Hello,

I would like to suggest that you do a form of therapy called AQUATHERAPY or WATER EXERCISES.

Your doctor may be able to actually such therapy for you that insurance should cover but I will give you an exercise that you may do ON YOUR OWN without even taking formal therapy and it is, in general, an AMAZING exercise for the vast majority of my back pain patients such as yourself.

It is called WATER JOGGING and no simpler exercise exists in the pool for back pain.

Simply find a pool (public or private) with water that is approximately waist high or even a slight bit above and start JOGGING IN PLACE for segments of 5-10 seconds each with rest periods as necessary.

Depending upon your stamina and specific situation with respect to other medical problems. I recommend doing at least 5 min. of this type of exercise daily for 1 week then, slowly increasing the # minutes week by week until you are capable of sustaining 10-15 minutes of water jogging every other day with 1 day of the week as your OFF day.

You can combine land based exercises along with this recommendation.

However, keep this exercise going for a minimum of 3-4 weeks before either increasing the total overall duration of the exercise of going from 5-10 second intervals out to 15-20 seconds with rests of at least 2 minutes in between sets.

This is such a great exercise to do because it allows a full range of motion with very little interference from gravity which means the RANGE OF MOTION of the hip and leg joints is much fuller and causes much less pain than by doing the same exercise on land.

It's remarkable how my patients tell them they feel after just 1-2 sessions of this exercise. You will find it absolutely mind boggling!

Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.

Take care

Regards,
Dr Dariush Saghafi, Neurologist