Am I Going To Have To Do These Exercises Forever?

One of our frequently asked questions at Focus PT from our back pain patients is,

"Am I going to have to do these exercises forever?" 

At the beginning of your time with us, we start the exercises. They're going to be daily, sometimes twice a day, because we're trying to bring your acute pain down and get your muscles functioning correctly. Once we've gotten your pain level comes down, we can start backing off on the exercises.

Eventually we want you to only do them about four times a week and that'll happen for the first few months while you're still getting the strength through your core and through your hips. Once that strength is gained and you're back to doing your normal workouts, you're back to your normal life, you're going to want to work on the exercises about twice a week. Basically just to keep those muscles functioning and to remind them "this is your job, this is what you need to do, this is how you need to function."

You need to work so that it doesn't come back and so that, when you do have a chronic issue, it reduces the amount of times that you have a flare up. The stronger you stay, the looser you stay, the less that your spine has to compress on either a disc or a nerve, which then reduces the flare-ups!