Of course, each treatment program is tailor to each person's need, so your results will be unique. But generally, after each appointment, you should notice improvements in movement and a reduction in pain. If you do not feel you're progressing, tell your therapist about your concerns.
If you notice you are improving toward the goals you have set, that is a great sign of progress. Common goals include decreased pain, improved range of motion, and increased strength.
A typical physical therapy timeline is 6 to 8 weeks for the healing of soft tissues, so your PT course may last that long. During your visits, your physical therapists will continually assess and make additional recommendations based on your progress and whether you've met your function goals.
While it's not uncommon to feel sore after physical therapy, you should never experience severe pain. It's important not to confuse soreness with pain. Muscles that have become tight and weak over time require stretching and exercise which results in a lactic acid build-up that can cause irritation.
After you complete your therapy sessions, your physical therapist will give you additional instructions for using what you've learned in your regular life. This may include stretches and exercises to do every day, or rules for easing back in to regular activity.
Just remember that rest is an extremely important part of the healing process. Taking part in rehab exercises is key to gaining strength and mobility back in the injured area. With that being said, there must be rest days in between; without it there will be no progress.
In general, you should attend physical therapy until you reach your PT goals or until your therapist—and you—decide that your condition is severe enough that your goals need to be re-evaluated. Typically, it takes about 6 to 8 weeks for soft tissue to heal, so your course of PT may last about that long.
Stretching after exercising can help keep your muscles and joints in top condition. It's important to find a qualified physical therapist that can teach you a variety of stretches. If you're struggling with muscle and joint pain caused from lack of stretching it can also help to visit a physical therapist.
This is no different to working with a physio. During your appointments, your muscles and joints will be stretched and manipulated to identify the source of the pain and promote healing, which may cause some discomfort. However, you should not feel any pain, particularly pain you cannot tolerate.
A typical order for physical therapy will ask for 2-3 visits per week for 4-6 weeks. Sometimes the order will specify something different. What generally happens is for the first 2-3 weeks, we recommend 3x per week. This is because it will be the most intensive portion of your treatment.
How Often Should You Do Your Exercises? It's always best to listen to the advice of your physio but generally, exercises should initially be performed 2-3 times per day for 5 minutes each time. This amount of repetition allows the muscles to develop the “memory” they need to perform their role.
While your recovery is heavily influenced by your strength and mobility, it is still possible to overdo it if you aren't careful. Your physical therapist will talk to you about ways to balance physical therapy exercises and activities with proper amounts of rest.
Worse, when traditional physical therapy does fail, most people go back to their doctors hoping for a different solution. Many times, the next step for these folks involves unwanted procedures or surgery.
You have less negative or destructive thoughts and more positive, constructive thoughts. Rather than fantasizing about things that aren't attainable, you're engaging in more realistic thinking and developing reachable goals. Thoughts lead to actions, so as your thinking shifts, your behaviors will shift as well.
In many cases, when doing exercises prescribed by your physical therapist, the more sessions you can fit in, the better your treatment results will be. There may be circumstances where that's not the case, but in general, daily sessions will give you additional benefits over less frequent sessions.
Physiotherapy can help with both muscle and joint stiffness in clients through assessment, advice and treatment and appropriate. Physiotherapy can help stiffness by: Increasing joint range of movement. Increasing muscle length.
Physical therapy for an acute injury can help eliminate pain, assist with the healing, and improve your physical health. This therapy helps heal the injured tissue and facilitates full mobility on its own. In cases where you've already gone through surgery, physiotherapy can help you recover much faster.
These findings suggest that massage therapy integrated into physical therapy treatment, can effectively regulate inflammation that follows intense PT exercise, and also promote faster healing.
After about six to eight weeks of consistent treatments and seeing progress, your PT will likely recommend that the frequency be lessened to one visit a week. This encourages the independent management of your condition and promotes the habit of at-home exercises.
Two to three physical therapy treatment sessions per week may seem like a lot initially, but this frequency of therapy has been proven to be the most effective to recover strength and mobility post surgery or injury. You may be wondering how much time you will need to spend on your physical therapy rehabilitation.
– Your muscles are contracting and relaxing more often which can lead to tiredness; – Or, you could be feeling tired because of an increase in movement around a joint. Regardless of why fatigue is happening after physiotherapy, it's still a good sign!
Discomfort and soreness are part of the healing process
Discomfort and soreness are to be expected, because physical therapy, in order to work, must train your body. This is the same principle that applies when building strength through exercising or working out.
Pain Management During Your Physical Therapy
To maximize the patient's participation, it may help to give pain medication, like aspirin or another nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug like ibuprofen, thirty-to-sixty minutes before physical therapy to prevent incidental pain.