When a person has acute low back pain, exercise is not high on the list of things to do. For instance, a herniated disc benefits from exercises that extend the spine backward, according to Safran-Norton, while exercises that bend the spine forward help relieve the pain of spinal stenosis. While the majority of cases of LBP can be relieved by physical therapy, some require another level of care. Forty-one percent of the respondents indicated that physical therapy was very effective in relieving the symptoms of LBP in comparison to only 15 percent who received surgery.
