Manual Therapy
The human body has some ingenious in-built mechanisms for healing and dealing with pain and inflammation. Still, sometimes, people need a bit of help to stimulate or boost recovery from injury.
Physiotherapists use manual therapy to reduce the need for painkilling medications, avoid surgery in some cases, and diagnose, treat, and ease or remedy a range of musculoskeletal and neuropathic conditions. They can use manual therapy to help with joint problems, ligament strains, and muscle injuries.
Manual Therapy: How does it work?
Manual therapy is just one of the many options physiotherapists use to treat different injuries and conditions of the body’s soft tissues and bones. It consists of hand-on physical treatment, and physiotherapists use various techniques that utilize pressure and motion and promote strength, healing, and mobility while reducing pain and inflammation.
Manual therapy can help with a range of conditions, including:
- Muscular dystrophy
- Lymphedema
- Neck injuries and chronic neck pain
- Lower back injuries and pain
- Problems associated with range of motion
- Osteoporosis
- Respiratory issues
- Vertigo
- Headaches and migraines
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Hip, knee, and ankle sprains
- Foot fractures and injuries
- Pelvic floor problems
- Post-surgery recovery
- Tendinitis
Manual Therapy in Port Moody and Coquitlam: Treatments & Techniques
Coquitlam physiotherapists use several different manual therapy techniques to promote faster recovery, reduce pain, and improve mobility and quality of life. Depending on your specific condition, they may use one or a range of different options as part of a comprehensive, custom-formulated treatment plan, including:
- Joint Mobilization: This technique is performed both local to injury at carefully selected points along the spinal column. The physiotherapist will physically apply various pressures at different rates to improve mobility in joints. They may also apply lighter pressure to help patients relax soft tissues, which promotes circulation and speeds up the natural healing process considerably.
- Manual Traction: is another hands-on technique that is designed to decompress vertebrae in the spinal column. Your Port Moody physiotherapist will use carefully controlled pressure and force to address individual affected discs, which leads to increased mobility and fewer future joint problems.
- Soft Tissue Mobilization: This technique is another form of manual physical therapy and is designed primarily to treat soft tissue injuries. It serves to optimize muscle function and ease pain significantly and often forms part of a physiotherapist’s wider treatment plan. The therapist will apply pressure to muscles, ligaments, and tendons to restore function, improve blood flow, and promote better myofascial flexibility.
- Trigger Point Therapy: This specialized technique concentrates on releasing trigger points in myofascial tissues throughout the body. Trigger points – sometimes referred to as knots because of the way they feel – are a common cause of pain and immobility in many patients. During trigger point therapy, your Coquitlam physiotherapist will apply various pressures and stretch, manipulate, and massage affected areas after diagnosing trigger points, which can often be deferred (occur in parts of the body that are not the sites of injury).
- Deep Friction Massage: This manual therapy technique breaks down scar tissue at injury sites. Scar tissue can restrict mobility within soft tissue structures, ligaments, and tendons. Your physiotherapist will apply relatively deep manual pressure in selected locations to break down scar tissue if your injury is long-term, but they may also use this technique to prevent the build-up of scar tissue in the case of more recent injuries.
Book A Manual Therapy Appointment today with an Inspine Physiotherapist
No matter what your injury or condition, most patients can gain several benefits from manual physiotherapy. It’s a broad collection of different techniques that nearly always form some part of a treatment plan.
Manual therapy can help to correct postural problems, preventing future injuries, and it can also aid with reducing stiffness in joints and muscles during recovery from many different physical issues, illnesses, or surgeries. Increased mobility and reduced inflammation typically help to ease pain and discomfort and promote circulation, meaning the body can naturally heal more quickly, often leading to faster recovery times for patients.
Inspine Therapy operates a modern physiotherapy clinic in Port Moody, and we also have a state-of-the-art, fully equipped manual therapy clinic in Coquitlam. If you would like to learn more about manual therapy and how a local physiotherapist can help you speed up your own recovery from injury, please get in touch with our friendly, expert team on 604-936-8288 or book an appointment online. The faster we can perform a thorough assessment and design an appropriate treatment plan, the quicker you’ll be back to your normal daily activities and free from pain.
