What Happens When Physical Therapy Doesn’t Work?
The Keys to Progress With Physical Therapy
It’s common for people to turn to physical therapy when they are experiencing pain. But what if physical therapy isn’t getting the results you were looking for?
You may have found yourself in this situation, or have heard of a friend/acquaintance’s poor experience when physical therapy didn’t work for them.
Physical therapy can help improve mobility and range of motion, improve flexibility, and restore function and strength, as well as reduce pain and prevent future injuries. However, if the physical therapy plan is not challenging enough or catered specifically toward your goals, you may find yourself not making progress in physical therapy. This could leave you feeling frustrated and uncertain of what to do next.
How do you know if physical therapy is not working for you?
What is the next step if physical therapy doesn’t work?
When would you need to seek alternative options?
With the help of Dr. Gary Wang, a Physical Therapist at Reload, we explore these crucial questions to help guide you when your current physical therapy plan isn’t giving you results.
Physical Therapy Not Working? What Now?
“We see many people who have tried physical therapy somewhere else, and didn’t get the results they wanted,” says Gary. “Often, they have started with their current physical therapy clinic because it’s cheaper, or within their insurance company’s network, or it’s close to their home and more convenient.”
When this traditional physical therapy doesn’t work, we often see patients consider consulting other specialists, such as surgeons, neurologists, or pain managers.
“Most people don’t think, ‘Hey, let me see a different therapist first’,” says Gary. “Instead, they think, ‘I’ve tried physical therapy and it didn’t work for me – now I need to see a surgeon or other specialist’.”
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Yet, this could be a big mistake, and completely unnecessary.
We often see clients who have gone through the rabbit hole of getting unnecessary imaging, treatments, and surgery, when all they needed was a physical therapy and training program that was specific to their goals and current abilities. Oftentimes, clients who have gone to doctors or physical therapists are given treatment for the pain itself as opposed to assessing what the cause of the pain may be. Which can be anything from needing mobility, strength, endurance, or proper programming/planning.
This is why at Reload Physical Therapy, we take 1.5-2 hours taking the time to learn about our client’s past medical/injury and goals. It’s crucial to take time to identify the underlying source through a movement assessment and to create a personalized plan geared toward your goals.
“The most important thing is figuring out what you can start with, before branching out into other programs and exercises. Without knowing this to start with, you risk doing the wrong thing.”
How can you tell if physical therapy is working?
It can be challenging to assess whether or not your physical therapy program is helping you. You might not notice immediate progress or a reduction in pain. You take progress for granted, and this isn’t always the case.
Complicating this further is that progress, just like the treatment itself, is unique to the individual.
For example, someone who previously experienced knee pain after walking one mile may still feel pain when walking two miles. They may not feel like they are making progress, because the pain persists. But being able to walk further with the same pain is progress. It could be a big stepping stone to becoming pain-free.
“Our ultimate goal is to get you to not have pain and to get stronger. But sometimes it doesn’t happen in the same order. A lot of times, being able to do more is an easy way of seeing progress,” explains Gary.
You see, progress is not always linear. There may be setbacks on the way to your fitness and health goals. However, if you’re able to do more physical activity and feel stronger, this is a clear indication that physical therapy is helping you more than not.
What to do if you feel your PT program is not helping
If you’re experiencing acute pain, exercise can be very challenging, and it can be easy to become discouraged. We all want a quick fix, don’t we? Yet, this isn’t how the body repairs itself.
The first step is to identify what the hardest thing you can do well is without crossing the threshold of pain. The role of your physical therapist is to identify these things for you.
“Our job is to find a regression of an exercise that feels okay for you,” says Gary. “If you’re always trying to do certain exercises and they always hurt, you lose motivation – so finding the right exercises to start with will make you feel better.”
It’s also crucial to remember that if you don’t exercise at all, you’ll start inching toward chronic pain. When you don’t exercise for a long time, your body becomes weaker and more sensitive to pain, making it even harder to start exercising again. Pain can limit what you feel you are capable of – and that can lead to less exercise and an increase in pain. We help people approach this conundrum in the right way, as Gary explains:
“Most people just need to start with very simple and basic things. Once you’re able to reach those goals, it teaches you that you can get better as you get older. Your body is able to do so much, and if you push it the right way, you discover what you’re capable of doing.”
Simply put, if you only do the easy activities then you’ll only be good at doing these – that easy activity will be the threshold to your abilities, and may inhibit you from being able to tolerate something more challenging. A personal trainer or physical therapist can be crucial to breaking this cycle, not only in identifying underlying problems and creating a plan for you but also to push you to do the harder exercise and activities. The more you are exposed to new things, the better you will become.
Overcome your fear and build confidence with Reload
Physical therapy can be an effective treatment option for many conditions. However, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and progress is rarely linear. Often, people who aren’t experiencing progress or who have acute pain are fearful of physical therapy. This fear is natural, and Gary explains it with a great, personal analogy.
“I recently reached one of my goals, which was swimming, and I think that’s a great analogy for physical therapy, too, because there’s so much fear involved in learning how to swim.
“You need to start at the easier parts that are required for swimming, and then gradually get to the point where you can swim. There are steps to it, and if there’s no coach and you just kind of try to swim in the ocean, then it doesn’t really have any good or safe results.
“So, it does take a lot of steps and consistency, and trying it, and being uncomfortable and nervous and scared. Because, when you’re first starting out, everything looks big and scary. But being able to take those small steps and consistently work at them can help you get better and reach those goals.”
If you’ve been consistent with your physical therapy regimen and haven’t seen any progress toward your goals, it’s important to communicate this with your therapist. And if you’re still dissatisfied with your progress, then it’s time to seek a second opinion and an alternative, personalized approach like the one we provide at Reload.
Schedule a call with Reload and start your journey to a healthier, longer, and more fulfilled life.
