Home Exercise Program

At some point, your doctor will transition you into doing back pain exercises by developing a home exercise program for you. Depending on the severity of the injury and the extent of damage to your tissues, this may start very soon or occur later in treatment.

It will not be started until the doctor feels that it is safe for you to do some unsupervised exercise. Back pain exercises that increase your flexibility, strength, and balance are a natural progression to giving you an independent life. However, strength and flexibility gains made during these activities may be quickly lost if the exercises are not maintained.

Home exercise is good for general health, maintaining strength and flexibility, and may help prevent injury and future bouts of back pain or neck pain. Patients with back pain or neck pain should focus on strengthening while increasing flexibility with muscles in the back, abdomen, and shoulder regions.

Exercises include walking, swimming, stepping, and working with handheld weights, bands or balls. As with any exercise, program compliance is key.  It’s much easier to learn to exercise but much harder to ensure you keep doing them.