What Are The Different Types Of Manual Physical Therapy Techniques?

Which Manual Physical Therapy Technique Is The Best For You

One recent constant in your life has been a pain. It could be from a medical condition, an injury, or a surgical procedure. Whatever the case, you have found that it has greatly affected how you live your life. 

There is something that can help you, though – physical therapy. If you have anything ranging from lower back pain, hip pain, neck pain, tension headaches, shoulder problems, knee pain, ankle pain, or even things like Fibromyalgia, Repetitive Stress Disorder, or Piriformis syndrome, you could benefit from manual physical therapy. But there are certain techniques. 

Before you see your local physical therapist, it’s a good idea to learn about the different types of manual physical therapy techniques. That way, you will learn ahead of time what would be the best for you.

The Types of Manual Physical Therapies

This depends on where your injury or your condition is affecting your body. Your physical therapist will do things like: 

• Spine Alignment
• Back Alignment
• Hip Alignment
• Tailbone Adjustment
• Full Body Adjustment
• Massage Therapy

Now let’s get down to the actual techniques that your physical therapists will decide on using on you: 

Soft Tissue Techniques

There are softer parts of your body that can play a large part in how your body feels each day. Your body is interconnected in many amazing ways. Your physical therapist knows this and can do some of the following to help you feel like yourself again: 

Soft Tissue Mobilization/Myofascial Release – This is when they work on the muscles that surround your spine. They have you do rhythmic stretching and then they apply deep pressure on your body. Your physical therapist will assess your overall levels of tissue restriction and then get them to be more mobile with these techniques. 

Strain-Counterstrain –  Your physical therapist will be doing this to help you get your body back into good posture and eliminate any tender points that are causing you to feel pain or tenderness. They figure out where you feel comfortable and don’t feel any pain or tenderness and then stretch your body for roughly a minute and a half. Doing this helps your body start the healing process again. 

Joint Techniques

Your joints also are vital to being able to move around pain-free. They can get out of alignment and while things like rest, heat treatment, cold treatment can provide short term relief, you often start right back where you were before.

There are techniques that your physical therapist can do to help you here. They include:  

Joint Mobilization

This technique is where your physical therapist will loosen up any joints that are restricted in their range of motion. They do this at a variety of speeds and they always make sure that it is done painlessly. That way, your joints and muscles can move in their appropriate ranges and your body will feel much better. 

Muscle Energy Techniques

There are times that your muscles might get shortened and your joints may have restricted range. This technique will have your physical therapist apply a counterforce to a contracted muscle through a certain range of motion where you will contract those muscles a few times until you get the appropriate range. You will be doing some of the work, so this is not considered passive on your side. 

High Velocity/Low Amplitude Thrust Techniques

The other techniques that we have mentioned before have been on the milder side. This is a more aggressive way of handling any issue with the range of motion to your joints. Your physical therapist will see to it that you don’t feel pain after the treatment. 

You need to talk with both your doctor and your physical therapist about what the best course of action will need to be. The physical therapist will do their own diagnostic session with you and see where you are before deciding on the best techniques.

Once you are feeling like yourself again, they may give you stretches and exercises to do at home or the gym to maintain that good range of motion. Then you can go out and enjoy your life again. 

Do you need to have manual physical therapy? Come see us at Phoenix Physical Therapy Rehabilitation PLLC – our staff are very skilled in all of the above techniques and will utilize the ones that fit your situation the best. We will ensure that you get back to feeling like you used to before your injury or surgery. Contact us today to make an appointment – we have offices in Brooklyn and Rosedale.

 

Phoenix Physical Therapy

Rosedale Location
23520 147th Avenue, Suite 1,
Rosedale, NY, 11422

Brooklyn Location
7510 4th Ave., Suite 3,
Brooklyn, NY, 11209
Phone: (347) 733-1916