From Stiffness to Flexibility: Role of Physical Therapy in Enhancing Joint Mobility for Arthritis
Your body is a complex system of moving parts, with joints acting as the vital connections that keep it all together. But what happens when those connections start creaking with pain and stiffness? Your body suffers from reduced range in motion, stiffness, and lack of flexibility – the signs of arthritis that sneaks in, uninvited and unwelcome.
Arthritis can strike any age group, gender, and joint in your body. However, it often affects the hands, knees, hips, and spine, turning the simplest tasks into uphill battles.
In this blog, we will uncover the hidden powers of physical therapy in relieving patients of arthritis-related stiffness and pain.
Does Physical Therapy Help Arthritis Patients?
Arthritis is a condition that affects the joints and causes pain, stiffness, swelling, and loss of movement in the joints. There are over 100 types of arthritis, but the most common are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Physical therapy plays a vital role in alleviating joint-related challenges, and reducing inflammation, swelling, and pain. Let’s understand more about it.
Types of Physical Therapy
Several physical therapy types are effective in relieving arthritis-related issues:
- Exercise therapy: This involves exercises that are specifically designed to improve joint mobility and strength.
- Manual therapy: This involves techniques that are used to manipulate the joints and muscles.
- Hydrotherapy: This involves using water to provide pain relief and improve joint mobility.
Techniques Used by Physiotherapists
A physiotherapist works with you to gradually increase your activity level, flexibility and improve your range in motion. They can also teach you exercises that you can do at home to help maintain your progress.
Physiotherapists employ various techniques for effective arthritis management:
- Customized Exercise Plans: Individualized exercise regimens target flexibility, strength, coordination, and balance, all essential for an enhanced range in motion.
- Pain Relief Techniques: Utilizing various methods, including hot and cold therapy, physiotherapists work to alleviate joint pain and stiffness, contributing to an improved quality of life.
How Can Physical Therapy Help Arthritis?
Physical therapy can help arthritis patients in a number of ways, including:
- Improved joint mobility: Physical therapy can improve joint mobility by stretching and strengthening the muscles around the joints. This increases flexibility and can help reduce pain and stiffness, making it easier to perform everyday activities.
- Reduced pain: It can help reduce pain by using techniques such as heat therapy, cold therapy, and electrical stimulation.
- Increased strength: Physical therapy can help to increase muscle strength by using strengthening exercises. This can help to support the joints and reduce the risk of further damage.
- Better balance and coordination: Physical therapy can help in improving balance and coordination by using exercises that challenge these skills. This can help to reduce the risk of falls and injuries.
- Preventing further joint damage: Physical therapy can help to prevent further joint damage by teaching the patients how to manage their arthritis and how to perform activities that are safe for their joints.
Physical therapy proves to be an effective approach for managing arthritis, enhancing joint mobility, reducing pain, and increasing strength, ultimately expanding the range in motion of affected joints.
If you have arthritis, schedule your appointment with our seasoned physiotherapists by clicking here – http://182.79.136.75:62/