Everything you need to know about Physical Therapy
Please Tell Me EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW about Physical Therapy,
But didn’t know how to ask.
From the industry leader and founder of CompletePT Pool & Land Physical Therapy
Lynda Huey
About The Author Lynda Huey
Lynda Huey, M.S., founder of Huey's Athletic Network, is a former athlete and coach whose own injuries led her into the water to find fitness and healing. She was educated at San Jose State University where she starred on the track and field team during its golden years. She earned a masters degree in kinesiology, coached volleyball, field hockey, and track and field at several universities before writing her autobiography and starting her own business. She pioneered the use of water training with Olympic athletes in 1983 and wrote four books on water exercise. She has written for most of American's top sports magazines, hosted a sports show on KCRW, and worked for NBC at the Seoul Olympic Games. She lectures regularly in Australia, Italy, and the U.S. and appears on TV in those countries.
Since 1993, Huey has combined her knowledge of working with injured Olympic athletes with the expertise of physical therapists to create an excellent set of aquatic therapy protocols. Our eclectic mix of remarkable physical therapists offer orthopedic, rheumatological, and neurological patients a progressive environment in which to regain full function.
Welcome
You have just made the first step towards recovery. By downloading this super-informative and easy to read insight into the physical therapy world, you have empowered yourself to make educated decisions.
I have been helping people just like you for over 30 years. I have seen your injuries, I have listened to your questions, I have heard your challenges, and as a result I am able to offer tailored physical therapy programs that get fantastic results.
The following pages are filled with physical therapy questions and answers that you won’t find anywhere else.
We help people get better, you’re on the right road.
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1. What is physical therapy?
Physical Therapy is the treatment of disease, injury, or deformity by physical methods such as massage, heat treatment, and exercise rather than by drugs or surgery.
2. What are physical therapists?
Physical therapists are highly-educated, licensed health care professionals who can help patients reduce pain and improve or restore mobility - in many cases without expensive surgery and often reducing the need for long-term use of prescription medications and their side effects.
3. Who benefits from physical therapy?
People who want to stay active People who are injured People who are about to have surgery - prehab People who have had surgery – rehab People with pains during their everyday life
4. What happens if I am not happy with my physical therapy?
If you are not entirely satisfied with any treatment on any day, simply tell us what went wrong and we will refund your money.
5. Can I talk to a physical therapist before I come in or schedule an appointment?
YES. If you’re unsure of how we can HELP you get better and would like to discuss your condition with a licensed physical therapist you can either have a FREE 15 minute one-on-one phone meeting, or a FREE in-person 15 minute consultation. Just call us on 310-845-9690 to set it up.
6. How long will my treatment last?
Physical therapy appointments last anywhere from 30 - 60 minutes.
7. How many appointments should I have per week?
It depends on your diagnosis and the recommended treatment plan, provided by your doctor and the physical therapist. With that said, most patients come twice a week.
8. How many weeks will I be in Physical Therapy?
Typically, patients are seen for a total of 8-12 weeks of therapy.
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9. Will you tell me what’s wrong with me?
Yes, part of the evaluation (your first appointment) will be dedicated to telling YOU what is wrong with you. We will do it in easy to understand terms and we can answer any follow up questions you may have. Why me, what did I do wrong, did I inherit this?
10. What is Traditional Land Physical Therapy?
Components of our land therapy program include trunk stabilization, abdominal strengthening, upper/lower body strengthening, flexibility training, posture re-education, cardiovascular training, lifting techniques, and biomechanics.
11. What is Pool Therapy?
Pool/aquatic therapy is the safest form of rehabilitation, especially for weightbearing injuries, because it takes place in the buoyancy of water and thereby removes impact and trauma from weightbearing joints. In pool therapy, the water offers buoyant support for the body, resistance to bodily movement, a natural reduction in pain, and a relaxing and refreshing feel. Combined with traditional land physical therapy, it offers the quickest way to return to normal daily activities.
CompletePT's pool program offers a four-prong approach to solving rehabilitation challenges:
1. We provide specific rehab exercises designed to help heal the injury. 2. We include a safe, progressive total body fitness program that helps guide the entire body toward fitness while the injury heals. 3. We offer guidance to correct faulty biomechanics that may have contributed to the injury. 4. We focus on functions that must be performed by the patient in daily life.
