Has Physical Therapy Let You Down? You are not alone...

How many of you have had an injury, went to your Orthopedic, were given anti-inflammatories, and were then sent to Physical Therapy?

Sound familiar?

This is standard protocol.

The only issue is... most injuries are not  standard. They all occur differently. The people they occur to are not standard. And.. they can not all be treated as STANDARD with the same prescription...

What works for one.. does not work for ALL!

So after spending some time this weekend with a friend of mine who has had chronic hip/ lower back/ and groin pain... 

He told me "Nothing is working"... 

Injections. Nope. Massage. Nope. PT. Nope...

So what do we do?

Well.. we start digging... 

We start making him his best therapist..

After a semi-clean MRI.. his symptoms are greater than the "damage" shown.. which was not much...

So this begins the journey into the muscle tissue... looking for areas that may be tight and pressing down on nerves..  Just by releasing a small strand of compromised tissue, we could have our answer....

Now we must also remember what happens when we have PAIN... 

1. We have altered movement patterns

2. We have muscles working in ways they are not meant to work due to compensation

3. We create postural distortions and altered gait patterns due to compensation and acute pain relief..

4. Our activity is compromised.. 

5. We become mentally miserable and start seeking the answer.. quickly changing from therapy to therapy.. looking for the CURE... this often times leads to overworking... and degeneration since the body has no time to recover...

We must remember that the standard PT is trained to get your basic range of motion and strength... and they are usually EXCELLENT at it...

Some of my closest friends are PTs.. and they do a tremendous job.. but as I wrote in the past.. the system (insurance) that dictates how they treat is the issue at hand...

So this makes results hard to get...

When doing self-treatment.. and working to identify your "rehab plan"... it is critical that you do not overwork yourself.. realize the SITE OF PAIN is not the SOURCE OF PAIN..

(this usually sits above or below the pain site.. typically stemming from a joint malfunction.. or a band of muscle tissue that is pressing on a nerve site..)

Over the coming week we will take a deeper dive into self-treatment of pain... and the process I use to help you understand the "mechanism" of your discomfort...

#trainlikeapro

COACH D