Physical Therapy Archives - OrthoSport Hawaii PT & Aquatic Rehabilitation

Why You Should Spend Time in Nature

We live in one of the most beautiful and unique ecosystems on the planet. How often do you get out into nature? Are you a regular hiker, swimmer, snorkeler, gardener, or surfer? Do you run trails, mountain bike, or birdwatch? Even in Hawai’i it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. You commute to work on packed highways, spend most daylight hours indoors at work or school, and drive home often in the dark. Then you watch some TV and off to bed to repeat again the next day. Weekends can fill with household chores, childcare, errands, and social obligations. It’s no wonder so many people are disconnected from the natural world, and struggle with insomnia, anxiety, obesity, headaches, and so on.

Why make the effort? We’re so busy, why find time for nature? According to the American Psychological Association exposure to nature has been linked to many benefits including improved attention, lower stress, better mood, reduced risk of psychiatric disorders, and interestingly–improved empathy and cooperation.

There is also increasing amounts of research correlating many physical health benefits with at least 120 minutes per week spent in green areas (forests, trails, urban parks) and blue areas (rivers, ocean, beaches.) A study published in Nature describes decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, asthma hospitalizations, diabetes, and more.

Children who spend time in nature also benefit significantly. Increased physical activity outdoors improves Vitamen D absorption to build strong bones, may decrease risk of childhood obesity, can reduce stress, and improve sleep. A study in Pediatrics found positive associations with activities such as spending time in residential or school greenspace, nature walks, gardening, and wilderness experiences.

Lucky we live Hawai’i – we can get ourselves and our families outdoors year-round with great weather and a variety of natural environments to explore. Here are a few ways to get 120 minutes a week in the natural world:

Walk through urban parks, such as Kapiolani or Ala Moana. Make note of the weather, (is it windy, humid, cloudy?) birds and other wildlife, trees and plants. Apps such as Seek and Merlin can help you identifity plants and birds.
Grab your phone or camera and find some natural beauty to photograph. Focus on crashing waves, plumeria flowers, coconut palms, lava rock — whatever sparks your interest.
If you have any outdoor space of your own, plant something. Take the time to really care about a tomato plant or Hawaiian chili pepper and it may reward you with a tasty snack.
Have breakfast, lunch, or dinner outdoors at the beach or in a park.
Start a nature journal. This is a great way to learn about the plants, animals, and ecosystems in your area.
Exercise outdoors. Take a surfing lesson, join an outdoor boot camp workout, try Yoga on stand-up paddleboards, or ask your personal trainer to work with you outside.
Join a nature conservation group and volunteer to watch over monk seals, weed invasive species, or help protect and plant coral.
Take a whale watching or manta ray snorkeling tour. Make sure the tour group is ethical, doesn’t harrass the marine life, and has a spotless safety record.
Sign up for your first trail run. Yes it’s okay to walk!
Learn a new outdoor sport like canoe paddling, pickle ball, or scuba diving.

Not sure you are strong enough or fit enough to increase your time and activity outdoors? We’re here to help! We have free lectures and screenings for improving running form and fitness for court sports like pickle ball. We offer free 1 hour fitness assessments and orientations to our medical gym services. Our massage therapists are experts at helping you release tension and muscle aches. Our physical therapists are available to chat with you during a free consultation. If you’re having pain, balance issues, or signifcant weakness, health insurance may cover your treatment.

OrthoSport Hat on Kayak Don’t let stress, fitness, or health issues keep you from your goals. Call 808.373.1114 for information on medical gym and massage therapy services in our Downtown and Niu Valley clinics. Call 808.373.3555 for information on physical therapy services in our Downtown, Niu Valley, and Kaka’ako locations.

A hui hou!

