90% of the population experience spine and neck problems at least once in their lifetime. A neck or back pain may occur due to bad posture, injury or underlying medical condition. The pain is not isolated to those regions alone; they tend to travel through head, eyes, and arms and further down to legs and feet. It is ideal to pay a visit to a physical therapist who can get it reduced or can even eliminate the pain with the right massage and exercises and enlighten the person on the right posture and maintenance methods.
Initial assessment – Any physical therapist would first perform a complete assessment/evaluation on the patient. According to the physical therapist in Don Kelly pain relief in Limerick, Ireland, it is important to establish the client needs by clinical reasoning and detailed analysis by taking the whole patient history and complete body assessment. The exam will help in checking the strength, extent of pain and reflexes.
Passive therapy – Passive modalities help in reducing the patient’s pain to a manageable level. Since they are done on the patients, they are termed passive. The passive modalities include ice/heat pack application, ultrasound, iontophoresis, electrical stimulation and massage.
Active physical therapy – There are different types of exercises and manipulations that can be used to relieve the pain, stiffness and strengthen the area. The physical therapist would help the patient practice a set of stretching and strengthening exercise for the neck and back. This would also aid in improving the posture and restore flexibility to the joints and muscles of the upper back. Stretching Exercises like hamstring stretches, corner stretches, levator stretches, shoulder blade stretches can help alleviate back pain. Strengthening exercises like core strengthening, McKenzie exercises would help for lower back pain treatment. It is crucial to discuss the suitability before beginning the treatment so that the therapist can manipulate the intensity and the exercise time.
Another option of physical therapy is low impact aerobics that can help in a long term treatment of pain. Walking, bicycling, swimming, water therapy are some of the options available in low impact aerobics.
A physical therapist can help in assessing and prescribe proper exercises as a course of treatment. It is also the duty of the therapist to educate the patient about the posture, exercise time and intensity of treatment. In places like Don Kelly pain relief, the treatment is designed and undertaken on an individual client basis so that the therapist can spend more time with the patient.
