Manual Therapy
Manual Therapy refers to specific hands-on treatment of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints. The purpose is to restore or facilitate appropriate motor control and movement patterns at the joint and soft tissues to eliminate or reduce the inflammatory-pain response. Personal and individualized human touch is a very important component in our treatment philosophy and approach. Patients respond positively to hands-on work when combined with exercise, education, and other physical therapy modalities.
With manual therapy, the aim is to have faster recovery and less out-of-pocket expenses.
Manual therapy encompasses a wide group of refined techniques performed by hand and by uniquely trained and compassionate rehabilitation therapists. These include mobilizations or manipulations of soft tissue and skeletal joints and much more.
Manual therapy techniques aim to:
- Diminish pain
- Facilitate greater range of motion and improve function
- Improve tissue repair and extensibility
- Increase range of motion
- Induce relaxation
- Reduce or eliminate soft tissue inflammation
At AAA Physical Therapy, our dedicated rehabilitation specialists perform appropriate manual therapy techniques in order to achieve your goals and get you back to normal daily activities pain free.
Here are some of the evidence-based techniques that we practice at AAA PT:
Joint Mobilization, Articulation and/or Manipulation: These are passive techniques that are applied directly to the joint and soft tissue structures associated with it using variable types of speed and amplitude for therapeutic purposes.
Manual Stretching: Passive or active technique which generally describes a maneuver designed to increase mobility of soft tissues and subsequently improve range of motion by lengthening structures that have tightened or stiffened due to either internal or external factors.
Manual Traction: Manual technique utilized to separate joint surfaces most commonly used in the spine to decrease compression due to muscle spasm, joint stiffness or degenerative changes.
Muscle Energy Techniques: Uses active contraction of deep muscles attached near the joint wherein its line of pull facilitate or inhibit a desired motion.
Myofascial Release: Hands-on technique that uses application of gentle sustained pressure on the myofascial connective tissue system restriction in order to restore motion and alleviate pain.
Soft Tissue Mobilization Techniques: These are hands-on techniques that directly address soft tissues, which influence the desired motion. Goals may be to inhibit a muscle spasm, improve soft tissue orientation, facilitate healing, increase circulation and increase soft tissue extensibility.
Strain-Counterstrain Techniques: This is a passive positional release technique that decreases tightness by using specific treatment positions held for several seconds.