the Price of Routine Chiropractic Adjustments

I was having problems with some lower back pain for the past three weeks and finally decided to go see our family chiropractor, yesterday. During my 15 minute session, he located a large knot in the muscles around the lower back and found that the vertebrae was slightly out of place. For the large knot, he massaged it and the surrounding muscles very vigorously. For the vertebrae, he did some adjustments to pop the misaligned parts back in place.

The service was very professional and friendly. To really get to the knot in my lower back, the massaging was a bit painful, but this morning, the knot feels much smaller, although the muscles that were massaged are a bit tender. However, if that's what it takes to get rid of the knot and free me from the pain, that's fine. I didn't even realize my lower vertebrae was out of alignment, but that might also explain the reason for the knot in the muscle surrounding the area. The adjustment of the lower back felt really nice after he popped it back in place.

After the work on my lower back, he checked my neck and upper back, made some adjustments and was done. He then proceeded to show me some stretching exercise that would help keep my lower back loose.

Overall, I am very pleased with the result. I am scheduled to go back in a couple of days just to see how the knot and the vertebrae are doing and if any additional work needs to be done.

In my opinion, to really treat back pain, not only does the chiropractor have to be skilled in doing adjustments, but I think there should be experience in deep muscle massage. I've had back treatment from another chiropractor who just adjusted my lower back, but didn't do anything about the surrounding muscles that were having spasms. I was just flat out lucky to find the person I work with because I didn't know anything about this when I first started receiving treatments.

Based upon the knowledge I have now, if I were to start calling around, I'd ask how the chiropractor would treat the vertebrae and the muscles around it. For me, if the answer is to simply adjust the vertebrae, then I'd move on. It's not that I like the massage, because I really don't - it can be painful. It's just that I know the benefits of having an adjustment and the massage. Recovery from back pain is just that much faster.