So exactly what is physical therapy? Well physical therapy is a health care practice that involves diagnosing and treating musculoskeletal disorders. The ultimate goal of a physical therapy is to restore maximum function to the patient.
Why is a chiropractor talking about physical therapy? Good question, the reason is many chiropractors are trained to do physio-therapy (by law we can not use physical, but it is the same thing). The reason for this is to teach our patients way to prevent injuries in the future and have them living healthily long lives, and to only see a chiropractor for a "check up" of the nervous system. Chiropractors deal with mainly the spine and spinal nervous system. The spine is surrounded by muscles that help us move in various directions and what controls these muscles??? Thats right the nervous system. So lets say the right side of our body is weaker than the left, would it make sense that the vertebrae would continually pull to the strong side creating a subluxation (bone out of place causing nerve interference and symptoms). Yes and Yes. So as a chiropractor if I were to just adjust those subluxations away would they stay away, most likely not. The reason is we didn't address the muscle imbalance. So lets say I were to add strengthening exercises to the right side of the spine, would this help A)hold the adjustment and B)possibly prevent it from returning. Yes and Yes.
Some benefits from physical therapy are increased muscle strength and endurance, increase joint range of motion (along with the adjustment), increased coordination, decreased muscle spasm. Physical therapy techniques might vary from person to person because our bodies are not the same as well as the length of recovery. There is no wonder that physical therapy and chiropractic go hand in hand.
In chiropractic office we hear the phrase "what benefit is there to doing these exercises" more often than not. The benefit of the exercises and we try and remind patients of this is to keep the spine strong and aligned.
If you would like to see the benefits of our office please contact at us 512.358.0325