References:

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/nurtured-nature

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44097-3

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/148/4/e2020049155/181269/Nature-and-Children-s-Health-A-Systematic-Review?autologincheck=redirected

Time (and Social Media) Marches On

As more people shift from reading blog articles to scrolling social media, we’ve ramped up our presence on other platforms and decreased our frequency of posting content here in the blog. It’s nice to take some time to delve into different topics, and this part of the website is an easy way to provide ongoing information about our staff and their activities. So we probably won’t be giving up this part of the site altogether. However, you may want to check out some of our other platforms to keep up with OrthoSport current events, special deals or discounts, and health-related topics. All of our social media links are posted at the top of the website home page but here they are for your convenience. Have any topics you’d like to learn more about? Contact us through Facebook or Instagram and we’ll get on it!

Caution! Home Exercise Fail Ahead!

A recent analysis of consumer injury data shockingly discovered that at-home workout injuries increased 48% from 2019 to 2020. Some of the increase is due to more people working out at home during the pandemic when gyms and group exercise classes were put on hold. However, roughly 30% of all at-home exercise injuries occurred in people aged 60 or over. The equipment most likely to cause injuries were treadmills and exercise bikes.

In our OrthoSport Hawaii clinics, we’ve seen an increase in patients coming to therapy for orthopedic injuries and pain syndromes. There are a few predominant pandemic-related themes:

Someone who used to exercise pre-pandemic, completely stopped working out. Their gym, yoga studio, pool, etc. was closed. They may have spent a great deal of time at home, watching NetFlix. Now they are suffering from deconditioning, poor posture, weight gain, and so on. This has led to insidious neck, back, shoulder, knee, wrist, or foot pain.

Someone who used to exercise pre-pandemic suddenly getting back to their previous exercise routines. They are launching themselves with great gusto into Zumba, tennis, running, basketball, bodybuilding, jujutsu, etc. Due to poor conditioning, decreased strength and/or flexibility they are injuring themselves pretty quickly.

In addition we’ve seen a great number of office workers with pain from working in less than ergonomic conditions, especially those working from home on laptops or with poor home office setups.

Did you pick up a new sport during the lockdowns? We’ve been seeing more newbie surfers, joggers, cyclists, and others in more socially distant sports. Along with new sports have come new injuries. With fewer family and social engagements to attend, some folks have found themselves engaging in novel activities at a much greater frequency than they would have normally.

All of these factors have created a boom in new patients visiting our clinics. This is great for business but not so great for the public, so let’s see if we can help. If you haven’t read our series on returning to fitness activities, start with Returning to Exercise After a Layoff.

Why are there more injuries in people over 60?

– Older bodies, regardless of fitness level, require longer warm-ups and cool-downs than they did in their younger years. As we age, connective tissue naturally loses its elasticity. If you have wrinkles on the outside, similar processes are occurring on the inside, you just can’t see them. Less elasticity means tissue is more likely to tear.

– Our maximum heart rate lowers as we age. This is not related to cardiovascular fitness. A 60 year old can be much fitter than a 30 year old, but no matter what, their 60 year old heart simply can’t beat as fast. That’s why having a strong heart is so important as we get older. A stronger heart doesn’t need to beat so fast as it can pump more blood with each beat. A simple formula for estimating your maximum heart rate is 220-your age. Therefore a 30 year old’s heart can beat all out at 190 bpm. A 60 year old’s can only reach 160 bpm. This affects how much work the body can perform.

– Many in-home workout programs, online fitness classes, etc are designed by and geared for a younger audience. The exercises may not be as appropriate for someone with stiffer joints, old injuries, asthma, or other medical conditions.

Why are there more injuries with home gym equipment?

– The treadmills, ellipticals and exercise bikes found at your local gym are probably heavy-duty, high quality machines designed to be used for hours and hours every day. For home use, consumers usually purchase something less expensive and therefore of a lower quality. This may be perfectly fine but could potentially have more defects or breakdowns of the equipment.

– Many people use exercise equipment incorrectly. They may set the treadmill speed too fast, or place it in a location that could cause injury, such as next to a wall. Weight benches may need to be assembled and one missing piece could spell disaster when barbells and plates are added. If you are putting your road bike on a trainer, be careful as you can fall off that thing!

