How To Get the Most Out of Physical Therapy: The Key To Safe and Effective Sessions
Our Physical Therapy Recommendations To Make the Most of Your Sessions
In our previous article, we discussed how Reload combines personalized physical therapy workouts with a focus on overall wellness, going beyond mere injury treatment. This approach ensures that each session not only aids in recovery, but also supports your broader fitness and lifestyle goals.
In this article, we dive into how you can maximize the effectiveness of physical therapy sessions at Reload:
What’s the secret to effective physical therapy?
How can you ensure your sessions are not only safe, but also challenging and customized to your unique needs?
Dr Adrienne Lufkin, physical therapist at Reload, explores these key questions and others in this 7-minute read.
You May Not See Expected Results from Traditional Physical Therapy
Traditional physical therapy recommendations often emphasize metrics such as pain reduction, improved joint range of motion, and muscle strength. While these are important, they may not fully align with your real-life goals that are unique to you, such as returning to a specific sport or playing actively with your children or grandchildren.
One reason that your treatment might fail to deliver is that clinics often operate under constraints imposed by insurance companies. This could force them to focus on basic physical metrics rather than the functional and quality-of-life improvements that will prove truly valuable to you.
As a result, you might experience a disconnect between clinical outcomes and your personal recovery goals, leading to dissatisfaction with traditional therapy results. It’s demoralizing, and often leads to a reoccurrence of your injury or fitness issue.
Misalignment of Goals and Measures Mean the Right Rehab Physical Therapy is Elusive
Compounding the above factor, in many traditional settings, physical therapy is approached with a standardized protocol that does not consider individual differences in lifestyle, occupation, or personal aspirations.
This leads to a one-size-fits-all approach that overlooks critical aspects of your daily life, such as the need to perform specific movements or activities that aren’t covered in basic therapy exercises. The outcome? You might regain range of motion in the clinic, but may be largely underprepared to resume activities such as running or lifting weights. And you guessed it – your injury will return, and often worse than before.
If you’re getting the impression that modern healthcare needs to be transformed, you’re right.
Boost the Effectiveness of Physical Therapy by Considering Your Functional Goals
At Reload, we prioritize functional goals – what you need to achieve to return to your desired lifestyle. You’ll notice the difference from your first appointment with us, during which we focus on so much more than your injury.
Forget the 15 minutes (if you’re lucky) you get to discuss your injury, health, and fitness goals with a traditional healthcare provider. We’ll spend 90 minutes (more, if necessary) to really get to understand you – your limitations, injury, general health, fitness goals, and other factors. We consider this a crucial first step, allowing us to develop tailored physical therapy workouts that are not only designed to heal injuries, but also to prepare you for the physical demands of everyday life and recreational activities.
This holistic approach ensures that therapy is not just about symptom relief, but about enhancing overall wellbeing and developing sustainable long-term physical health.
The Effectiveness of Physical Therapy Lies Within the Challenge
Rehabilitation should be viewed as a form of training. It should be challenging but achievable to encourage adaptation and recovery.
Without challenging your body – whether that’s through increasing strength, enhancing balance, or refining movement patterns – there can be no improvement. However, many rehabilitation programs lack this element of challenge, resulting in a phenomenon known as ‘rehab purgatory’. In this state, you may engage in low-level exercises that do not progress sufficiently, leaving you stuck without significant improvement.
Avoid Rehab Purgatory
A successful exercise program is founded on long-term thinking. If you are given exercises that are too easy, you’ll fail to stimulate your nervous system enough to create meaningful changes.
At Reload, we ensure that our physical therapy workouts are appropriately challenging. This involves carefully calibrated exercises that push you to your limits without exceeding your capabilities. Our goal is to trigger the necessary physiological responses that lead to recovery and improvement, such as muscle hypertrophy, neuromuscular adaptation, and improved cardiovascular fitness.
Balance Intensity & Safety
A key aspect of our approach is balancing the intensity of workouts with safety. While it is important to challenge the body, it is equally crucial to avoid overexertion, which can lead to injury or setbacks. Our physical therapists are trained to find this balance, ensuring that each session is both effective and safe. This careful calibration helps patients build power, speed, and balance, as well as develop strength, endurance and flexibility, all while minimizing the risk of re-injury or overuse.
Reload’s Comprehensive & Human-Centered Evaluation
Let’s talk a little bit about the evaluation session. What should you expect, and how does it help us to personalize our approach?
The initial evaluation at Reload is a critical step in crafting an effective physical therapy. We take the time to listen to your story, including any obstacles you’ve faced, your fears, and your medical and injury history. This comprehensive understanding forms the basis of personalized physical therapy recommendations that address your specific needs and goals.
The evaluation goes beyond just physical assessment. We delve into the context of your daily life, exploring how your injury affects your activities and what you aim to achieve through therapy. This might include returning to work, playing sports, or simply enjoying everyday activities without pain. By understanding your unique situation, we can plan the right rehab/physical therapy for you – and not some ill-fitting ‘off-the-shelf’ exercise regime.
Based on the evaluation, we will outline a roadmap for your recovery. This will include detailing what the follow-up sessions will look like and how the therapy will evolve over time. We focus on identifying safe and effective starting points for exercises, and set clear milestones for progress. However, we also understand that no journey to recovery is a straight line. As such, we’ll also emphasize flexibility – there may be times when we need to slow down, and other times when we can accelerate the program.
This structured approach helps you stay motivated and aware of your progress, which is crucial for long-term success.
Educating on Safety & Effectiveness
From the get-go, you’ll also discover that a significant part of our work with you involves education about what is safe and effective. For example, we discuss how to interpret pain signals: not all discomfort is harmful, and distinguishing between productive soreness and potential injury is crucial to your success. Such knowledge empowers you to engage with your treatment and physical therapy with greater confidence – and this will also help to boost the effectiveness of physical therapy.
What Other Factors Do We Consider When Creating Your Exercise Program?
We couldn’t create an effective physical therapy and exercise program without a deep understanding of potential barriers to success. These might include logistical issues like time constraints or limited access to equipment, as well as psychological factors such as confidence levels and motivation. We recognize that behavior change is challenging, so our plans are flexible, allowing for adjustments as needed.
We anticipate possible obstacles and have strategies ready to address them. This might involve modifying exercises to suit your environment or schedule, or providing additional support to boost your confidence in performing them. You’ll find our regular follow-ups and open communication refreshing – but they are also critical. They allow us to adjust the plan based on your feedback and progress.
Our physical therapists are always prepared to pivot, providing alternative exercises or adjusting the intensity as needed. This adaptability ensures that your therapy remains effective and aligned with your evolving needs, helping you stay on track toward your recovery and fitness goals.
Isn’t It Time to Benefit from the Right Rehab Physical Therapy?
At Reload, we prioritize your unique needs and goals. This enables us to develop a physical therapy routine that challenges you while ensuring safety. Our thorough evaluations, focus on functional outcomes, and flexibility provide the bedrock for effective and meaningful progress.
Your journey to recovery and improved fitness is supported by a dedicated team at Reload, committed to guiding you through each step. From the initial assessment to ongoing adaptation, our goal is to help you achieve the best possible fitness outcomes.
If you’re ready to experience a more effective and personalized approach to physical therapy, why waste a single second of potential recovery time? Schedule an initial assessment with our team, and let us help you get back to doing what you love, stronger and more confident than before.
