Spine Rehabilitation

Did you know that Progressive Physical Therapy specializes in Spine Rehabilitation?

Your recovery from spine pain or injury can be improved by learning new ways to strengthen your spine and prevent future problems. Our physical therapists can teach you ways to help reduce your pain now and form new habits to keep your spine healthy in the future without becoming dependent upon weekly or monthly interventions for years.

At your first physical therapy visit, our physical therapist (PT) will gather information about your spine condition. You may be asked questions about when it started, where you hurt, and how your symptoms affect your day-to-day activities. This helps your PT to begin zeroing in on the source of your problem and to know what will be needed to help relieve it.

Your therapist will evaluate your answers and your exam results to determine the best way to help you. He/she will then write a plan of care, which lists the treatments to be used and the goals that you and your therapist decide on to do your daily activities safely and with the least amount of discomfort. The plan also includes a prognosis, which is your therapist's idea of how well the treatments will work and how long you'll need therapy in order to get the most benefit.

The main goal of therapy is to make sure you have ways to take care of future spine pain or problems. You'll be shown ways to help control pain or symptoms if they don't go completely away and if they return in the future. Because you've experienced spine pain, there is a possibility you may have soreness in the future. You may be encouraged to continue with some of the exercises to help keep your spine healthy over time.

Treatment to control pain and symptoms includes a variety of options that your physical therapist will choose based upon your individualized care plan that he/she developed based upon his/her exam of your spine.  They may include rest, positioning, ice, heat, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, soft tissue mobilization/massage, manual therapy, joint mobilization, traction and the Graston technique.

The next step in your therapy course would be the introduction of therapeutic exercise which is individually designed to help you to work on flexibility, stabilization, coordination and fitness conditioning.

This step is then followed by functional training which helps you with doing specific activities with greater ease and safety. Examples include posture, body mechanics, and ergonomics.

Once your pain is controlled, your range of motion has improved, and your strength is returning, you will be progressed to a final home program. Your therapist will review some of the ideas listed above to help take care of any soreness at home. You'll be given some ways to keep working on your range of motion and strength. Before you are done with therapy, more measurements may be taken to see how well you're doing now compared to when you first started in therapy.
We will be exploring some of the treatments and modalities discussed above in more detail with future blogs. 

We hope you found this overview of Spine Rehabilitation helpful and will keep Progressive Physical Therapy, Inc. in mind for all of your or your family and friends' Rehabilitation needs!

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(source referenced for this blog: allaboutbackpain.com)