How Often Should I Do Physical Therapy? -

Like any other daily routine physical therapy is important. Different therapy protocols have different exercises. For each of them, the duration of the exercise varies. Whether it is the number of days or time. Hence, there is no standard duration for physical therapy as it depends on the patient’s condition. Each condition comes with an individual diagnosis.

Although, in the initial days, the therapy exercise should be done regularly to reduce pain and inflammations. There is no clarity on how frequently one should do the exercise. This article gives information regarding how often you should do physical therapy.

What Is Physical Therapy?

Asian male physical therapist descent working and helping to protect the hands of patients with patient doing stretching exercise with a flexible exercise band in clinic room.

Before we discuss how often one should do physical therapy exercise, we need to comprehend what physical therapy is all about. Physical therapy is a process that involves therapeutic stretching and exercises to target an affected area. An assessment is then done to determine the level of the damage and what type of physical exercise one should do.

It is a vital process when it comes to patients with leg injuries and requires muscle movement. The benefits of physical therapy exercise are that it improves flexibility. If the injuries are bad, then doing physical exercises will help with the flexibility of the affected area. It also helps to reduce pain, and regain strength.

At the start of your exercises, the therapist may direct you to do one session per day every day of the week for 40 to 45 minutes. As time goes by and the symptoms start subsiding, the number of days of exercise will reduce to 3 to 4 days in a week. With time, the number of days and sessions reduces depending on your healing and condition. If you are assigned a therapist, your timeline also depends on theirs.

How to Stay on Track with Your Physical Therapy Routine

Although it might not be easy to do these exercises every day, you need a few to motivate you and help you stay on track. This part of the article looks at exactly that.

Set an Alarm

You could be having other duties to execute that might take your mind off. The best way to handle this is by setting an alarm for your exercise. That way, you will be able to be consistent, and it helps improve your health. For instance, you could set an early morning alarm for 30 to 45 minutes to get done with it and continue with your other activities.

Schedule It Into Your Calendar

Most exercises do not take more than 45 minutes, so you could set aside the time and days to do the exercises. At times, you might get busy with many things going on. That is why it is necessary to schedule for it. If you are having a therapist to guide you through therapy, you could go through it with them and create a flexible schedule for the both of you.

Prioritize

As much as you have other commitments, putting your health and body first is imperative. In addition, if you have too many sessions to do, you could start with the most necessary. You can ask your therapist which exercises will be useful and beneficial for your condition. Also, let the pain be motivating you. If you want to heal faster, you will need to do your exercises faithfully.

Have Records Of Your Pain Level

Always take note of your pain level. Use a scale to measure your pain level from 0 -10, with 0 being no pain at all and 10 being the highest level of pain. Record in a diary or a piece of paper and watch out for any changes. Also, inform your therapist in case of any changes.

However, remember doing the same exercises for a long period without any changes might not be advantageous. Your body adapts to the exercises. With time, you need to do stronger exercises to keep your body in check. Patience is key when it comes to therapy. The exercises will help achieve results. For you to get better you need to do them repeatedly while challenging your body to a new physical strength.

With the above tips, one can distinguish how often they should do their physical therapy exercise. The prescribed home exercises are always for the patient’s benefit and they should take it seriously. There is no better way to get stronger than putting in the work. Besides, results take time. Let your body adjust slowly. With that frequency, you will be able to achieve your target.