Recovering from Back Pain Surgery - Health Channel

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Recovering from Back Pain Surgery |

Dr. Theresa Pazionis, Orthopedic and Spine Surgeon at Miami Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute, explains the recovery after a back pain surgery will focus on a core strengthening in a way that you are not bending, lifting and twisting your back.

She recommends avoiding crunches or sit-ups, but doing planks. “Planks are fantastic as sort of a light Pilates and low impact activities,” she highlights.

Transcript

Walk us through what the physical therapy session would look like for someone who maybe has that back pain or is recovering for surgeries. What would they what would they be entailed to do? > Sure so it would focus on a core strengthening in a way that you’re not bending, lifting and twisting. So a lot of people ask should I start doing crunches or sit-ups so that’s probably the worst thing that you can do for your back because a lot of times it will put a live strain so you have your hands behind your neck in the form that all see patients trying is is doing this… where they’re flexing their head and that that doesn’t really help anything. So planks are fantastic — why are you pointing to me — as you brought up the other day and the show they’re like — Yeah I don’t like it… I don’t have got pain and it hurts me — Exactly so it’s just okay I don’t understand why a lot of people will recommend crunches and they really they just they just don’t work. — Agree. — So planks are fantastic as sort of a light Pilates type activity is fantastic, low impact activities so going on a recumbent bike or stationary bike in a way that you’re keeping your core straight and just we’re leaning over. Some light arm weights and light leg press a lot of times once a patient progresses past the six weak point squats can be incorporated and even weighted squats can be incorporated but that’s after we’ve repealed it depending on surgery that you’ve had. > And the physical therapy is really important is it. > Yeah. Absolutely and normally from the non-surgical point of view when we send the patient house of physical therapy there’s normally five stages that the patient will go through. First stage meaning that they will go through the inflammation process so they will give like icy and heating pads a little bit of that what we call modalities just to kind of help them out then they will start getting into the stretching portion, just and passive range of motion so they can start getting some of the range back of their other order of their back eventually transition into a strengthening portion which is the most important portion and then from there on they will go into what we call the home exercise program so they learn those exercises and they start doing those in the future at home which is the most important thing in the long run for that will be the long term medication for the back.

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