Mariam Youssef 
Understanding when and how to return to your regular exercise routine after suffering an acute back injury, such as a sprain or strain, can be crucial to your recovery. If you return too soon or too forcefully, you run the risk of injuring yourself again, getting worse, or possibly developing a chronic illness that will follow you for the rest of your life. However, you should trust your instincts when they urge you to get up and move around because staying inactive is one of the worst things you can do to prevent back pain from getting worse. If you don’t know how to get back to exercising, read this interview as Dr. Enas Omran, a physiotherapist, shares with us what needs to be done when you want to get back to working out after a back injury.
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Owing to your expertise in this field, what can cause back injuries?
One of the most common causes of lower back pain is sitting for long periods without changing the body position, which causes stress and weakness in the back muscles. Moreover, playing sports and making mistakes while doing so can easily cause back injuries.
Does a back injury have the same effect on an active and non-active person?
Well, a person who moves and changes their body position a lot is less susceptible to muscle pain. That’s why I encourage everyone to always exercise and be active.
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In what way can a back injury affect a person’s workout routine?
Back pain affects a person and reduces a person's productivity in everything in their life. So, when it comes to working out, an injured person may have to stop exercising for a while. It may take weeks, months, or longer depending on the level of injury for the person to get back to their workout routine.
Since physical preparation is not enough on its own, how can a person be prepared mentally to get back to exercising after an injury?
Exercising is one of the most important things that can protect us from injuries. But choosing the right time is the key factor. To be mentally prepared, a person has to visualize themselves being healthy again because visualizing helps stimulate the same regions of the brain. Moreover, an injured person has to be optimistic to make the recovery faster.
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How long does a person with a back injury have to wait before working out? And what happens if they don’t wait long enough?
It varies according to the patient and the type of injury, so following up with a specialist is necessary to determine when the right time for working out is. Because if the affected person starts playing sports at the wrong time, it will affect their body's response to any type of treatment and will worsen the injury and turn it into a chronic one. It goes without saying that if a person doesn’t wait long enough before they’re completely healed or have the approval of their physiotherapist, they will endure more pain.
A back injury requires time to heal, so how does an injured person get back to working out?
Lower back muscle pain is very common. Therefore, dealing with the injury properly and starting to play sports needs to be gradual according to the patient and their injury.
Active people usually follow the motto “no pain, no gain,” so does it apply to an injured person?
This is not always right. It’s not right to drain yourself to the extent that you feel pain. This motto is also not right because if a person puts pressure on the muscles, later on, it will cause chronic fatigue syndrome.
Do back injuries mostly affect women or gender doesn't make a difference?
Both sexes are always vulnerable to injuries to the spinal muscles in general, but women, due to their weak muscles, are more vulnerable to muscle strain and chronic pain. However, because men play sports more often and tend to make mistakes while playing, they may get back injuries more often.
Will a healthy diet help a person with a back injury get back on track?
A balanced diet is one of the most important things that affects the body’s recovery and response, as well as treatment methods.
What are the basic, initial exercises that a person with a back injury can start with?
There are no fixed exercises that can suit all people because every person has a different degree and type of injury.
Can the comeback journey be done by the injured person alone or do they need help from a physiotherapist?
The best thing to do is to consult a physical therapist because this will affect the transformation of the person’s injury. If the injured person doesn’t consult a physical therapist, their injury can transform from acute to chronic, and dealing with a chronic injury will be more difficult.
Finally, what is your advice to all women to avoid back injuries?
My advice to all women is that they should consider exercising as an important and essential thing in their life routine, and that it is not secondary. They should also listen to their body’s at the first sign of pain, especially since women usually tend to do household chores and work tasks with pain in their body muscles.
