Pain in your back can often be prevented or managed with exercises.  Back pain exercises can range from isometric workouts, isotonic weight lifting, and the infamous yoga routines available. I’m not a big fan of the type of generic back pain exercises that you get from the overworked physical therapist that look like they are a copy of a copy of a from a 1970 copy.

In a case where a disc injury is involved, McKenzie exercises are usually recommended.  Extension exercises often offer the most results with a bulging disc due to the decompressive nature of the movement.  (Decompression of the spine can help reverse the pressure of a bulging disc; sometimes referred to as a slipped disc).

Some motions to be careful of are: twisting and bending (simultaneously) especially under additional weight.  Examples of this are carrying awkward objects.  They don’t have to even be that heavy to cause injury because the orientation of annulus fibers in the disc are such that they ‘criss cross’ at about 15 degrees from each other.  This particular orientation is at its weakest when twisting and bending occur at the same time.  This is why you’ll often see a moving crew wearing back braces.

Is twisting bad? No. Is bending bad? No. Combining the two can be, especially when when you have a deconditioning syndrome, which is what most back pain patients have- spinal stabilizing muscles that are unhealthy or not properly conditioned.

Be sure to ‘layer’ your core exercises.  At our chiropractic clinic in Lakewood, CO we use a functional movement screen to determine which parts of your core needs the most work. We work form the weakest link out. Exercises that compromise the weakest muscles are restricted until the patient can demonstrate that they have ‘fixed’ the weakest link.

When you’re in acute pain, starting out with a back exercise that includes deep bending and extreme ranges of motion isn’t a good idea.  It’s this very motion that keeps chiropractors in business.  The spine needs to be treated with care…work up to your goals slowly.  An injury will always set your goals back and hamper your routine.

The point of your back pain exercises should be prevention, not necessarily treatment.

Practitioners who treat low back pain have to consider the various causes of lower back pain.  The list of common causes of spinal pain include, a bulging or herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, spinal nerve impingement, kidney stones, central canal stenosis (spinal stenosis), and strained or sprained muscles and ligaments.

Spinal specialists such as chiropractic doctors are trained to identify and/or treat such conditions.  An evaluation is needed to diagnose the source of back pain and this leads to a treatment plan that is appropriate to address the cause of the condition. We have numerous option for treatment in our Lakewood, CO chiropractic clinic.

The approach in a chiropractic clinic as far as using different therapy modalities include manipulation therapy, electric muscle stimulation, core exercise, decompression therapy, physical therapy, ATM2 (Active Therapeutic Movement), class IV LASER, heat or ice therapy, and massage.

Musculoskeletal conditions such as a strained ligament will heal within 6 weeks depending on severity.  A muscle strain, though just as painful as a ligament injury, will usually heal in less time.

When treating an intervertebral disc herniation back surgery may be recommended.  But before surgery, one should consider the use of nonsurgical alternatives.  Non-surgical spinal decompression therapy can provide lasting results and relieve the pain in your low back.

It’s important though to see a trained spinal decompression clinician or physician for decompression treatments.  Though orthopedic doctors can treat a disc bulge with surgery a chiropractor can be your best advocate in eliminating pain non-surgically.

DRX9000 decompression is the most advanced technology in the field of spinal decompression.  We were one of the first Denver chiropractors to offer spinal decompression and have learned a lot about the non-surgical management of low back pain. A ruptured disc can raise havoc in your personal or professional life, cause premature degeneration and just plain debilitate a person.

Here is a great article by San Francisco chiropractor, Dr. Eben Davis, entitled, “Herniated Discs “CAN” Be Repaired Without Surgery!”

It’s estimated by the ACA (American Chiropractic Association) that 80% of Americans will have to deal with low back pain at some point in their lives.  Releasing a pinched nerve is the first step in becoming pain free and that’s exactly what a decompression technology does to a bulging disc causing sciatica or low back pain.

We’re here to help.

For the past several years herniated disc treatment with non-surgical spinal decompression has been my treatment of choice for bulging and herniated discs.

Since the introduction of non-surgical spinal decompression to our clinic, we’ve helped hundreds of patients from Lakewood, Littleton and the entire Denver, Colorado metro area. And as safe and effective  that non-surgical spinal decompression is, unfortunately, there have been people we haven’t been able to help as well. It’s a ‘double tough’ condition.

If there’s one absolute that I can conclude from my experience it’s this- you can’t ‘tough out’ a herniated disc.

Prior to the addition of the DRX9000 Spinal Decompression machine, in our clinic we predominantly utilized conservative and specific chiropractic care, a back pain relief machine called the ATM2, lifestyle modifications (including case specific stretches and/or exercises) and physical and manual therapy.

But sometimes this approach just plain fell short.

By utilizing clinical discretion and adding spinal decompression therapy when appropriate we’ve dramatically increased our success rate in providing treatment for herniated disc pain sufferers to help them get ‘back in the game.’

Of course, sometimes surgery ends up being inevitable, but more often than not the non-surgical spinal decompression approach is very effective at relieving sciatica, leg and arm pain and/or neck and low back pain caused by herniated or bulging discs.

That’s been my experience anyway.

One of the main reasons I like spinal decompression therapy is that not only is it capable of relieving your pain, it’s capable of making the tissues that are causing the pain healthier.

If you think you may have a bulging disc or a herniated disc (or you’ve already been diagnosed with one) and you want to explore alternatives to back surgery and you live in Lakewood, Littleton, Denver or the surrounding area, call our clinic and set up a consultation with me to go over your individual case- each person has unique needs.

Note: If you want to know more about the DRX9000 and spinal decompression therapy you can go here for DRX9000 reviews. Here’s another DRX9000 review by a top radiologist.