10 Things you should know about physical therapy

 

10 Things you should know about physical therapy

Physical therapy or physiotherapy is a health care profession that deals with human function and movement.

Here is a list of 10 things you should know about physical therapy

1. Keep your body moving

In today's bustling life, we only change few different positions. Sitting in one place and not changing positions throughout the day can often result in joint stiffness and a decline in overall flexibility and mobility. Moreover, bad posture while sitting can cause firmness of the discs in your spine, which can cause severe pain.

Exercise:

Exercise plays an important role in physical therapy. When it comes to sitting at a place for a long time, It is best to change positions or you can efficiently perform easy exercises in your free time. It is advised to at least move your joints and take a posture break every hour or so.

2.  Flexibility is good

Flexibility an important component of physical fitness and has many positive effects on our bodies. It improves mobility, posture, muscle coordination, diminishes the risk of muscle injuries and soreness. Practicing flexibility helps in better body shape overall.

How to become flexible?

Do not worry:  becoming more flexible does not mean you. You have to twist yourself into a pretzel. Flexibility means stretching your muscles and improving blood flow. To increase your flexibility, you can do simple yoga or get a message.

3.  With exercise comes pain

You may have experienced chronic muscle pain after doing exercise, well don't worry, it is entirely normal, Exercising can cause muscle soreness which begins after 4-6 hours of our new activity, but with time our body gets used to it, however, if the pain is stabbing and does not go away, then you are recommended to talk to your physiotherapist.

4.  You can do it yourself

You don't need a professional physiotherapist to practice physical therapy all the time. You can perform it at home:

Warm-up:

Warming up before the therapy is the key. It is essential to prepare your muscles post-workout. Stand on your toes, put pressure on your heels, move your arms, and do some shambling. The goal is to get your body warm, and heartbeat stable to avoid any misshape.

Take a break:

While doing physical therapy always takes a break. Taking a rest of even 60 seconds during your activities will help decrease your heart rate and blood rush normal. Working out continuously without a break can cause shortness of breath and an abnormally fast heart rate which can cause damage to your heart.

Ice or heat is better to treat muscle injury.

5.  Ice for swelling

Ice can help control swelling and inflammation. Apply ice on the effective area within the first 24–48 hours of an injury. Applying cold helps reduce painful muscle spasms.  Use ice up to three days following an injury. After that, you might want to check in with your physician.

6. Heat for stiffness

Use heat for the stiffness of the muscles. Heat is best used to increase the circulation of blood to a joint or injured area. The heat increases blood flow in tight muscles. Heat is often applied before an exercise session to increase the tissue's mobility and increase the blood flow to the tissue. Heating tissues can be solved using a heating pad or even a hot, wet towel.

7.  Always, Quality over quantity

While practicing physical therapy, always keep in mind that quality over quantity. Working out, we often focus on the amount of the activity, which is wrong. You should be performing an exercise with accuracy and an adequate amount. 

A minute after 30 repetitions:

It would be best if you took a 60-second break after every 30 repetitions. This way, your body will feel better, and you will notice a positive effect and productivity before stretch. Improve time As you get along with exercise, you can increase your reputations with time. You can improve and perform better every day.

8. Therapy can help you manage to age

You will have trouble believing that physical therapy helps manage age issues. Geriatric physical therapy emphasizes specific conditions that come with age. Fortunately, most of them can be decreased or prevented by adding physical therapy into your daily routine. Physical therapy helps in prevention and works as a healing tool when it comes to dealing with age-related issues.

9.    How physical therapy helps in increasing life spam?

 Physical therapy Lessens the need for prescripted drugs. 

We often on a wide variety of prescription drugs to help manage our chronic pain. However, a physical therapy routine could help reduce the need for medications with chemicals and side effects to your body.

 By maintaining an independent lifestyle.

Physical therapy helps us recover from an illness or injury and manage our pain, and allows us to lead an active, independent lifestyle. Physical therapy relaxes our minds and body. A healthy mind leads to a healthy body.

10.  When to visit your physiotherapist?

Generally, you can visit a physiotherapist after an injury or discuss your physical fitness.

After an injury:

Most of the time, strains of the body will show improvement within the the first week after the injury but, an excellent time to find a physical therapist is if there is negligible improvement in the first two weeks of an injury.

What problems does a physiotherapist treat?

·        Neck and back problems are caused by muscle pain.

·        Bones, joints, muscles, and ligaments problems such as arthritis.

·        Disability.

·        Pelvic, bladder issues

·        Mobility loss because of trauma to the brain or spine.

·        Pain, swelling, and stiffness of muscle strength.

Feel free to ask questions to your doctor. Understanding how the body works will help you understand physical therapy and will minimize confusion.

The bottom line, physical therapy will evaluate your abilities, modalities, exercises, body information to accomplish your goals of a healthy body. You can do better and live better.