When Everything Hurts – I Treat You as a Whole Person
Do you feel like you’re playing “whack-a-mole” with pain in your body? Maybe your neck and shoulder hurt at the same time, or you have lower back pain and hip or knee pain. Dealing with multiple areas of pain can be incredibly frustrating – just as one area starts to feel better, another acts up. Or perhaps you have a general, all-over achiness that makes it hard to pinpoint a single source. At Bounceback Physical Therapy, I specialize in helping people with multiple areas of pain by viewing the body as an interconnected system. Rather than treating isolated symptoms in a vacuum, I ask: How are these issues related? My one-on-one, holistic approach uncovers the connections between your neck, shoulder, back, hips, knees (and everything else!) to address the root causes and get you feeling better everywhere. If you’ve seen specialist after specialist for different body parts, it’s time to have someone look at you as a whole. My Hixson clinic proudly serves patients across Chattanooga, Red Bank, Soddy-Daisy, Lakesite and beyond who need comprehensive care. Book your discovery call today and let’s start untangling the web of pain that’s been holding you back.
Common Multiple-Pain Combinations
You might be wondering, “Can one physical therapist really help with all my different pains?” The answer is yes – often, different pains are interrelated. Here are some multiple-area scenarios I frequently treat:
My Whole-Body Approach to Multi-Area Pain
When you come to Bounceback PT with pain in multiple areas, prepare for a thorough head-to-toe assessment. I’ll likely examine regions that you didn’t even realize could be related to your pain. My mantra is “find the connection.” Here’s what my treatment approach entails:
To illustrate how treating the body as a whole can make a huge difference, consider April’s journey (she had various issues over the years):
“I have seen many physical therapists for a variety of issues over the years and some of the things that other PTs felt like was a dead end don’t exist with Chase!” – April, finally found comprehensive relief
April came in with a “variety of issues” and had been to many clinics that treated each problem in isolation. At Bounceback, I took a different approach – instead of seeing dead ends, I looked at how to connect the dots. The result? She experienced improvements across the board. Problems that other PTs told her she’d “just have to live with” were resolved because I didn’t give up on finding the cause. Her quote highlights that nothing was a dead end with my whole-body mindset.
In another example, I had a patient (mentioned earlier) who discovered their chronic back pain was actually caused by their feet. That’s right – their foot mechanics were throwing off their entire alignment. I treated the foot issue and the back pain disappeared, along with knee pain that they hadn’t even told me about initially. This is why I emphasize looking beyond the obvious.
If you’ve been trying to fix one body part at a time without success, maybe it’s time to try something different – treating your body as an interconnected whole. Book your discovery call today and tell me everything that’s bothering you, top to bottom. I truly want to hear the full story so I can devise a plan that addresses you, not just a diagnosis. My Bounceback PT “Who I Help” approach to multi-area pain is about giving you back control and comfort in your entire body. From Chattanooga’s busy professionals with neck and wrist pain, to Hixson’s active retirees with back and knee pain, I’ve got you covered head-to-toe. Let’s get you on the path to feeling good everywhere, so you can live your life without constantly worrying about the next flare-up. Book your discovery call today, and take the first step toward finally untangling those aches and pains – for good!
Common Multiple-Pain Combinations
You might be wondering, “Can one physical therapist really help with all my different pains?” The answer is yes – often, different pains are interrelated. Here are some multiple-area scenarios I frequently treat:
- Neck Pain & Shoulder Pain (and maybe Headaches): It’s very common to experience neck and shoulder issues together. Tight shoulder muscles can pull on the neck, and pinched nerves in the neck can refer pain to the shoulder blade or arm. You might have a desk job posture that causes both a stiff neck and rotator cuff irritation. And if both are tight, you could be getting tension headaches on top of it. I treat the neck-shoulder complex as one functional unit, improving posture, mobility, and strength so both your neck and shoulder get relief (and those headaches subside).
- Lower Back Pain & Hip or Knee Pain: Perhaps you have a chronic lower back ache plus one knee that always bothers you. Believe it or not, these can be connected. If your hip on that side is weak or your pelvis is misaligned, it can put strain on both your lumbar spine and your knee joint. I often find that by correcting hip mechanics (strengthening glutes, improving hip flexibility), I can alleviate stress on the back and the knee simultaneously. Your whole lower body works as a chain – so I treat it that way.
- Back Pain & Neck Pain Together: Some patients have the double whammy of upper back/neck pain and lower back pain. This could be due to an overall posture issue or generalized joint hypermobility or stiffness affecting multiple spinal regions. I will examine your entire spine. For instance, a very stiff mid-back (thoracic spine) can cause your neck to compensate and hurt, and your low back to overwork as well. By mobilizing and strengthening across your whole spine, I can bring relief to all the aching segments.
- Widespread Muscle Pain: Maybe you don’t have distinct separate injuries, but you just hurt all over – neck, shoulders, back, legs – especially if you have a condition like fibromyalgia or a long history of physical work that’s worn you down. In these cases, my approach is more global: gentle exercise to boost your overall conditioning, stress reduction techniques, and pinpointing any key areas that, if freed up, will have a ripple effect of relief. For example, stretching and aligning your spine can improve nerve flow and potentially ease pain in multiple regions.
- Multiple Old Injuries: Some people come in with a laundry list: “I injured my ankle last year, my shoulder surgery was two years ago, and now my opposite hip hurts from limping,” etc. When you’ve collected a few injuries over time, they often influence each other. I take a detailed history and then sort through how one issue might be contributing to another. Using a comprehensive strategy, I can treat, say, that ankle’s mobility and your hip strength to get you walking normally, which in turn helps your shoulder by allowing better overall movement patterns. Nothing in the body happens in isolation!
My Whole-Body Approach to Multi-Area Pain
When you come to Bounceback PT with pain in multiple areas, prepare for a thorough head-to-toe assessment. I’ll likely examine regions that you didn’t even realize could be related to your pain. My mantra is “find the connection.” Here’s what my treatment approach entails:
- Comprehensive Evaluation: I will assess your posture, gait, flexibility, and strength from top to bottom. If you have shoulder and knee pain, I’m going to also look at your spine, your hips, even your ankles and wrists. Why? Sometimes pain in separate areas isn’t a coincidence – there could be a systemic issue (for example, generalized joint laxity or a muscle imbalance pattern) affecting multiple joints. Or one primary problem could be causing secondary issues (like you’ve been unknowingly altering how you move due to knee pain, and that led to back strain). I take the time to put all the pieces together. This might also involve checking how you perform certain movements – for example, a simple sit-to-stand can tell me about your back, hips, and knees all at once.
- Prioritize and Plan: Once I have the big picture, I’ll discuss the game plan with you. I might tackle the most painful area first, or I might address a root cause that’s feeding into all the pains. Often, there’s a hierarchy – for instance, improving your core strength might help both your neck and lower back pain, so I’ll start there. Or releasing a nerve impingement in your neck could relieve both neck and shoulder symptoms. I’ll be transparent about why I’m focusing on certain things, so you understand the method to the madness.
- Hands-On “Reset” for the Body: I use manual therapy generously in multi-pain cases to get your body moving correctly. Think of it as hitting the reset button on areas of tension or misalignment. For example, I might do gentle adjustments/mobilizations to your spine to improve overall alignment and nerve flow. I could perform myofascial release (a form of deep tissue work) along long muscle chains – like from your neck down to your low back – to relieve global tension. If you have scar tissue or adhesions from past injuries restricting motion, I’ll work on those too. By improving mobility in key areas (like chest/shoulders, spine, hips, ankles), I often see pain decrease in multiple regions because the body is now moving more freely as a unit.
