Do your home work, please! – we don’t give you exercises to do at home just for fun, the changes that are made to your musculoskeletal system with the stretches and exercises that we provide takes time and consistency. That means, that improvements to your body are heavily reliant on your participation in your program. To be blunt, if your not doing your exercises, don’t expect to see a change!
A little soreness after exercise can be normal and expected, but if your pain level increases, then please let us know – your feedback is very important to what we do. One of the most important ways of gauging what exercises are right for your body is by listening to any symptoms elicited by your own muscles. Please don’t be afraid to let us know how you are feeling, communication is key!
Stretching is IMPORTANT – we see so many muscle injuries that could have been prevented by a consistent and adequate stretching program, especially if the person is involved in high intensity sports activities. Your muscles are elastic, and the tighter they are is the more prone to injury they are. We know its not the most exciting thig to do, but stretching is important
Massage is not the answer for everything – as physiotherapists, we are very aware of the benefits of massage and utilize it often in our treatment programs as a modality to decrease pain, increase range of motion or reduce muscle tension. It should not, however, be the only thing that you use in your treatmet program as the benefits of massage are short term. So use massage to decrease your pain, but make sure that you are also including other activities that will make your improvements last
Healing takes time, be patient! – we know that you are anxious to get back to your pre-injury level of functioning, but please try and be patient with your body, the healing process is not instantaneous. It’s also worthwhile to note that the longer you’ve been feeling pain is the longer its going to take to feel relief. So if you’ve been having that shoulder pain for the past year, don’t expect it to go away after one week of treating it.
