The five key benefits of seeing a Physiotherapist

Physiotherapists are experts in delivering highly effective injury management. As a profession, we have been around for over one hundred years. We are the tried and trusted professionals to help you recover from injury, pain, arthritis, a loss of mobility or surgery.

Physiotherapists come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and we often specialise in different areas of care, such as treating low back pain, sports injuries, headaches or neurological conditions. At Excel Physiotherapy and Wellness, we pride ourselves on our highly individualised treatments and exercise programs, and we maintain the very highest of standards with weekly in-service training and ongoing relationship building with the local health networks.

Here in our latest blog article from Principal Physiotherapist and Director Tim Ellis, we’ve summarised the key benefits of engaging with a Physiotherapist; it can be one of the most valuable and rewarding relationships that you can have!

1. Safe recovery from injury

All of our Physiotherapists at Excel have trained for over four years at University, and all have several years of post-graduate experience. That means that we are highly versed in steering you through a safe and effective recovery program from your acute injury. If it is a back strain, a stiff neck, a sprained ankle or an ACL rehabilitation program that you require then a Physiotherapist can help you. Physio’s will first assess the injury and take a detailed history. Of course, injuries do improve with time, and that’s where the pacing and progression of your rehabilitation program become critical. Physio’s will adapt their treatment protocols to every stage of your recovery, and they can work with your doctor, personal trainer or an employer to facilitate the best, safest and quickest recovery for you.

 

2. Effective relief from pain and stiffness

Physio’s will administer appropriate treatment at every stage of the process. In the early stages that may be bracing, taping, and guiding you through a self-care program with ice and heat treatment. As treatment progresses, we quickly move on to giving relief for pain and stiffness with hands-on therapy which can include dry needling.

Soft tissue massage and mobilisation of joints provide you with pain relief and immediately starts to improve your range of motion. Mobilising or massaging, we’ll give you the right treatment at the right time. Physio’s are experienced professionals, who will measure your progress and use a variety of hands-on skills. We will have you feeling better in no time! Whether the injury is very recent or has been there for some time, your Physio can help.

3. Guidance through a strength and conditioning program

Physiotherapists are highly skilled in guiding you through the different stages of rehabilitation and are an excellent long term resolution to your pain. Whether injury or stiffness, or a better future in the face of disability, your Physio can help. At Excel, we will start your program in one of our private treatment rooms. We will then progress to our gym where we have a wide variety of exercise equipment including Pilates reformers, balance retraining equipment, kettlebells, cables, pulleys and free weights.

Of course, you must do your strength and conditioning work outside of the physiotherapy practice. Your Physio will advise you when to start exercising at home, and when to go back to your regular fitness program. That may be in the gym, on the playing field or going for a walk or bike ride. Your Physio will listen to you and give you the program that you need.

4. Prevention of repeat injury and trauma

One of the most frustrating things about pain and injury is that they can become repetitive or never entirely resolves for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes there has been irreversible tissue damage, that neither a Physio or a surgeon can fix. Sometimes there is an underlying medical reason why an injury or a type of pain keeps returning. On other occasions the swelling around an injury causes the muscles to become reprogrammed, either to go into a ‘spasm’ or to become inhibited, that is, to switch off altogether.

So what can a Physio do to help in these cases? Well, your Physio will undertake a precise biomechanical assessment of the injured area and assess which specific muscles have gone into a spasm or become switched off. Specific exercises directed at these muscles, and the way you use them, be it walking, climbing stairs, throwing a ball or lifting weight will gradually restore the normal biomechanics to the area, helping to prevent recurrences.

Where there is a specific medical or irreversible tissue damage, the Physio will identify what muscles you can use to help support the injured area. An example of that would be a lumbar disc injury, which may not repair entirely. In this case, muscle activation through specific Physio guided exercises will help support and stabilise the area around the disc and help to reduce pain and disability.

5. Education on overall health and wellness

Physiotherapists have all worked with doctors, surgeons and in medical facilities such as hospitals. They are very experienced with all sorts of health and medical issues which is why GP’s recommend that their patients see Physiotherapists more than any other health professional. Our core purpose at Excel Physiotherapy and Wellness is to ’empower our patients to manage, pain and disability successfully and to lead active and healthy lives’.

Physio’s have a vast range of resources and referral networks at their disposal. Your Physio can promote the best strategy for you in achieving your optimum health and wellness. We lead by example, you very rarely meet an unfit or unhealthy Physiotherapist! At Excel Physiotherapy and Wellness, we also provide Pilates and Yoga classes to help maintain optimum strength, flexibility and mental resilience long after the injury has resolved.

We are here to help you to lead a more active life, free of pain and injury. Please phone us on 1300 650 510 or book online at www.excelphysio.com.au today.