Aches, pains and clicks are a part of life, especially as you get older. Luckily, physiotherapy is recognised as one of the best treatment options for musculoskeletal issues.
What is physiotherapy?
The aim of physiotherapy is to help someone affected by injury or illness, restore movement and function. It can also help reduce your risk of injury or illness in the future.
Physiotherapists take a holistic approach, which means they think about the body and the person as a whole. Patients are often directly involved in their own care via treatment techniques like tailored movement and exercises (which will progress in difficulty as the treatment goes on), education and advice (helping you understand your body and prevent future injuries) and manual therapy, which is when the physiotherapist helps relieve pain and stiffness in the body to encourage better movement.
What conditions can physiotherapy treat?
Physiotherapy can treat a range of illnesses and injuries that limit your body movement, including:
- Back pain
- Joint pain
- Muscle pain
- Stiffness
- Sports injuries
Sprained ankles, bad backs, clicking shoulders - the physios have seen it all before and use that knowledge and experience on a daily basis.
The benefits of physiotherapy
The goals of physiotherapy are to achieve a good level of improvement in your symptoms and aim to return you to the everyday activities you did before your injury or symptoms began.
Physiotherapy is also a team effort. You’ll be paired with a trained professional who’ll help you understand the issues you’ve had with your body and give you the right course of action to get back to better. But there’s no slacking here – to make progress you’ll be expected to put in the work outside of your sessions. Just think of it like homework - it’s all part of the fun!
Ultimately the main benefit of physiotherapy is that it could put you on your way to getting back to fitness, back to work and back to passions like running, tennis, or even gardening.
How can I get physiotherapy?
If you need to see a physiotherapist, a number of different options are available to you Footnote [1]:
- A referral from a doctor
- Contacting a physiotherapist directly
- At some GP surgeries
- Privately
