Hiring a physiotherapist is one that drives me mad. I have relatives and friends in real pain and they refuse to spend the £100 to £200 for a couple of sessions of physio to fix the problem. They can all afford it but they doggedly stick to mild pain killers and “it will sort itself out” eventually it may but what a waste of energy for months and years.
Actually they are right. Physio doesn't do shit for the pain and mild pain killers plus "wait and see" is all you got for back injuries. The good part is that it does sort it out but it takes years.
It's still a good idea to do some physio for learning some exercises that help on the long run. You'll have to do them yourself from time to time and they relate to exercising the muscles that sustain the spine. Don't think "hit the gym and workout the dumbbells for 30 minutes" type of exercise, that's out of the door forever if you value whatever spine remains you have left. Essentially just the act of walking around and doing some light workout of the muscles, don't allow them to atrophy. Stupid muscles, they atrophy the moment you allow them two bits of rest and you can't afford to do that because it's them that hold everything into place.
And not all physiotherapists are born the same. Some do stupid things and may damage your injury so always exercise judgement on what they put you to do. Like I had a work colleague that suffered a knee injury while skiing and had surgery then psysio. There was this machine / apparatus that you'd strap your leg to and it would "gently" rotate it in a bicycle like pattern. Said colleague refused to be strapped to it and some time later at a demonstration the machine got out of control and started spinning "the opposite of gently" and uncontrollably. Even a regular knee would have been damaged, can't imagine what an injured one would have endured.
Generally no machines, especially when your freedom of movement is restricted and controlled by someone or worse, something else. And if it hurts, abort, abort! You're not Arnold Schwarzenegger training, it's not supposed to hurt.
I have had back pain and RSI for almost two years. My situation only got better after I started doing my physio exercises consistently.
I also learned things from physios on YouTube (e.g. Bob and Brad) that made a difference especially with the RSI in my hands.
My anecdotal experience doesn’t scaling with your claim. Of course, each pain is different and some just require good ol rest like you said. But that’s why you should spend the money to hire the professionals at the top of their game to tell you what is what.
Bob and Brad ("the two most famous physical therapists on the internet") are an absolute treasure. Always good to see them get some appreciation online.
>And if it hurts, abort, abort! You're not Arnold Schwarzenegger training, it's not supposed to hurt.
This strongly depends. Some post-surgery physiotherapy at least is quite painful, and it's necessary to push through it to get the best results. Not always, of course, and your physiotherapist should be aware of what their exercises should feel like.
I’ve used physiotherapy over the past decade for three injuries and can say categorically that it alleviates pain, speeds up injury recovery and prevents injury. Like all things, there is a spectrum of effectiveness, not all injuries can be fixed with physio (so do need surgery, some do just need time) and not all physios are equal.
When people talk about pushing through the pain, they aren’t talking about injury, that would be insane, they are talking about the burn in your muscles from when you’re getting close to failure. If you’re training for muscle growth, this is something you need to get comfortable with doing.
