At Back & Body Medical here in Midtown Manhattan, we are committed to helping patients get out of pain and back to proper functionality. We see many patients coming in in a great deal of pain, which affects many things including their movement. We adopt an overall strategy to help the patient go from the state they are in to the state they want to be in, pain free and with proper movement.
Of course, the therapies and treatments involved are very detailed and help patients throughout each of the four steps of their recovery. In this article, we look at the four main stages that most patients can expect to go through in their bid towards full fitness.
If you’ve been injured or immobile, we are here to get you back up on your feet.
Returning to Participation:
To manage pain, think about this metaphor: Avoid the red traffic light, but allow the yellow. This provides you the reassurance that hurt doesn’t have to equal harm. Embrace the uncomfort! This metaphor allows for a reconceptualization of safety versus danger, and gets you out of over resting because you find comfort in it. Getting back to feeling normal is all about feeling a little bit uncomfortable. Nothing is easy, but at the same time, nothing is impossible.
Reactivate:
After returning to participation, it is time to reactivate and build the function back up. This can be done by giving tissue sparing or hygiene advice! It helps build your confidence back and bridges the gap from preparation to training and fragility to resilience.
Loading:
Now, we add back load. Load can be measured with the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale. So it basically gradually gets patients back into the swing of things, avoiding more injury.
Return to Performance
Finally, you begin imagining the most unpredictable aspects of your life and prepare for the unexpected! This gets you pumped up for what’s to come and ready to better your skills. We have to focus on specific details to ensure that you are as precise as you can be. This actually makes you less susceptible to future injury because you are training your body to do your activity in an exact specific way every single time. Thus, your body will get used to these movements and muscle memory will occur!
If you are in pain, suffer from back pain, neck pain, headaches or whatever, come in and see us, we can help. We also accept insurance and would be delighted to help you out of pain. Call us today or Schedule an appointment.
