Your body works as a whole unit. A team. And that “work” of moving you forward still needs to be done even if one part doesn’t function that great. So another area picks up the slack.

And when that part of the team doing the extra work gets too tired? You get pain.

Now, if this is the situation it doesn’t matter how much fabulous treatment you get in the painful area – you won’t make any progress because you are treating the symptom not the cause.

Knees and backs make a fantastic team – and they often pick up the slack for each other so they always have to be assessed together.

Pain comes limping in

When you have a painful knee you unconsciously change how you walk. You stop extending it fully and using all the muscles and flexibility in that leg. But you still have to move forward.

So your lower back “picks up” the leg to help.

Which means your back works harder than usual.

Eventually, if your knee doesn’t return to “normal” function your back continues working too hard. And starts to complain. And complaining muscles feel sore.

Back or knee?

It may be that your back pain, that isn’t getting better, has nothing to do with your back – it could be that we need to fix your knee function to allow your back to stop overworking.

This connection is why it is so important to get a thorough first assessment. Because you can get the best treatment in the world, but if it’s in the wrong place . . . . you’re just going to end up frustrated because you aren’t making progress.

Try a Free 15 minute telephone consultation to find out how we can help.

7 things your doctor didn’t tell you about back pain

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