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Injured clients come in to PhysioWorks everyday seeking help in overcoming pain and injuries. Often, they are looking for a diagnosis and a clear pathway to recovery that they can follow under our care. But I would like to highlight the importance of how the client can be an active participant in this process. Here are some ways you can do this.

Home Exercise Program: homework is often tedious and annoying but its an essential part of the recovery process. I prescribe exercises to facilitate and reinforce the changes we are trying to accomplish in the clinic. Simply put, if you don’t do your homework it is difficult to know whether the approach we are taking is going in the right direction.
It is our responsibility to keep the number of exercises as streamlined and concise as possible. If you are feeling overwhelmed with your homework please let us know that you have had a difficult time doing your exercises.

Be mindful of your symptoms: simple questions such as “What makes it worse?” or “What makes it better?” is a good start. Knowing what patterns of activities, positions, postures etc. that can increase or decrease your symptoms is important to know. However trivial the detail may seem to you, it can help us decipher complicated mechanical dysfunctions that contribute to your injury.

How will you know that you are getting better? Another therapist asked me this same question while I was under their care and it really resonated with me. It helps breakdown the goal of full recovery into smaller and measurable steps. It can be very difficult to assess that you are progressing if the end result of ‘no more pain’ is the only measure of getting better. If returning to pain free running is your goal, knowing you were able to run 7 km without pain relative to pain at 5 km the previous week indicates progress.

Our bodies and injuries are complex. By being an active participant in your treatment program, it will help us determine the direction of your treatment. So  as Jerry Maguire said “Help me, help you!”

Rob Iwasaki, BScPT, BScKin, Clinical STOTT Pilates, CAFCI, IMS