Here’s How To Minimize The Pain That Stems From Workplace Injuries
Written by Rozy Andrews
If your job demands you to involve in intense physical activities, then receiving workplace injuries is quite natural. The injuries that you get at your workplace not only lead to enormous pain and discomfort, but they also reduce your productivity. And if you fail to subside the pain, you won’t be able to get back to your work immediately; therefore, seeking quality treatment is utterly crucial.
Whether you injure your lower body parts such as hip, knee, and ankle or your upper body parts like lower back, shoulder, neck, and elbow, etc., seeking physical therapy can prove to be highly significant for you.
Since physical therapy involves the use of drug-free treatments techniques like dry needling, Kinesio taping, and cold laser therapy, etc., you will never complain of having side effects.
However, if you use drugs and surgical treatments to improve your condition, you might experience side -effects.
Here’s How A Physical Therapist Treats Workplace Injuries:
- They Examine The Severity of Your Injury
Before offering any treatment to you, your physical therapist will examine the severity of your injury. Whether you have injured your muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves, bones or joints, the physical therapist will offer the treatment after they arrive at a reliable diagnosis.
To figure out how serious is the injury, they will ask you to perform physical activities. For example, if you are suffering from a knee injury or a back injury, they might ask you to walk or bend down to pick up something from the floor, to check the severity of your pain. Besides, they also focus on identifying the location of the injury, so that they can treat it effectively.
- They Use Treatment Techniques That Suit Your Needs
After identifying how severe is your injury, your therapist will create a personalized care plan to meet your needs. They will include only those treatment techniques that can show quick results.
For example, if you want to treat your back pain, then they might use techniques like dry needling for ensuring a quick recovery. It’s a painless treatment technique, and while administering it, your physical therapist will use fine sterile needles. Your therapist will insert these needles into the specific points in your back to enhance blood flow, reduce pain, and to improve the natural healing process of the body.
Apart from that, your physical therapist might also include therapeutic exercise in the treatment plan. Based on your injury, they will pick specific moves that can strengthen your muscles, bones, and joints, so that you can get back to your work quickly.
The might use both strength building exercises and quality stretches, to ensure a quick recovery.
According to James River Physical Therapy, “Therapeutic exercise refers to a wide range of physical activities that focus on restoring and maintaining strength, endurance, flexibility, stability, and balance. The goal of therapeutic exercises is to return an injured patient to a fully functioning, pain-free state.”
- Physical Therapy Relieves Pain Quite Fast
Whether you talk about dry needling, therapeutic exercises, Kinesio Taping, and cold laser therapy, each of these techniques help in minimizing pain quickly. Since they help in enhancing the blood flow to injured tissues, you can see a quick improvement in your health. In short, increased circulation helps in providing nutrients to the damaged area of your body, which eventually accelerates the natural healing process and relieves pain.
- It Restores Your Normal Range of Motion
When your therapist starts offering treatment to you, they monitor your condition frequently. They keep examining your range of motion during the physical therapy sessions. And if the treatment they are offering to you is not showing expected results, then they will use some other techniques.
The best part is that they work one-on-one with you, for example, when they ask you to perform stretching exercises, they will teach you every move in the beginning. And once you learn them, you can do them on your own.
Since exercise helps in enhancing your flexibility, it proves to be utterly helpful in restoring your natural range of motion.
Your therapist will use different types of exercises to achieve different goals. For example, they will teach you specific moves, when it comes to promoting relaxation. Similarly, for improving the range of motion, they will ask you to perform exercises that increase your muscle strength, flexibility, and endurance.
If you sit in front of your desk for long hours, and you are having back pain, then it might be because of poor posture. So, in this case, your therapist will teach you postural exercises to strengthen your spine. It is crucial for you to learn the right sitting techniques to avoid problems like back and neck pain. Besides, they may also ask you to take short breaks in every 2 hours to reduce the stress on your back.