– Home exercisers often use their home equipment inconsistently. Without a plan or program it’s easy to slack off and lose focus. Just because you were able to lift 50 lbs over your head three weeks ago doesn’t mean you can do that again today.

So if the gym is closed or open for too few hours, if it’s too crowded or your favorite classes are cancelled what can you do? Working out at home is a great option for many but it may be wise to consult with a fitness expert when deciding on equipment, exercise programming, pacing, and goal setting.

How OrthoSport Hawaii Can Help

We offer a free, no obligation, one-hour fitness orientation to help you understand what you will need to reach your fitness goals. These sessions are offered in our Downtown and Niu Valley locations. Once we’ve established where you are and where you want to go, we offer in-person and online personal training as well as online group exercise classes.

We can also consult with you online about equipment setup, exercise progressions and planning, home safety, etc to get you ready for your home workouts. Call for information on pricing for this consulting service.

Having pain or dealing with an old injury? Our PTs can consult with you in-clinic, or online to see if physical therapy may be the first step prior to a home exercise program. Our 30-minute, no-charge consultations are scheduled same-day by calling 808.373.3555.

Suffering the effects of overdoing it? Our massage therapists are ready to schedule 30, 60, and 90-minute appointments in our Downtown and Niu Valley clinics.

Not sure where to start? Call our Medical Fitness Center at 808.373.1114 for information on the appropriate services to meet your needs.

Remember the key to success is planning, consistency, progression and feedback. Our medical fitness experts are ready to share their knowledge and experience with you. Call today!

Overuse Injuries in Sports – Don’t Ignore Them!

biceps curl With COVID restrictions easing, people are returning to their favorite sports with enthusiasm and sometimes wild abandon. The tennis players are competing with the pickle ball players for access to courts. Surfing breaks are crowded, hiking trails and national parks are packed with people. There are lines of cars waiting for parking at many gyms, sports fields, and beach parks.

Have you returned to your favorite athletic activities? It may be tempting to dive back into canoe paddling 3 or 4 times per week, or to sign up for yoga, barre, and zumba classes all at once. If you haven’t been paddling, hiking, or zumba’ing all year you may be setting yourself up for overuse injuries. Your muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments are no longer adapted to those sports. In another article I talked about things to consider when returning to your workouts. We also discussed ways to prepare the body for a return to sport. Now we will look at some specific overuse injuries to be aware of so that you don’t end up sidelined, injured, or worse.

Tennis, Golfer’s, Pitcher’s Elbow – these injuries are well known and related to those sports specifically, however you can get lateral or medial elbow epicondylitis from a variety of repetitive activities. Anything that involves gripping and twisting the forearm, if done in excess, can lead to pain and weakness that will stop your arm from functioning. If you have pain in the inner or outer elbow that just won’t go away, get in to see your PT for a full evaluation. boy pitching

Surfer’s Myelopathy – this scary injury causes paralysis below the waist due to prolonged positioning in an extended spine (back bent) position. Although very rare, surfers and sometimes gymnasts or yoga students will get this injury that blocks blood flow to the spinal cord. If you feel back pain while doing these activities, stop immediately and seek medical attention. This form of paralysis is often but not always curable. prone surfer

Runner’s Knee – another very common complaint is knee pain while running. There are many things that can cause knee pain including weakness, poor running form, osteoarthritis, running too fast or too long, progressing too quickly, and so on. Also known as patellofemoral pain syndrome, runner’s knee can stop you from running entirely. If you feel pain around the kneecap, grinding, clicking or popping while running, have a PT evaluate your knee before the pain becomes disabling. runner in a race jumping volleyball player

Jumper’s Knee – the knee absorbs impact in many jumping sports such as basketball, skateboarding, and volleyball. Patellar tendonitis (or tendonopathy) involves pain and inflammation in the patellar tendon which attaches your kneecap to your shin bone. If you feel pain just below the kneecap with bending/straightening the knee, jumping, jogging, or walking it’s best to figure out the cause before you tear the tendon completely.

