Physical therapy is extremely important in helping people recover from the debilitating effects of arthritis, as it can help you regain strength and motion in your shoulders, back, neck, hips, and knees, or wherever else you may be affected by arthritis. Physical therapy can also reduce your joint pain and stiffness, restore your joint biomechanics, decrease your levels of inflammation and improve your posture to help you function better. In short, physical therapy helps you to walk, stand and do normal activities with less pain.
The problem is that arthritis sufferers are often unaware that they are moving in an injurious manner and demonstrating poor movement qualities. Moving too forcefully, quickly, and heavily can lead to joint breakdown, as your muscles cannot contract in time to cushion the shock of weight bearing. However, physical therapy can correct these harmful movements, educating you on how to identify and sense these injurious movements and to move with greater ease and support. Physical therapists do this by retraining your kinaesthetic sense, or you awareness of how you moving within your body and in the environment.
One success story of physical therapy comes from a patient who wished to be known as A.A: ‘Physical therapy has helped me in all areas of my life! I was in horrible pain and now I feel much better and can do more. I’m building muscles and learning how to take better care of my body.’ Another patient, L.S., reported, ‘Since my physical therapy I can do housework and drive my car with ease. Lifting heavier objects is not a problem anymore and there is no pain doing chores. Most of all I can do my crafts and painting for as long as I want to. Life is good!’