Top Things Physical Therapists Wished You Knew
As physical therapists we try to understand our clients’ expectations, frustrations, and challenges, and we adapt to accommodate them. Many clients do not know the challenges physical therapists face behind the scenes. I have identified the top seven things physical therapists wish their clients knew in order to set a solid foundation for long-term success from the very beginning. Let’s take a quick look at these in a little more detail…
1. Physical Therapy Does Not Have to Be Painful
I’m here to tell you that the old saying, “no pain no gain” in the case of physical therapy is completely false. Physical therapists work diligently to prescribe treatments to help reduce pain and restore your normal movement patterns. If a particular treatment is going to be uncomfortable (which I will admit that some can be), your physical therapist will discuss this with you ahead of time and get your informed consent before they move forward with it. If you don’t feel comfortable with a treatment, you can always let your therapist know and they can recommend other similar treatments that are more conservative and less aggressive.
Most exercises in physical therapy should be essentially pain-free. If an exercise causes a significant increase in your pain, let your therapist know so they can modify the exercise in a way that does not cause a painful flare up. I typically tell my clients that mild discomfort during certain exercises is normal. I will usually ask, “If we stop the exercise right now, will the pain immediately subside?” Communication between you and your physical therapist is a crucial component of a successful treatment plan. Your physical therapist is not feeling your pain and it is your responsibility as the patient to give feedback as new treatments and exercises are added to your plan of care.
2. Committing to a Therapeutic Lifestyle Change Is Key To Successful Recovery
Making a true commitment to a therapeutic lifestyle change is key to having a successful rehabilitation outcome. A well-balanced diet, adequate hydration, and regular exercise are simple ways to facilitate healing and lay the foundation for a speedy recovery. These simple lifestyle changes can help prevent, and sometimes reverse, degeneration and dysfunction of specific health issues. Eating the proper foods and performing regular exercise are the medicine to feeling better! Physical therapy alone will not cure your condition. At ProResults Physical Therapy, we view health and recovery in a very holistic way. When you commit to physical therapy with us, you’re committing to changing up your lifestyle to facilitate healing and recovery by whatever means necessary.
3. Keep an Open Mind, Stay Positive and Results Will Follow
We understand that most people who end up in physical therapy are experiencing a decline in their ability to physically function because of pain which can be both depressing and frustrating. However, it’s important to note that your outlook on treatment can significantly influence your overall rehabilitation outcome. For example, if you go into physical therapy thinking it’s not going to work and that you’re going to get worse, more than likely you will have an unsuccessful outcome. I always recommend many of my new clients to view physical therapy with an open mind and stay positive. Remember, it’s the small, incremental gains that eventually leads to meeting your long term goals!
4. Pain Doesn’t Always Equal Tissue Damage
Your actual injury doesn’t necessarily correlate with the amount of pain you experience. Instead, your perception of the injury (based on expectation, previous experiences, anxiety, depression, etc) correlates better with the amount of pain you experience. We all have broken a bone or know someone who has broken a bone. How long were they in a cast for before their fracture was healed? A few months maybe? If a broken bone can heal in a few months, why would you think that a herniated disc you were told about two years ago is still causing you pain? The injury itself is healed, but maybe you remember how much it used to hurt to bend over to pick something up off the ground so now that is what you expect to happen. What does your brain do? It sends protective pain signals because it remembers that pain even though nothing is actually wrong.
5. Resting and “Taking It Easy” After Injury Is Not the Answer
It is an old belief that when you are injured you need to rest, both yourself and the injury. Now, I’m not telling you to go and train through pain. No, that is different. But I am telling you that you need to get off your butt and continue training, exercising, and moving. Undoubtedly, what your training looks like will change depending on your injury. You will have to modify some exercises, while taking out others all together. You will have to add some more injury-specific rehabilitative exercises. But you need to keep up with your regular activities, to keep you both physically and mentally on track, to keep working towards your goals, and to rehabilitate.
6. Insurance Companies Can Make Things Difficult
Insurance companies make it very difficult to provide fantastic and outstanding care. They often limit how much rehab clients can receive, which means clients don’t always get the full treatment they need. I will typically encourage my clients to pursue physical therapy if it will benefit them despite an insurance company’s limitations. I will also advocate to my fullest potential for every one of my client’s to their insurance company to ensure they get the amount of care they need and deserve. ProResults Physical Therapy and other physical therapy clinics also offer self-pay options which places no limitations on the amount of treatment you are allowed thus giving you as much time as you need to learn, heal, recover, and return to the activities you love.
7. We Don’t Just Want to Get You Better- We Want to Teach You How to Prevent Injury
Making sure my clients understand proper movement and motion is paramount to having a successful physical therapy outcome. This is exactly what we focus on at ProResults Physical Therapy. We let you know if you have the appropriate range of motion, strength and motor control to perform the activities you are actively involved with. Just because someone has done an activity doesn’t mean that when their walking, lifting, running, landing, and pushing off, they’re performing these activities with proper mechanics and control. Often this is why people end up in physical therapy. The goal of treatment is to educate clients on proper motion, strength, and mechanics while doing not only exercise, but any daily activity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Garrett Desrosiers PT, DPT
Garrett is the CEO and Co-Owner of ProResults Physical Therapy Inc. in San Marcos, CA (North San Diego County). Garrett has been helping on-the-go active adults and athletes across the south western United States return to a pain-free active lifestyle without medications, injections, surgery or making unnecessary trips to the physician’s office since 2015. He graduated in 2013 with his Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology then went on to receive his Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Husson University in 2015. After working for three years in multiple fast paced outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinics, Garrett quickly realized he was not able to provide the elite quality care he knew his clients deserved. Garrett felt clients were more than just a number or diagnosis and that in order to provide the time, empathy, passion, and high-quality treatment they deserved, starting his own private practice was the only option. Garrett is committed to helping every client make the best decision in regard to their health. His unique, personalized, eclectic, multifaceted approach takes those individuals who have decreased their activities or stopped being active all together to a real solution.