I found this article, The New Age of Physical Therapy | Breaking Muscle, that spoke to me. The reason it spoke to me was that it described how I treat my patients. As you know, before becoming a Chiropractor I was an Athletic Therapist. Athletic therapists are known for using exercise as a major part of their treatment. My practice often consisted of deep tissue massage, the use of ultrasound or TENS and most importantly exercises. As the years have gone by, I have been practicing as an Athletic Therapist for over 14 years an a Chiropractor for over 5 years, my techniques have become refined. I have dropped methods that haven’t shown improvement in my patients; ultrasound and tens. My deep tissue massage, which often took between 20 and 30 minutes, has been replaced with Active Release Techniques, Instrument soft tissue manipulation or acupuncture which takes significantly less time and results in quicker improvements. My treatment focus is now more on improving whole movements rather than isolation movements. My exercises have been more focused on the source of the problem rather than the source of the pain.
The concepts that the physical therapist mentioned are not knew concepts. Many of these concepts have been around for longer than I’ve been an Athletic therapist. What is new is that health care professionals are becoming more and more educated on what is more helpful for their patients. This “new” movement that the physical therapist mentions may be new to her profession but it hasn’t been knew to the athletic therapist. It is also not an isolated movement in the physical therapist profession but also in the Chiropractic and personal training professions. When something works people gravitate towards it regardless of the profession.
I really enjoyed her post and it makes me happy to see all health care professionals taking an active approach in their patients’ care.
Originally posted on May 17, 2022 @ 4:38 pm