Physiotherapy for your Neck, Back or Shoulders

What could be causing my shoulder pain?
Shoulder pain can be caused by an acute injury, a nerve compression in the area or weakness in the muscular surrounding the shoulder joint itself.

Typical healing times for soft tissue injuries range from days to weeks, generally speaking. Healing times for ligaments range from 6-12 weeks, depending on the severity and the grade of the tear. Lastly, nerves heal much slower on a month-to-month basis.

If you are currently attending the gym, try to complete movements which do not increase your pain while you are exercising.
In order to know which exercises will help to prevent further injury and heal faster, an initial assessment with your Physical Therapist will be necessary.

An initial assessment with a Physical Therapist can accurately diagnose the cause of impingement and/or a rotator cuff tear (if it wasn’t a slip, trip or fall which originally caused the injury).

Before you have an initial assessment and to err on the side of caution, please avoid any movements or activities which cause or reproduce the pain you are experiencing.

Pain which has lasted more than five or six days should be checked out. Additionally, if you are experiencing any numbness, tingling, pins or needles this may indicate a nerve compression and should be assessed at your earliest convenience.

Conservative treatment is always a good place to start before considering surgery. Chances are adding specific rehab exercises in a timely fashion can help decrease pain, increase joint mobility, and increase strength.
Sometimes this is enough to avoid having a surgery. If not, you will certainly go into surgery stronger and recover faster as a result of your efforts.

Please stop the exercise to avoid further soft tissue injury if certain movements reproduce your pain.

As long as you don’t have pain while completing the activity, feel free to continue. Otherwise, it is likely time to get it checked out and start the rehabilitation process.

Neck pain can most definitely be related to ‘slouchy’ posture! Especially if we have longer hours in front of a screen for work.
Starting a gentle postural home exercise program can help you build the musculature strength to maintain ‘good’ posture during working hours and throughout the day.

In order to know what the best exercise is to help relieve neck tension we first must know what is causing your neck tension. Is it a compressed nerve? Was it an acute injury? or perhaps do we need to look at building more strength in the area?
These are all questions you and your Physical Therapist will work through during your initial assessment before making a plan to move forward as a team.

Having your computer monitor at eye level is a great place to start. Additionally getting further ergonomic advice for your at-home or in-office desk set up can be very helpful.

Yes

Proper pillowing in the side lying position can be helpful to keep your neck in line with your spine to help prevent neck pain.
With this said, all bets are usually off once we fall asleep and move around. However, starting off in a supported position is often the best we can do.

Great question.
A lot of the time our body and muscles will hold the tension of our day, week, month and sometimes even years.
An increase in stress or anxiety can cause us to hold more tension in our upper trap muscles which can for sure contribute to neck pain.
Aside from physical activity-deep breathing, mindfulness, journaling and an array of other coping strategies and stress management techniques can be helpful to address an increase in anxiety and stress.

Let’s review them together and find out!

Low back pain can be caused by an array of factors. Things such as compressed nerves, bony changes in the spine, past injuries, and movement patterns can all contribute to low back pain. In order to figure out which of the above you are experiencing, a physical assessment with your Physical Therapist will yield the answers.

Until you have an initial assessment, try to avoid the movements or activities which reproduce your pain.
Once you have an initial assessment and you and your Physical Therapist figure out which tissues are involved, it will be easier to know the expected healing times.

Typically strengthening, mobility, and if necessary, sometimes decompression postures can help to decrease low back pain.
Other times, a review and re-education of back safe movement patterns tor lifting and twisting is necessary.

Low back pain may be caused from all of the above.
A neurological assessment with your Physical Therapist will help to rule in or rule out a current ‘bulged disc’ or nerve compression (sciatica).

Constitutive treatment is always a great place to start to see if your symptoms decrease with gentle strengthening, mobility and decompression postures.
If on the off chance your symptoms do not improve with conservative treatment, you will certainly go into surgery stronger than not having increased your strength. Additionally, you will recover faster if you are going into any surgery stronger.

If you generally sleep on your back, putting a pillow under your knees can be helpful in alleviating low back discomfort. If you are a side-sleeper, putting a pillow between your knees can help to give your low back more support.