December 22, 2017

Manual Therapy

Not every physiotherapist can offer manual therapy, but at LVW Physios we ensure all our physios are experts in this field. We do this because we believe it provides an excellent way to reduce pain, increase range of motion, diagnose and even treat soft tissue damage, decrease swelling and inflammation.

Fact is, it takes a lot of time, hands-on learning, and skill to become experts at performing the most complex manual therapy techniques.This is because it requires being able to assess the problems with both joints and soft tissues with the hands alone, without the use of any imaging. It also takes a special ability to be able to feel a difference in tissue consistency, which is both a sensory and motor skill which takes time to master. Even if you have had undergone manual therapy, we believe you should give LVW Physios a try because we do things a bit differently. We combine the very best of hands-on, manual therapy techniques with functional strength and also stability to reduce pain and restore the body to health and efficiency.

What Is Manual Therapy?

Essentially it’s a hands-on technique that includes:

Soft tissue techniques

  • Massage
  • Graston
  • Manual lymph drainage
  • Soft tissue mobilization
  • Scar mobilization
  • Craniosacral therapy
  • Active Release Technique (ART)
  • Feldenkrais
  • Functional mobilization
  • Myofascial release
  • Strain counterstrain
  • Graston

Joint techniques

  • Mulligan techniques
  • Joint mobilization
  • Muscle energy techniques
  • Joint manipulation/thrust

Injuries Manual Therapy Help With

Most of us will have experienced some type of manual therapy at some point in our lives, even if that just exists in the form of a massage. In fact, manual therapy can be used to treat a wide range of problems and injuries including:

  • Neck Pain: disc pathology, muscle spasm, rib hypomobility, post-surgical neck pain
  • Low Back Pain:facet joint impingement/hypomobility, disc pathology, spinal stenosis, post-surgical back pain
  • Thoracic spine/Mid-back Pain
  • Headaches: migraines, tension headaches
  • TMJ Dysfunction
  • Hip Pain:myofascial hip pain in the buttock or lateral hip,post-surgical hip replacements, hip impingement, hip bursitis,
  • Knee Pain:IT band tendonitis, patellofemoral dysfunction, post-surgical knees including total knee replacements
  • Ankle Pain:chronic ankle pain, ankle sprains, post-surgical ankle pain, ankle arthritis,
  • Shoulder Pain:scapular dyskinesia, frozen shoulder/adhesive capsulitis, impingement syndrome, post-surgical shoulder
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Elbow/wrist pain: post injury/fracture pain, wrist/elbow sprain, post-surgical pain, tendonitis/tendinosis