Whiplash – this neck injury is often seen in car accidents where the head and neck is forcefully whipped back and forth or to the side. This can also occur in contact sports such as football, soccer, and wrestling. Not as well known is the fact that severe whiplash can coincide with concussions when the brain is also whipped back and forth inside the skull, causing brain injuries. Seek medical attention immediately if you suspect a neck or brain injury. Any loss of consciousness, slurred speech, foggy thinking, severe neck pain, or visual disturbances can indicate a medical emergency.

Swimmer’s Shoulder – this impingement of the shoulder joint is caused by too much compression to rotator cuff tendons and other soft tissue in the front of the shoulder. This condition affects not only swimmers but is commonly seen in office workers who spend hours in front of a computer, using phones, and tablets. It can eventually lead to full tears of the rotator cuff or biceps tendon and should not be ignored. Swimmer with elbow high

Bowler’s Thumb – okay this is not a common or well-known injury unless you bowl frequently as one might for competition. It’s characterized by numbness and weakness in the thumb due to compression and friction to the ulnar nerve where the thumb inserts into the hole of the ball. The point here is that any activity taken to excess can lead to overuse injuries which may stop you from participating in your favorite sport.

Seriously, this list of overuse sports injuries could go on and on. The key take away is to realize that pain is a signal. Your body is telling you something’s not right and if you continue to ignore it, you’ll most likely end up with a serious injury.

What You Can Do

At the first sign of pain, stop to evaluate what might be the cause.

Did you jump off your skateboard and land in a weird position? Did you try hiking Kokohead stairs after a year layoff? Did you sign up for mixed martial arts classes despite having not exercised in decades? Did you increase your running frequency, duration, or speed without gradually building up? If you aren’t sure, you may need some professional help from a coach or personal trainer with a background in exercise science.

Ice is your friend! For most painful conditions ice can decrease inflammation and swelling. Massage a chunk of ice on the area for 3 minutes or until the skin is numb to the touch. Old yogurt cups filled with water make a nice sized chunk of ice. Hold the ice in a towel to collect the drips. If you can’t tolerate ice, consider gentle massage of the tissue in the direction towards the heart.

Rest until the pain goes away. If you’re taking pain medication, that doesn’t count! If after 2-3 days you still have pain it may be time to get the injury examined. You can start with your primary care physician or an MD at an urgent care clinic. If your health insurance allows direct access to physical therapy, you can call your favorite PT clinic and set up an appointment for an evaluation. You can pay for PT services out of pocket if you wish. At OrthoSport Hawaii, we also offer same-day free consults to help you decide if the injury needs medical attention, without the need to schedule a full one hour evaluation. We can also consult with you over the phone or via our Telehealth portal.

Don’t allow overuse injuries to ruin your fun as you get back into the swing of sports, fitness, and recreation. We’re here to help you get fit or recover from over-doing it. Call 808.373.3555 for more information on our services. See you out there!

Evidence-Based Practice in Medicine Part 2: Know the Source

Recently I’ve been receiving emails from well-meaning friends with links to articles touting this or that “cure” for COVID19. Unfortunately, these articles are often opinion pieces by bloggers or newsletter writers who want to chime in on rumors or anecdotes they’ve learned about online. When reading these types of articles or evaluating claims that “someone” posted on social media that a friend of a friend forwarded to you, how can you determine if the information presented is legitimate? We’ve all heard about bots and trolls spreading fake news throughout the internet. What tools do we have to evaluate claims, especially ones that contradict what we may be hearing in the mainstream media?

Question mark made of pills

In our previous blog post on Evidence-Based Practice in Medicine, we looked at the scientific method and how it helps us to weed out ineffective medical treatments so that we can focus on what works. We apply the scientific method via research studies, conducted at universities, non-profit foundations, or private companies. The authors of research studies can present their findings to the public in a variety of ways. Usually, a well–run study will be submitted to a peer-reviewed research journal and if the methodologies, data, and conclusions are found to be sound, it may be published. Scholars in the associated scientific field are the experts who must review the research manuscript and decide to publish or send the authors back to the drawing board; hence the term “peer-reviewed.”

