Physiotherapy is often wrongly overlooked as a form of therapy, as it holds a vast number of health benefits which can improve the condition of both your body and mind. Lots of people think that physiotherapy is only the realm of sports stars, but the reality is that lots of us mere mortals could be missing out on the improved mobility and reduced discomfort that comes from a good physiotherapy programme. So, how can it help you?
Physiotherapy is all to do with the manipulation of the body to gently improve the condition of stiff joints, painful injuries or underworked parts of the body. For example, if you spend a long time in hospital, a physiotherapist is essential to get you moving comfortably again and without injury. They will work with you to help you gently start to move your body, which won’t be used to exercise, which might even include breathing exercises or moving your toes, to retrain your body how to move normally again, which helps you feel better physically and mentally as it helps the full recovery process.
Physiotherapy is most commonly associated with sporting injuries, but you don’t need to be a professional athlete for this to be the case. A good physiotherapist will focus on the affected area to get you back to your sporting prime as quickly as possible without further jeopardising your health. Playing sport with an injury can be very dangerous, so to guarantee you get to carry on doing the sport you love you should make sure your injury is treated as soon as possible so that you can ease it back into the routine you’re used to.
Pain from muscular and skeletal injuries can cause us an enormous amount of stress, which can have a knock on effect in other areas of our life. Physiotherapy can help relieve some of that stress and tension, making us happier all round, and it can even help combat sleep problems from the discomfort caused by trying to sleep with an injury. It is thought that constant pain might actually reduce the effectiveness of our immune systems, leaving us open to other illnesses, so a course of physiotherapy can improve our physical wellbeing outside the injury itself.
There are so many benefits that physiotherapy can bring to your life. Too many of us struggle on with chronic pain hoping it will go away, but you can’t expect that to happen without the correct treatment. This can seriously reduce our enjoyment of life, so it’s important that you get it sorted sooner rather than later.