Physical Therapy is an important part of our treatment program at Reflex. We have partnered with key physical therapists in the North West area to create a program specifically designed for patients with knee osteoarthritis in conjunction with the other treatments at Reflex.
Many patients are experiencing too much pain when they first come to see us to start physical therapy immediately. For this reason we often don’t start patients on a physical therapy regimen until after they have completed an injection series. At that time patients are feeling a reduced amount of pain (if any) which allows them to do more exercises, including ones their knee pain may have prevented them from doing previously.
The object of physical therapy is to correct the muscle imbalances in the body created by compensation patterns. A compensation pattern is when someone has altered bio mechanics due to pain. For example, if you hurt your right foot, to compensate you will most likely put more weight on your left foot when walking to alleviate the amount of pain felt from walking on the injured one. When this behavior is repeated over time it changes the way your body moves as a whole, altering your alignment, this in turn can cause further health issues. Our physical therapy program looks at the entire lower body to see which muscles are overcompensating to relieve others. This allows the physical therapist to determine which specific exercises are needed to help correct your body and its specific personal challenges. This results in additional reduced pain and better overall functionality.