Joint mobilization. Soft tissue mobilization. Muscle energy techniques. Strain-counterstrain. People who have visited a physical therapist may have heard of these forms of hands-on therapy.
This category of physical therapy is also called manual therapy, and its techniques are connected by the fact that physical therapists use their hands to perform them. Manual therapy is typically used to treat common issues like osteoarthritis and lower back pain. One reason for this is that hands-on physical therapy can play many roles in a treatment plan.
Three key roles hands-on therapy can play during your treatment
The treatment plans that physical therapists create tend to rely on multiple therapy methods. However, hands-on physical therapy techniques are often a prominent part of a therapy plan. This prominence is due to the multiple roles manual therapy can play in a treatment plan, which include:
- Reducing pain — Most musculoskeletal disorders cause pain, which is often the first sign that you have an injury or condition that needs to be treated. Manual therapy methods are often used to help reduce a patient’s pain. One study on patients with thumb osteoarthritis reveals that manual therapy helped reduce pain scores by more than three points on average immediately following a session.
- Improving function — Joints and other structures must have the ability to function correctly if you want to perform even normal daily tasks. Such tasks include things like walking or turning a doorknob. However, many conditions and injuries lead to a significant loss in function.
Manual therapy can be used to address function loss. A study on manual therapy for lower back pain reports that patients’ functional disability was reduced by more than 36% after four weeks.
- Increasing range of motion — How much your joints can move in each direction is their range of motion (ROM). Like function, ROM is also typically decreased after an injury or while dealing with a joint condition. This is especially true for patients who have had surgery on a joint.
Its ability to help improve joint ROM is one reason manual therapy is often used during post-surgical rehab. Medical researchers from one study found that manual therapy after elbow surgery helped:
- Increase elbow extension by nearly 12 points on average
- Boost elbow flexion by 8.5 points on average
Find effective hands-on physical therapy at Excel PT
Our team at Excel Sports & Physical Therapy is well versed in many therapy techniques, including multiple types of hands-on physical therapy. Often, our comprehensive evaluations determine that this type of therapy can play an important role in a patient’s recovery.
Our physical therapists may also add other therapy methods to your plan. This is intended to help you get the maximum possible benefit from your program, and some of the methods your plan could include are:
Contact our team today for more information about all the therapy services we offer or to schedule an initial appointment.
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