Why Physiotherapy Is Not Synonymous With Rehabilitation

Saskatoon Physiotherapy Blog:

Why Physiotherapy is Not Just Rehabilitation

We cannot reduce physiotherapy to “rehabilitation” as this then neglects the MANY ways that physiotherapy helps you that are not rehabilitation focused.

Something doesn’t need to be “broken”, injured, or in pain (i.e. on the rehab side of the spectrum) for you to benefit from physiotherapy.

While physiotherapy INCLUDES rehabilitation, it is not synonymous with it

 Physiotherapy is also:

·      Proactive physical training (the opposite of rehabilitation which is reactive rather than proactive)

·      Mobility training

·      Strength training

·      Performance optimization for sport or life

·      Learning how to age well and maintain healthy joints over years

 ·      Helping you the overcome physical barriers (not just injury) that are keeping you from meeting your physical goals

What If You ARE Injured?

Let’s say that you do go for physiotherapy to rehabilitate an injury.

Even in this scenario (in most cases) your physiotherapy should likely end up transitioning from a rehabilitation focus to a to TRAINING focus at some point.

Rehabilitation and training exist on opposite ends of the same spectrum

“Rehabilitation” takes you back to the point that you were at when you got injured. Meaning, the same level of function and ability to tolerate force or load.

“Training” takes you PAST that point!

Training does not mean that you need to start going to the gym and getting under a barbell. It simply means that you transition from “damage control” mode into “let’s build BEYOND where I was before” mode.

What that looks like for you will be highly specific to YOUR body and YOUR injury.

If we were simply REHAB you to back to your pre-injury state without TRAINING you beyond this the likelihood that you experience the same injury in the future is often significantly higher.

However, if you TRAIN such that your body and tissue’s capacity to produce and absorb force excess where it was before. Or, you increase your movement capacity to higher than what it was before, you are then less likely to experience the same injury again.

If for whatever reason you do experience a re-injury,  if your baseline going into that injury is higher (as a result of training) so you can often mitigate or minimize the damage done.  

 Other Ways Physiotherapy Can Help You

Circling back to the many OTHER ways that physiotherapy can help you.

The commonly accepted belief that physiotherapy is exclusively for when you’re injured or in pain is simply incorrect.

We are often (AND LOVE) working with clients who:

• Simply have limited flexibility or mobility and want to be able to get into different positions and move more freely
  

• Want to get stronger, whether that is for joint health reasons, performance reasons, or to accomplish a specific goal/task
  

• Are athletes who do not have anything “wrong” and instead work with us for sport performance optimization to find ways to get better at their sport
  

• Come in yearly for a full body physical exam to help them age well and get some specific to help keep them feeling and moving well

Try It For Yourself!

If you want to experience any of the many ways physiotherapy services can help you, we’re here for you.

You can book an appointment online or contact us at info@longevitysaskatoon.com