Physical Therapy
Physical therapy helps you understand your pain and provide treatments to overcome it. Elevate Physical Therapy And Fitness provides safe, affordable and effective way to manage your pain.
Conditions That We Treat:
- Arthritis
- Balance Disorders
- Chronic Pain
- Dislocations
- Fall Injuries
- Fractures
- Hand Injuries
- Hip Pain
- Incontinence
- Jaw Pain
- Joint Replacement
- Knee Pain
- Osteopororsis
- Pelvic Pain
- Posture Related Pain
- Running Pain
- Shoulder Pain
- Spine Pain
- Sports Injuries
- Surgery Rehabilitation
- Vestibular Disorders
What is Physical Therapy?
Physical Therapy is the use of movement for the relief of pain.
Pain is any unpleasant sensory experience.
A physical therapist is a movement expert who can help you relieve your pain through exercise and education. These licensed clinicians have received a doctoral graduate degree from an accredited university. A physical therapist is an expert in anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology.
Because a physical therapist is an expert in these areas, you do not need a referral from your physician in order to see a physical therapist. A physical therapist is a direct access provider which means that you can go directly to a physical therapist without seeing another healthcare provider first.
What happens during the 1st physical therapy appointment?
When you have an appointment with a physical therapist, they will first perform a thorough evaluation. The physical therapy evaluation consists of a subjective and objective portion. The subjective portion allows you to describe your pain. You will guide this conversation. The physical therapist may facilitate this conversation by asking open-ended questions such as:
- Where is your pain?
- When did the pain begin?
- How did it begin?
- How would you describe your pain?
- What activities make the pain feel worse?
- What activities make the pain feel better?
Your answers to these questions help a physical therapist to begin thinking about how to diagnose the pain. A diagnosis is the act of naming the source of your pain as a medical condition based on the characteristics of the pain. In order for a physical therapist to fully diagnose your pain, they will perform the objective portion of the evaluation. The objective examination includes tests and measures. During the objective examination, the physical therapist may ask you to do the following:
- Move your painful body part
- Show how much strength you have in the muscles around the painful area
- Perform functional activities such as walking, reaching, lifting, carrying, running, throwing or jumping – depending on the nature of your pain
Also during the objective examination, the physical therapist might:
- Use their hands to touch the painful area
- Measure your range of motion which is the amount of movement you have at a joint
- Test your strength
- Analyze how you move when you walk, reach, lift, carry, run, jump, or throw
Based on the results of your subjective and objective examination, the physical therapist will educate you on the following 3 items: the diagnosis of your pain, the plan for how to decrease your pain, and how long it will take for you to feel better. Based on this information, your physical therapist will allow you to ask questions about your pain and about your treatment plan.
What types of treatment does a physical therapist use?
After your physical therapy evaluation, your physical therapist will begin to work with you on treatments to help you feel less pain. There are a variety of treatments, depending on the nature of your pain. Typically, your treatments could be any of the following:
- Exercise which is the use of strengthening, stretching, conditioning, and stability training
- Manual therapy which means the use of the therapists hands to facilitate your healing
- Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or meditation
- Movement retraining which is the use of a video recording to teach you how to move with less pain
What happens during a physical therapy follow-up session?
Because pain changes with time, physical therapy consists of follow-up appointments after the evaluation. The follow-up appointments can vary in frequency from multiple times per week, once per week, or once per month. During these follow-up sessions, your physical therapist will ask questions to learn how your pain has changed and how the current treatments have been affecting your pain. Based on your pain and your responses to the physical therapist’s questions, the physical therapist will adjust your treatments. The adjustments vary based on the treatment but can consist of:
- Increasing or decreasing your resistance level during strengthening exercises
- Moving through more or less range of motion
- Increasing or decreasing the frequency of your exercise
How is Elevate Physical Therapy and Fitness different?
At Elevate Physical Therapy and Fitness, our primary goal is to reduce your pain and improve your function to become the best version of yourself. To achieve this, we use treatments that will have a long-term, lasting effect for your body. Our unique approach to physical therapy is based on a simple statement:
You will always receive data-driven, 1 on 1 physical therapy care from an orthopedic certified specialist.
Let’s break down our 3 pillars of care that are included in this statement.
Data-driven. First, we utilize new technology and metrics to track your progress. Examples of this technology and metrics include: dynamometers, video gait analysis, heart rate variability, acute/chronic workload, and more. We utilize these devices because we value the use of numbers as part of your care. Data and numbers help us to assess your current abilities and then determine the amount of change you have made.
1 on 1 care. Second, when at Elevate Physical Therapy and Fitness, you will be working a Doctor of Physical Therapy for every minute of your care. Your physical therapist will never divide your time between you and another patient. Furthermore, no aides or techs will be providing your physical therapy services. This is because an aide or tech is not a licensed medical provider and should not be making decisions about your medical care.
Orthopedic Certified Specialists. Lastly, OCS stands for Orthopedic Certified Specialist. This certification comes from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties. When you are being treated by an OCS physical therapist, you can be sure of a few things:
- You will know that your physical therapist has treated a significant number of hours within orthopedic care.
- You know that your physical therapist has demonstrated excellence in diagnosis and treatment of orthopedic conditions as demonstrated by successfully passing the OCS exam.
- Lastly (and perhaps most importantly), you can be sure that you will be receiving efficient and cost-effective care. That is because studies have shown that on average, an OCS clinician will treat their patients with less visits, less cost per episode of care, and with fewer treatment techniques.
So for you, when you receive these 3 pillars of care with our stellar Physical Therapy, you will achieve your goals quicker and with less cost! You will spend less time being a patient and more time being you! If you are interested in learning more about our services, contact our physical therapists today for a free discovery phone call.
