What Should be Included in My Rehabilitation Plan? APEX Physiotherapy & Chiropractic Provides Some Insight

Physiotherapy in Pickering

Effective physiotherapy is a long-term plan that aids in injury recovery as well as preventing injuries in the future. Physiotherapy requires consistent attention and commitment from both the patient and the doctor. What else needs to be included in your rehabilitation plan?

What Makes an Effective Physiotherapy Plan?

An effective physiotherapy plan has more than one moving part; each individual component needs to be considered and evaluated in order to be effective overall.

Individual

Each person is different and has different capabilities, and no two injuries are the same. There is no one size fits all rehabilitation plan. Some people may find it more helpful to have more frequent clinic visits, whereas others may prefer to do more work at home. Tailoring each plan to the individual is essential.

Reasonable

The activities and frequency need to be reasonable. In order for someone to actually follow through with the plan, the plan needs to be made up of doable activities. A 35-year-old man may have a different list of doable exercises than a 70-year-old woman with the same injury.

Long-term Goals

Each plan should have set long-term goals. If you broke your left arm and are now doing physiotherapy, your goal may be to gain strength that can once again parallel the strength of your right arm.

Scheduled Check-ins

No good rehabilitation is a one-and-done treatment. Check-in visits ensure that the work is being done and the injury is healing as it should. These check-ins are a time to evaluate which components of the plan are working and which are not.

Long-term Treatment and Prevention

While components of the rehab plan can be to address immediate issues, the majority of the plan should be about preventing similar injuries from happening in the future. This is done by building muscle and flexing joints and ligaments.

Variety

There must be a number of components to each person’s rehabilitation plan. Having a rehab plan of only exercises may not work for everyone. Incorporating strength training, massage, and even acupuncture might be even more effective.

Components

There are commonly five physical components of each plan.

Do’s and Don’ts

The do’s and don’ts section of a rehab plan will effectively outline what should be done and what should be avoided. Including specific and easy-to-understand examples in each plan will increase the effectiveness of the rehab plan.

Exercises

Strengthening exercises are a part of every single rehabilitation plan. The exercises will be tailored to fit each individual injury and person. Included exercises are meant to be built upon as time goes on.

Relief Stretches

Along with exercises, there should be a section for stretches that will ease pain and release tension. This section is important because, without it, you could be risking further injury.

Massage

Massages are a great way to move around any built-up fluid in the injured area and can help reduce swelling as well. Additionally, massages can provide pain relief.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a way to relieve nerve pain and inflammation in joints. Small needles are placed into the skin and pressure points which stimulates blood flow and can also promote healing.

Talk to the physiotherapists at APEX Physiotherapy and Chiropractic in Durham to get started with your perfect rehabilitation plan!

Everything You Need to Know About Your Sprains and Strains

Chiropractor in Ajax

One of the most common questions people ask whenever they hurt a part of their body is whether it’s a sprain or strain. They may seem similar, but there are distinctions between the two, and differentiating between them is actually easier than you think.

The first step is to understand the differences between a tendon and a ligament. Tendons are fibrous tissues that connect bone to muscle, and ligaments are similar in that they, too, are connective tissues to tendons but instead of connecting bone to muscle, they connect bone to bone. When the tendons attaching your muscle to bone are stretched too far or torn, a strain will occur. When the ligaments connecting your joints are damaged, a sprain will occur. Your ankles, knees, elbows and wrists can be affected by this, and in most cases, the joint is so badly twisted that the tissues will become stretched or torn. The pain caused by a sprain can be mild or severe, and depending on the situation, some patients will require physiotherapy and possibly even surgery.

Whether you are suffering from a sprain or strain, physiotherapy can help you recover. Physiotherapists are experts when it comes to movement, so they will provide you with relief and will also help you prevent further injury in the future. A lot of patients who turn to physiotherapy will not require medications or invasive surgery because it is an effective treatment that is proven to work. When it comes to sprains or strains, physiotherapy treatments will first focus on pain relief as this is the primary goal. Manual therapy, electrical nerve stimulation, stretching and ice therapies are a few examples of the pain-relieving services you may receive. Your physiotherapist will provide you with one or several of these based on the severity of your situation and pain.

Once you finalize pain management, the physiotherapist will then heal your injury. They will help you regain your range of motion in the joint that was affected or will help strengthen the muscles that were affected by your injury. The last step will focus on preventing future injury because once you sprain a joint or strain a muscle, it’s highly likely that you may do this again, but a physiotherapist can help in this regard. They will recommend strengthening exercises and will help you build muscle around the injured area, which will lower your risk of injury in the future.

The experts at Apex Physiotherapy & Chiropractic will provide you with the treatment you need, so if you have a sprain or strain, do not hesitate to contact us because we can provide you with relief right away. Our physiotherapists are knowledgeable, skilled and friendly and will eliminate your pain, so schedule an appointment with us today!

Posture Perfect: How to Correct Your Back Pain

Physiotherapist near me

Back pain is very common, and this type of pain can make it very difficult for you to perform your daily tasks. It is an uncomfortable condition that is both frustrating and challenging because it can be very limiting. The good news is that you can eliminate back pain, and chiropractic can help you move comfortably again.

One of the most common causes of back pain is poor posture, so if you slouch while you’re seated or lean forward at your desk, you may suffer from this type of pain. The same is true if you hunch over when you type, so you need to be aware of these actions as most people do them subconsciously without realizing the damage they are doing to their body. Proper posture is very important because it can affect the way your body moves. Regardless of whether you’re sitting, standing, walking, or running, proper posture is a must because it can allow you to move with ease, and you should be able to go about your day comfortably.

It’s common to forget about the way our bodies are positioned, and this is something that happens to all of us, especially when we are so focused on the tasks we are trying to complete. This can result in back pain, so you need to make an effort to maintain proper posture by positioning your body normally. When we feel drained, and our bodies feel tired, we can slouch and droop over because we cannot hold our bodies up. Contrary to what most people think, poor posture is not a result of laziness and is instead related to a physical weakness within our bodies. Our bodies can get tired of holding us up, and when this happens, our posture may suffer.

If you want to regain normal posture, we can help. Chiropractors specialize in movement so they can help you improve your balance, stability, mobility, and flexibility, all of which can result in better posture. They can help you eliminate your back pain, and their techniques and recommendations can have a positive effect on your posture. Orthopedic and functional testing will be a part of your initial evaluation, and this information will help your chiropractor identify the areas of your body that are causing your back pain. Once these details are clear, they will then create a customized treatment plan, which will be tailored to your specific needs, and this will focus on your posture and all the ways it can be improved. This plan can also help increase your strength so that you can achieve all of your physical performance goals. Most importantly, this plan can relieve you of your pain.

The experts at Apex Physiotherapy & Chiropractic can provide you with pain relief and can help you regain proper posture as well. If you’re ready to say goodbye to back pain and want to achieve a perfect posture, give us a call today!