The Amazing Benefits Of Physical Therapy

The average physical therapy clinic sees between 101 and 200 patients each week. However, despite how popular physical therapy is, many remain skeptical about it’s benefits. From how it works to the professionals that make use of the practice — and even those that use it simply for general wellness, here’s what you should know when it comes to the benefits involved with physiotherapy, and why it’s worth a try.

Also called physiotherapy, physical therapy is a way to treat a myriad of conditions by way of massage, exercise, and other methods that don’t involve medications or surgery, and can result in benefits including improved mobility, pain management, and improved balance. Used as a treatment on it’s own, or in conjunction with other forms of treatment, PT is commonly used for conditions such as carpal tunnel, back pain, neurological conditions (such as a stroke), and is also used for treating sports injuries, to name just a few. It’s important to keep in mind that doctors of physical therapy are specialized in sports and orthopedic injuries, and skilled in evaluating and diagnosing movement systems and dysfunctions. In order to address the underlying cause of the issue, physical therapists will prescribe the treatment that they believe is best for the patient’s condition. Treatments may include that of hot/cold therapy, exercises, and massage, depending on the situation.

Physical therapy is well known for being used in sports, so much so that even the professionals use physiotherapy to stay healthy and in the game. From the Olympics to basketball, lots of athletes use physical therapy to recover from and prevent injury. Mark Kozuki, DPT, runs the Elite Performance physical therapy center in Costa Mesa, California, and the expert gathers a client base that includes surfing pros like Lakey Peterson and Tyler Wright. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is yet another notable example, who has been known to use cupping — a manual therapy practice that may also be used by physical therapists in order to treat the muscles and relieve tension.

However, dedicated athletes aren’t the only ones making use of physiotherapy, as it’s popularity is becoming more and more widely used. Even actors and artists, like Jennifer Aniston and P. Diddy invest in the practice for general wellness purposes. This can help with everyday things from maintaining good posture for actors, and even executing extreme dance moves on stage in order to stay fit and healthy, in addition to preventing injury.

While many may consider physical therapy to not be a real form of treatment, those who experience it beg to differ. Used by professional athletes and celebrities alike, the practice is known to help prevent and recover from injury, and it’s rise in popularity sees it becoming a way to promote general wellness, too.