Vibration therapy for pain ยท St. Louis
Vibration therapy wakes up the small stabilizing muscles that pain switched off and bigger muscles replaced.
Vibration therapy at painstl.com is done standing on a gently shaking platform while you hold the rails, with a technician beside you the whole time. The vibration makes the small stabilizing muscles around the spine and joints fire again. That is the neuromuscular re-education in the program’s name.
Nothing here happens without a physician’s order, and the order sets the strength. It runs only while a physician is on site and immediately available.
What happens in a session?
Your feet rest on a platform humming at a low, steady rate, knees slightly bent; you grip the rails while the technician checks your stance and balance.
Why would your physician order it?
Once pain has been around a while, the deep muscles that steady each spinal segment and joint tend to go quiet, and larger muscles stiffen to compensate. Vibration triggers rapid reflex contractions in those deep muscles. Once an injection has lowered the pain, retraining them is how the spine gets its own support back. Read more about facet joint pain, where this pattern is common.
What will you feel?
A quick, even buzz through the feet and up the legs. Knees stay soft. You can step off at any moment.
One-on-one: a technician is next to you from start to finish.
When is it ruled out?
- Being pregnant
- Any implanted electronic device, such as a pacemaker
- A leg clot, a fracture that is still healing, or surgery in recent weeks
- Seizures in your history
- A retina problem, or eye surgery in recent weeks
- Gallstones or kidney stones
- Feeling dizzy or unsteady today
Spoken safety questions open every visit. Any change since last time goes to the physician, who rules on it before the machine runs. Ask to stop whenever you want.
How much time to plan for
Plan on about 10 minutes, broken into short sets with rest each time.
What to remember
- Soft knees, both hands on the rails.
- It trains the deep muscles that hold joints steady.
- Dizzy means stop and say so.
Last step. Show us you have it: Right here in the clinic, take your standing position on the platform before your technician turns it on. Unsure about any step? We run through it with you again next time.
Related reading
- The painstl.com physiotherapy program, every station and test
- Facet joint pain
- Sleep, movement and behavior
- Heat and cold therapy, another station
- Traction chair, another station
- Neck decompression, another station
- Laser therapy, another station
- Shockwave therapy, another station
- TENS (gentle electrical stimulation), another station
Ask whether this belongs in your plan
A physician reviews your history and your procedures first, then writes the orders. Nothing is added without a reason in your chart.
4479 Woodson Rd, Suite 401
St. Louis, MO 63134
Next to St. Louis Lambert International Airport, off I-70 at Woodson Road.