Pain standing upright.
• Difficulty tying shoes.
• Difficulty carrying or lifting anything heavy

Some patients may also experience:

• Pain in the buttock or down the legs
• Tight muscles
• Pain that is worse in the morning or at night
• Difficulty sleeping due to pain

The physical therapists at Movement Solutions design custom trailored programs to help people, ages 40-60, overcome back pain and injury and get back to being active without uneccessary medications, injections, or surgeries.

This process often begins with a free 15-minute phone consultation.  This is an opportunity to talk with one of our physical therapists about your back pain.  We will listen to how your back pain is affecting you, discuss how we can help, and let you know what your options are moving forward.  If you’re interested in a phone consultation, click HERE and complete a short form.

For patients who are interested in working with us, but want to make sure we’re the best fit, the next step is a free Discovery Session.  This is an opportunity to ask questions so you can have clarity with what’s going on and confidence that we can help.  We want our clients to be certain that we’re the best physical therapist for them.  If you’re interested in a Discovery Visit, click HERE and complete a short form.

Once we know that working together makes sense, we move on to the Evaluation.  The purpose of the evaluation is to get to the root cause of the problem and know how long it will take to get lasting results.

Our treatment process of back pain is broken down into three phases.

Phase 1:  Alleviate Pain and Discomfort

Pain improvements can be made quickly with hands on therapies such as soft tissue work, gentle joint mobilizations, or dry needling.  Often times it makes sense to start on with these hands-on therapy to calm down irritated and inflamed tissue around the back.

Phase 2:  Restore Movement and Mobility

Once pain is alleviated, we need to restore the spine’s ability to move.  We also need to restore movement quality.  We spend time on developing good movement habits to prevent falling into the pain cycle again.

Phase 3:  Develop Strength and Durability

To achieve lasting results, we need to develop strength and durability through resistance exercise.   The types of resistance we use at our office include bodyweight, bands, dumbells, barbells, and kettlebells.  We develop foundational strength to get the lasting results that our clients expect.

At Movement Solutions, our three-phase approach with physical therapy makes overcoming back pain possible. If you have back pain and you’re interested in a long term solution, we would love to talk with you about how we can help.  If you’re eager to get started but want to know more about cost and availability at our physical therapy clinic, click HERE and complete a short form.

If you would like further information on overcoming back pain, we have a free guide that can give you further insight into your back pain and can kick start your recovery process.

If you’re in back pain but unsure about what your next steps should be, call us at (864) 558-7346 and ask how we can help.