An example of a highly respected peer-reviewed journal in the medical field is The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) which is published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. Its first issue was published in 1883. Another example is the magazine Science which has been published since 1880. There are many more in a variety of specialty biomedical fields. For example, Physical Therapy Journal was first printed in 1921. Research can also be published in industry journals, consumer magazines, corporate communications, government publications, and so forth.

Laptop and hand typing

So, when evaluating “research” we first need to know where the information was published. Was it a personal story told on someone’s blog or social media? Was it a report printed by a private company? Was it published in a popular magazine or corporate newsletter? We can figure this out by looking at the reference cited which indicates where to find the original research paper. Scientific references follow a specific format that most of us learned in school. PubMed is the most commonly used search engine as it contains over 30 million articles in the biomedical fields. References are often linked so you can click directly to the study and examine it yourself.

Bloggers, talk radio hosts, social media mavens, and others will often cite “research” but don’t actually provide a reference to that research on PubMed, Google or any other search engine. This is a red flag as it means there is no way to authenticate the claims made. For example, someone could write that “research shows that beet juice improves cardiovascular function” but without a reference that you can look up, how would you know if that’s a factual statement? You can do your own investigation on PubMed or Google Scholar of course. Maybe there is a study on that topic, maybe not. But why wouldn’t the author give you the reference or a link to the study they’re talking about? There could be many reasons but it does make the claim sound suspicious, doesn’t it?

Dead End Sign Now, let’s say that an author does provide a reference to a research study. You find it on PubMed. How do you know if it’s a good study? How do you know if there are problems with the study? How do you know if the researchers had a conflict of interest, such as trying to prove a newly manufactured drug is safe in order to beat a competitor to market? Finding the research in a peer-reviewed journal may help avoid faulty and fraudulent research studies, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the author’s claims are valid. You may be surprised to learn that some authors will cite a reference that contradicts their claims! They’re counting on the fact that most readers won’t look up the original research or be able to evaluate its findings. Reader beware!

But for now, let’s review. When someone writes “a recent study says…” or “researchers agree…” or similar vague phrases we need to think carefully about what they’re saying and see if we can validate their claims. If no evidence can be found, we may need to dismiss their claims. So, when evaluating what you read online, start by asking three basic questions:

Is there published, supporting evidence?
Was it published in a respected, peer-reviewed journal?
Does the study appear free of conflicts of interest?

If you can answer yes to all three questions then your next step would be to look at the type of research study published — be it a case study, randomized control trial, retrospective survey, etc. Evaluating the evidence presented in different types of research will be the next topic in our Evidence–Based Practice in Medicine series.

If you’d like to experience the difference evidence-based, hour-long, physical therapy sessions can make resolving your pain or healing from injury, call OrthoSport Hawaii at 808.373.3555 for more information on scheduling a free online or in-person consult.

Evidence-Based Practice in Medicine: What Does it Mean? Part 1

Stethoscope and data

Prior to the COVID19 outbreak, the average person may have never heard the term “evidence-based” but this term has been utilized in the medical field for decades. When we say that our clinical practice in physical therapy is evidence-based, we mean that the treatments, techniques, and clinical decisions we make are based on the best research and clinical experience available. The same applies to MDs prescribing specific drugs and vaccines to combat illness, surgeons choosing specific surgical procedures, dentists applying topical treatments to prevent cavities, nurses wearing special protective gear to prevent infection, and so on.

So where does the “evidence” come from? First, let’s consider the alternative. Non-evidence-based medicine might use intuition, tradition, inconsistent anecdotes, personal histories, unsystematic clinical experience, etc. to inform diagnosis and treatment decisions. Prior to the discovery of the scientific method, these were the tools healers had to work with. If something worked once, perhaps it would work again and over time, they developed a list of “cures” for various ailments. Some legitimately helped, many did not. Sometimes the cures were worse than the original illness or injury. For example, during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, aspirin was found to help with fever. However some patients died from aspirin toxicity when given large doses because we knew so little about that new drug.