12. Should I do pool or land therapy, who decides?
Sometimes your doctor will specify whether you should have pool or land therapy. Your physical therapist will also review your condition and let you know if you can benefit from the pool. Ultimately it’s often up to the patient, which is great. You can see and hear the benefits of the pool and make an informed decision for yourself after the initial evaluation.
13. How will I get in the pool if I am wheelchair bound?
We have a dedicated state of the art lift to get patients into the pool who need it.
14. Will I do land therapy after the pool?
Most of our patients do transition from pool therapy to land therapy.
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15. Do you do land therapy?
Yes, we have a complete land therapy program, the latest techniques and a full-sized professional gym for additional exercises that your therapist may recommend as part of your treatment program.
16. Are your physical therapists licensed?
Yes, all of our physical therapists are licensed with the California Physical Therapy Board.
17. Do you have free parking?
Yes! We have our own off-street parking that is safe and well lit. We have handicapped accessible automatic doors if you need them too.
18. Will I have to do home exercises?
Most likely your physical therapist will give you some basic exercises to do at home between treatments. These exercises will be clearly explained, written down, complete with drawings where applicable. Your positive results depend on your efforts.
19. How long can I come for therapy?
Your doctor and physical therapist will determine if you are appropriate for land therapy. If appropriate, your physical therapist will transition you into a land-based program 1 time a week with a gradual progression to 2-3 times per week. Your therapist may schedule a land visit to instruct you in a home program with follow-up visits to progress this program.
20. Will I see the same therapist?
The physical therapist that evaluates you will be your primary physical therapist. He/she will establish your goals and monitor your progress. Since our program is created around a team approach, you may see different therapists through the course of your therapy. Our staff makes every effort to allow you to see the same therapist for most of your visits. All of our therapists meet regularly to review each patient's plan of care and communicate with each other on a daily basis to ensure that you are receiving the highest quality of care.
21. Will I have increased pain during or after treatment?
We will make every effort to match your pain levels, symptoms, and current activity level to your treatment intensity and duration. Our goal is a pain-free treatment with, at most, a few hours of fatigue or increased soreness afterwards. We do not work through pain, except in several specific cases such as a total knee replacement or a frozen shoulder. It is important that you tell your therapist if an exercise is painful.
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22. Will I have to swim?
No. You do not need to know how to swim to have a very effective treatment in the pool. Our patients work in a vertical position, rarely putting their face or head in the water.
23. Is your pool warm, I hate cold water!
In a luxurious setting, our patients begin their rehabilitation in the 92-degree heated indoor pool where they can perform movements possible only in the buoyancy of water.
24. What should I bring to my pool visits?
Bring a bathing suit, pool shoes and a towel. You must wear pool shoes to and from the locker rooms and the pool. If you are diabetic, you should also wear them in the pool. You may want to bring a shower cap to protect your hair. Shampoo, soap, and lotion are optional for your shower after your treatment. We have lockers available for you during the time of your appointment only. So you may want to bring a lock.
25. What should I wear for Land Physical Therapy?
When scheduled for land, please dress comfortably for exercise and wear sneakers.
26. What conditions are helped by Pool Therapy?
Virtually all injuries and rheumatological conditions, including osteo arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankle and leg sprains and fractures, presurgical and postsurgical hips, knees, and backs, muscle strains, frozen shoulders, painful necks and backs, fibromyalgia, achilles and patellar tendonitis.
27. I have a knee injury, will the pool help?
While wearing a flotation belt in deep water, patients strengthen their bodies while they move in a gravity-free environment. In shoulder-deep water, patients weigh only ten percent of their normal body weights, so every exercise is exceptionally low impact. By starting movement in water early in a rehabilitation program, the damage that occurs after an injury - stiffening, loss of circulation, loss of muscle size, and a growing involvement of other body parts surrounding the injury - can be prevented.
28. Can you treat hip impingement (FAI)?
Yes, we have a unique program for treating Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI).
29. How soon can I get in the pool after surgery?
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Pool therapy fits perfectly into the well-designed postsurgical therapy program, because water provides the safest place for protected, gradual and guided motion that does not overly stress the joint or site of repair. Patients can start pool therapy very early in the postoperative recovery phase, often before land- based therapy programs would be possible.
