A Plan For Recovery: Back Pain
Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School
A plan for recovery
After an episode of back pain, whatever the treatment, it's essential to properly time your return to normal activities: Too rapid a return is likely to precipitate a relapse, but too timid a return can delay — or even prevent — recovery. If you are recovering from back pain, seek detailed information from your doctors about what you can do and when. Ask whether physiotherapy might be helpful. However, a few general principles are worth mentioning.
Symptoms should be your guide. As a general rule, avoid doing anything that hurts. If there is pain, stop the offending activity.
Increase activities gradually, according to tolerance. For example, you might start by doing four or five repetitions of an abdominal exercise, three times a day. If this doesn't cause your pain to worsen, you can increase the number of repetitions every few days — and add new exercises — as tolerated. If the exercises increase your discomfort, they can be cut back for a while, then resumed and again gradually increased. You can usually resume sexual activity once you're up and walking with minimal discomfort (see "Sexuality and your aching back").
Avoid twisting your trunk or making sudden off-balance movements. Try to rid your house of clutter that can trip you up. Throw rugs and slippery surfaces are notorious for causing falls. Activities such as diving and swimming in surf can cause problems, as can lifting objects while your body is in an awkward position.
Exercise regularly. Appropriate exercise — such as swimming, walking, or bicycle riding (either stationary or regular) — should become an established part of your regular exercise routine.
Keep good habits even after your discomfort is gone. During an episode of low back pain, you will probably move cautiously, bending your knees when picking something up, carrying objects close to your body to minimize leverage on the back, and sitting down and getting up with care. To some extent, such back-saving maneuvers — as well as any back exercise program started in time of need — should become lifelong habits, whether or not you're concerned about impending pain. Practices such as these can help minimize the frequency of back woes.
Sexuality and your aching backIt's not uncommon for backaches to interfere with an individual's love life. Often, when speaking to their doctor, people with back pain are reluctant to discuss how it affects their sexual activity. But if you find that backaches — or fears of re-injuring your back — put a damper on your sex life, ask your doctor for advice. Here are a few suggestions that might also be helpful:
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A plan for recovery: 1 of 1
| Last updated: | January 23, 2007 |
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Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.
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