Working from home has created new demand for physical therapy

Across the country, aching backs, necks and shoulders brought on by COVID-19-related lifestyle changes have sent many people to physical therapists.

In many cases, working from couches, dining tables and kitchen counters is taking a toll on people’s bodies. People are also getting injured when they start new exercise routines because their regular gyms closed, or they no longer want to go to them. And that’s to say nothing of the physical therapy some COVID-19 patients require after they recover.

Like many medical providers, physical therapists saw patient visits drop dramatically in early 2020, when the pandemic started. During those early months, 54% of physical therapists said they were working fewer hours, according to an American Physical Therapy Association survey. In recent months, however, some local physical therapists say they’re seeing nearly as many patients as they did before COVID-19, with many of those people visiting for pandemic-related problems.

"We’ve been seeing a lot more people getting aches and pains because of a significant shift in their activity level," said Matt Gauthier, a physical therapist at Athletico Physical Therapy’s Niles-Northwest Chicago clinic.

Physical therapists say complaints of neck, shoulder, and upper back pain are more common as patients slump over their computers for hours at a time.

Borislav Strahilov, 26, of Rosemont, Ill., started working from home in March, spending hours a day sitting in a less-than-ideal chair. He also decided in the spring to use the time he was saving by not commuting to start working out. He went from doing very little exercise to lifting weights six days a week.

After a few months, his upper back began to hurt. At one point, it got so bad that he had to sleep in one position all night, without moving, to get any rest.

He started physical therapy in November.

"I never thought I’d be going to physical therapy at 26," Strahilov said.

Physical therapists say they’re seeing many people like Strahilov who never needed physical therapy before now.

Many workdays now include monitoring remote learning and making sure children are cared for. And that’s on top of the fear many people have of getting sick, said Sam Wilson, lead physical therapist at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Ill.

Stress "really ramps people’s pain up," Wilson said. Even regular patients became harder to treat, he said, "because people were a little more anxious, nervous, stressed out, because of how life has changed over the last few months."

The good news, however, is that many of these lifestyle-related injuries are highly treatable, therapists say.

Physical therapists often teach patients exercises to help them strengthen certain muscles, and many have started offering virtual sessions for people who aren’t comfortable visiting their offices.

One of the biggest lessons for people, physical therapists say, is to keep moving.

Part of the problem is that people aren’t moving around as much as they normally would in an office. Gauthier, with Athletico, suggests people get up and walk around at least every couple of hours.

"In an office setting there’s always a reason to get up and move, whether it’s to go get something or talk with someone," Gauthier said. At home, "people just hole up on a couch or in a favorite chair and don’t get up as much as they would otherwise."

That’s partly what happened to Phoebe Skowronski, 28 of Chicago.

Before the pandemic, she had minor back pain from an injury years ago, but it was manageable. Her commute included about two miles a day of walking, and she went to the gym most days.

Even in the office, the software engineer was on the move.

"The office I was working in was very large," Skowronski said. "If I was walking even to the lunchroom or kitchenette, I was walking four or five times farther than I’m walking now to get to my kitchen."

After she started working from home — from her dining table — the pain intensified to the point where she couldn’t sit without leaning on something.

In August she started going to physical therapy twice a week at Athletico to strengthen her muscles.

Within a couple sessions, Skowronski started feeling better. She enjoyed physical therapy, saying it was refreshing to get out and do something good for herself during the pandemic.

"I could see the improvements," she said. One day, she said, "I was sitting at home and I couldn’t figure out why my back felt so weird, and then it dawned on me: It was because I wasn’t in pain anymore."