You don’t always have to be in pain to visit your physical therapist. Although PTs are great at assisting you with injury recovery, there are also other reasons to visit a PT. Do you feel like you are missing some range of motion? Are you interested in injury prevention? Do you want to save money?
Here are a few reasons that it is a good idea to visit your Physical Therapist regularly.
1. A regular visit with a Physical Therapist can save you time and maybe even money.
The last thing we want to spend our hard-earned money on is a medical bill. Medical bills can quickly add up to a fortune, not to mention all the time visiting with a physician can take! Save yourself the heartache and maintain regular visits with a PT. There are multiple studies and evidence that shows, in some cases, a visit with a PT can save you from unnecessary surgery and can be just as effective as many surgical treatments for hip, back, shoulder and knee pain. A visit with a PT can also be more cost-effective than the numerous expensive diagnostic tools used to “take a look” as those painful areas. Even if surgery is your best option, a well-trained PT can guide you along the healing process and get you back to your favorite activities in little to no time!
2. You want to “boost” your athletic performance.
Physical Therapists have the tools and knowledge to keep you running at top speed, no matter what your favorite activates are. Maybe you like to play basketball on the weekends or spend the evenings out in the garden; either way, in some form we are all athletes. But is your body getting what it needs to move most effectively? Is everything that should be moving, moving well? Are the parts that should be nice and stable actually holding things together? If you have had any of those questions, it’s time to see your physical therapist. Your PT can quickly identify a seemingly unrelated part of the body that winds up having a huge impact on your athletic ability. PTs can give you the knowledge and training tips on how to push and pull and allow your body to do the rest.
3. You want to start an exercise program.
So you want to start an exercise program; great! Now where do you start? It can sometimes be overwhelming to start an exercise program. A program that works for a friend might not always work for you. PTs know all the moves to help you engage in moderate to intense physical activity and can customize a program that will work for you. Work smarter, not harder and visit your PT first.
4. You don’t want to get injured or re-injured
Believe it or not, the fear of re-injury and compensating for a previous injury by, for example, changing your gait slightly, actually leads to more persistent pain. So maybe you don’t hurt, or you only hurt “a little”. While it’s not always necessary to seek care for the bumps and bruises that come from normal activity, it’s useful to become educated and get answers when small pains begin to stack up and change the way you move normally. A visit with a PT can improve your chances of not getting injured or re-injured. A Physical Therapist can teach you proper techniques and help to speed up your body’s healing process.
It’s important to think of a Physical Therapist like you would your dentist. You visit your dentist every 6 months to help maintain your oral care, so why shouldn’t you do the same for your body? We only get one body; take good care of it and it will last you longer.
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