You’ve Graduated Physical Therapy – Now What?

Tips on how to stay consistant and prevent re-injury after being released from your physical therapists care!

For many people, physical therapy is a tool to help them get back to something they enjoy doing. Whether it’s a sport you’ve invested years in, lifting in the gym, or hiking with your kids, getting the green light to safely return to what you love is a breath of fresh air after feeling like you’ve been living at partial capacity.

For others, physical therapy might be a place to find relief from persistent pain, or to help complete everyday tasks. Regardless of your goals, completing your journey with physical therapy should be a celebrated moment filled with empowerment and pride. 

But what happens next? Simply, go live your life. Enjoy your sport. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your physical capability. However, recovering from injury is not a one-and-done, fix-it-quick endeavor. You may find that you continue to have aches and pains after completing therapy. Some days may be harder than others, and there are games where you may get re-injured.

This doesn’t mean you’re back at square one, rather it’s a normal response of the body to increased stress. This can be mitigated by regular maintenance once you’ve discontinued attending physical therapy.

This post is meant to provide general tips on regular physical care to keep you healthy and strong beyond the course of your physical therapy treatment.

How We Get Hurt (Again)

There are countless ways that injuries and relapses may occur. One thing that we can confidently say is that doing too much, too soon is probably going to cause some sort of pain. What that means is that even if you’ve recovered from a straightforward injury, such as an ankle sprain, jumping right back into your usual 50 mile/week running plan isn’t advisable.

While you heal from injury, your body de-conditions from the stress that it is used to, so you’ll need to train back up gradually to your usual capacity to avoid re-injury or a new injury. Your PT will address this with you during discharge planning but putting it into practice can be hard when you aren’t being reminded or told to do so. Make sure to put a tangible plan in place to help you avoid over training. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, such as pain related to long term inactivity, the same rules hold true. While regular exercise may be the answer to your problem, starting a high intensity exercise program after months or years of inactivity can lead to further pain and injury. There’s no downside to starting slow – just like with an ankle sprain, have a plan in place to gradually build your activity rather than jumping right in. 

PT is a wonderful place to help you calculate the right amount of activity, but when you’re on your own it can be much harder. When in doubt, go slow and build up over time, and prioritize consistency in your routine over intensity.

Some Conditions Need More Attention Than Others

Injuries that happen acutely and/or traumatically may be the most straightforward when it comes to healing. If you have had an injury, gone through PT, let your injury heal, and done a good job of keeping your strength and conditioning up, you’ll likely be in a good spot to resume usual activity without incident.

More chronic diagnoses, however, will need attention long term. Osteoarthritis, low back pain, and overuse injuries are a few that warrant long term care. That doesn’t mean you need to diligently perform your PT exercises every day for the rest of your life. However, these kinds of conditions do tend to have lower levels of pain, higher function, and a higher quality of life when a generally active lifestyle is adhered to, especially one that includes both resistance exercise and cardiovascular conditioning.

You Are Unique

Every diagnosis is different. Your injury, pain, healing timeframe, and lifestyle factors are completely unique to you, so you are the one who has the most control over staying healthy in the long term. What your type of injury can cue you into is how much work you’ll need to do on your own to stay healthy.

In general, acute injuries – that is injuries that have not been present for a long time – may just need time to heal followed by a short strengthening period and graded exposure back into your usual activity. Chronic injuries, which have been bothering you for a long time, may need more TLC for long term management.

You Are Not Alone

While you are the one who has the largest role in maintaining long term strength, health, and fitness, you are never alone. Even if you’ve already completed your physical therapy plan of care and are feeling fine, it’s not a bad idea to check in with your PT once in a while.

While annual physical therapy check-ins aren’t mainstream routines for most people yet, don’t be afraid to give your body the same preventative care that you do your teeth and eyes. Your PT can help to provide ongoing education, reassurance, and exercise as necessary to keep you engaged with all of your favorite activities.

By: Malti McKinnon, SPT