Back pain can cause discomfort and interfere with your daily life. Some people believe that chronic back pain is inevitable as we age, but that isn’t true; the root causes of back pain can always be found, and pain and discomfort can be reduced or eliminated.
Our team can help. Whether you’re experiencing mild back pain and discomfort or recovering from having a child, surgery, motor vehicle accidents, sports-related, or serious injuries, our Physiotherapists will develop a personalized treatment plan to help you live a happier, healthier life.
You don’t have to live with back pain. We want to get you back to doing the things you love! Contact Fit4Life today.
Common Causes of Back Pain
Recent Injuries: Accidents, Sports, and More
Back injuries can occur while playing sports, working around the house, gardening, lifting heavy objects, as a result of a car accident, falls, and more. The most common back injuries are:
- Sprains (joint is affected) and/or strains (muscle is affected). Ankle sprain and shoulder sprain are the most common types.
- Disc bulges in the lower back and/or neck
- Postural injuries due to poor position/posture and/or ergonomics (desk setup)
Any of these issues may cause back pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility that can impact your daily life.
Pregnancy-Related Back Pain
Pregnancy has dramatic effects on the body. Hormones relax muscles and ligaments, extra weight can cause discomfort, and your centre of gravity will even change, leading to awkward and uncomfortable postures. All of this can lead to back pain, strain, and discomfort.
Overuse Injuries: Professional Sport and Work
Overuse injuries can occur when you put too much stress on your muscles and tendons; it can lead to tearing and overstretching in the back. People in physical careers like trades are prone to overexertion, as are athletes. Improper posture and body mechanics, lifting objects that are too heavy, and repetitive movements can all cause overexertion, strain and/or sprain and injuries in the back.
Poor Posture & Body Mechanics
Posture is how you hold or position your body, especially at the spine. Body mechanics are what happens to the alignment of joints/posture when you move your body. Chronic poor posture can lead to chronic pain. Poor posture may be more common in people with desk jobs. Using the wrong shoes can also affect your posture (as it will affect the alignment of your joints), as can injuries or impairments in the legs. Improper posture can cause unnecessary stressors to the spine resulting in strain on the upper and lower back, which can lead to pain and injuries.
Aging
While back pain is not inevitable with age, aging can lead to a number of issues that cause chronic pain in the back. Spinal osteoarthritis and degenerative disc disease (dehydration of discs resulting in less shock absorption for your spine and less space for your nerves to breathe), are two common age-related back problems that can cause discomfort, pain, and stiffness. Women of menopausal age are also susceptible to osteoporosis. This is reduced bone density due to less estrogen being produced in the body. This leads to an increased risk of fractures in the body.
How To Know if You Need To Talk With a Physiotherapist
A Physiotherapist will help you by developing a treatment plan for you and your back pain. We can treat chronic back pain, muscle strains, and a variety of other back problems. Education is so important in spinal physiotherapy. Proper posture and body mechanics are crucial:
“We teach you how to properly hold yourself and then add core strengthening to help you hold onto that ideal posture. It’s like activating your inner brace and reducing unnecessary stress in your body,” states Tori Sloane, Physiotherapist.
There are some circumstances in which you will need to visit a doctor or go to the hospital before visiting a Physiotherapist. Visit a hospital if:
- Your back pain occurs after trauma, like a car accident.
- Your back pain causes bowel or bladder control problems.
- You develop a fever.
Visit your doctor if your back pain:
- Is constant or intense
- Is worse at night or when lying down.
- Causes weakness, numbness, or tingling
- Leads to weight loss
- Occurs in tandem with swelling or redness
In other circumstances, you can talk to a Physiotherapist right away. After treatment with a Doctor or at the hospital, physiotherapy may be recommended. Physiotherapists can help treat all kinds of back pain and discomfort.
Our Solution for Back Pain
We offer a number of different treatments to help with various forms of back pain. Our goal is to find the source of your pain, reduce or eliminate that pain, and restore functionality to your back. We use a variety of modalities to treat back pain. We’ll also give you tools and techniques to help you avoid injuring your back again.
We’ll develop the best treatment plan to address the root causes of your back pain, and then help you implement it.
Treatment Options
Massage Therapy
We use massage therapy and other manual therapy techniques to help relieve back pain and tension in your back muscles and joints. These techniques can also help restore mobility to stiff joints.
Physiotherapy
Your Physiotherapist is focused on your physical well-being. Treatment plans include manual therapy (soft tissue release and stretching), muscle energy techniques, joint mobilizations (gaining movement at each specific joint), education, and modalities (acupuncture, ultrasound, low-level intensity laser, etc.). And last but not least—exercise. Your personalized exercise program will include postural correction, stretches, and strengthening exercises.
Tori explains, “We want to help you get into an ideal position, stretch the joints and muscles in the area so they can work optimally, as well as strengthen the area to better support it during sport and/or the tasks of daily living.”
Athletic Therapy
Your Athletic Therapist is also focused on your physical well-being. They do all of the same as explained above. So then what’s the difference between athletic therapy and physiotherapy?
While athletic therapy and physiotherapy are two distinct professional designations, there is very little difference with regard to quality treatments.
With a patient-centred focus, our therapists are well-versed in orthopaedic and musculoskeletal injury assessment and rehabilitation techniques. Deciding which is right for you might just depend on what kind of insurance coverage you have.
Athletic Therapists are focused solely on musculoskeletal disorders while Physiotherapists have more scope concerning neurological and cardiovascular health issues. Both professions focus on prevention of injury, proper assessments, acute and chronic injury management, and more. Physician referrals are not required to receive an assessment by a Physiotherapist or Athletic Therapist.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture involves inserting thin, single-use sterile needles into specific points/areas in the body. The practice can help alleviate low back pain, as well as joint pain and stiffness throughout the body. At Fit4Life, acupuncture is simply added to the rest of our treatment plan. Allow for an extra 20 minutes in the clinic setting. There is no extra fee for this service.
Custom Foot Orthotics
Back pain can often stem from poor posture and body mechanics; these problems can be caused by improper footwear as well. Our custom foot orthotics help improve your gait (how you walk) as well as your posture. Lining up your joints in the ideal position which we like to call “neutral”, stressors are applied to the joints. If force is inflicted and the joints are in an ideal position, less pain and stiffness/soreness should be the result!
How Quickly Will the Pain Go Away?
Many of the techniques employed by our Physiotherapists lead to immediate pain relief, though that pain relief may not be permanent. The best treatment plan for your condition won’t be focused on relieving pain quickly (though we will relieve it as quickly as possible); it will be focused on relieving pain permanently. If we don’t see a change in 3 treatments, we always reassess.
Our goal is to address the root cause of your back pain to prevent or limit your pain in the future. Your treatment plan may take weeks or months before the pain is permanently alleviated or eliminated, but the pain will get better over the course of your time with us. It is important to stick with the exercises given by your therapist for optimal results from treatment.
Contact Us
At Fit4Life, we offer physiotherapy and athletic therapy for back pain in Winnipeg and the surrounding area. Back pain doesn’t have to be your new normal; contact us today.
