A Look at the Various Stages of Physiotherapy

Let's take a look at the various stages of physiotherapy.

Discovery
This is really the key benefit that leads to everything else: finding out the issues your body has to deal with on a daily basis. Sometimes the person being treated already has symptoms of the issues, but quite often these problems are asymptomatic to the patient, yet they can lead to more serious problems further into the future. For example, someone's poor posture may be causing muscle stiffness. The muscle stiffness itself may not be a huge issue to the person being treated, but it's a symptom of poor posture that can in turn lead to possible chronic back pain in the future - if the cause (poor posture) isn't highlighted and identified.

Of course, the above highlights lifestyle problems that are masked through habit and the patient simply getting used to the discomfort. Physiotherapy can be used for more obvious problems like sports/accident injuries and conditions related specifically to old age.

Treatment
Once the issues are identified, appropriate treatment can begin. Quite often, physiotherapists will visit patients in their home or at work if the patient finds it difficult to get around. Treatment typically involves the following:-

• massage
• manipulation of the joints
• asking the patient to perform certain movements/exercises

Self-help for the longer term
In the longer term, a physiotherapist will recommend exercises and lifestyle changes that the patient can make to improve his/her condition, such as :-

• yoga & pilates
  
• posture changes
• exercises such as swimming and cycling (depending on the underlying problem of course)

Article kindly provided by health2u.sg