Blog post produced and written by Clinic Manager and Sports Injury Specialist Jason Dodd.
Here at Bodylogics we treat a wide range of conditions and back pain is certainly one of the highest. And the reasons why people get it are often very similar. Working form home has created a new epidemic of back pain complaints which are often cited due to poor working posture and many of our patients see us to seek the answer to this question. And we are delighted to bring you a very much anticipated answer.
Ok, so I am hoping I have your attention here. Now, do not be disappointed with this answer that I am about to give. The fact of the matter is that there is no ‘magic’ exercise that will make your back better, there never has been and there never will be unfortunately. What is of greater importance is understanding the complexity of back pain and how narrowing it down to a simple cause that can be solved with a simple exercise is doing a dis-service to all those many people out there who suffer regularly from episodes of lower back pain (and upper back pain).
Tell me the answer!?
Let’s start with the simple side of things here. Multiple studies have found that a wide majority of different types of exercises at varying intensities and frequencies have great impact on back pain. A paper by Owen et al., 2019 concluded that ‘various exercise training approaches are effective and should be incorporated into usual care for adults with chronic low back pain’. Identifying the exercise type though is where the skill lies, based on the symptoms the patient presents with.
Second, many people think we have to be super complicated with our exercise prescription. Whilst this is true to some extent, to claim that there is one exercise that works for everyone is absurd. That is not to say that some exercises would not be better than others but that it totally independent on a patient by patient basis. The exercise that feels great for patient A may feel awful for patient B so it is vital we do not just hand out sheets of paper with exercise ideas without having tested the waters first! So looking on YouTube can be informative but to think that the therapist on their can apply an exercise for you to do without any history taking is dangerous and certainly not advised.
What do you advise?
For me, the hardest part of all of this is patient engagement in what you are asking them to do. Whilst it is important to simplify the exercise programme for adherence, it is vital that we do not oversimplify things and that the patient knows what they are doing and when they are doing it. Often, system overload is one of the biggest contributors to pain so finding what is creating this overload is most likely going to be my starting point in any back pain case.
And if we are going to use evidence here to support a ‘best type of exercise’ then the paper by Tataryn et al. 2021 found that those who engaged in ‘posterior-chain resistance training’ had significantly improved results compared to those who used general exercise’. But here’s the thing, a paper by Zhongju, et al. 2018 then showed that ‘aquatic exercise can significantly reduce pain in patients with low back pain’.
To conclude, back pain has many variables associated with its presence. Whilst there are many great interventions that can be sued to help it, such as massage, acupuncture, etc…. exercise has ben proven to be a low cost and effective intervention. To say there is a ‘best exercise’ for back pain is simply not true. A better expression would be that almost every individual can find an effective exercise that will help reduce their symptoms but this would be on a case by case basis.
If you are suffering from back pain then why not get in touch with us here at Bodylogics. Ours therapists are trained to the highest level and can offer pain relief and interventions that will help you get back to being pain free and enjoying life once more. Call us on 020 8368 9220 to find out more about how we can help.
