Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation, or rehab, is a multi-step process that must be completed correctly for the best injury or surgical outcome. Rehabilitation is important to be performed whenever you have damaged the structural integrity of your body.   That can be from any surgery on your body to a broken bone or torn muscle.  If you are unsure if you need rehabilitation, contact us and we can advise you if rehab will benefit you.  

 

Rehabilitation affects your post-injury or post-surgical recovery time, pain levels, quality of function, and strength.    A combination of manual therapy, exercises, and health professional coaching is recommended for the best rehabilitation outcome.  Your ability to stick to your rehabilitation prescription will also be a critical factor in how quickly you recover.

 

Rehabilitation assists the healing process.  Firstly, by restoring of full function (movement) of your affected area, after your injury or surgery.  Restoring full movement involves manual therapy, consisting of massage, mobilisation and traction.  This is applied in a gentle and controlled approach to step by step improve your movement.  It is important in this phase not to go too hard, or you will trigger your body’s protective response and slow your healing.  At Five Dock Osteopathic and Chiropractic you will be given a structured program tailored to your specific needs. Our main goal is to get you back as soon as possible to doing the activities you love while feeling stronger than ever!

 

After improving your movement the second step, which will be introduced as soon as your body is ready, is to improve your strength and control.  Following injury or surgery you will be inactive for a period of time.  This leads to a deconditioning of your muscles, ligaments and tendons.  It is critical to improve your strength to protect your joints and build postural or movement control following a period of inactivity.  Exercises will begin as simple one-direction movements and will be progressed to complex multidirectional movements as your body heals.  The second step is important to form good postural habits and decrease the risk of future injury.  The added benefit of exercise is that they maintain your flexibility at the same time.