Back condition
Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the corridor your spinal nerves travel through — and its signature is written in your legs: aching, heaviness or numbness when you walk or stand, relieved the moment you sit or lean forward. It's common from 60 onwards, it's very treatable — and your walking distance is the measure that matters.
Stenosis usually moves slowly — these are the signs it isn't. Tap any that apply:
Narrowing that behaves this way needs prompt attention. Rapid progression, falls or numbness at rest suggest the nerves are running out of room — and any bladder or bowel change is an emergency today.
Good news — yours is following the slow, treatable pattern. Slow doesn't mean surrender: the right conditioning and targeted treatment can win back real walking distance. If your world has been quietly shrinking to fit your legs, that's exactly what an assessment is for.
The spinal canal is a bony corridor with soft-tissue walls — and with age, several of those walls thicken at once. Stenosis is usually the sum of small encroachments:
The honest footnote applies here too: narrowed canals appear on scans of many people with no symptoms at all. We treat your legs and your walking — not the picture.
Don't stop moving — change how you move. Walk in intervals: go until the legs complain, sit or lean until they quieten, then go again; it keeps your fitness without a fight. Use the bicycle or pool for longer sessions — your legs will allow far more there. Notice your relief posture and use it without embarrassment; leaning on that trolley is biomechanics, not weakness. And keep a rough score of your walking distance — it's the vital sign we track.
Stenosis is measured in what it takes from your day — tap the one that fits:
New leg symptoms deserve a diagnosis before a plan. Stenosis has mimics — from circulation problems to hip arthritis — and the treatments differ completely. Start with interval walking and the bike, and get the cause confirmed rather than assumed.
Months of limits is long enough. This is the window where conditioning, flexion-based physiotherapy and targeted injections do their best work — winning back distance while the nerves still have room to recover.
A shrinking world is not something to keep adapting to. When distance keeps falling despite proper care, the options step up — and modern keyhole decompression restores room for the nerves with quick mobilisation, whatever your age. Let's map where you stand.
Treatment starts with confirming stenosis is truly the cause — examination, your walking story, and ruling out the mimics — with MRI on-site when it will shape the plan. Then, the least invasive option that wins your distance back:
Whatever the recommendation, our specialist walks you through the options, the risks and the expected recovery before anything is decided.
Tap a card to reveal the truth:
Think of it as managing a resource: keep the legs and core conditioned with the bike, the pool and interval walks; use relief postures freely; keep weight in a healthy range so the corridor carries less; and track your walking distance honestly — it tells you, and us, exactly how the plan is working. A narrow canal sets a budget; good management keeps expanding it.
Because posture changes the space in your spine. Cycling — like leaning on a shopping trolley — bends you slightly forward, which opens the narrowed canal and gives the nerves room. Standing tall and walking narrows it again. That posture-dependent pattern is spinal stenosis's signature, and it's also a clue we use in treatment.
Not necessarily. The narrowing itself tends to progress slowly over years, but symptoms often plateau — and some people improve as they build strength and adapt their activity. What we watch is function: if your walking distance is shrinking quickly, or weakness appears, that changes the plan.
Often, meaningfully. Flexion-based physiotherapy, conditioning work on the bike or in the pool, and targeted image-guided injections can calm the nerves and win back real walking distance. Surgery is reserved for symptoms that stay limiting despite all that — or that progress.
When leg symptoms keep shrinking your life despite proper non-surgical care, or when weakness or bladder involvement appears. The operation — decompression, done with minimally invasive techniques where suitable — removes what's pressing on the nerves, sometimes with stabilisation if a vertebra has slipped. It's among the most rewarding spine operations in well-selected patients, whatever their age.
Good — walking to your tolerance doesn't damage the nerves; it maintains the fitness that protects you. Work in intervals: walk, sit briefly when the legs complain, walk again. And use the bicycle or pool for the longer sessions your legs won't yet allow on foot.
Same-day appointments are usually available. Call or book online — our team will take it from there.
