Glad I didn't look at this thread earlier, good lord there is some terrible advice on here.
I'm an evidenced based physical therapist. I differ from a lot of my physical therapy buddies in the fact I do pretty much no manual therapy (I don't touch people), only exercise with an occasional manipulation if they meet certain criteria. I get them independent with a HEP and tell them to go home and live, I don't want them dependent on me or anybody else (terrible business model but it is the best practice). The truth is for a majority of back injuries if you essentially suck it up and get back to your normal routine your body will figure it out and the pain will settle down (I'm not talking long-term debilitating back pain, a simple acute flare in this example). No need to see a chiro, me, or an MD, just get back into your normal swing of things, whether that be work, exercise or whatever and the pain will likely short term increase followed by relief. Mind you if you're noticing a foot-drop and numbness in your balls, go the doc and get an MRI. Simple back pain without radicular symptoms rarely warrants an MRI.
I'm not anti-chiro either, I'm anti-chiro for maintenance. There is some quality evidence supporting short term relief for acute back pain with manipulations. "Subluxations" are a myth, they don't exist, our body is stronger than that to "go out of alignment" everytime we do something strenuous. Everyone here has processed an elk or a whitetail I would guess, have you ever looked at the number of ligaments along the backstrap between the spinal vertebra? Just think what of the force it would take for one of them to be ever so slightly out of place where only the skilled hands of manual practitioner can feel that it's out of alignment. An MRI can't pick it up, but a person can "feel" it? Hilarious...A lot of PT's aren't any better with their "hip rotations" or leg length descrepencies that likely don't exist either.
I do squats, DL's, turkish get-ups, kettlebell swings..etc with my patients. It's just graded, your 82 year old grandma seeing me likely won't be front squatting 300, but don't be suprised if we hop on the leg press. If I see someone for 5-6 weeks and don't get anywhere I send them to someone else, I can't imagine seeing the same person for years. How does that conversation go,"Hey I know we've been doing the same thing everyday for the past 9 months, but I think 2x/week for the next 3 years and we will really get you somewhere." EXERCISE IS KEY, but has others have said stress plays a roll as well. Best practitioner on the planet isn't going to get your back better if your wife is on hospice and you put your dog down last week. Our body's are complicated.
