With about 16 million adults experiencing chronic, serious back pain every year, this is no longer an issue that can be dismissed as a consequence of being an adult. Experiencing back pain has been so normalized that we don’t even think about how to resolve it when we feel it.
Although many people may experience back and neck pain in relation to a severe injury or underlying medical condition that requires medication and surgery — so many people also deal with more benign kinds of back pain that only reduces the quality of life.
Remember that you don’t have to live in a physical state where even mild exertion causes intense pain. Consult with our physical therapists in Augusta instead for the following types of back pain.
Stress-Induced Back Pain
Medical professionals are still trying to understand the relationship between mental health and physiological responses, but one of the major effects that stress has on our body is back pain. When we’re dealing with stress, we tend to tighten our jaw, neck, shoulder, and back muscles unconsciously.
This leads to pain over time since our muscles are constantly tense. What starts out as soreness will eventually turn into real, debilitating pain for some people and dull chronic pain for others. Physical therapy treatment can help you with correcting this damage.
Bad Workout Habits
Working out in the gym or with sports is great for your general health, but without using proper posture, understanding your body’s limits, and following a strict warm-up/cool-down, regime you’re likely to harm your spine in the process.
Athletes and people who work out need to be very careful about the stress they put on their back muscles. This also means that if you do feel immense pain and pressure in your back, it’s time to pause and get some sports injuries treatment with a PT practitioner. They can help assess your spine and back region and work with you to heal injuries you may have.
Myofascial Pain
Myofascial pain syndrome tends to occur when your muscles are contracted repeatedly, usually during an activity that you perform every day. Pain that comes from tense muscles is similar, but myofascial pain will be more intense.
A physical therapist can find your trigger points and apply passive PT techniques such as massage therapy to help manipulate the muscle. This provides pain relief to you. Over time, your therapist will help work with you to strengthen those muscles and educate you on how to prevent the pain from recurring.
At our center in Georgia, we provide physical therapy in Augusta for these causes of back pain and more. Whether you need physical therapy services for women or PT programs to provide active living for seniors, we’ve got your back (literally)!