BMC: Understanding The Benefits of Physical Therapy

Understanding The Benefits of Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy (PT) is a service that is likely offered at various locations in your hometown. Many people believe PT is only for athletes or for the those recovering from surgery. This is just not accurate. Physical therapy is for people of all ages and backgrounds who have faced a setback that is hindering their overall quality of life.

So, what exactly is physical therapy? PT is a form of rehabilitation that assesses a person’s functional limitations and promotes their body’s natural healing mechanism to restore their overall function. Physical therapy is a discipline where licensed professionals use special testing, hands-on techniques, exercises, and equipment to develop a personal approach that addresses a person’s specific limiting areas. On your first visit, an interview is conducted, and a holistic plan of care is designed in the context of your overall health, life, and personal goals. PT aims to optimize your function. Simply put, physical therapy can help you maximize your mobility, decrease your pain, manage your chronic conditions, and improve your physical fitness.

Some specific issues that therapies commonly help with include:

• Neck and back pain: PT can improve your neck or low back pain through manual therapy, stretching, strengthening, and postural training. PT aims to target the underlying causes of your pain, correct your movement patterns, and enhance spinal health.
• Headaches: PT can improve symptoms for some who suffer from migraine or tension-type headaches. Through massage and exercises for the muscles in the neck, shoulders, and back, PT aims to release trigger points that may be causing headache tension.
• Joint replacement: PT will guide you through exercises to restore joint function, improve strength, and reduce pain during your recovery. In some cases, PT can also prevent the need for joint replacement surgeries. 
• Arthritis: PT for arthritis focuses on reducing your joint pain and stiffness through gentle exercises, manual therapy, and modalities like heat and cold therapy.
• General Pain Management: PT addresses various types of pain through customized treatment plans that include exercises, massage therapy, and pain-relief modalities.
• Vertigo/Dizziness/Balance Issues: PT for vertigo and dizziness includes Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy. This is therapy related to your inner ear. Balance training involves training movement patterns that are designed to alleviate your symptoms and create balance strategies to decrease your fall risk with loss of balance. PT can help retrain the brain and body to maintain equilibrium. In some cases, PT can alleviate your vertigo in as few as 2 or 3 treatments!
• General Weakness: PT addresses your muscle weakness through strength conditioning exercises. If you think you are too old, to weak, or have too many other problems for strength training, think again! Your PT is trained to monitor your other health conditions and adapt exercises specifically for you that will increase your overall strength, endurance, and functional capacity.
• Sports injuries: PT will enhance the healing of your sports injury using targeted, protocol-based exercises designed to promote recovery. Whether you’re a weekend warrior, high school hero, or professional athlete, PT will help prevent future injuries and ensure that your sprains, strains, and tears are rehabilitated efficiently, enabling a safe and effective return to your sport.

The benefits of physical therapy are extensive and diverse. PT supports pain management, enhances mobility, accelerates injury recovery, increases strength, and improves balance. PT can reduce reliance on prescription medications, support stroke recovery, help manage age-related deconditioning, and improve endurance.

It has been said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Want to keep your engine from blowing up? Change your oil. Want to avoid dental cavities? Brush your teeth. Want to live at your highest quality of physical ability? Try physical therapy. Physical therapy is preventative medicine. PT is not just for after an injury occurs – it can be pivotal in preventing one. If you’ve noticed small changes in your balance or your strength or if you’re in that stage of life where you can somehow hurt yourself while sleeping, physical therapy may be a good preventative medicine choice for you!

Talk to you Primary Care Provider about rehab services in your area or come see us Bucktail Medical Center Rehabilitation if you have any additional questions. It’s worth the drive. You can also call us at 570-531-6124.