#physiotherapy tips

Better Your Health with These 5 Tips!

If you have recently been dealing with pain and are searching for lasting relief, our physiotherapists are here for you. With a personalized physiotherapy plan, you can discover highly efficient ways to treat your pain and improve your overall energy levels.

Our physiotherapists have the experience to help you actually live a pain-free life. Please contact our office today to learn more and arrange your first appointment with us!

Here are five helpful tips that you can use to generate more energy and alleviate acute or chronic pain!

1. Make sure to hydrate

It is recommended that we drink about an ounce of water for each pound we weigh each day! That seems like a lot, but it normally averages out to be around 7-8 glasses.

Drinking enough water will prevent you from dehydrating, and this will allow you to avoid muscle cramps, headaches, fatigue, and constipation.

Water is always the healthiest drink option, so make sure you keep a full bottle or thermos near you at all times during the day.

You will notice that the more water you drink, the less pain you feel, and the more energy you have. The added bonus is that it can help you keep your appetite under control so you’re less likely to gain unnecessary weight.

2. Practice proper posture

If you make improvements with your posture it can make a massive difference with your overall health.

A physiotherapy program can help you improve your posture, and this is something you can also carry out long term. Sitting and standing with your shoulders back, chest out, and a straight spine is a good start.

Avoid sitting slumped over a book, desk, or your computer at work! Your physiotherapist can guide you towards proper posture habits that will help relieve pain and pressure.

3. Make ergonomic changes to the way you sit

The way you sit can have a massive impact on your pain and energy levels. Your physiotherapist might recommend that you change the way you’re sitting to relieve pain.

A lumbar cushion behind your back can help relieve pressure in your lower back region. By avoiding pain, you’ll feel less zapped of energy at the end of the day. Your physiotherapist will be able to offer a specialized treatment plan full of tips and exercises to help you adjust your sitting habits at home and in your work environment.

It’s also important to make sure you’re not sitting for prolonged periods without breaks. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Research has linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns. They include obesity and a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels — that make up metabolic syndrome.”

Be sure to take breaks at work and get up to move around!

4. Get moving

Most of us underestimate how critical it is to move around a lot every day. This is something physiotherapy will make very clear to you! When you are in pain, it might be instinct to curl up in the fetal position on your side, but that’s the worst option you can choose.

Forcing yourself to get up and walk around a bit every hour is a better choice, even if you just take a simple walk around the room. This can help relieve your pain immensely, and give you an extra boost of energy.

5. Make sure to breathe

Obviously you’re breathing all the time, however, it’s not focused breathing! Your physiotherapist will show you how practicing focused breathing techniques can help relieve your pain and give you an energy boost during the day.

Every few hours, make sure you take a moment to yourself to stop, shut your eyes, and breathe. Breathe in deeply through your nose.

Make sure your lungs are as full as possible, and then breathe out through your mouth. Let a bit of air out through your lips by keeping them lightly pursed, and focus on nothing but your breathing for a few minutes.

You’ll be shocked at how much of a difference it can make with your energy and stress levels!

Ready to get started?

Physiotherapy is a safe, healthy, non-invasive way to recover from injury or illness and get back to feeling your absolute best. Be sure to use the tips above to add to your customized physiotherapy plan for optimum results.

Playing sports and expecting not getting an injury is like expecting the sun to rise from the west. Though it is excruciating to get injured, it is inevitable. Take any greatest athlete in the history of sports. They have been injured and bounced back from those injuries to become the greatest. There are rehabilitation programs after getting sports-related injuries that help in 100% fit and ready to play the sport we love. Sticking to the rehab routine and taking care of physiotherapists would be one of the most effective ways to recover from the injury. Avoiding a few exercises, performing in wrong ways, and procrastination will not help in rapid recovery. It may lead to more intense injury than it already is. Here are few do’s and don’ts that need to be followed while undergoing physiotherapy for sports-related injuries:

Do’s –

Share as much information as possible with physiotherapists:

Physiotherapists will be able to help you to the best of their abilities when you share everything with them. Holding some information back would work against you and lower the speed of recovery. However, it may lead to no recovery at all due to not getting the appropriate treatment as some information has been held. Be open and honest with the therapist. Share everything from the history of injuries, lifestyle, physical activities, and medications. A well-informed therapist will help you in the best way.

