21 Ways to Benefit from Physical Therapy

If You’re Asking Yourself, “Can I Benefit from Physical Therapy?”

Then answer is a resounding, “YES!!!”

As a physical therapist, I can see how everyone can benefit from physical therapy. The purpose of this article is so that you can too.

What Physical Therapy does is so much more than giving you a piece of Theraband, drawing some stick figures on a piece of printer paper, commenting on your posture, and sending you out of the clinic looking dazed and confused.

Here is a list of a fraction of the things that Physical Therapy can do for you.

Take Home Point. If you need help physically being able to do something in your daily life, physical therapy is likely for you! Let’s show you how!

1. Physical Therapy Returns You to What Matters Most (Category 1: Participation)

Much of the time, when someone thinks of physical therapy, they think of painful manual treatments, some exercises that seem so simple they couldn’t possibly be helpful, and some mild posture-shaming.

Step back for a minute.

Remember in Elementary School when we were taught the 5 W’s and the H? Who? What? Where? When? Why? And How?

Often, patients and physical therapists are focusing too strongly on the “How”. We get bogged down in identifying something that is not moving enough, a muscle that is not strong enough, and posture/ mechanics that are not good enough. We both lose sight of the most important question, the “Why?”

Physical Therapy is meaningless to both you as the patient and me as the physical therapist if we don’t identify the real “Why”.

Why are both you and I sitting here in this treatment space together?

It should be because you are wanting to either:

1. Return to something that matters to you greatly.
2. Prevents you from losing the ability to do something that matters to you greatly.

This is the ONLY thing that Physical Therapy does that really matters. It returns people to what matters to them most.

Let’s dive into what those things could be.

2. Playing with Grandchildren

There has never been a more motivated patient than the one that wants to be able to play with a grandchild. Just two years prior, all you wanted your body to do was essential activities like walking, sitting, and driving.

Over night, your priorities have changed. Now you want to be able to get up and down from the floor twenty times in an afternoon, sit on the floor for an hour, crawl on the floor to be the “best horsey you can be”, and be able to lift a 20-40 lb human being on a regular basis.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Leg strengthening to ensure that your legs can power you up and down from the floor for play.
2. Recommendations (Ahem! Airex Pad or Similar) for things to sit on to make sitting on the floor for prolonged play realistic.
3. Understanding that the only reason why children/ toddlers can kneel so much more comfortably than adults is because kneecaps are soft (made of cartilage) until age 7 on average [1]. After age 7, they become typical hard bony tissue and it is no longer comfortable or advisable to kneel or crawl in abundance without padding.
4. Upper body strengthening and tips on best mechanics for how you could/ should lift a little one.

3. Participating in Your Passions & Hobbies

Human beings are incredible! I love hearing what all of my patients are into. In my career, I have seen competitive jump ropers, glassblowers, metal artists, table tennis players in their eighth decade of life, ultra marathoners, and so much more. You guys do amazing things with your bodies! Sometimes these things make your body hurt.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. For the Creatives & Artists: Strengthen the muscles in your upper back, shoulders, and forearms to make sure they are equipped to handle your craft. Instruction in proper use of tools to avoid excessive stress and irritation. Give suggestions on setting up your studio/ space so it is optimized for you to build your finest work.
2. For the Lower Body Athletes: Build your core and lower body for power, strength, and control as your sport requires. Learn what the most common injuries are for your sport and how you can prevent them in yourself.
3. For the Upper Body Athletes: Scapular stability and rotator cuff strength are a must! Neuromuscular control of the arm will hone the accuracy and efficiency of your movements so you can perform at your best.

4. Caring for Your Family (at Home)

For good reason, people are very distressed when they feel they are physically unable to care for their family. Your infant baby does not know that you have Tennis Elbow or DeQuervain’s Tenosynovitis. Your toddler does not understand that you have Rotator Cuff Tendinitis and cannot throw them up in the air repetitively so your ears can drink in that full belly laughter.

If you’re caring for an aging parent and your mom needs physical assistance getting in and out of bed, are you going to tell your mom that she’s going to just stay in the bed all day because your back is hurting? Of course not.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Discuss Setting an [Insert Your Body Part Here] Budget. Spend your budget only on these high priority tasks. Caring for your baby takes precedence over making sure that you contribute dozens of cookies to the Bake Sale this year. Your “Low Back Budget” goes to helping Mom get in and out of bed. The weeds should be delegated to another person or another time.
2. Body Mechanics. Body Mechanics. Body Mechanics. The best way to get yourself on the path to healing is to make sure that you’re not adding unnecessary stress every time you perform a task. Learn the best way for your body to help your mom get in and out of bed. Learn the best way for your body to lift the baby out of the crib.
3. Identify What Needs Strengthening to Ensure these Tasks Can Be Accomplished Successfully AND Without Pain.

