You want to avoid spine surgery if you can, but it may become unavoidable. If you do end up there, a good physical therapy program after surgery can help you return to exercise after back surgery.
If you’ve undergone spine surgery, you’ve likely had severe leg pain that’s lasted for several months or more. This is caused by nerves in your spine that are being impacted by a lack of space around them in your back. Partly in response to the pain, small muscles in your low back often atrophy (shrink in size). They also develop deposits of fat inside the muscle.
In addition to this, during low back surgery muscles in your low back are often cut to allow the surgeon to reach the spine. Like any surgery, this causes some short term damage to the muscle.
When you combine the pre-surgery muscle atrophy with the post-surgical muscle damage, your back muscles may struggle to work correctly again. Research suggests that most people report being pleased with the outcome of their low back surgery. Despite this, low back pain and sciatica can linger in a large number of patients.
Basic science would suggest that strengthening the injured muscles of the low back would increase the strength and health of the injured muscles, but the research is actually unclear.
This research article is an example of a review of research done on patients who performed exercise programs after lumbar surgery compared to those who did not.
There are varying levels of success among the research that was studied, but it’s important to look at the differences between the studies that showed a positive result from the post-operative exercise and those that didn’t.
What Were the Results?
| Experimental Intervention | Duration of Intervention | Frequency of Intervention | Results Statistically significant? | |
| Study 1 | Education plus intensive progressive lumbar extensor strength, endurance training, trunk and lower extremity training | 12 weeks | 3 times a week | Yes |
| Study 2 | Education plus home exercise | 6-12 weeks | Varied | Yes |
| Study 3 | Â Lumbar extension program and progressive resistance exercise | 12 weeks | 3 times a week | Yes |
| Study 4 | Stretching, aerobic exercise, lumbar extension training | 12 weeks total | 2 times a week | Yes |
| Study 5 | Strengthening, stretching, passive-active movement, mobilization) | 12 weeks | 3 times a week | Yes |
| Study 6 | Vague | 30 minutes per week | 6-8 weeks | No |
| Study 7 | Education, advice, mobility exercises, core stability exercises | 8 weeks | 1 time per week | No |
Results Summary
- Of the 5 studies that had statistically significant results, only 1 had patients train for less than 12 weeks.
- Studies 1, 3 and 4 had the strongest results. These all included specific lumbar extensor strengthening
- Study 1 had the overall strongest results.
- The experimental group had the largest response of all the studies.
- This group utilized an exercise program that had specific exercise goals to achieve and a formally defined progression
- This group was supervised in a clinic by a physical therapist instead of relying on a home exercise program
Takeaways
Overall, the quality of research on this topic honestly isn’t great, but the results suggest the following:
- A longer period of exercise with a higher frequency (3 times a week for 12 weeks) likely results in better outcomes after lumbar surgery compared to lower frequency and shorter period of time.
- A program with defined goals that progressively increases the intensity of exercise results in better improvements in strength and function.
- More intense exercise supervised by a physical therapist may be better than a home program at improving strength, pain, and function.
Importantly, the studies above did not discuss the activity level of their patients prior to their injury.
If you’re struggling to get back to your active life after back surgery, we can help you!
At Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine in Alexandria, Arlington, and Springfield, VA, our physical therapists are experts at helping people recover from back surgery.
Call us at 703-299-3111, or click here to request an appointment.
A member of our team will schedule you an appointment with one of our expert physical therapists.
Don’t let back surgery stop you! If you’re
- Missing out on spending time with friends and family
- Avoiding the gym because you’re hurting when you’re done
A Solutions physical therapist can:
- Build you a plan to progressively return to the gym
- Increase your strength and endurance so you can spend time with friends without pain
- Get you back to living your normal life
If you want an expert to listen to your unique problems and guide you to success, a Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine physical therapist in Alexandria, Arlington, or Springfield, VA will create a plan specifically for you.
You’ll feel confident that you have the knowledge and ability to stay active and do all the things you want.
Call us at 703-299-3111, or click here to schedule your appointment and get started.
Working to keep you living your best life,
The Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Team
