What's going on
PhysioOnClick assesses and treats back pain by video, or with a home visit in the Glasgow area — everything below is exactly what that assessment covers. Most non-specific low back pain is driven by a mix of mechanical sensitivity, muscle guarding and deconditioning rather than a single damaged structure. Discs, facet joints and the surrounding muscles all share nerve supply, which is why pain can feel deep, diffuse and hard to pin to one spot, and why it often eases and flares in a pattern that doesn't map neatly onto any scan finding.
Pain intensity in the first few days is usually a poor guide to injury severity. NICE guidance on the assessment and management of low back pain and sciatica in adults emphasises that imaging rarely changes management for straightforward presentations, and that staying active — within a tolerable range — tends to outperform prolonged rest.
Practical guidance on desk-based pain flare-ups
Pain that consistently builds through a working day and eases over an evening or weekend points toward a load and position problem rather than ongoing tissue damage — the tissue is being irritated by sustained posture, not re-injured each day. The fix usually isn't a single perfect chair, but breaking up long static periods with brief, regular movement.
A practical pattern that works for most people is a short movement break every thirty to forty-five minutes — standing, walking to get water, or a few shoulder blade squeezes — rather than waiting for pain to build before moving. Calendar reminders work better than relying on remembering.
What physiotherapy assessment looks at
A physiotherapy assessment for back pain covers how symptoms behave over a full day, which movements ease or aggravate them, muscle strength and control through the trunk and hips, and enough neurological screening to rule out nerve involvement before building a loading plan.
Where desk-based pain flare-ups is the main day-to-day problem, assessment also looks specifically at how that symptom behaves — what makes it better or worse, and how it's changed since it started — since that shapes which part of the rehab plan gets priority first.
A practical starting point
Set a recurring reminder every 30–40 minutes through your working day for a 60-second movement break, and reassess your chair height, screen height and keyboard distance against basic ergonomic guidance rather than assuming the furniture is fine.
This guide is part of PhysioOnClick's patient education library and is intended to support informed decisions, not replace an individual assessment. If symptoms are worsening, unclear, or affecting your confidence with movement, a full physiotherapy assessment is the safest next step.
When to seek extra help
Call 999 or go to A&E if you have back pain with new bladder or bowel changes (such as difficulty peeing, or peeing or pooing yourself), a loss of feeling around your genitals or anus, pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in both legs, chest pain, or if it started after a serious accident, and do not drive yourself. Leg weakness that is getting worse needs A&E now, or a call to NHS 111 if you are not sure where to go. Unexplained weight loss, fever, or pain that is constant, worsening and unrelated to movement or position falls outside straightforward mechanical back pain and needs same-day medical assessment (an urgent GP appointment or NHS 111) rather than a routine physiotherapy referral.