5. Caring for Your Family (at Work)

Caring for your family doesn’t just take place in the home. Making sure your body can do your occupation/ job is of utmost importance if you are a Breadwinner or if your income is necessary to run your household!

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Discuss the Physical Demands Your Job Requires. Physical therapy for a job that requires 10 hours of sitting versus 8 hours of digging, lifting, and carrying is going to look very different.
2. Posture, Ergonomics, & Body Mechanics. Education regarding how the body can best perform your work.
3. Strengthening & Stretching to Make Sure Your Body Can Use that Best Posture & Body Mechanics!

6. Feeling A Part of Your Peer Group

No matter how young (or not young) we are, we ALL want to be a part of what others our age are doing. It is very important for our mental health and well being for us to feel like we belong and we are a part of the bigger picture.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Breakdown of the Tasks Your Peer Group is Performing. If you want to play chess at the park, we need to be able to get you there and make sure you can sit for hours comfortably while you play. If you’re in college, we need to make sure you can walk to class, participate in clubs, and maybe intramural sports. If you’re 5 years old, we need you to be able to jump rope and dominate a playground like a boss.
2. Strengthen, Stretch, and Coordination to Ready the Body for Your Tasks.
3. Practice of the Tasks in the Clinic to Prepare You for the Real Thing!

7. Make You Feel Like You’re a Productive Member of Society (Volunteering)

In order to lead happy, fulfilled lives, most of us need to feel like our life has purpose and that what we do matters. For some that is raising their children, for others their work fulfills this mission, but for others giving back is how they make their mark.

I have had noble individuals whose main physical therapy goal was to be able to return to their weekly shift volunteering in the soup kitchen, be able to lift boxes of goods for the canned food drive, or be able to paint/ build a set for a school play.

If it matters to you, it matters.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Make Sure You’re Mobile. Make sure you can get in the car, drive where you need to go, and be able to lift, stoop, and bend.
2. Build Endurance. Work on your endurance, so you can give and help out for as long as your mind desires.
3. Strengthen the Body. Shore up your muscle strength to make sure that your body can handle it all.

8. Make Sure You Can Take Action (Category 2: Activities)

Think of the Activities Category as the “-ings”. These are actions that physical therapy can return you to such as, walking, driving, lifting.

You know… the “-ings”.

Without the physical ability to perform these actions, we struggle to be good students, productive employees, amazing parents, loving spouses, and caring children.

Let’s take a closer look at how we can make sure we are people of action.

9. Get Up and Down from a Chair or a Sofa

Have you ever had someone tell you that they can’t go to their best friend’s house anymore because there’s not a seat that they can sit down in and be certain that they can get back out of? I have. Have you ever cried in shame and humiliation because you fell getting out of a restaurant booth? Have you ever gotten rid of a beloved piece of furniture because you just can’t get up from it?

This is the kind of thing that honestly makes me tear up.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

SAFETY FIRST! If you don’t think you can do the following safely on your own, your physical therapist will coach you through!

The 3 Rules for Getting Up from Any Surface

1. Scoot to the edge of the seat.
2. Make sure your feet are underneath your knees.
3. Don’t try to stand up until your shoulders are over your knees (OPTION: Push off from the seat with your hands).

10. Get In and Out of Bed

Do you feel like an upside down turtle on its shell trying to get out of bed in the morning? Does the exertion make you feel like you must be blue in the face?

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Log Rolling is Your Friend! Your Physical Therapist will show you how to log roll. It’s simultaneously protective of your spine and takes advantage of gravity and momentum to make getting in and out of bed as effortless as it can be.
2. Core Strengthening. Difficulty getting in and out of bed often stems from too little strength in our middle. Your Physical Therapist will be an expert in core strengthening as well.

11. Driving. Life is Your Highway!

Driving = Independence.

The freedom that most of us feel when we can get ourselves to and from home, work, and our errands is important.

