Attending physical therapy can greatly enhance your recovery from a major injury. However, attending these sessions can be rather inconvenient, and many patients will want these sessions to be finished as soon as possible. To help you ensure that your visits to the physical therapist are the most productive that they can be, you will need to follow these basic tips for new physical therapy patients.
Be Mindful Of Your Attire
During your physical therapy session, you will have to perform a range of movements that are designed to strengthen and loosen your muscles. This can be exceedingly difficult to do if you wear clothing that is restrictive. Therefore, it may be best to wear loose fitting clothing so that you will be more easily able to follow the instructions of your therapist. While this may not lead to the most stylish of outfits, it can greatly enhance the productivity of your physical therapy sessions.
Keep A Journal Of Your Home Exercises
Your physical therapist is very likely to assign you some exercises that you need to do at home on the days when you do not have physical therapy sessions scheduled. It is important to monitor your progress with these exercises so that you can be more aware of your progress and the effectiveness of these exercises. By writing down the results of these exercises, you will be able to quickly glance at your journal to determine which exercises are giving you the most difficulty. In this journal, you should write down the number of repetitions you were able to do and create a numerical scale for the difficulty and discomfort caused by the exercise.
Be Honest With Your Therapist
There are many patients that will find it difficult to stay motivated when it comes to doing their home based exercises or being candid when it concerns pain and discomfort. However, it is imperative for you to completely honest with your physical therapist so that they can adjust their treatments to better suit your needs. For example, if you are failing to perform your home exercises, you should be honest about this so that your therapists knows that the exercises are not to blame for the lack of progress. Also, if you start to experience pain while receiving treatment from your therapist, you should let them know. In addition to reducing discomfort, it is important for the therapist to know that you are experiencing pain so that they can avoid inadvertently making your injury worse.
