Manual Physical Therapy

Manual physical therapy is the cornerstone of our treatment and recovery processes

Manual Physical Therapy

Manual physical therapy is the cornerstone of our treatment and recovery processes

What is Manual Therapy?

In manual physical therapy, your therapist uses a variety of physical, hands-on techniques (rather than machines or devices) to treat your symptoms and conditions.

At Achieve, we use manual therapy in combination with specific exercises and pain-science education to give you an all-inclusive approach to pain, movement, and wellness.

What is Manual Therapy?

In manual physical therapy, your therapist uses a variety of physical, hands-on techniques (rather than machines or devices) to treat your symptoms and conditions.

At Achieve, we use manual therapy in combination with specific exercises and pain-science education to give you an all-inclusive approach to pain, movement, and wellness.

When is Manual Therapy Used?

Manual therapy is used when a muscle or joint is causing you pain or a decrease in your range of motion. Your therapist can use manual therapy to increase your flexibility and range of motion, reduce your pain, or relax your muscles.

As part of restoring mobility to parts of the body that have been injured in the past, using manual therapy can guide your muscles into "remembering" what it is like to move with a restored range-of-motion.

Some Forms of Manual Therapy

Joint Mobilization: different magnitudes of movement to a joint to improve mobility
Passive Stretching: stretches that lengthen or extend your muscles to increase your flexibility
Soft Tissue Massage: a form of massage that targets muscle groups or soft tissues to reduce muscles tension and pain
Friction Massage: a form of massage that aims to break up scar tissue and reduce pain

How Manual Therapy Affects Your Physical Therapy Results

Manual therapy impacts your physical therapy results by reducing swelling, inflammation, and pain. Additionally, manual therapy can improve your tolerance for other exercises and help restore your range of motion.

Reducing Swelling & Inflammation

Manual therapy works primarily by restoring the blood flow to the injured parts of the body.

With high levels of inflammation post-injury, regulating the flow of blood to the injury site can reduce inflammation and swelling, making day-to-day movement easier.

Improving the Body's Tolerance

Experiencing pain while trying to exercise or move is a hallmark of an injury.

Manual therapy helps the body become used to regularly moving parts of the body affected by injury, making future exercise, movement, and mobility less painful.

Restoring Range of Motion

Stiffness and movement pain are a common side effect of injuries in the joints and muscles.

Manual therapy focuses on minimizing this pain and future pain by re-strengthening injured muscles and the muscles surrounding the injured joint areas.

Our Approach to Manual Therapy

Our therapists combine manual therapy with pain-science education to both help better understand your pain and move you along your journey to recovery.

If you're interested in seeing what a personalized manual therapy treatment would look like for you, drop us a line! You can use the contact information here to reach out to a physical therapist directly.