Back pain is a significant problem in New Bern, North Carolina, and that’s not surprising because it’s a huge problem nationwide as well. This is supported by statistics from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which show that about 80% of American adults will deal with back pain at some time in their lives. Of these people, only a handful will have surgery to treat their pain. To help with your post-surgery recovery, you should seek physical therapy after back surgery, and there are three specific goals your therapy plan should be geared toward.
1. Speeding up your recovery
Most people are impatient to feel better after surgery, and physical therapy after back surgery can help speed up your recovery process. This should be one of the most important goals of your therapy program.
Physical therapy plans can be designed to help you speed up your healing in several ways. For one thing, they’re intended to get you moving as soon as possible after surgery. This movement helps promote better blood flow, and the increased blood flow helps get more oxygen and nutrients to the area of your back that’s healing. In turn, this helps keep your natural healing mechanisms working at full speed.
2. Increasing muscle strength
Muscles are important to your spine because they help keep it properly aligned. These same muscles also support the spine as it moves. To successfully do both these jobs, the back muscles must be flexible and strong. However, back surgery can involve the cutting of muscles, and this means your muscles will have to regain their strength after surgery.
This is why your physical therapy plan after back surgery should have improving muscle strength as one of its goals. There are several ways that physical therapists can help you meet this goal. One option is to include therapeutic exercises for your back into the recovery plan. Also, manual therapy and other techniques may be used to help restore flexibility to back muscles affected by surgery.
3. Promoting better posture
In many cases, the initial cause of back problems that require surgery is poor sitting or standing posture. This is why therapists will help you find ways to improve your posture. It’s also the reason this goal is commonly set for people in post-back surgery physical therapy.
For example, hunching forward over a computer or cellphone for hours on end can do bad things to the back. Also, spending lots of time in this posture after surgery can slow healing. Using ergonomic recommendations, physical therapists can help you sit straighter after surgery, and these suggestions can also help reduce the stress on your healing back. In turn, the decreased stress can help your back heal more quickly.
Find effective post-surgery physical therapy at Peak Performance in New Bern, NC
At our New Bern clinic, our Peak Performance team can help you recover from many types of surgery. We’ll work closely with your doctor and your surgeon to build you a personalized therapy program, and your program may include therapy techniques such as:
- Manual therapy
- Therapeutic exercise
- Ergonomic recommendations
- Anodyne® therapy
Are you looking for physical therapy to help you recover faster after back surgery? Contact us today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
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