Raise doubts and queries:

Ask questions regarding the injury and affected body parts. A well-informed patient will understand the treatment plan better and stick to it rigorously. If you have doubts regarding exercises you are performing and how they benefit you, raise queries and understand how it is impacting you. Ensure you are performing exercises in the right way and following the treatment plan by understanding the importance of everything. If you are unclear, it is your responsibility to ask about it.

Full commitment:

If you are fully committed to recovering from the injury, only then you will get the expected results and return to the sport you love to play. If you are not committed fully, you will not get the expected result and will be unable to recover in the time frame you are supposed to. This is a mental aspect to recover from an injury and should not be overlooked.

Don’ts –

Concentrating on pain only:

Rehabilitation from injuries is a painful process. It is difficult to wait to get back on active routine. There are many research studies that show the positive thinking about various aspects of life and sport will help in recovering faster from injury. If you concentrate only on pain, you will not get most of your treatment.

Thinking the therapist will get you out of it:

Physiotherapists are there to guide and lead you to the recovery path. They make treatment plans and change it according to the progress. But you are the one who needs to be an active participant and do everything to get yourself out of it. The therapist will guide you, but it is you who has to walk toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

Excess reliance on passive treatments:

There are various passive treatments including massage, acupuncture, joint mobilizations, soft tissue work, and others to help you in recovery. However, you should not rely on these treatments only. They play a crucial part, but active treatments such as physical movements, recommended exercises, and others should be followed strictly. Active and passive treatments will help you in a speedy recovery.

Flexibility decreases with age up to 50 percent in some of the muscles and joints. Though the process of decrease in flexibility takes place throughout the life, its effects become evident in later stages of life. Senior citizens turn to prescriptions and medical equipment to cope up with reduced mobility and flexibility. Though these options are available, there is a better option that would be effective to gain & maintain strength, improve mobility & flexibility, and regulate blood circulation. That option is stretching. Research studies have proved that stretching and a few motion exercises will reduce the loss of mobility and flexibility. Following are some of the benefits offered by stretching that lead to better quality of life:

Reduces the risk of falling:

Falling is one of the major concerns in adults over 60. According to the study, one out of three adults fall every year and nearly 2.5 million individuals need treatment for falling annually. Regular stretching exercises will help in maintaining balance and reduce the risk of falling. Improvement of flexibility in lower back, hamstrings, and quadriceps will help in countering the risk of falling. Moreover, mobility in hip joints is essential to prevent falling. Stretching will bring more mobility in hip joints.

Improve the posture:

With age, the water content in connective tissues including tendons and ligaments reduces. This results in loss of flexibility. The reduced flexibility in tendons and ligaments coupled with sedentary lifestyle opted throughout the lifetime results in poor posture. The poor posture causes pain in lower back, joints, and shoulders. A consistent stretching exercise helps in the improvement of flexibility. The tight tendons, ligaments, and muscles will loosen, giving you a better flexibility and wide range of motions. Moreover, stretching supplemented with strength training will help in improving the posture.

Reduced lower back pain:

Spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis cause lower back pain in adults over 60. In spinal stenosis, spinal nerves are compressed and create pain in lower back. Osteoarthritis, a common form of arthritis, causes pain in the lower back due to degeneration of cartilage between the facet joints. With aging, these conditions cannot be avoided, but the pain caused can be managed. The solution is regular stretching exercises. These exercises reduce the stiffness of muscles, resulting in a better flexibility. It is painful to stretch these muscles, so it is necessary to warm these muscles and then stretch. Stretching equipment can also be used with the help of another individual.

Improve blood flow and energy levels: