Manual Therapy
Pain can greatly interfere with a person’s quality of life. Whether you’re suffering from an injury or medical condition, Evolution Physical Therapy provides manual therapy to relieve pain caused by muscle spasms, muscle tension, and joint dysfunction.
Where Can I Get Manual Therapy?
Evolution proudly offers manual therapy for patients at all of our physical therapy clinics. Find your nearest location to schedule an appointment today
What is Manual Therapy?
Manual therapy is a specialized form of physical therapy that uses skilled and highly specific hands-on techniques without the assistance of devices or machines. Manual therapy generally involves two kinds of movement: soft tissue work and joint mobilization/manipulation.
Every movement in our joints consists of a roll component and a glide component. When we start to notice mechanical pain in certain joints, we often find that there’s a significant discrepancy between the rolling and gliding components within that joint.
Overall range of motion can be significantly limited due to a loss of the gliding component of that joint. By using manual therapy techniques, this joint glide can be restored to significantly improve overall range of motion and function.
Benefits of Manual Therapy
Your physical therapist may use manual therapy to improve the mechanics of your joints. Typically, you will be given an exercise program to either stabilize or further mobilize your joint independently, in order to create a lasting improvement. There are several benefits of manual therapy, including:
- Modulating pain
- Increasing range of motion (ROM)
- Reducing or eliminating soft tissue inflammation
- Inducing relaxation
- Improving contractile and noncontractile tissue repair, extensibility and/or stability
- Facilitating movement
- Improving function
Who Should Consider Manual Therapy?
Manual therapy is often utilized for issues stemming from the spine, such as acute and chronic back pain. This technique is recommended for patients of all ages and activity levels. Manual therapy can be implemented as a helpful treatment for a wide range of issues or conditions, including:
- Lower back pain
- Neck pain & stiffness
- Tension headaches or migraines
- Shoulder impingement & elbow pain
- Knee pain or runner’s knee
- Ankle pain
- Fibromyalgia
- Repetitive strain injury (RSI)
- Piriformis syndrome
Functional Movement Screen (FMS) & Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA)
The FMS and SFMA are an evaluative system composed of seven movement tests that require a balance of both mobility and stability. This is a total body assessment. These patterns are used to assess the quality of movements in the body. Weakness, imbalance, asymmetries and limitations in the movement patterns allow clinicians to treat the weakest link. These systems are very helpful during the initial patient examination and can help guide the clinician to choose the most effective treatment option for the individual, to get to the heart of their dysfunction in the quickest manner possible.
Learn More About Manual Therapy at Your Nearest Evolution Location
Our physical therapists will often perform manual therapy techniques as part of your evaluation and diagnosis to help them assess your condition. Contact us today for more information!
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