Manual Therapy Can Give You Long Lasting Pain Relief and Restore Loss of Motion
There is a Natural and Safe Treatment Method for Your Pain and Limited Motion!
Manual therapy offers a broad range of hands-on treatment to help reduce or eliminate pain, and restore mobility where limited. It is a safe, effective and natural treatment that helps people suffering with pain. If you’ve recently had an injury or operation, it’s probable that you could benefit from one of our physical therapist’s touch at Rose City Physical Therapy!
At our physical therapy clinic in Portland, OR we treat many first-time patients who arrive thinking that their treatments will be uncomfortable and painful because of their condition. However, this isn’t the case! We also treat a lot of patients who, after their first visit or two, indicate prior physical therapy didn’t include hands-on treatment and the physical therapist didn’t touch them.
Our physical therapists at Rose City Physical Therapy have advanced knowledge, education and certification in manual therapy and resources meant to relieve your pain, not add to it. Their treatment methods are meant to improve your body’s overall function and help you get back to living the life you love without pain.
Contact us today at Rose City Physical Therapy to learn more about our services.
Manual Therapy: A Safe Alternative To Harmful Medication
Manual therapy is one of the safest methods of treatment for acute and chronic pain. It’s natural, non-invasive, and effective. It doesn’t require the use of any harmful, addictive medications either! Instead, our physical therapists use a variety of hands-on or instrument assisted techniques to mobilize limited stiff joints, tight restricted soft tissue, and relax guarded or spasming muscles – all in ways that relieve pain and promote healing. They also help in reducing scar tissue at incision sites and minimizing inflammation.
Our physical therapists are highly trained and attentive professionals who understand your body’s restrictions, as well as its capabilities. Many patients notice improvement after just one session of manual therapy!
What exactly is manual therapy?
Manual therapy refers to hands-on treatment applied to the body. It’s a relatively broad term that includes soft tissue massage or mobilization, joint mobilization or manipulation of the spine or extremity joints, as well as nerve mobilizations (referred to as neural tension mobilizations includings nerve glides, sliders, or flossing).
Manual therapy can be used to provide pain relief, decrease tightness or restrictions in muscle or the myofascial system of the body, increase range of motion, and reduce stress or strain across joints that are limited in motion. Our physical therapists have received extensive training in specialized manual therapy techniques from a wide variety of schools and instructors and offer techniques sure to fit your needs.
Different Kinds of Manual Therapy
Manual physical therapy techniques may include, but are not limited to:
Manual traction
During manual traction, your physical therapist will apply a specific force – pulling force – to a certain area of your body in order to stretch surrounding soft tissues and off-load joints. Gentle traction can prove very effective in pain management and reducing spasm or guarding in muscles surround the painful area. A more firm traction is geared toward increasing range of motion and to restore normal, natural movement. The neck (cervical spine) is the most common area for manual traction, it can also be performed on other parts of the body, including the mid- (thoracic spine) and low back (lumbar spine). As well as at the joints of the legs and arms.
Joint Mobilization
“Mobilization” – the action of making something movable or capable of movement.
Motion is Lotion. Moving is Lubing. And one of the main premises of joint mobilization, whether it is mobilization of a joint in the upper or lower extremities, or spine mobilization, is to get joints moving.
Each of our joints are surrounded by a capsule – a leathery tissue that supports a joint and allows movement through a given range, and restricts movement beyond a normal range. In each joint there is a fluid called synovial fluid – our joint “oil” if you will. Synovial fluid provides nutrition to the inner lining of the joint capsule as well as to the smooth hard articular cartilage of the joint surfaces that glide on each other. So it’s important to have optimal joint movement to maintain extensibility of the surrounding capsule as well as provide good nourishment to the joint cartilage. Joint mobilizations designed to restore the mechanics and optimize motion at a joint do just that.
Joint mobilizations are also used for pain control and relaxation across a joint if someone is carrying themselves guarded and protected due to pain. This type of mobilization is completed in a range where there is no stretch or load on the surrounding tissue so as to not irritate it, but in a range where the joint is most comfortable. Once this comfortable position is assumed, gentle oscillations and tractions are applied at the painful joint to reduce pain and induce relaxation.
Our Portland, OR physical therapists are trained in joint mobilizations and manipulations for both pain control as well as to restore limited motion to restricted joints. Mobilization techniques are safe, effective, and painless, allowing for an increase in your range of motion, and the improvement of the restricted joint’s mobility.
Soft Tissue Mobilization
Physical therapy soft tissue mobilization treatments aren’t what you’re going to get at a relaxing massage or what you might receive at a spa. The application of soft tissue mobilization is therapeutic in nature and completed with medical intention. Our Portland, OR physical therapists use soft tissue mobilization as a way to manipulate the soft tissues – connective tissue, fascia and muscle – working to increase blood flow to the area, increase the extensibility or suppleness of the soft tissue, and reduce tension or break up adhesions across scar tissue.
This is done through specific application of hands-on techniques appreciating the anatomy of the area being treated and the intent or goal of the treatment.
• ASTYM™
• Active Release Technique (ART)
• Cross Friction Massage
• Deep Tissue Release
Manual Therapy in Your Treatment Plan
Is manual therapy for you? Is it what you need? Our Portland, OR physical therapists are highly trained in diagnosing and treating movement disorders and musculoskeletal pathology. After your evaluation is completed your physical therapist will let you know if manual therapy is appropriate.
Not all patients need manual therapy. And at Rose City Physical Therapy we use it as an adjunct to an active approach to rehab – one that emphasizes therapeutic exercise and functional activity which is imperative for long-term success and outcomes. Everyone’s treatment plan is different because no two people experience the same exact types of pain nor heal at the same rate. Manual therapy can be a very important part of a physical therapy treatment plan to decrease pain, swelling and inflammation, as well as increase overall mobility and range of motion. If you want to learn more about the health benefits of manual therapy, contact Rose City Physical Therapy today at Portland, OR to request an appointment! Our dedicated physical therapists will be happy to see you and start working on a plan of recovery for you.
Your Next Steps…
Request An Appointment
Receive A Custom Treatment Plan
Work Hard and Progress In Your Recovery
Recover & Enjoy Life Pain-Free!