When your neck is preventing you from feeling like you can check your blind spot, or your back is killing you when you sit in that bucket seat, or you feel like your sprained ankle won’t let you slam on that brake pedal in an emergency, driving can feel out of reach.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Address Neck Stiffness & Pain. Manual physical therapy treatments are effective at restoring neck rotation range of motion. When you wake up with a “crick in the neck”, it is even more straightforward than other kinds of stiffness/ neck pain.
2. Modify Your Seat/ Set Up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked with a patient to their car just to see what they look like in it. Sometimes it’s simple. Let’s tilt your seat back. Why are you sitting all the way in the back seat? Other times, it’s a matter of getting a lumbar support or a wedge to sit on.
3. Decrease Limb Swelling, Improve Range of Motion, and Increase Leg Coordination. Following lower body injury, making sure that you can trust your leg to drive you safely is essential. Your Physical Therapist can coach you through this process and give you guidance on when you look safe to drive.

12. Make Sure You Can Walk

Whether your goal is to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom, be able to check your mail, or navigate the maze of the grocery store, physical therapy can help you reach your walking goal.

Feel like you have a limp or your walk looks “off”? Physical Therapy can help you pinpoint where your walk has you on the wrong foot.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Gait Analysis. Watching you walk to determine what is contributing to your pain or limitation.
2. Strengthening & Range of Motion to Resolve the Missing Puzzle Pieces. If you’re missing strength or range of motion that is limiting your walking, physical therapy addresses them.
3. Balance. Sometimes difficulty walking is due to lack of balance or feeling unsteady on your feet. Balance training or fitting with an appropriate Assistive Device (Crutches, Cane, or Walker) may be what you need.
4. Cardiovascular Endurance. Sometimes the muscles are willing, but the body doesn’t feel like it has the stamina. Physical Therapy can help with this.

13. Ascend & Descend Stairs

Does going up and downstairs give you the most grief? Some people come to me for physical therapy because they can’t get upstairs to sleep in their own bed. Others no longer use whole sections of their house because they can’t safely get there.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

What Gives You the Greatest Trouble?
1. Going Up? This suggests that strength is your biggest issue. Your Physical Therapist will build a strengthening program for you.
2. Going Down? Often due to orthopedic (muscle, tendon, or bone) stress or irritation, your PT can help you decrease tissue irritation and give you the option of heading downstairs without a thought.
3. Small Curb or Step to Enter the House? This is most often a balance issue. Balance training should be featured in your program.

14. Make Sure You Can Lift

Lifting objects big and small is a big part of our daily lives. Whether you’re hauling manure, groceries, or lifting a gallon of milk, it all requires strength to lift, tote, and carry. Did you know that 66% of women ages 75 to 85 can’t lift 10 pounds [2]? That’s a pretty humbling statistic.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Addressing the Less Obvious. Anyone can throw a weight in your hand and tell you to practice lifting it. Physical Therapists know to check that you have the strength higher up in your shoulders and shoulder blades to make sure you have a stable foundation to lift to your heart’s content. Sometimes it’s a matter of your hand flexibility. Can you get your hand around objects without pain? Sometimes it’s your grip strength. If you can’t squeeze something hard enough to lift it. You won’t be able to lift it.
2. THEN Work On the Lifting Itself.

15. Get Dressed & Shower By Yourself

Being able to dress, shower, toilet, and groom by yourself is a big deal!

With shoulder pain, women often have dreams of washing, blow-drying, and curling their hair, fastening their bra behind their back, and doing their makeup pain-free. For men, tucking in a shirt, looping their belt, or putting their wallet in their back pocket are lofty goals.

In hip and back pain, all people want is to put on their shoes and socks without the help of someone else.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

Range of Motion! Restore motion to the shoulder, the hip, or other relevant part to make sure that you can reach and groom without pain.

16. Control Your Bladder & Bowel

Way more people than you will ever know are suffering from bowel and bladder dysfunction! I have taken to spontaneously bringing this up with literally every woman who has ever had a child just because no one is talking about this.

I am talking about this! There is an entire specialty of physical therapists that are devoted to helping people who have pain and dysfunction with peeing, pooping, and having sex!

Go Here Now to Find One!!!

Looking to Share with Your Friend or Loved One?

https://aptapelvichealth.org/

17. Classic Benefits of Physical Therapy (Category 3: Body, Structure, & Function Considerations)

This final category addresses the body, its structures, and its functions on a most fundamental level.

These are what everyone typically thinks of when they are preparing to go to physical therapy. These are essential building blocks for everything we ask our bodies to do. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, I strive for these “Hows” to take a backseat to our “Whys”.

Compare:

“Okay, we’re going to do 10 Quadriceps Sets (Thigh Squeezes) and I want you to hold that muscle tight for 10 seconds.”

Yawn. Snooze. I Don’t Think So.

