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Three Things Your Physio Wants You To Know
August 5, 2017
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You don't always know what to expect when you go to see a health professional, so I thought it would be beneficial to share a few thoughts from the perspective of a physiotherapist.
Here are three things that I try and teach all my clients to help them get better faster and have a more rewarding experience
1. Getting better is a team effort
We have the skills and knowledge to help support you on the road to recovery and make it easier and faster. But we will give you homework- exercises and stretches that are specifically chosen to support what we do in the clinic, and these are just as important as your appointment. The time you spend with your physio is insignificant compared to the time you spend using your body everyday. So what you do in your daily life is super important!
Let's put it in perspective: You will see your physio at the most 2-3 times a week for about 30 minutes each time, giving a total of 90 minutes in an entire week (there is 10080 minutes in a week). The time spent at the physio only represents 0.9% of your week, meaning the rehab you do at the physio pales in comparison to the rehab you could do everyday, even just for a few minutes.
As much as we would love to wave a magic wand and make everything magically better (wouldn't that be nice), that's not how the body heals. It takes commitment and dedication. Our bodies are made to move and modern day life simply doesn’t allow for enough movement. We certainly shouldn’t be sitting as much as we are as this allows our joints to stiffen and muscles to shorten and weaken. There is also evidence that movement is essential for joint health, due to the movement of joint fluid that provides nutrients to the joint structures. The reason physiotherapists are always advocating for more movement is because we see the long-term effects of disuse on a daily
2. Come see us sooner rather than later
I often hear from my clients how their injury started off as a small problem that you thought would go away, and it got progressively worse and worse until it has changed how you move, your posture and the shape of your body.
The longer you leave something the more time those patterns and postures have to become ingrained and normalised in your body, and the longer it takes to restore you back to "normal". If you are vigilant and dedicated then I would expect you to be "better" in about 1/2 the time it took for you to develop your complaint, but most often it takes about the same about of time. This means that if you have had your pain for a couple of years, we would be doing well to have you pain free in a year - that's a long time!!!
It is much easier to make change when injuries/pain are fresh and new and your body hasn't made any compensations or adaptations which have become normalized.
3. Communicate
Nope, we can't read your mind. You need to tell us what you are feeling. Being a physio can be a bit like being a detective. We need to work together (with you!!) to collect clues and uncover evidence that help us to figure out what is happening in your body. Its a team effort!
Nothing amazes me more than the uniqueness of the human body. The same injury on two different people can lead to very different experiences and therefore very different treatments. On top of this we all use our bodies for different things.
Remember - without sharing this information your treatment will be stock standard (based on clinical "norms") and not tailored to your individual needs.
So there you have it, I hope this helps you to get the most out of your physio appointments.
