NFL athletes are no strangers to recovering from back injuries. The New England Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski and Willie McGinest are just two of the many players who have had to come back from herniated disks in recent years. The one secret they can teach regular workers about treating their own back pain? Exercise.

“My doctor did a phenomenal job and gave me a great rehab program,” McGinest said. “It’s just all about how much you put into the rehab, and how much you do, which is going to determine how fast and strong you get back.”

When one considers the level physical of recovery necessary to return to an activity as forceful and as rigorous as football, it is easy to appreciate the hidden powers of a strong therapeutic exercise program. Yet, non-athlete injured workers often do not stick with their exercise program long-enough to achieve this level of benefit.

Doctors often recommend a comprehensive treatment plan for chronic back pain that includes exercise. Unfortunately, injured workers—unlike athletes—will often ignore this advice despite the known success of back pain relief when incorporating exercise into recovery plans. Studies have shown that patients with neck or back pain, for example, often comply with their home exercise program at little as 38% to 50% of the time. Understanding the role of exercise is vital to improving treatment outcomes for injured workers suffering from chronic back pain.

Exercise as Chronic Back Pain Relief

Research has proven that exercise is essential for chronic back pain rehabilitation. It serves as a form of pain relief for injured workers who struggle with disability from back pain problems, in three important ways:

1. Strength and endurance. Exercise improves back flexibility in chronic pain sufferers and builds endurance in everyday activities, significantly reducing the risk of further back injuries.
2. Chronic pain relief. Exercise has been shown to reduce the intensity of back pain by as much as 10% to 50% after treatment.
3. Psychological effects. Exercise desensitizes sufferers from fears of re-injury and encourages more positive attitudes that can improve outcomes.

Things to Consider When Incorporating Exercise into Treatment

• Start out small. This helps the body adjust to the process, and it facilitates the production of endorphins that aid in pain relief. In fact, starting with back exercises isn’t necessary. Any simple exercise regimen is enough to get endorphins moving through the body.
• Consult a doctor. A doctor or physical therapist can help determine which exercises will be most and least effective in achieving successful treatment of chronic back pain. Finding the healthy balance between avoiding activity due to fear (fear-avoidance) and exercise-induced reinjury is key. It is rarely necessary to be completely immobilized, though sudden engagement in rigorous activity are not recommended.
• Pain really can be gain. Injured workers who are concerned about aggravating their back injuries when they feel pain while exercising need not worry. There is always a little pain when starting an exercise program. However, the only way to measure whether or not exercising is working as a treatment option is to understand how much pain is felt before, during and after exercising. A good physician, therapist or athletic trainer can help a person gauge whether an increase in pain is worrisome, or to be expected. This reassurance, and learning process, can help the injured person monitor and make progress.
• Motivation and Desire. Athletes also know this. Having a strong desire to recover can speed healing. X games snowboarder, Iouri Podladtchikov, said it best after returning from an injury. “I took recovery as a challenge, almost like learning new tricks. It was similar to that feeling where everyone thinks you can’t do it, but you try to prove them wrong. I definitely put all my energy toward healing as soon as I got hurt.”
• Learning. Studies on compliance with home exercise reveal that people are more compliant when they understand their program and are taught in a personalized way. Style and content of education in home exercise programs matter. For example, many people are more compliant when they have exercise diagrams.

Like athletes, injured workers can learn that medications and inactive recuperation alone do not always lead to complete recovery. Exercise can play an important role in the successful treatment of chronic back pain for injured workers and can shorten the time it takes to return to work and a more active lifestyle. To learn more, visit Paradigm Outcomes and follow the Paradigm online community on Facebook and Twitter today.