Versus:

“Okay, we’re going to do 10 Quadriceps Sets (Thigh Squeezes) and I want you to hold that muscle tight for 10 seconds. The sooner your quadriceps is firing properly, the sooner we can:

1. Get you out of that knee brace.
2. Get rid of your crutches, cane, or walker.
3. Get you up the stairs so you can sleep in the bed with your spouse again.”

Takes on a whole new meaning when we focus more on the “Why”.

Here are some of the “Hows” that help get you to your “Why”!

18. Increase Range of Motion

Have you ever had to worry about having enough knee bend to get your leg inside a car? How about enough elbow bend to be able to feed yourself? Or what about enough shoulder flexibility to wipe your butt?

People are struggling with what are seemingly simple tasks and movements that many of us take for granted.

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

If your range of motion is preventing you from being able to do your Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) Physical Therapy can help!

19. Increase Strength

Strength! So many of our aches and pains would go away if we just had more strength on our frames!

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

1. Stairs. Much of pain with going up and downstairs is a matter of strength.
2. Lifting. Difficulty lifting comes from the ability of the body to use the legs to help, the shoulder blade to create a stable base, and finally the arm itself to perform the actual lift.
3. Transitional Movements. If you have pain with a transitional movement (when you start in one position and end up in another), you need more core strength. Examples Include: Sit to stand, changing positions in bed, and lying down to sitting.
4. Endurance. The tasks that we wish we could do for just a little bit longer. When you cannot sit at work for as long as you would like? When you cannot walk for as long as you would like? When your neck hurts because your head is “heavy” at the end of the day… These are all signs that your body needs more Endurance (a special type of strength).

20. Increase Coordination

Do you have enough control of your body?

How Can Physical Therapy & Occupational Therapy Help?

This is where Physical Therapy & Occupational Therapy may have some overlap.

1. Help with Manipulation of Objects. Think zippers, buttons, and playing cards.
2. Use of Utensils & Tools. Think chopping, cutting, using a fork, using scissors, and so on.
3. Performing Tasks Related to Your Work. Think typing, writing, or similar.
4. Hobbies that Require Rapid Finger Movements. Think playing a musical instrument, knitting, and crocheting.
5. Lower Body Coordination. Like being able to take your shoes on and off in standing or being able to step onto an escalator or moving walkway.

21. Improve Balance

21.2%= The 1-Year Mortality Rate for Individuals 60 or Older Who Sustain a Hip Fracture Due to a Fall [3]

This means that 1 in 5 people over the age of 60 who fracture their hip due to a fall die within the first year. That is devastating.

What makes it so devastating is Fall Risk is so easily decreased with balance training!

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

If you doubt you could stand on each foot for 30 seconds, find a physical therapist now! Prevent a fall!

Bringing It All Together

The ICF Model [4]

If you’re not familiar with the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) Model, it is a standardized structure established by the World Health Organization (WHO) that allows healthcare to have a common language for communication. This is what the 3 categories I outlined above speak to.

1. Participation. This refers to your roles. Examples of roles include employee, spouse, mother, father, sibling. These are what I described as the most important “Whys”.
2. Activities. These were your “-ings”. Walking, driving, lifting, and so on.
3. Body, Structure, and Function Limitations. These were those building block pieces, such as range of motion, strength, coordination, and balance.

This is the framework that Physical Therapists and other healthcare practitioners use to build a meaningful treatment program for you. We work to include each of these categories/ levels that are essential to our optimal function and meaningful lives.

All good Physical Therapy programs should address all 3 tiers.

Find Your Physical Therapist Now!

Whether you’re hoping to be the best grandparent you can be, the greatest sculptor, Father-of-the-Year, Dynamo-Working-Mom, the best volunteer in your community, or a social butterfly, it matters because it is important to you.

No matter your goal, no matter your why, Find Your Physical Therapist Now!

References:

1. Gwinner C, Märdian S, Schwabe P, Schaser KD, Krapohl BD, Jung TM. Current concepts review: Fractures of the patella. GMS Interdiscip Plast Reconstr Surg DGPW. 2016;5:Doc01. Published 2016 Jan 18. doi:10.3205/iprs000080
2. Harvard Women’s Health Watch. Exercise After Age 70. Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School. https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/Exercise_after_age_70. May 2007. Accessed January 30, 2019.
3. Schnell S, Friedman SM, Mendelson DA, Bingham KW, Kates SL. The 1-year mortality of patients treated in a hip fracture program for elders. Geriatr Orthop Surg Rehabil. 2010;1(1):6–14. doi:10.1177/2151458510378105
4. The ICF: An Overview. Center for Disease Control. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/icd/icfoverview_finalforwho10sept.pdf . Accessed January 7, 2020.