The world is a bit of a crazy place right now with social isolation and virtual hang-outs becoming the (hopefully temporary) norm. These drastic lifestyle changes have not only taken away some of our jobs, but also given us a lot of time to slow down and think. As a physiotherapist, I know there are a lot of people in my profession who work in hospitals and care facilities during this time, and I’m reminded of just how many different specialties of physiotherapy there are. I further realized how much I love what I do; not being able to practice and see my patients in the same manner I’m used to is pretty strange. But I’m able to truly acknowledge how much of my work happens without actually physically touching a patient at all. Providing education, continuing to problem solve cases, creating exercise programs and ongoing learning are just a few of these things.
Education
One thing I love, and one of the most important parts of being a physiotherapist, is the ability to teach others — my patients specifically. The human body is a complex network that miraculously works in perfect timing and organization for us to be intelligent, living beings. Humans are created to move, but in day-to-day lives this movement is typically taken for granted. That is, until an injury or similar prevents one from doing what they want to. It is often only then that someone starts to take interest their physical function. Not everyone even cares how their body works, as long as it does, which is entirely okay as it’s my job to know that not theirs. But it is always my goal to educate everyone, at least a little bit. The more I can help someone understand reasoning behind required movement capabilities (to achieve whatever it is), I find increased patient compliance to the process follows.
Further, I have found that increased patient understanding lends way to helping prevent the same injury or concern from occurring again. Everyone comes with a different background, life and habit history, so yes everyone is different. But using this history allows me to create preventative strategies for someone to undo the patterning that may have caused that problem in the first place. I have hopes of teaching people what and how they should move now so that they can continue to be their best version possible, for as long as possible. While in typical physiotherapy appointments education is done in person, I will continue to use virtual appointments, this blog, social media, and any other platforms I can to try to help others through educating them — so ask me a question!
Problem Solving
Although humans are all remarkably similar, each body is unique based off of past and present lifestyle, and so each person is a different puzzle. The ultimate goal of a physiotherapist’s work is to find solutions to this unique puzzle to improve someone’s function. While a lot of information can be gathered through physical touch to determine tissue quality, joint mobility and passive movements, a great amount is determined outside of contact. Obtaining a thorough history, description of current presentation, limitations and challenges as well as visual observation of movements can often provide most of the information required. And the puzzle needs to be pieced together. At minimal this allows a physiotherapist to provide education for rehab and exercises and movements for enhancing patterns. The physical touch will never be replaceable in my line of work, but a big component of a patient’s concern can at least begin to be solved through this information and then determining a structured program of progressions.
Exercise programming
This leads to our next, non-hands-on component of physiotherapy work. While hands-on cueing is optimal for exercise technique, proper programming of such exercises is critical to successful improved movement — whether recovering from injury or not. Mobility, control and strength progressions, done in the right sequencing, are imperative in creating and maintaining progress. Even with in-person appointments, I always emphasize the importance of a patient reinforcing the work we do at home. For the body to change its patterning, specific exercises that often challenge tissues and systems must be implemented. Teaching the body a new way to move takes time. For example, it can’t be expected that making a free throw once will automatically mean a successful shot every time. It’s the same with anything new; using external feedback and conscious focus is required before the nervous system sees this new way of moving as normal and better. Many of these progressions can be accomplished with specific, correct programming and a bit of time and patience, even if the hands-on treatment isn’t available.
Learning
Okay, the learning part of the job is more for me but in the end it does help my patients! In all honesty it’s one of the reasons I chose this profession — it will never get boring. There is always so much new research, opinions and techniques to learn. Different perspectives and approaches to movement, manual therapy and essentially creating a body that is as resilient as possible, are nothing but beneficial as a therapist. It’s adding more tools to the tool box. Some patients may respond better to one approach than others, so having a variety of techniques and being able to change the thought process to achieve the same (or similar) end goal is always beneficial.
So that’s what I’m taking this time to do: educate, problem solve, provide exercise programming and learn. While I can’t use hands-on manual work and make in-person connections like I love to, there is a large component of my work that doesn’t include that at all. If you have any specifics you want to learn about for yourself or in general please visit my website or instagram page to get in contact. And don’t give up on your body; use this time to get BETTER at moving and really gain the appropriate respect that the body is what allows you to do everything you do.