- Dry Needling for Stubborn Knots: With multiple pain areas, you often have multiple tight muscle knots or trigger points. Dry needling can be a fast and effective way to release these in several parts of the body. One session, I might target your upper traps and neck muscles (to help your neck and shoulder), and in the next, your low back and glutes (to help your back and hip). I always pair needling with corrective exercise or stretching after to cement the improvements. Dry needling basically helps “turn down” pain signals in overactive spots, which is especially useful when your nervous system is lighting up pain in various places.
- Integrative Exercise Program: Here’s where I bring it all together. I’ll prescribe exercises that often address multiple issues simultaneously. For instance, a properly done dead bug exercise can engage your deep core (helping your back), teach spinal control (helping your neck posture), and even stretch your shoulders a bit. A yoga-inspired pose like a modified downward dog might stretch your calves, hamstrings, and shoulders in one go – hitting three common tight areas. I love “bang for your buck” exercises that give you whole-body benefits. That said, I’ll also include very targeted moves for specific weaknesses I found. If your exam shows weak scapular (shoulder blade) muscles contributing to both neck and shoulder pain, expect some focused scapular strengthening in your routine. If poor balance or foot stability is affecting your knees and hips, I’ll work on balance and foot exercises. By addressing the whole kinetic chain, I ensure that improvements in one area aren’t undone by dysfunction in another. Everything starts working together correctly.
- Taping and Support: When multiple areas hurt, sometimes providing external support to one can help the other. For example, taping your shoulder blade in a better position can ease neck strain while I work on muscle strength. Using kinesiology tape on your low back and abs can give you feedback to engage your core, taking load off your knees when you lift. I’m creative with taping techniques to assist your body as it relearns pain-free movement patterns. These are temporary “training wheels,” but they can be very helpful in the short term.
- Education – Making Connections Clear: I’ll continually educate you on how your pains relate. This not only helps you understand the treatment but also empowers you to notice patterns in daily life. You might realize, for example, that when your posture slumps, both your neck and lower back start to ache – a clue we’ve discussed during therapy. Knowing that, you can self-correct and avoid flare-ups. I’ll also give you strategies for overall pain management: perhaps a daily stretching routine that addresses head-to-toe flexibility, or advice on alternating activities to avoid overstressing one part of your body. The goal is for you to leave therapy with a blueprint of how to keep all your body parts happy together.
To illustrate how treating the body as a whole can make a huge difference, consider April’s journey (she had various issues over the years):
“I have seen many physical therapists for a variety of issues over the years and some of the things that other PTs felt like was a dead end don’t exist with Chase!” – April, finally found comprehensive relief
April came in with a “variety of issues” and had been to many clinics that treated each problem in isolation. At Bounceback, I took a different approach – instead of seeing dead ends, I looked at how to connect the dots. The result? She experienced improvements across the board. Problems that other PTs told her she’d “just have to live with” were resolved because I didn’t give up on finding the cause. Her quote highlights that nothing was a dead end with my whole-body mindset.
In another example, I had a patient (mentioned earlier) who discovered their chronic back pain was actually caused by their feet. That’s right – their foot mechanics were throwing off their entire alignment. I treated the foot issue and the back pain disappeared, along with knee pain that they hadn’t even told me about initially. This is why I emphasize looking beyond the obvious.
If you’ve been trying to fix one body part at a time without success, maybe it’s time to try something different – treating your body as an interconnected whole. Book your discovery call today and tell me everything that’s bothering you, top to bottom. I truly want to hear the full story so I can devise a plan that addresses you, not just a diagnosis. My Bounceback PT “Who I Help” approach to multi-area pain is about giving you back control and comfort in your entire body. From Chattanooga’s busy professionals with neck and wrist pain, to Hixson’s active retirees with back and knee pain, I’ve got you covered head-to-toe. Let’s get you on the path to feeling good everywhere, so you can live your life without constantly worrying about the next flare-up. Book your discovery call today, and take the first step toward finally untangling those aches and pains – for good!