Back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek treatment, and most of us will experience it at some point in our lives. Whether your pain has come on suddenly, built up gradually, or keeps returning, the team at Move Freely Sports Therapy in Edinburgh is here to help you understand it and move past it. We assess your back carefully, treat the cause rather than just the symptoms, and give you the tools to reduce the risk of it coming back.
Our clinic is on Mansfield Place, close to Edinburgh’s New Town, Broughton and Leith, and easy to reach from across the city.
More common than almost any other health complaint. The World Health Organization reports that low back pain affected around 619 million people worldwide in 2020, and it is now the single leading cause of disability on the planet. Most people will have at least one episode during their lifetime, and it affects every age group and activity level, from office workers and drivers to keen runners and weekend gardeners.
The reassuring part is that the vast majority of back pain is not caused by anything serious, and most episodes settle well with the right advice, movement and hands-on treatment.
It is easy to feel fragile when your back hurts, but the spine is a strong, well-designed structure. It is built from 24 mobile vertebrae, supported by discs that act as shock absorbers and dozens of muscles that control your posture and movement. It is designed to bend, lift and twist.
Pain does not always mean damage. Scans often show changes such as disc wear or bulges in people who have no pain at all, which is why we do not rely on imaging alone. Instead, we look at how you move, how your symptoms behave and what makes them better or worse. Understanding that your back is robust, not fragile, is often the first step towards recovery.
Most back pain is what clinicians call non-specific, which means it is not caused by anything sinister and tends to settle with the right care and movement. Current national guidance is clear that staying active and avoiding bed rest gives the best results, and that hands-on treatment works best when it is combined with exercise rather than used on its own. That is exactly the approach we take.
Back pain can come from the muscles, joints, discs or nerves of the spine, and it is often influenced by everyday factors such as posture, desk work, lifting, stress, sleep and how active you are. Our job is to work out what is driving your particular pain and build a plan around it.
Your care is delivered by experienced, qualified clinicians with a strong background in spinal health, sports therapy and rehabilitation. We take a patient-centred approach, taking the time to understand your pain and your life before building your plan, and we draw on a broad range of treatment options, from hands-on physiotherapy to IDD Therapy and progressive exercise. You can learn more about our team and their experience.
We are based at 9 Mansfield Place in Edinburgh, within easy reach of the New Town, Broughton, Stockbridge and Leith, and we welcome patients from across the city and beyond. If you are closer to the coast or the south side, we also have information for patients looking for physiotherapy in Portobello and physiotherapy in Morningside.