30. Do you offer surgery prevention?
Our pool program has been effective in helping many patients prevent hip, knee, and back surgeries. By regaining their mobility, strength, flexibility and function and by reducing pain, patients can give themselves many years before inevitable surgeries are eventually required. Some never have surgeries; others delay them. If surgery is required, what had started as a prevention program transitioned automatically into a prehab program.
31. What is prehab?
Over the years, we've seen patients who use our pool program as "prehab," prior to surgery, return to full function much more quickly than those who have been inactive prior to surgery. By gaining strength and flexibility prior to surgery, they returned to the pool already knowing how to do the exercises and they quickly regained function and range of motion.
32. What is back pain pool therapy?
Back pain sufferers, whether they have had surgery, are planning a surgery, or want to prevent surgery, succeed in the pool. Patients experiencing acute episodes of back pain are not able to perform most land-based exercises but when they enter the gravity-neutral environment of water, their pain is reduced and they can begin gentle movements to improve their strength, flexibility, and endurance. Our back stabilization program starts patients in chest-deep water where they begin walking while learning to use abdominal muscles to create a "muscular corset," thereby protecting their backs. They move quickly to a more vigorous deep-water program, then finish with a full regimen of rebounding, shallow- water exercises to improve their ability to withstand impact without harming their backs. These more difficult exercsies prepare them for the land therapy to come.
33. What is balance training?
Patients with complaints of unsteadiness, and others who have fallen due to poor balance, begin in the pool, a safe place to start balance training. The water supports and protects our patients from falls as they work on balance exercises such as slow marching, step/curbs, and single-leg standing. As strength and confidence improve, patients move to the gym to complete the balance training/safety program in a more life-like environment.
34. Do you have a gym?
Yes, we have a spacious, professional and inviting Gym Area
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Next, patients are transitioned to our land therapy program where they do exercises that must occur against gravity in order to regain function in their activities of daily living.
35. Do patients benefit from having Land and Pool therapy under one roof?
After injury or surgery, patients are able to re-learn skills of daily life in a non-gravitational setting in the pool, then translate those skills back to land where gravity is reintroduced. By having our patients move back and forth from pool to land, they achieve incredible results in improved function and accelerated recovery. Our combined therapy focuses on correct movement patterns and total body fitness, which not only improves function but reduces the risk of re-injury.
36. How do I start a Physical Therapy Program?
Call our office at 310.845.9690 to schedule an evaluation with one of our licensed physical therapists.
37. Do you accept insurance?
Yes we do. Please contact our insurance verifier to get a complete personalized and current assessment of your benefits prior to treatment.
38. I don’t have insurance, or a doctor. Can you still help?
Absolutely. We accept cash and credit cards and can treat patients without a prescription.
39. What are Manual Techniques?
Tight muscles, stiff ligaments, and problems inside the joints can cause decreased movement. If pain is associated with this decreased movement, loosening the structure that causes the restriction can often relieve the pain. To help you regain normal movement, our therapists manually perform joint mobilizations and tissue mobilizations on your affected areas. There are many different mobilization techniques, some that help decrease pain and others that help increase the movement range of the joint or tissue. For instance, if you have a knee problem, the therapist could mobilize the knee joint as well as the muscles of the thigh that affect the knee to relieve your pain as well as increase the range of motion of the knee joint. To prevent the pain from returning a short time after the mobilization, other treatments need to be performed, such as stretching and strengthening exercises. These stretches and exercises will be given to you in a home exercise program so that you can prevent pain from recurring. This enables you to become more independent in managing your condition rather than having to depend strictly upon your therapist for relief.
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40. What are Therapeutic Exercises?
The goal of using exercise as a therapy is to achieve movement and function with less pain or stiffness. To fully use exercise as a therapy, our physical therapists use their knowledge of how exercise affects the muscles, bones, nerves, brain, heart, and lungs. Then they assess your body makeup and how you move. They factor in their knowledge of injuries, diseases, surgical procedures and consider the body's ability to recover or develop complications. With all of this information, your physical therapist will carefully and accurately design an exercise program for your specific needs.
The full amount of motion that can occur at a joint is called the range of motion (ROM). If you are immobile due to an injury or illness, you may lose some of your joints' normal ROM. If the ROM at a joint is less than normal, there may be certain activities that you cannot perform - such as reaching to a high shelf with a stiff shoulder. In order to maintain normal ROM, joints must be moved through their available range quite often. Our PT teams help prevent loss of ROM by helping you continue to move all of your joints. These are called range of motion exercises.