We’ve come a long way in medicine since the days of bloodletting, non-antiseptic surgery, and lobotomies. This is because most medical practice today is based on research using the scientific method. So what is this method? (Adapted from Live Science.)

The steps of the scientific method go something like this:

Make an observation or observations.
Ask questions about the observations and gather information.
Form a hypothesis — a tentative description of what’s been observed and make predictions based on that hypothesis.
Test the hypothesis and predictions in an experiment that can be reproduced.
Analyze the data and draw conclusions; accept or reject the hypothesis or modify the hypothesis if necessary.
Reproduce the experiment until there are no discrepancies between observations and theory. The reproducibility of published experiments is the foundation of science. No reproducibility – no science and therefore no evidence.

Some key underpinnings to the scientific method:

The hypothesis must be testable and falsifiable. Falsifiable means that there must be a possible negative answer to the hypothesis.
Research must involve deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is the process of using true premises to reach a logical true conclusion while inductive reasoning takes the opposite approach.
An experiment should include a dependent variable (which does not change) and an independent variable (which does change).
An experiment should include an experimental group and a control group. The control group is what the experimental group is compared against.

Here is a visual way to think of the scientific method:

flowchart of scientific method

As you can see, the process repeats as we gather more and more data regarding a particular question. Additional research helps us to reach conclusions we can apply to activities in the everyday world. For example, years ago in physical therapy we used to administer ultrasound massage to patients with low back pain. The patients may have felt better after having some warm gel massaged into their low back muscles, but was the treatment affecting the cause of their pain? After many research studies, we now believe that ultrasound likely has no significant effect in the overall cure of low back pain. So nowadays, we rarely apply ultrasound because we have other more effective treatments. Does that mean that ultrasound never helps? No, but it may not be the best use of our limited time with patients. Deciding whether to use something like ultrasound is part of our clinical reasoning, an important part of our treatment choices; but that’s a topic for another time.

Through the scientific method, we hope to weed out what doesn’t work, and focus on what does. We then build on the most effective treatments and as science advances our understanding, we are able to cure illnesses and heal injuries that were untreatable in the past. Whether it’s wiping out smallpox with vaccines or reversing heart disease with changes in diet and exercise, the scientific method helps to improve our health and save our lives. However, like everything human-made, it’s not perfect. In the next installment of this series, we will look at Levels of Evidence to learn more about why some research studies are flawed or skewed, as well as other ways in which the scientific method fails to fully answer our questions.

A Bit About the Biz – OrthoSport Hawai’i in the MIDWEEK

Treating And Preventing Injuries

MIDWEEK STAFF on March 4, 2020 at 10:54 am
www.midweek.com/treating-preventing-injuries

By THOMAS FASULO OrthoSport Hawai‘i Medical Fitness Director

In 2009, Dr. Michael Turner started OrthoSport Hawaii as an outgrowth of his own passion for leading an active, healthy lifestyle. While Turner’s original intention was to operate strictly as a physical therapy clinic, he began to see a glaring issue in the current medical model. This model does little to stop the revolving door of re-injury and largely ignores the need for prevention.

So, he developed the Medical Fitness Program, combining the best of both worlds — injury treatment, post-injury care and preventative wellness. Kinesiologists, athletic trainers, physical therapy assistants, postural specialists, medical massage therapists, and registered dietitians joined the physical therapy team to create a one-stop-shop for injury prevention and wellness needs.

Working closely alongside each other, we have created medical fitness programs such as a boxing class for Parkinson’s patients; the BrainFit workout, which combines physical and mental training to promote healthy brain function; and many other specialty group fitness classes. These classes, along with one-on-one rehab and training sessions, can make an active, healthy lifestyle an achievable reality for anyone, no matter their age or ability level.

Anne Davis, an Egoscue postural specialist, provides medical fitness training on The Shuttle.

In 2015, we expanded our services to the heart of downtown Honolulu. In addition to our Kaka‘ako location inside Queen’s Island Urgent Care on Keawe Street, we recently opened a 1,600-square-foot clinic on the lobby level of Topa Financial Center at Bishop Street and Ala Moana Boulevard.

