Case Study: Donald's lower back pain (LBP) and how Myotherapy helped get him back to playing golf!

Donald back on the golf course

A case study of Donald's lower back pain (LBP) and how Myotherapy helped him get back to playing golf!

Donald is a 69 year old male client who presented to Harmony Myotherapy for the treatment of lower back pain. Donald had hurt his back lifting some timber when he was in his 20’s! At the time the pain settled quickly, however, ever since this event, he had experienced intermittent back pain. He would have periods where he would be mildly stiff, sometimes completely pain free, sometimes very sore, but more often he would have the following symptoms;

• Aching back in the morning, which would settle as he began moving in the day.

• His back would begin to ache again after prolonged standing, or activity and towards the end of the day.

Donald had no endurance and couldn’t walk for any length of time and had given up playing golf, as every time he played, it significantly flared his pain.

After a thorough discussion, observations of his movement patterns, and some muscle testing, it was clear that Donald had a very inefficient back. His muscles had been doing their best to compensate for many years and he had lost the ‘foundation’ strength in his back. We needed to activate some of the deep stabilising musculature of the lumber spine and abdomen, to allow some of the big movement muscles to relax.

Donald received some soft tissue treatment in the form of massage, dry needling and cupping to reduce the hypertonicity (tightness) of the muscles that had been incorrectly working, which helped to reduce his pain. He also had some dry needling with electrotherapy on the muscles that were inhibited. Donald was prescribed a corrective exercise program, with some activation and strengthening exercises to do at home.

Donald also had a sensitised nervous system. With long term chronic pain, we see an increase in nociception. Nociceptors are sensors that pick-up information on mechanical changes (such as stretch, pressure), temperature changes (hot or cold) and chemical changes (ie. lactic acid, allergens etc.). The sensors pickup this information and it’s all sent to the brain by way of neurons. The brain interprets information received and sends pain messages to protect from injury. In chronic back pain, the brain is too cautious and interprets non-noxious stimuli as dangerous. This basically means Donald’s ‘pain warning system’ was running a muck. You can read more about Chronic pain in my blog. Luckily with education and graded return to activity and movement, we can restore the ‘sensitised nervous system’ to its normal state.

Donald had approximately 6 Myotherapy sessions which dramatically reduced his pain, then he began to commence some introductory exercises, to get his body used to the movement patterns of golf. After 6 months of Myotherapy (approximately 10 sessions), Donald went back to the golf course and managed 18 holes pain free.

Through his diligence in completing his exercises at home, education on what had been happening and some ‘hands on’ Myotherapy treatment, Donald is now enjoying golf, walking over an hour per day and generally living pain free!