Many aches and pains can be prevented or treated by having strong muscles. If your muscles are strong, they can protect your joints and keep your posture aligned properly. Proper posture will limit any abnormal strain on your joints, ligaments, muscles, tendons, and bones. If you have had an injury in or around your joints, your PT Team can teach you which strengthening exercises are helpful and which exercises are harmful. They will monitor your exercises when you first start and make sure other problems do not develop. Your PT Team will teach you when to increase or change your exercises. By the time you have completed your program with CompletePT, you will know how to do the exercises independently. If you plan to transition your workouts into a gym, your PT team can prepare you for that by taking you into our gym and teaching you proper techniques.
41. What are modalities?
A modality is the application of a therapeutic agent. We use ice, heat, and machines that are designed to complement manual physical therapy and exercise.
42. What is Ultrasound?
Ultrasound is a machine that uses sound waves to transfer energy into your tissues. It can be used to help repair tissue after injuries such as a sprains, strains, bruises, tendinitis, or open wounds. It can help to decrease pain and muscle spasms, as well as help to break up scar tissue. Another use of ultrasound is called "phonophoresis." This involves putting anti-inflammatory drugs, in the form of creams, onto the skin and the ultrasound will help the skin absorb it.
43. What is a TENS unit?
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TENS is a machine that sends small electrical pulses through your skin. The purpose of TENS is to help relieve pain. Your PT Team may apply TENS to your injury site to help decrease your pain while you perform your exercises or decrease your pain just after you finish your PT routine. If you have chronic pain, you may want to buy or rent a TENS machine so that they can wear it most of the day to decrease your pain.
44. Do you use HEAT or ICE?
Heat can be applied in many ways: using a heat pack, using warm water, or using warm wax. The purpose of applying heat is usually to decrease pain. It can help muscles to relax and it can affect your nerves in order to decrease your pain. Heat can also help to bring blood and nutrients to the area and therefore increase healing.
Ice can be applied by using an ice pack or by soaking in cold water. The purpose of applying ice may be to decrease pain or to decrease swelling. If ice is applied to decrease pain, a PT aide will usually apply it after you have finished your PT routine. Ice stops swelling that could occur due to the exercise. Just remember that ice should never be applied for longer than 20 minutes or it can cause other problems like skin damage.
45. What should I Expect from Physical Therapy?
Here, at CompletePT, our highly-skilled physical therapists (PTs) will use their clinical skills and vast knowledge to give you the care and tools you need to help achieve your specific physical goals. We dedicate ourselves to providing you with a fast, lasting recovery from pain and injury by implementing up-to-date therapeutic techniques. Our goal is to guide and educate you regarding proper movement mechanics and the specific corrective exercises that will give you the highest potential of returning to a pain-free lifestyle.
46. What is expected of me in my therapy program?
Having an active role and taking responsibility for your own health and well-being is a vital element during the rehabilitation process. We strongly emphasize that you complete the home exercises and stretches given to you by your therapist, since regular exercise is essential for restoring pain-free movement. As with any exercise program, you must perform it with discipline and consistency in order to gain fitness and strength. Do not become alarmed if you become sore after a session - that is part of the training process. In order to make muscles, tendons, and joints stronger and more resilient, we must give you enough work to create a certain amount of soreness from which you will quickly recover. After your body adapts to that work, then we can increase the workload again. Your program can progress more quickly when you do your exercises and stretches at home between therapy sessions. Your therapist will instruct you on the proper use of ice and heat at home to complement your exercises and to further accelerate the healing process.
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47. What happens at the first appointment?
You will begin with your Initial Evaluation, at which time a physical therapist will assess your condition and determine which of our various therapy techniques will best resolve your case. Our staff is made up of PT "teams." Each PT is partnered with a highly-trained PT Aide who will guide you through specific exercises prescribed for you by the PT. We take great pride in our excellent aides: all have college degrees in the sciences and are dedicated health care workers on their way to becoming PTs, doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals.
48. Where did this physical therapy program come from?
Lynda Huey, owner of CompletePT Pool & Land Physical Therapy, developed this program working with Olympic Atheletes in 1983.
49. Will you provide the water equipment?
Yes, all equipment needed for your pool therapy is available to you, for free, at our clinic. If you wish to exercise in your home pool, we sell all the necessary equipment too. Just ask the front desk.
