Physical therapy treatments are catered to the individual patient based on their diagnosis, current presentation and patient tolerance. Successful physical therapy is determined by a number of measurements, which could be numbers or categories.
Some of the common measurements of physical therapy success include:
- Pain scale
- Measurement of muscle performance
- Range of motion or gait
- Ability to perform a task
- The amount of assistance needed to complete exercises
As a patient, it is important to consider one person’s pain scale will not be the same as another’s. Likewise, two people with the same injury may feel the need for more or less assistance depending on several other factors.
For every individual and specific injury or condition, there is a different physical therapy method that might be used.
Some of the common treatments include:
- Core stabilization/strengthening
- Injury specific stretching
- Manual therapy (soft tissue treatment of tight muscles)
- Balance screening/training
- Postural correction (specific exercises to stabilize joints)
