Have confidence in your back!

When you’re in the early stages of recovery from a back injury or pain, it can be difficult to fully trust your back again. It’s easy to think of it as vulnerable and likely to become painful again. In reality, when the correct diagnosis has been made and the right treatment is applied, your back should be strong and give you confidence.

When you’re sat in your Osteopath’s treatment room or the Doctor’s office, the model of the spine in the corner can be quite overwhelming. All those small bones and little rubber ‘nerves’ poking out can look really complicated. Your spine is actually very well designed and built. It may look complicated, but it usually works well as a system and serves you well.

Just as they can in any area of your body, injuries can occur to your back, but they don’t necessarily mean you’re left with a ‘weakness’. Once the injury is recovered and you’ve undertaken the right rehabilitation, your back should be strong again and ready for any activity you wish to undertake. Sometimes you have to alter activities to prevent problems from reoccurring, but this is usually because those activities are potentially harmful and are the reason the injury occurred in the first place.

Finding the right person to guide you through your recovery and rehabilitation is key. Osteopaths are trained to look at the body as a whole, so we won’t just concentrate on your area of injury. We will look at how your body works together so over time, usually with treatment and exercises, other areas of your body can support the previous injury to reduce the risk of it happening again.

Taking up regular exercise such as walking, swimming, cycling, Pilates or yoga can help build strength throughout your body. These activities also help you get to know your body more. By being ‘body aware’, you can detect when an activity isn’t good for your body before it causes an injury, rather than once pain has occurred.

Finally, it’s essential to understand what injury occurred, but make sure you get your information from reliable sources. Google is excellent and I thoroughly encourage my patients to read online, but always ensure you’re reading from a reliable source. It’s all too easy to find incorrect (and sometimes just plain scary!) information out there. However, by understanding your body, you’re much better equipped to know how to treat it in the future to prevent injuries. The more the body is ‘de-mystified’, the better you’ll be able to trust it again, too. This is often the key to a faster recovery and long-term health.

Have any specific questions about an injury? Ask me in the comments below!

Zoë Clark is a registered osteopath trained at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine in London. Practicing in Howe near Norwich (01508 558373) and Burston, near Diss (07543 557746), Norfolk.

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www.zoeclarkosteopathy.co.uk