Leg pain | Nick Rinard Physical Therapy

Leg pain can come from a back injury.

By Krissy Brown 04 Feb, 2025 Clinical Case of the Week, Medical Advisory, Physical Therapy Tips ankle pain, exercise, injured, Knee pain, Leg pain, Low Back Pain, Nick Rinard physical therapy, Physical Therapy, running, treatment

By MiKayla Sanocki, SPT

Did you know a back problem can cause symptoms such as pain, decreased strength and decreased sensations into the thigh, calf, ankle or foot? Physical therapists trained in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) here at Nick Rinard Physical Therapy can determine during the evaluation if any of these lower leg symptoms are coming from your back.

Check out this bizarre clinical presentation we treated at Nick Rinard Physical Therapy:

She did not remember any trauma to the ankle

The patient came to physical therapy for an “ankle sprain” that occurred 3-months earlier. She stated she woke up unable to put any weight on her right foot. The pain had remained constant in her ankle, so bad at times that she couldn’t walk! Upon further questioning, the patient revealed what she had been doing the day before: She had driven 2 hours, on her way home from helping clean a house. During the drive she had discomfort in her buttock and hamstring that made her want to pull the car over to stretch. She did not remember any trauma to the ankle, however, but the ankle pain was the only pain she was experiencing now.

Her ankle pain has caused her to quit running and yoga — two of her favorite activities.

Mechanical Evaluation finds cause in spine

During the mechanical evaluation we found that certain directions of low back movements decreased the pain in her ankle. After being sent home with 1 simple exercise to perform every waking hour – which she did perfectly – she returned within 24 hours reporting 90% recovery in pain! Over the next week we were able to progress her exercises and now the patient reports no ankle pain at all. In only 4 visits we were able to abolish her ankle pain, and she is now getting back to running and yoga!

The patient reports, “I now have the tools to prevent the return of my back and ankle pain”.

Treatment at Nick Rinard Physical Therapy vs Traditional PT

In contrast to MDT, traditional PT would not have uncovered the spinal cause of the patient’s ankle pain. Treatment would have been ineffective since it would have focused only on trying to treat the symptom.

Do you know if your pain in the legs or arms could be coming from the spine? Schedule your evaluation at Nick Rinard Physical Therapy and find out!

Leg Pain; It Could Be Coming From Your back!

By Michelle Tillman 04 May, 2017 Physical Therapy Tips back pain, confusing, diagnosis, examination, Leg pain, piriformis syndrome

Many times we have patients who come for physical therapy treatment describing pain in their leg, but it turns out to be coming from their spine. This is often confusing for people, especially if they have been given a provisional medical diagnosis related to the area of pain, like “piriformis syndrome”, which is pain in one of your gluteal muscles. You may wonder how we determine where the pain is coming from and what to treat. Pain is produced by sensory nerves. Sensory nerves can be triggered locally at the spinally level, or peripherally either by muscle tension or injury. During the evaluation we always perform spine ROM to determine if the source could be coming from the spine. The screen must begin from the center outward. In some cases, knee/hip/ankle pain will decrease or increase during the lumbar spine screen, and then we know it is coming from the spine. This can be hard to understand for some patients because the pain they are experiencing feels like it is coming from that very spot, whether it is a joint or muscle, that is painful. For example, I recently evaluated a patient with ankle pain. She had even fallen, which made it possible she could have some trauma to her ankle from the fall. However, during the lumbar spine screen, her ankle pain decreased while performing a back bend. She was in disbelief that her ankle pain went away. After only a few visits her ankle pain was gone and it did not return. One of her lumbar discs was pressing on a nerve root and causing her ankle pain, and the back bending pushed the disc away from the nerve and abolished the pain. The moral of the story is, we can never assume a diagnosis until a thorough examination is performed.

All Posts tagged Leg pain

She did not remember any trauma to the ankle

Mechanical Evaluation finds cause in spine

Treatment at Nick Rinard Physical Therapy vs Traditional PT