Types of Physiotherapy Most Common for Seniors
Injuries and chronic pain can affect our ability to physically function on a daily basis. If you’ve ever recovered from a back injury, or coped with the sometimes-debilitating pain of arthritis, then you know first hand how pain and lack of mobility can impact quality of life. Medication alone often isn’t enough to help the body heal and recover. In fact, many medications are intended to assist additional healing treatments, such as physiotherapy.
What Is Physiotherapy?
Physiotherapy is an area of healthcare that’s focused on helping the body recover from injury or strengthening itself in the face of chronic illness. As a discipline, physiotherapy helps patients restore and maintain a level of strength, movement and function, ideally leading to an improved quality of life.
Physiotherapy and physical therapy are terms you’ll often hear used interchangeably. When a patient receives treatment, a physiotherapist works with them to assess, diagnose, and treat their injury or illness through a personalized treatment plan. Common elements of a physiotherapy treatment plan may include:
- Joint manipulation
- Muscle stretching
- Biofeedback
- Massage
- Joint mobilization
- Pain management
What Are the Most Common Types of Physiotherapy?
Since the reasons each person receives physiotherapy are different, treatment plans are going to look different from patient to patient. There are different types of physiotherapy, with each person’s individual plan being built from the elements that are going to be most effective for healing and providing relief. If a doctor has prescribed physiotherapy for you or a loved one, understanding the most common types of treatment will help you better know what to expect.
Physiotherapy Exercises
In many cases, physiotherapy involves the use of specific exercises to help strengthen your muscles, enhance flexibility, and improve overall mobility. These exercises typically focus on larger muscle groups and may include elements common to yoga or pilates, as well as mild resistance exercise to build strength. Physiotherapy exercise also help reduce the risk of repetitive injury.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a form of therapy that helps you become more in tune with your body’s processes, especially in regard to pain, breathing and movement. Through biofeedback, you learn to either relax or strengthen muscles as a rehabilitative measure, or for pain management. Biofeedback is done by an experienced physiotherapist who places electrodes on your body to monitor and provide feedback on movement, breathing, heart rate, etc.
Electrical Stimulation
Electrotherapy involves the use of painless, electrical signals that interfere with the transmission of neural pain signals. Through this interruption, electrical stimulation essentially distracts the pain signal on its way to the brain. Electrical simulation is an effective form of physiotherapy for people with injuries involving tissue damage.
Learn More About Physiotherapy Options
If physiotherapy has been prescribed for you, it’s important that you work with a treatment center that’s dedicated to providing the highest level of care with an experienced, professional physiotherapist. We provide a full spectrum of physical therapy services and encourage you to visit and learn more about our facility. Contact Princeton Health Care Center if you have any questions or would like to schedule a tour.”