50. Do you offer water classes, so I can just get in the pool?
YES. Join athletes and non-athletes at our spacious indoor pool. This is the safest-possible low-impact workout with world-class fitness results. Includes aerobic and anaerobic work, plyometrics, core work, stretching and strengthening.
51. What is Lynda Huey's Original Waterpower Workout (Shallow)?
This class is for those seeking a challenging high-intensity workout. Experience with water aerobics is helpful but not necessary.
Not appropriate for those with acute medical conditions.
Begin with running and bouncing across the shallow end of the pool followed by jumping exercises that can be performed by most fitness levels. Flotation belts are used only if there's a weight-bearing injury to be protected. Next comes 30 minutes of aerobic and anaerobic work, then students perform upper and lower body strengthening exercises. Finish with stretching.
52. What is a Deep Waterpower Workout?
This class is for those seeking a challenging high-intensity workout. Experience with water aerobics is helpful but not necessary.
Not appropriate for those with acute medical conditions.
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Put on a flotation belt and run, Powerwalk, and Speedwalk in the deep end for interval training. Stretch, kick training, agility exercises, all with no weight-bearing. Finish with upper/lower body strengthening exercises.
53. What is the Gentle Water Exercise class?
This class is designed for those seeking an easier level of exercise. Appropriate for those recovering from surgery or starting the first exercise program in years. Gentle and self-paced.
Increase cardiovascular endurance. Complete exercises at your own pace at an easy-to-moderate intensity. May do deep water exercises at the wall or tethered depending on level of ability. Most exercises completed at the wall or “braced” rather than free floating. Increase strength by using the water as resistance. Pool resistance equipment is available for those who wish to use it. Overall, slower pace, lighter intensity
54. What is Waterpower for Knees and Hips?
This class is in a gravity-free environment, deep water, for people with knee or hip pain.
Start in deep water to remove all impact from weight bearing joints. Run, Powerwalk and Speedwalk deep-water intervals are modified here to protect the knees and mobilize the hips. Move to stretching, kick training and deep-water exercises. Finish with lower body strengthening for muscles surrounding the knees and hips.
55. I live too far away, do you have any books or DVDs?
YES! We have books and DVDs to help those who live too far away:
The Complete Waterpower Workout Book, by Lynda Huey and Robert Forster, P.T.
This textbook is the bestseller in its field and offers deep and shallow-water fitness programs plus therapy programs for all areas of the body. Published by Random House, the book is 371 pages and includes over 200 photos.
Lynda Huey's Waterpower Workout DVD
From the producers of Good Morning America. A beautiful 51-minute DVD begins with a look at the basics of water training, then five exercise segments: Deep Waterpower, Waterpower, Kick Training, Resistance Training, and Stretching.
Heal Your Knees: How to Prevent Knee Surgery – and What to Do If You Need It, by Robert Klapper, M.D. and Lynda Huey.
Don't let knee pain ruin your life. Learn how your knee functions, what happens when it doesn't, and how to do self-diagnostic tests. Follow the pool and land workouts that guide you through each step so
12 | P a g e www.CompletePT.com you can banish knee pain. Land physical therapy exercises provided by Tanya Moran-Dougherty, MPT. (M. Evans, 2004)
Heal Your Hips: How to Prevent Hip Surgery – and What to Do If You Need It, by Robert Klapper, M.D. and Lynda Huey.
The first comprehensive guide to hip health. Avoid injury, prevent deterioration, work out in water and on land, and decide among the entire range of nonsurgical and surgical options. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.) 224 pages, 85 photographs and drawings.
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Thank You
Thank you for taking the first step toward your recovery. I trust that the answers laid out here have helped you understand physical therapy and what it is a little better.
Please feel free to contact any of us at CompletePT for any lingering questions you may have. You can schedule a FREE 20 minute phone consultation, or you can come in to our clinic for a FREE 20 minute one-on-one consultation with a physical therapist. Simply call us on 310-845-9690 to set it up.
Today you have made a decision to get better, we can help you with that.
Sincerely,
Lynda Huey, M.S. 310-845-9690 [email protected] www.CompletePT.com
…and remember, all of your appointments at CompletePT are 100% satisfaction guaranteed. If you are not entirely satisfied with any treatment on any day, simply tell us what went wrong and we will refund your money.
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