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June 26, 2008

My Physical Therapy Experience

I finally made it to physical therapy for my low back pain. The PT took my history, assessed my posture, bony alignment of my spine and hips, and watched me walk back and forth barefoot several times.

During the spinal examination they noted a slight curvature in my upper spine at T5--that must be that touch of scoliosis I developed in adolescence. Every once in a while that flares up when I carry my book bag over one shoulder. Since I got an ergonomic book bag that fits me and is comfortable, I'm much better about putting it over both shoulders. If I'm stooped over my studies for long periods of time, my upper back gets tired and achy, but I usually alleviate this by side bending and my spine usually adjusts a bit.

For my back pain, they asked a lot of questions about pain: where, when, how much, what I do to alleviate it. Unfortunately for therapy, but fortunately for me, I was having a good day, so I did not hurt much. It doesn't help that my back pain has been a part of my life for so long, because it makes it hard to recall exactly when it started or what precipitated it. I do know what has aggravated it over the years, though.

The therapist did manual muscle testing by having me lie on my side, elevate my leg away from the table in abduction, and then hold against resistance. This tested gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. It was a pathetic performance--minimum to moderate resistance against gravity (3+ or 4), worse on the right side. Then they muscle tested me on my stomach, with a hand on my low back, they had me lift my leg off the table and hold against resistance. This tested gluteus maximus and the hamstrings. Even though this is a yoga exercise I had been doing for years, I had clearly been compensating with muscles from my torso, because in this instance, I could hardly clear the mat. As for resistance, I had almost nothing--how embarrassing. I have no idea how this happened. They assigned me pelvic tilts and side-lying leg raises.

While I was there, I figured they could help me with my running injury from May 7. The therapist assessed the ankle using using range of motion, palpation and muscle testing. They assigned me exercises to strengthen my tibialis posterior. Using a theraband wrapped around my foot, I am to point my toes and pull my foot medially to the inside while using my other foot (crossed over my lower leg) to regulate tension on the theraband. I've also been assigned heel raises which will strengthen my calf muscles.

Incidentally, the physical therapist told me to lay off of my stretching routine. They believe that I'm a little too flexible and this may be why I got injured in the first place.

tags: massage massagetherapy wellness massage therapy bodywork health

Posted by linda at June 26, 2008 8:52 PM