Empire Performance PT

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Meet The Team >
      • Dr. Tony Tanzi, PT, DPT, CSCS
      • Dr. Kyle PT, DPT
      • Dr. Matthew PT, DPT
      • Jeffrey Mansfield, PT, MSPT
      • Alana PTA
  • Physical Therapy
    • Back Pain
    • Knee Pain
    • Shoulder Pain
    • Ankle Pain
  • Sports Rehabilitation
  • Join Our Team!
  • Blog
  • 5 Minute Friday
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Meet The Team >
      • Dr. Tony Tanzi, PT, DPT, CSCS
      • Dr. Kyle PT, DPT
      • Dr. Matthew PT, DPT
      • Jeffrey Mansfield, PT, MSPT
      • Alana PTA
  • Physical Therapy
    • Back Pain
    • Knee Pain
    • Shoulder Pain
    • Ankle Pain
  • Sports Rehabilitation
  • Join Our Team!
  • Blog
  • 5 Minute Friday
  • Contact Us

What is Manual Therapy?

3/20/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
You're fresh out of surgery and you arrive to physical therapy in your sling. You're not allowed to move your arm but your physical therapist is... 

This is what we call manual therapy.

It's when a physical therapist is doing any skilled intervention (treatment) with their hands.

There are 3 main reasons to do manual therapy:

Reduce Pain
Improve tissue tension
Improve mobility / range of motion

​
These are all great to do at the early stages of treatment, meaning in your first few visits due to the higher level of pain you are experiencing. As your pain decreased we will transition you off of manual therapy and onto more functional based exercises. We broke down manual therapy into six different types:

1. Passive Range of Motion:
This is when a Physical Therapist is moving your limb through a motion and you are
totally relaxed, letting the therapist do all the work.

2. Joint Mobilization
This is when the Therapist will try to loosen a specific joint capsule, again with you the
patient being totally relaxed

3. STM or MFR
Soft tissue massage or Myofacial release are two types of “massages” to relieve tissue
tension.

4. Transverse friction massage
This is usually performed across a healed scar or over scar tissue in a “transverse”
direction to aid in breaking up scar tissue.

5. Strapping
A massage is done on a muscle while there is movement.

6. Effleurage
Primarily used to decrease swelling of the limbs in post surgical patients. This type of
manual therapy gently attempts to circulate the swelling back into the system.

Manual therapy is NOT what we would call instrument assisted therapy (IASTM). This type of therapy is when a Therapist uses tools (graston tools, cupping tools etc) to assist with the manual techniques.
​
It is important to note that manual therapy is best used at the early stages of your treatment. As you progress it is vital to transition to more functional based activities and exercises. This helps you the patient regain independence and get back to living an active lifestyle!

By: Dr. Kyle Ioos, PT, DPT and Dr. Tony Tanzi, PT, DPT, CSCS

Click here to listen to the blog
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dr. Tony Tanzi: Physical Therapist, Triathlete, Runner, Performance Coach

    Picture
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    December 2015

    Categories

    All
    Recipes

    RSS Feed