Whether it’s from a recent injury, a chronic condition, or just the effects of aging, millions of Americans have to deal with knee and hip pain. As a result, many people struggle with normal everyday tasks and find it hard to participate in sports or other activities they enjoy.
How Physical Therapy Can Help Relieve Hip Pain and Knee Pain
Physical Therapy is a branch of medicine that’s primarily concerned with the science of movement. Therapists identify root causes of diseases, tissue injuries and pain, and physical disorders, then address them with a range of therapeutic techniques. These include postural and movement education, and specific exercise programs. Manual therapy techniques also can be powerful healing tools. Physical Therapy uses these tools to improve the patient’s functional mobility, well-being, and oftentimes, pain.
Physical Therapists Teach You About Your Body and Show You How to Move
Modern physical therapy involves teaching patients the body’s neutral posture and efficient, ergonomic body mechanics. Therapists utilize exercises to help improve strength, joint mobility, and muscle flexibility so patients can move more fluidly and efficiently. Physical Therapy also includes education about the body that will help the patient avoid behaviors and motions that can make the pain worse. Like poor sitting posture, or performing repetitive motions with poor alignment.
Mobilizations and Other Manual Treatments Improve Tissue and Joint Health
A physical therapist is trained to use joint mobilization to help restore normal play in the joint after it becomes restricted due to wear and tear or injury. For the knee, this type of therapy includes patella and tibia femoral glides, and flexion and extension range of motion movements. When they are done correctly, joint mobilizations have been shown to be effective at reducing pain and increasing flexibility in a damaged joint.
Other manual treatments such as myofascial release, contract/relax and massage are also commonly applied to treat pain and improve mobility in the knees and hips. Dry needling is a powerful tool to treat chronic and acute pain without resorting to medication. Dry Needling uses a very thin filament needle that is similar to an acupuncture needle, although this treatment is not considered acupuncture and is based on Western physiologic approaches. Practitioners insert the needles into trigger points, which are hyper-irritable spots located in a taut band of skeletal muscle. This causes a twitch response in the muscles, which in turn causes the tension in the muscle to decrease and the muscles to loosen.
If you are suffering from pain in your hips and knees, Physical Therapy can offer you relief. A skilled therapist can identify the fundamental causes of your pain, treat you with exercises and therapeutic techniques, and teach you how to live a healthier life.
For more info or to schedule an appointment, call Andersonville Physical Therapy at (773) 907-3599
Or Request an Appointment.
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