When is the right time to see a physiotherapist? Many only visit once they’re starting to experience frequent pain or if they’ve recently suffered an injury. Unfortunately, waiting for pain before you find help means you may have missed a chance to prevent that injury or condition in the first place.
Of course, injury can’t be planned for, but certain practices can reduce your risk and give you the best chance of avoiding it. When or if accidents do sneak up on you, physiotherapy helps you make a fast recovery.
Physiotherapy is a practice dedicated to improving your lifestyle and health at any stage of life. No matter if you feel fit and healthy now or if you’re battling regular pain or injury, it’s never too early or too late to seek assistance from your local physiotherapist.
Read on for 9 ways seeing a physiotherapist can improve your lifestyle.
How Physio Works
Physiotherapy can be applied in many ways to improve your strength, balance, mobility and range of motion. It’s about observing your current condition and finding ways to maximise your body’s function through exercises, stretches or other services like massage, chiropractic or acupuncture. By doing this, your body can strengthen, correct its posture, alleviate pain, maximise blood flow and improve the healing environment for injuries.
The Benefits Of Physio
There is no one cure-all solution when it comes to physiotherapy. That’s why it’s so important to take a holistic approach to your health. Holistic physio treatment considers several physical, psychological and social influences in your life and finds how each may impact your health.
Physiotherapists work with a range of conditions to improve your lifestyle without medication. It’s important that your program fits into your lifestyle, so a physiotherapist will consider your unique situation and provide you with advice or services that can fit in with your day-to-day tasks. Treatment from physiotherapists can help reduce pain, improve recovery time, improve athletic performance, reduce injury risks and can provide a natural solution outside of medication.
Do I Need To Be Hurt?
No! In fact, regular check-ups with your physiotherapist while you’re healthy can promote a more consistent lifestyle that doesn’t fluctuate between injury and recovery periods. No matter what activity level you’re at, a few sessions a year can ensure your health level is stable, and things like poor posture or bad habits aren’t gradually dragging your health down.
1. Understand Your Body Better And How You Should Move
A lot of body pains developed later in life are directly related to poor practices now. From slouching to walking flat-footed or even sitting for too long, our behaviours may gradually damage our health. Even active habits can be harmful too. Things like poor running form, lifting weights that are too heavy and not stretching enough can compound into bigger issues. When left to your own devices, these habits can seem almost impossible to get rid of. Or, they may seem so minor you haven’t even noticed them. The worst part is the longer these are left alone, the harder it is to correct them, especially when they start to cause pain or reduction in motion. A physiotherapist can help your lifestyle by addressing these problems early and reverting them quickly.
2. Reduce Pain from Old Injuries
When we injure ourselves, there can be long-term repercussions. It may seem like a sprained ankle has never been the same since it happened. In theory, it should be fully recovered, but you can’t figure out why it’s still causing you grief. Injury can change our entire body behaviour. So leg injuries, for example, can create habits where you weight-bear more on the non-injured leg.
That’s just one example; sometimes, muscles need a bit of work to regain strength. It’s not uncommon for old injuries to flare up more regularly. A physiotherapist can assess your situation and outline how to strengthen the muscles around it.
3. Reduced Risk Of Developing New Injuries
Our bodies are unique and prone to different injuries. Even if you haven’t suffered any major injury yet, it’s worth visiting a physiotherapist for a broad assessment. They may find something that could result in injury down the line. If that’s the case, you will be provided with exercises and strategies which lower your risk and help you continue the lifestyle you love.
4. Improve Mobility Levels
Unfortunately, there comes a time in all our lives when our bodies start to decline and make movement more difficult. While mobility loss is difficult to prevent due to aging, the decline can be slowed down or lessened with the help of physiotherapy. Mobility loss due to injury, curable illness and non-chronic conditions can be fully recovered from, especially at younger ages.
5. Improve Athletic Performance
A big part of physiotherapy is athlete support. Many athletes see a physiotherapist to improve their performance and to maintain their bodies during their downtime. Physiotherapists are experts on muscles and body mechanics, meaning they deeply understand how an athlete’s body should behave and how they can ensure they’re rested and ready to go for their next competition.
6. Treat Incontinence
Incontinence is a condition many people, unfortunately, keep quiet about. Research finds that 70% of people with it do not seek assistance. There is no shame in finding solutions to your incontinence. Seeing a physiotherapist can help improve your lifestyle by providing ways to improve pelvic floor control. Particularly, you’ll want to search for a specialised Women’s Health physiotherapist for help with pelvic floor strengthening and other bladder/bowel-related issues. If you’re a man suffering from incontinence, a Men’s Health specialist can also help you address this issue. Pelvic floor training is considered the first-line treatment for incontinence and lack of bladder control.
7. Relaxation & Stress Reduction
Finding solutions to stress-causing injuries or pain tends to create relaxation. Physiotherapy addresses problems causing you strife and helps alleviate pain. But it doesn’t end there. Some physiotherapists offer remedial and relaxation massage services, as well as acupuncture or chiropractic therapy. De-stressing is a great way to improve your physical and mental health and has many benefits, such as: reducing muscle tension, lowering heart rates, and improving blood flow, all of which help improve body functions.
8. Lessen Chronic Pain or Conditions
Physiotherapy can diagnose and manage a range of chronic conditions relating to the bones, muscles, cardiovascular system, nerves and other parts of the body. The relationship physiotherapists have had with chronic conditions is long-lasting and has made managing them much easier.
As stated earlier, physiotherapy helps your body function at its best, which means improving blood flow, body function and strength, all of which help maximise how well your body can heal.
Some chronic conditions physiotherapy can assist are:
- Migraines
- Arthritis
- Diabetes
- Chronic pain
- Back pain
- Stroke recovery
- Hypertension
- Cancer treatment recovery
9. Recovering From Injury
Lastly is the clearest reason why seeing a physiotherapist can help improve your lifestyle. Injury comes in many forms, and it happens to most of us in our life. A physiotherapist will guide you through recovery and help make sure you get the best possible results while mending.
Contact BodyViva To Improve Your Lifestyle
Get back in control of your lifestyle, or continue doing what you love. BodyViva is a multi-disciplinary physiotherapy clinic located in Brisbane, QLD. Book an appointment with us today and make life better.
