Let’s imagine for a second that you suffered a traumatic injury and part of the recovery process involved physical therapy. For patients with no experience or detailed knowledge of physical therapy, this can prove a daunting request. It doesn’t help that there are tons of myths floating around the public consciousness that make physical therapy sound scarier than it is.
How do you wipe away the falsehoods around physical therapy to find out what goes on?
Well, we’ve got you covered. It’s time to look at our list of the latest and best physical therapy myths that exist today and debunk them all!
But enough talk, right? Let’s do this thing!
The Best Physical Therapy Relies on Exercise
One of the most common conceptions of physical therapy is that it consists of different stretches and exercises to retrain and heal your muscles and nothing more. This is false, as physical therapy uses a wide variety of tools from a modular taping station to electric stimulators to help you with the healing process. Physical therapy also works as a preventative measure, as a good therapist can catch issues with your body during the therapy before they get worse.
In addition, this means you can’t go off and perform therapy yourself while expecting the same results. Physical therapists have to undergo special training to achieve their position.
This training teaches them what methods work best for each condition. They also have access to technology outside the average consumer’s reach that can make dramatic improvements towards your recovery.
Physical Therapy Hurts
Scared to go to physical therapy because you’re worried about the pain? You can relax because any physical therapist worth their salt knows how to work your body in a way that pushes it without exerting lots of pain.
This isn’t to say the process is painless, as even moderate injuries will still cause some discomfort when put through therapy. Without that therapy, however, the pain will only grow worse.
Insurance Can’t Pay Off the Huge Cost
For those worried about their insurance not covering physical therapy, the good news is that most insurance plans offer some form of support for paying for therapy visits. You’ll need to watch your plan limits, however. This is because some companies limit how many times you can visit a therapist in a certain billing cycle before they won’t offer support.
Physical Therapy is Less Effective than Surgery
While physical therapy isn’t the better alternative for every condition, many injuries will benefit as much from therapy as they would from surgery. For example, tearing in your joints can get healed by your body through physical therapy stimulating the joints to repair themselves.
Therapy Ends When You Stop Seeing the Therapist
Finally, you’re not done the physical therapy gauntlet because you don’t make office visits anymore. Your therapist has a responsibility to educate you about your condition. They will give you exercises to keep your body active and healing as well as information about how to prevent the injury from worsening.
Stopping after the end of the visit increases your risk of the injury returning or growing worse.
Working Towards a Happier Future
Now that you’ve debunked the latest and best physical therapy myths around, what other techniques and tools can you learn about to improve your health? Well, make sure to check out the other articles on our website to find the knowledge you need!
