At Results Physiotherapy, we believe that nobody should have to live with pain. This is why we are here to help! We have expertly-trained physical therapists who build one-on-one relationships with each client to carefully assess progress, create personalized treatment plans, and educate about body functionality to help our patients get on the pathway to recovery even faster. Our goal is to combine the use of hands-on manual therapy with exercise and education to ensure our patients have a speedy recovery.
When we have a client visit who is experiencing musculoskeletal pain or decreased mobility in the body, we take a hands-on approach to pinpoint the source of the pain and create positive outcomes through touch. Manual therapy is a type of physical therapy where the therapist will apply pressure to the body where there is pain and create passive movements of the joints and soft tissue. These passive movements help to increase flexibility within the body. The physical therapist might apply a massage or slight pressure to soft tissues near muscle groups that might be leading to chronic pain. There is a multitude of things that could contribute to tense muscle groups that lead to chronic pain including poor circulation, previous injuries, surgeries, and more.
Once the physical therapist has concluded some of the soft tissue pressure and massage, the physical therapist will then help patients use different types of passive movements to increase functionality and improve their range of motion. A variety of different exercises and movements will be conducted to build strength, increase flexibility, and work on some of those joint and tense muscle groups that could be contributing to chronic pain.
In addition, these passive movements help patients get a little bit more comfortable during their treatment program, as the manual therapy techniques help to manipulate some of those soft tissue injuries and joints that could be impacting your pain levels. Our physical therapists use manual therapy techniques after they have done a comprehensive patient evaluation to determine what kind of pain levels the patient is experiencing, the range of motion they currently have, the flexibility they possess, and a wide array of other metrics to determine what actions need to be taken.
Our physical therapists at Results will begin using manual therapy at the first step of your visit – the examination of your range of motion. At this step, we want to test for tense muscles or areas of concern that we can pinpoint and then create a personalized hands-on treatment moving forward.
This personalized treatment program helps to ensure that a patient’s individual needs are being met. The great thing about these personalized treatment programs is that it helps patients overcome their unique challenges and pain. In the same way that no two patients are alike, no two ailments are alike for each patient. Our comprehensive patient evaluation and manual therapy techniques ensure that each patient improves their function and is actively working to decrease their pain over time.
We’ve found that our patients experience maximum results when combining manual therapy with exercise. Manual therapy yields the results of decreasing pain and increasing mobility in the body without the use of painkillers or costly surgeries. Why wait to try out manual therapy if you can save money and feel better sooner?
The International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists describes manual therapy as the following, “Skilled hand movements intended to produce any or all of the following effects: improve tissue extensibility; increase range of motion of the joint complex; mobilize or manipulate soft tissues and joints; induce relaxation; change muscle function; modulate pain; and reduce soft tissue swelling, inflammation or movement restriction.”
Manual therapy has also been shown to help patients overcome some of their musculoskeletal pain and limited mobility by creating a program in place that is designed to restore the mobility to those troubled areas. When a patient has more movement in some of those stiffer muscle groups or joints, the muscle tension eases and patients can begin to return to normal movement and functionality with decreased levels of pain. For those patients who have chronic pain, manual therapy can assist them with reducing those levels of pain over time by working towards a positive resolution after identifying the root cause that could be contributing to the chronic pain.
With all of these positive benefits, it’s no wonder why our clients enjoy the use of manual therapy to expedite their recovery process!
There are an abundant number of different manual therapy techniques, but at Results PT we typically use a handful of them to treat our patients and their chronic conditions. Depending on our patient’s level of pain and pain area, we have a few different manual therapy techniques:
This type of treatment is designed to help patients restore some of their movement-ability and increase their range of motion over time.
Joint mobilization is when the physical therapist will identify potential reasons as to why a joint isn’t moving properly or is meeting some form of resistance. The physical therapist will engage your body through small movements that are designed to increase the strength of the tissue that surrounds the joint to help patients improve their range of motion and reduce pain levels.
This manual therapy technique is designed to improve your range of motion by strengthening the muscle that surrounds the joints.
This technique is helpful for those patients who might have some tender spots throughout their body or in certain muscle groups or joints. After your physical therapist has conducted a comprehensive patient evaluation, they might ask you where you feel some level of pain. Your physical therapist will then identify other areas that could potentially be in pain due to tender sports and begin to position your body in such a way that helps relieve some of the stress on the muscles that could be leading to that pain or tender sensation.
Your physical therapist will work with you to determine what kinds of manual therapy techniques might work best for your pain, range of motion, and more. The comprehensive patient evaluation that your physical therapist conducts will help them to determine what kinds of treatments need to be administered as part of your program, and what manual therapy techniques will be beneficial to you throughout that program.
If you’ve previously worked with a healthcare professional to diagnose and begin treating some of your conditions and chronic pain, chances are that you’ve experienced some of these techniques as a healthcare provider performed them on you.
At Results, we incorporate manual therapy into 95% of our treatment plans for our clients due to the positive effect it has on recovery when combined with exercise.
If you’re wondering whether manual therapy might assist you and some of your ailments, we typically use manual therapy for a variety of conditions that our patients commonly face. We’ve put a helpful and abbreviated list to highlight some things we commonly assist patients with. Our physiotherapists use manual therapy to help soothe:
If you are suffering from any of the conditions above, don’t hesitate to call us for a free consultation. Our team of highly-trained physical therapists are dedicated to helping you achieve the best results and getting you back to living pain-free.
If you are located in a direct access state, there is no need to wait to receive expert care for your pain! Our therapists are eager to meet you and help you feel better faster.
To find a physiotherapy clinic near you, check out our locations page. We happily accept both walk-in clients as well as clients who have booked appointments.
