What is Orthopedic Physiotherapy? Here's What You Need to Know
If you’ve ever dealt with an injury or chronic condition affecting your bones, muscles, ligaments, or tendons, you understand how challenging the recovery process can be. Not only are issues with the musculoskeletal system often painful, but also they can easily prevent you from doing the physical activities you normally enjoy. With time, this can lead to you feeling restricted and frustrated as you struggle to maintain your usual physicality.
So what’s the solution to these musculoskeletal challenges? One of the most common—and most effective—is orthopedic physiotherapy. In this guide, we’ll explain this modality of therapy, go over the reasons it works, identify the people it’s most likely to help, and give you an idea of what to expect from your first few sessions.
What is Orthopedic Physiotherapy?
To define orthopedic physiotherapy, we first need to define the term ‘orthopedic’. Orthopedics is the field of medicine relating to deformities and other issues in the musculoskeletal system. Your musculoskeletal system is a highly complex mechanism, covering your bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascial tissue, spinal discs, and even the nervous system.
Orthopedic physiotherapy is a type of manual therapy that focuses on assessing and treating pain, restricted motion, and stiffness in the musculoskeletal system. It’s used for a variety of purposes, particularly in order to diagnose and treat:
Strained muscles
Sprained ligaments
Restricted or ‘frozen’ joints
Joint pain
Bursitis (a type of joint inflammation)
Tendonitis
Post-operative conditions
Lower back pain
Arthritis
Scoliosis
Plantar fasciitis
And much more
The main thing to understand is that, while a specialization in its own right, orthopedic physiotherapy is the foundation of all other kinds of physiotherapy, including:
Sports therapy
Sports injury recovery
Post-surgical recovery
Arthritis
Recovery after car accidents
The central goal of orthopedic physio is to stimulate the body’s natural healing abilities through manual adjustments and treatments, purpose-designed exercises, movement training, posture training, and a variety of other treatments.
What Happens in Orthopedic Physiotherapy?
The process of orthopedic physiotherapy is different for every single person, as no two bodies are exactly alike. That’s why orthopedic physio always begins with an initial assessment. In this first appointment, your physiotherapist will take the time to get to know you, learning about your health history, the issues you’re currently facing, your specific health needs and abilities, and your goals for treatment.
When the orthopedic physio consultation is complete, your physiotherapist will be able to create a customized treatment plan to guide the rest of the process. Depending on the issue that brought you into physio in the first place, this can vary greatly. However, you can generally expect some combination of the main elements of orthopedic physiotherapy:
Exercises
Orthopedic physio relies heavily on specialized stretching and strengthening exercises. These exercises are designed to help keep you active, restoring strength and mobility to the affected areas (and just as importantly, to the surrounding parts of the body). Over time, these exercises will not only help resolve your current concerns but will make future problems much less likely as well.
Joint Mobilizations
If you’re having issues with a specific joint in the body—such as a frozen shoulder or a painful knee, for instance—your orthopedic physiotherapist will use a variety of joint mobilization techniques to help restore motion to the area. By frequently mobilizing the joint in a certain direction, it will begin to move more easily, reducing pain and inflammation at the same time.
Soft Tissue Mobilization
Beyond joint issues, orthopedic physiotherapy is also invaluable for injuries and issues related to soft tissues, such as muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia. Your physiotherapist will help address these concerns through gentle but deliberate mobilization of these tissues, optimizing muscle function and support while reducing pain and inflammation.
Heat/Cold Treatment
Also known as thermotherapy, this is a supplemental treatment often used in conjunction with other techniques. When done properly, heat/cold treatment can reduce pain and inflammation, making other elements of orthopedic physiotherapy easier, less painful, and more effective.
Electrotherapy
Similar to thermotherapy, electrotherapy is a supplemental treatment that can help relax muscles, reduce pain, and relieve inflammation. This is often used in conjunction with other methods to help speed up recovery and improve the efficacy of other treatments.
At any point during the orthopedic physio process, you and your physiotherapist may determine that you need to make changes to your treatment plan. This is very common and is usually a good sign of recovery as your needs and abilities change. The best physiotherapists are always on the lookout for opportunities to adapt your physio routine, ensuring that it’s serving you and never the other way around.
How to Tell if You Need Orthopedic Physiotherapy
With a clearer understanding of the ‘what’ of orthopedic physiotherapy, let’s discuss the ‘why’ and the ‘when’. While many people know that physiotherapy benefits high-level athletes and people recovering from acute injuries, these are not the only cases where this treatment can be useful.
Of course, physiotherapy should be one of your first resorts if you’ve experienced a physical injury. If you’re dealing with pain and stiffness from a muscle strain, for instance, a physiotherapist can almost certainly help you recover with a customized treatment plan.
The same goes for athletes who need their bodies in top shape in order to keep performing at a high level—where even a minor issue can have a huge impact on their abilities. A physiotherapist can help these athletes incorporate exercises, manual therapy, and other treatments into their demanding physical routines.
What if you’re not an elite athlete, and you haven’t suffered a specific injury? Perhaps you’re just dealing with ongoing back pain, or your elbow seems to get inflamed and painful from time to time. Perhaps you’re not dealing with specific pains, but you know that your range of motion and overall physicality could be better.
Orthopedic physiotherapy isn’t just a good option for these cases—it’s completely invaluable. The strengthening and stretching exercises involved in orthopedic physio can be a great way to improve your physical health overall, reducing the odds of you dealing with pain, stiffness, and injury in the future.
If you’re looking to get started with orthopedic physiotherapy, whether to address a specific injury or issue, improve performance in athletics, or simply start feeling your very best again, the team at Triumph Physio & Wellness is here to help.
Get in touch today to book your initial physiotherapy consultation!
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