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Back Pain Physio Eastern Suburbs

Are you suffering from back pain? Struggling to do the things you love? Back pain can have a significant impact on your quality of life.

Back conditions we commonly treat:

  • Disc problems
  • Sciatica & Nerve pain
  • Spine arthritis
  • Facet joint pain
  • Post-surgery rehab
  • Scoliosis
  • Postural pain
  • Degeneration
  • SIJ and pelvis pain
  • Vertebrae misalignment

At Advanz Health our team of physiotherapists, exercise physiologists and massage therapists are experts in treating back pain. Our unique approach to fixing your back pain includes:

  1. Comprehensive assessment to determine both the diagnosis and the root causes (we may use imaging/scans where necessary).
  2. Tests and measurements to ensure we monitor progress and improvements.
  3. Holistic view of your entire body, including posture, alignment, mobility, strength, sleep, stress, nutrition and your nervous system.
  4. Treatment plan that relieves pain and targets the root causes, including massage, joint manipulation, dry-needling, exercise programs (core strength, Pilates and movement retraining) and education. This plan will specifically target your individual goals.
  5. Ongoing prevention options through clinical Pilates and small-group exercise.

Our approach will get you better in the shortest timeframe and keep you better long-term. It is designed to make sure you avoid a life of pain and suffering that requires long-term therapy and lifestyle changes, and instead gets you back to doing the things you love with a strong body.

BOOK YOUR INITIAL APPOINTMENT ONLINE HERE,

OR CALL OUR RECEPTION TO BOOK ON 8068 7161

We have also created a structured treatment program specifically for back pain:

BETTER BACKS PROGRAM

better back flyer

If you would prefer to have an initial physiotherapy appointment prior to committing to the Better Backs program, you can simply book an initial physiotherapy appointment online here, or call our reception to book on 8068 7161.

FAQ’s about Back Pain

The muscles of the legs are all innervated by nerves that originate from the lower back, therefore having issues in the back can compress or impact on these nerves.  This is characterized by a decrease in leg strength, or a tingling or numbness feeling down the legs.

With chronic pain (pain lasting longer than 3 months) the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) can start to think that this pain is normal. The more your brain starts to think this, the more wound up and hyper-sensitive the nervous system starts to become; therefore, one can start to anticipate pain and associate pain with certain activities. This doesn’t have to be the case; physios are very good at acknowledging that your back is hyper-sensitive and can give you a guided approach to help in first managing and then decreasing the pain.

Chronic pain is more likely in the sedentary population, however, anyone can get chronic pain, as it can be the brain’s way of telling you something isn’t right, or certain activities are no go’s, but it’s how you react to this will depend on how long the chronic pain will last.

An X-ray or MRI may not always be the right option. Imaging may not show someone’s injury, or it even may show some sort of injury, but the client has no decrease in function, or the client’s symptoms would not correlate with that type of injury. Therefore, the physiotherapist will decide if imaging is needed, usually asked for when there is believed to be a neurological issue, that is affecting the strength of the upper or lower body.

Sometimes imaging can suggest arthritis within the joints of the spine, however there is a poor correlation between what is seen on an image and the symptoms of the person. If the client feels the symptoms that correlate with image or not, what’s important is the rehab. It is important to get moving and increase the structural integrity around the back, including the core, pelvic floor and glutes.

Superficial core a group of muscles that can be visible on someone who is quite lean, e.g., the 6-pack muscles, which can be helpful in stabilisation but not as good as the deep core which involves TA, pelvic floor and the diaphragm. To know you are using the deep core effectively and not simply relying on the superficial muscles, you should be able to breathe normally, I.e., breathing in to fill the stomach (diaphragm) and out whilst doing the exercise no matter what it is.

As muscles in the back attach along the joints of the spine, if there is an acute injury to either a joint or a muscle in the back then it can have a knock-on effect and impact on the other. Thereby, the back will react better to heat in order to relax the area of concern; ice should be avoided for the back and should only be used for acute injuries of peripheral joints such as knees, shoulders, ankles and wrists, to control inflammation.

Sometimes back pain can be from under-utilising certain musculature, such as the core or glutes. So, a good physiotherapist will recognise if and where you are under-utilising these areas and give treatment accordingly. Easy exercises that can be given is core activation and breathing with legs on table-top or a static squat to activate the glutes. Sometimes lower back pain can be due to stiffness so a good lower back and/or hip stretch may help.

ADVANZ Physios are well versed ibn treatment of back pain and are known for their results. This is because ADVANZ Health Physiotherapists want to first know the causation of your back pain, they want to know if it is simply an acute injury of tissue in the back or is the back aggravated because of another area in the body. By identifying a person’s driver (the route of their pain), it will allow for a much more efficient and effective treatment.

Through a graded approach of firstly diagnosis, finding out the root of the problem as not all back pain is the same between clients. Secondly, hands on treatment and early exercise to restore movement and increase function. Followed by functional movement and exercise to optimise strength and function specific to your activities or sport of choice. Higher performance exercise to help create permanent changes to bodies strength, control and possibly brain function. Lastly, Return to full activity.

Back pain can occur in varying ways. 1. excessive force going through the back, like lifting a heavy object with a poor technique. 2. Asymmetries throughout the body, for example, if one hip is in front of the other, the body/spine can compensate by rotating in the other direction. This torsion can create undue stress on the back.

Sharp pain in the back, stiffness, tenderness, tingling / numbness down the legs, pinching and pulling

Back pain can also be the brain’s way of telling your body that something is out of alignment, or something is being under-utilised, therefore it doesn’t necessarily mean the back is damaged, but something needs to be corrected to counteract the stress going through the back.

Back pain can be very debilitating, it can take certain people out of activities that they love for weeks or months at a time. This can have a knock-on effect; buy taking out sport/activities that can equate to weight gain and/or feelings of depression or anxiety which can then lead to future comorbidities such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer etc.

  1. Localised: a particular spot in the back that feels tender or stiff, noticeable doing a certain task, or it originally happened doing a certain activity task.
  2. Referred: pain in the back that is spreading to local tissue around the area, for example a joint in the back is having an effect on the surrounding musculature. This can happen as most muscles in the back attach to the spine, so if a part of the spine is stiff it can pull on an attached muscle and therefore referring pain to that area.
  3. Radiculopathy: back pain that is affecting the nerves that run from the back down the legs. Radiculopathy can create issues of instability or a very sharp/ lightning bolt sort of pain down the leg. People will often complain of weakness or numbness in one or both legs.

Acute back pain is usually done with certain activities, e.g squatting in the gym or picking up a box from the ground with poor technique.

Sub-acute is usually a dull ache that has been lingering around for a few weeks that can sometimes favour one side in particular, this can occur when taking on something new. It has happened a lot during the pandemic period as a lot of people have gone from an ergonomic office space to their dining room chairs and tables.

Chronic pain is usually a form of pain that lingers around for 3+months and is usually a result of misalignment throughout the body. The pain will usually be described as quite a nervy, tingling/burning type of pain.

If not treated, back pain can have a continuous effect. Firstly, it can mean a prolonged time of decreased activity, which can affect mood and physical health. It can also have an effect on different parts of the body and therefore worsen the pain not only in the back but in other areas throughout the body.

Back pain is common when pregnant, this is because with compensating with the increase in weight and in preparation for the foetus growing, the ligaments and muscles naturally soften especially in the lower back. This therefore will put more stress on the hard tissue of the lower vertebrae and joints of the pelvis.

Book your initial appointment online here, or call our reception to book on 8068 7161.