| WHAT
DOES A PHYSICAL THERAPIST DO?
There is much confusion as to what a physical therapist
is and does.
While a physician
will give you a diagnosis of the problem (i.e. tendonitis, bursitis,
degenerative disc disease, etc.), a physical therapist tries to
determine how your body functions and is structured to cause a problem
in that particular area.
For instance,
your lower back hurts, and you have a diagnosis of disc buldge.
A physical therapist exams not only your lower back, but also your
SI joint, hips and thoracic spine. A physical therapist finds out
how strong or weak the muscles in these areas are, how flexible
they are, which joints are too tight, and which are too loose, and
perhaps most importantly, how you use all of them to create movement.
In this way,
the physical therapist tries to figure out what is placing so much
stress on the lower back and buldging disc. Is one hip or SI joint
stuck and dragging the lower back? Are the muscles around the abdomen
not doing their job holding the spine together as they should? Is
the lower back itself restricted causing decreased movement?
This exam is
CRITICAL to long term improvement, because even though you may recover
from the pain you are having (through medication for instance),
the underlying mechanics that got you to that point are still there,
and need to be addressed.
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