The goal of physical therapy is to help you feel at your physical best after an injury or surgery, but that doesn’t mean everything we do as therapists is focused on your physical health. So much more goes into our fitness than just the physical capabilities of our muscles and joints. In fact, there are three main areas of focus that each physical therapist teaches every patient about during their sessions. We provide a brief overview of each of those sections below.
Physical
Not surprisingly, your physical health is one of the three key components of your rehabilitation. Your physical therapist works on developing your physical capabilities by providing baseline assessments, developing strength training routines, monitoring your physical progression and adjusting your sessions as necessary. They understand the mechanics of your injury and will use specific treatment techniques to target the injury source and the nearby supportive structures that play a role in normal function to help you get back to full health or as close to it as possible.
Dietary
A good physical therapist will also walk you through the role your diet can play in your recovery. For starters, healthy dietary choices can help you maintain a healthy weight and avoid putting excess weight on your recovering structures, which are currently in a weakened state following the injury. They can also explain how certain vitamins and nutrients can aid in muscle development and healthy tissue growth. For athletes, we can also talk through the importance of staying hydrated before, during and after athletic activity, as this can help avoid strains and muscle spasms. We want to give each patient the tools they need to make smart dietary choices to help their body recover and stay injury free.
Mental
There is also a very important mental component to our health. We don’t just want you to mindlessly go through your exercises, we want you to understand exactly what’s going on in your body so that you can make the right choices for your health. We’ve found that patients who understand how repetitive stress or certain movements can cause pain are more likely to make daily changes to avoid another injury down the road. We’ve also found that patients who better understand why they are performing certain exercises are more likely to complete their home-based therapy and to show up to their clinical sessions, which is very important for making the fullest recovery possible.
By helping patients with the physical, mental and dietary aspects of their rehab and recovery, we believe we can give each patient the tools they need to get back to their physical peak. For more information about any pillar, or to start your own journey to wellness today, reach out to OrthoRehab Specialists today.
PT of Costa Rican National Soccer Team for 2007 World Cup in Victoria, CAN. Clinical Instructor for University of Minnesota Doctor of Physical Therapy Affiliations
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