What does a physio do when she hurts her back?

My neighbor kind of laughed when I told her I hurt my low back gardening the other day. It wasn’t a malicious laugh, but she may have thought it was ironic that as a person who often treats others for back pain now also gets back pain. Believe it or not, accidents do happen to everyone, even to physios :). The only difference is, I may be a bit more equipped to deal with my low back pain than others. There are things that I do to heal myself as fast as possible when I get injured.

After spraining my low back gardening (from lifting a super heavy pot), I was in a lot of pain. I felt sharp stabbing pain every time I bent down, turn in bed, sit or walk. The muscles and ligaments that supported my low back were likely sprained or strained from the heavy lifting and while the tissue was inflamed, I did the following to help things heal as quickly as possible.

• Protect/Compress: I wore a low back support belt (like the one that weight lifters wear) to give my back some support and to keep it in a neutral position. This belt also gently compresses on the irritated nerves in my back which decreased the pain.

• Rest: I avoided straining my low back muscles as much as possible while they were fresh from the injury. This means I avoided activities that aggravated it like bending forward, twisting, and prolonged walking or sitting. Even though I don’t believe resting is beneficial long term, it is necessary when the injury is fresh (acute). By resting my back, and not pushing it in the first few days after my injury, my muscles had a chance to recover quickly.

There are also things that I avoided doing, such as stretching my back or getting massage on it. Even though these activities may be helpful long term once the muscles have healed but still feel tight, stretching and massaging the muscles while they are still acute can actually worsen the problem.

After doing this for 4 days, my low back feels 90% better and I am able to move normally again. Once the pain is completely gone, I will start stretching my low back gently and to do progressive strengthening exercises.

By Mia Dang, PT / a registered physiotherapist with extensive supplementary training in pelvic floor physiotherapy and perinatal care