Physical Therapy Treatment Techniques

Manual Therapy, also known as Orthopedic Manual Therapy, is a specialized area of physical therapy for the management of neuro-musculoskeletal conditions based on clinical reasoning, using highly specific treatment approaches including manual techniques and therapeutic exercises.

Orthopedic Manual Therapy encompasses and is driven by scientific evidence, clinical support, and the bio-psychosocial framework of each individual patient.

Physical therapy provides services to individuals and populations to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout the lifespan. This includes providing services in circumstances where movement and function are threatened by aging, injury, disease or environmental factors. Functional movement is central to what it means to be healthy.

Too often in fitness routines, exercise classes and sports programs, proper stretching is misapplied. Properly stretching a muscle group around a pathological joint or soft tissue injury can be challenging.

At Reid Clinic, stretching routines are developed via knowing, understanding and applying sound biomechanics. Good stretching routines not only assist in healing a pathological structure, but also prevent it from worsening. Reid Clinic offers and develops both manual passive and self-stretching routines depending on the needs of the client.

Sports Physical Therapy is a specialized practice that focuses on prevention, evaluation, treatment, rehabilitation, and performance enhancement of the physically-active individual.

All individuals develop specific patterns of movement that are reinforced through continued neuro-musculoskeletal movement habits. Resultantly, there is a higher incidence of “wear and tear” in these areas; which can lead to muscular and joint dysfunction, which could lead to degenerative changes later in life.

With proper evaluation and treatment, clients with joint dysfunction and/or degenerative changes can be taught to correct their faulty movement habits via therapeutic exercise, stretching and ergonomics.

Using a biomechanical assessment based on Maitland concepts, Norwegian philosophies, osteopathic principles and evidence-based research, Reid Clinic offers the latest and freshest ideas for treating extremity and spinal joints to correct spinal postural changes, spinal positional faults, joints restriction and joint function.

Too often in fitness routines, exercise classes and sports programs, proper stretching is misapplied. Properly stretching a muscle group around a pathological joint or soft tissue injury can be challenging.

At Reid Clinic, stretching routines are developed via knowing, understanding and applying sound biomechanics. Good stretching routines not only assist in healing a pathological structure, but also prevent it from worsening. Reid Clinic offers and develops both manual passive and self-stretching routines depending on the needs of the client.

Creating a “strong core” is essential to a pain-free healthy and active lifestyle. What does having a “strong core” mean? The muscles that support the trunk, or core, of our body are primarily the abdominal muscle groups, but there are others too. Knowing how to do proper strengthening of the abdominal muscle groups as well as the deep back and spinal muscles can lead to problems if you are not using spinal stabilization principles. Unfortunately, many fitness specialists including many physical therapists teach core strengthening without using spinal stabilization principles. At Reid Clinic, if core strengthening is part of your rehabilitation program, you will be taught how to develop a strong core using spinal stabilization.

Good body mechanics and sound ergonomics exemplify topics of discussion at Reid Clinic, where patient education and proper technique application are held to the highest standards.

We believe that a more informed client is more likely to continue to perform his/her Home Program and take better care of his/her body.

Reid Clinic is well versed in therapeutic exercise, which is a vast array of clinical exercises specifically designed to target key muscles or joints. Traditionally, therapeutic exercise is commonly used for post-surgical rehabilitation. Each therapeutic exercise program is designed for a specific purpose such as increasing range of motion, strengthening weakened muscles, increasing joint flexibility, or improving cardiovascular and respiratory function.

Strength Training or Progressive Resistance Exercise (PRE) is a method of increasing the ability of muscles to generate force and power. Typically, the use of free weights and machine weights are some of the best ways to accomplish the improvements in muscle strength for extremity muscle groups.

Developing muscle strength is an important part of the rehabilitation process, not only for restorative and corrective means, but also to compensate for poor joint function such as osteoarthritis or other musculoskeletal dysfunction.

Dizziness, loss of balance and gait difficulty can occur from a variety of conditions and dysfunctions. Many of these problems can be due to a vestibular disorder, but it must first be thoroughly evaluated to rule out more serious problems. Prior to treatment of vestibular disorders, all clients at Reid Clinic undergo proper evaluation. If it is determined that the vestibular system is the cause, then vestibular treatments are given.

Conditioning exercises are body movements that increase athletic skill and physical fitness while decreasing the likelihood of sports injuries. Programs may include weight training, aerobic exercise, plyometrics calisthenics, and exercises based on real-life motions. The types of conditioning exercises may vary greatly depending on fitness goals and are adaptable to any level of fitness, from beginners to experienced athletes.

Reid Clinic is one of only a few clinics in the United States that can provide low or high intensity exercise while in Spinal Decompression or Traction. Most clinics can only unload the spine in passive positions.

At Reid Clinic, spinal decompression training can be provided for low-level acute injury needing a gentle anti-inflammatory local mechanical pumping effect or with higher intensity training for the athlete, weekend athlete, or even the middle-aged non-athlete with chronic or intermittent low-back pain.

Developing and maintaining good spinal flexibility and mobility is essential to a healthy and active lifestyle. The soft-tissue in and around the spine has a tendency to develop areas of hyper and hypo flexibility. A trained therapist can properly distinguish which soft-tissues are lacking flexibility and need to be stretched and which areas are too flexible and need to be protected.

Soft-tissue is a term giving to the musculoskeletal tissues in the body that are not bone – meaning the skin, fascia, ligaments, muscle, tendons, nerves, blood vessels, lymphatic tissue, etc. All these tissues interact together for a properly functioning and healthy body. Certain manual and massage techniques have been developed to evaluate and treat those tissues if they become dysfunctional. With exceptional experience and masterful knowledge of biomechanics and anatomy, our therapist is able to apply the proper technique to the proper tissue with the appropriate direction, depth, amplitude, rhythm, rate, repetition, time and force.

Evaluation of the nervous system is imperative during a thorough and proper physical exam. The nervous system can become hypersensitive to lengthening and compression after certain pathologies and/or mechanical dysfunctions have persisted. It has been shown that changes in the nervous system can be detected distally in the soft-tissue, such as trigger points or areas of hypersensitivity as early as two weeks after an injury. These changes can be detected with lengthening tests and treated with sliding, gliding and tensioning positions, as well as other means.

The use of a home program in conjunction with a clinical treatment program is essential to properly treating all musculoskeletal conditions.

Our therapist will carefully construct and develop the proper home exercise program for you that will compliment your clinical treatment plan.