Many times we see patients at North Orlando Chiropractic who see us after they are experiencing neck or back pain. Through the course of their treatment at our office we often hear the question, when can I resume an exercise program and what types of exercises will I be able to do? When it comes to back or neck injuries the conundrum for patients is obvious, they want to be able to exercise but they do not want to have a setback in their recovery.
Generally you don’t want to resume exercise until your out of acute pain. If you’re experiencing significant back or neck pain then it’s best to give your body a break before returning to your exercise program. Therefore, one of the rules of thumb we typically tell patients of North Orlando Chiropractic is don’t exercise through sharp pain. If you’re experiencing more tightness and achy pain it may be ok to do lite exercise through it. In fact it may even aid in your recovery by strengthening supportive muscles around the injured area and increasing blood flow to the tissues of the body. For example, exercises such as a bridge or a plank series can strengthen the core muscles of the body which can help patients overcome a lower back injury.
Your ability to exercise without causing a setback also depends on what your injury is and what type of exercising your are attempting to do. We typically tell patients to stay away from exercising with weights where you are having to bend forward or extend backwards at your waist such as a squat or a deadlift. Also, overhead motions can cause a setback too. We typically advise more cardiovascular exercise such as jogging, riding a bike or swimming initially. When it comes to strength training it’s important to lift a lot less weight than you typically would and avoid lifts that put more pressure on your spine such as squats, deadlifts, and overhead exercises. At North Orlando Chiropractic we are always glad to see patients wanting to get healthier by resuming or starting an exercise routine. However, we advise a cautious approach and if you take this advice you can avoid aggravating a previous back or neck injury.