Catering to professionals suffering from pain associated with desk work, the avid golf or tennis player, young athletes or simply downtown residents, the downtown and Kaka‘ako clinic teams are prepared to help you remain injury-free and return to the hobbies and activities you enjoy.

Standard medical, auto and workers compensation insurance generally covers physical therapy but may require a doctor’s referral. All other Medical Fitness services are not typically covered by insurance but remain one of the most effective and affordable ways to prevent health issues and maintain wellness.

OrthoSport Hawai‘i can be reached at 373-3555 for any questions or scheduling needs.

The OrthoSport Hawaii Physical Therapy Experience

Our guest author for this post is one of our favorite patients and medical fitness members, WENDY PUNG! She offers her own experiences and advice for anyone who may benefit from physical therapy and medical fitness to improve their movement, strength, functional mobility, and to decrease or eliminate pain. Thanks Wendy!

PT – IT’S NOT SO SCARY

By Wendy Pung

So you’ve seen your doctor for that nagging pain or you’ve just had surgery and you’ve been given a prescription for physical therapy (PT). This is your first experience with PT and you have no idea what it is, what to expect, and probably most important of all—am I going to hurt even MORE? Just to let you know, the person who is writing this piece to try to allay your fears about PT is not a physical therapist or any other person working in the medical profession. If OrthoSport Hawaii were an airline, I would be called a “frequent flyer” as I have been sent to PT for nagging pains and post-surgery rehab too many times to count! And these many treatments have nothing to do with anything that the Physical Therapists have done or not done; I just have a lot of physical problems. What is PT anyway?

Woman laughing in aquatic therapy pool

To put it simply, physical therapy is a medical treatment to help decrease your pain and stiffness and improve your motion, strength, and overall functional mobility. The therapists do this using a variety of techniques such as exercises, pool therapy, ice, soft tissue and joint mobilization, to name a few.

You may need a prescription from an MD for PT, it depends on your insurance. You can call OrthoSport Hawaii to find out if you’re not sure. In any case, before arriving at your first appointment, you should find out: what to wear, whether your medical insurance requires a co-payment for each appointment, what documents you need to bring with you (e.g. a list of medications and hospitalizations, insurance and ID cards, etc.) and the clinic’s cancellation or no-show policy.

When you arrive at your first appointment you will be given a set of forms to fill out and sign. These are no different than the forms that your doctor would give you at a first appointment. The most important form would be the one that asks you to describe the problem that brought you to the clinic to be treated by the therapist. Providing details of your pain, limitations, and the goals you would wish to achieve after PT is completed is crucial at this point so don’t be afraid to lay it all out.

You will then start your appointment with the physical therapist. He or she will start the evaluation by asking questions and assessing your overall condition, by taking measurements and testing your strength, range of motion, flexibility, and balance among other parameters. Remember that if you are having any concerns during this procedure, speak up! I have been treated by MANY therapists and none (so far) has bitten, and all have been very understanding. They are always more than helpful, answering my questions with impressive knowledge of the complexities of the human body and how it works.

Your physical therapist will then devise a plan that is just for you, to get you back to moving and feeling better than when you first arrived, using the techniques mentioned above. If you are given exercises to do in the clinic and “homework,” be sure to do them as directed so that you can achieve the best outcome from the therapy. But if anything that is prescribed gives you more pain or any other new symptoms, be sure to tell the therapist. He or she can then modify your treatment—PT can be hard work sometimes but it shouldn’t make you feel worse so talk to him or her!

Besides the channel of communication between you and your therapist, there is also one between the therapist and your doctor. Your doctor will be sent reports on your progress with PT and if additional treatment is required to get you to your goal, they will coordinate that with your therapist so they’ve got you covered! All you have to concentrate on is going to your appointments, doing what is being asked of you at the clinic and at home, and you will receive the best outcome from PT! Good luck!

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What You Can Do

Treating And Preventing Injuries