HEP: Low Back Pain (Sciatica)
Patient Education
What’s going on?
As nerves in your body travel from the spinal cord toward your arms and legs, the nerve can get pinched. This limits the ability of the nerves to glide alongside the adjoining muscles.
The mobility of the nerve can be limited by the joints in your back, the discs, the muscles and the connective tissue that it travels through.
When the nerve gets pinched you can experience a sharp, shooting pain or numbness/tingling down a specific area of your leg especially when you stretch/compress the nerves by extending or rotating your back or legs.
How long will it take?
Most people with lower back pain that recently occurred will recover in six weeks.
How will we treat your condition at IHSM?
At IHSM, a doctor of physical therapy will perform a detailed physical examination to understand how you move and all the structures that could be contributing to your pain.
Your treatment may include joint/soft tissue mobilizations, direction-specific exercises, mechanical traction, and exercises to improve nerve mobility may help to reduce the pain in your leg and back.
Modalities such as acupuncture, or electrical stimulation may also be used to control the pain in your low back.
With treatment, your leg pain and back pain should lessen. If at any point the leg pain or weakness gets worse stop the exercises and speak with your clinician at IHSM about it.
What can you do to help yourself?
In the early phases of the injury if your symptoms are provoked by bending forward (flexion sensitive) or twisting, avoid slumped postures or any other postures that irritate the nerve by stretching or compressing it (i.e. sitting too long in the same position).
Temporarily keep your spine in neutral position (maintain the natural curve in your low back) during all activity especially getting in and out of your car or going from sitting to standing. Eventually, your clinician will teach you to move freely and without fear, just like you did before the injury.
Perform the exercises that your doctor of physical therapy taught you that improve the mobility of your back and your nerves.
Instructions:
You can do the first 4 exercises to begin. You can continue with the rest of the exercises when the sharp pain decreases.
About IHSM
Integrative Health and Sports Medicine, LLC is a one-stop health and wellness center. Our mission is to restore our patients to a healthy, pain-free, and productive life. By combining orthopedic physical therapy techniques, sports medicine, acupuncture, and Chinese medicine, we are able to treat conditions and achieve results in cases that have not responded well to modern Western medicine.
We are located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Please email us at info@integrativesports.com to schedule a consultation and let us help you on your journey to optimal health.