How Do I Know if Physical Therapy is Working?

When you undergo physical therapy, it’s natural to feel anxious and uncertain about the progress you’re making. After all, you’re investing your time, energy, and money into this treatment, and you want to see tangible results. But how do you know if physical therapy is actually working – especially if it’s early on in your treatment?

It’s a question that many of our clients ask. Today, we’ll cover some of the signs that your physical therapy is working.

 Related Content: Why Your Physical Therapy Isn’t Working (And How to Fix It)

1. Reduced pain and swelling

“Less pain” is obviously a sign that something is working, but it might not be so obvious when you’re experiencing chronic pain.

Even if you’re still experiencing pain after starting physical therapy, you may notice the following changes:

• Pain is less frequent
• When pain occurs, it’s less intense
• You’re able to move without causing pain

So just because you’re still experiencing pain doesn’t mean that your physical therapy isn’t working – take a look at how often you experience pain, the intensity and if previous triggers still trigger pain. You’ll likely find that you’ve seen a reduction in pain.

2. Awareness of triggers and improved daily function

A subtle sign that your physical therapy is working is an increased awareness of how your body moves, and what motions, actions, and habits trigger pain. After a few physical therapy sessions, you’ll likely start “catching” yourself more and more as you do a certain action that triggers pain. 

This increased awareness shows you that your physical therapy is working! One of the benefits of physical therapy is an increased awareness of your body so that you can avoid actions that aggravate your pain.

Likewise, you’ll probably notice that day-to-day activities are less painful with this awareness in mind. As you recognize what actions and motions cause pain and begin to avoid them, your daily function will improve. Many of our clients notice this the most in activities like walking down stairs, carrying groceries, and lying in bed – they no longer feel the pain doing these actions that they did previously.

 Related Content: The Benefits of Regular Physical Therapy

3. Things just feel…easier

If your exercises feel a lot easier, that’s a sign that your physical therapy is working. Your body is hard at work strengthening itself so that tasks that once took a lot of effort now feel much easier.

Likewise, you may notice yourself returning to hobbies and activities you avoided – or even trying new ones. This change is often subtle, and it’s often something you don’t really pay attention to until you stop to think about it.

You may also notice that your anxiety is reduced. The toll pain takes on your body is much more than just the physical. Many of our physical therapy clients experience a reduction in their anxiety alongside a reduction in their pain and improved daily function.

Physical therapy can help improve your quality of life and eliminate pain for good – however, it’s not always easy to measure your progress and track your success. Look for the signs above to see if your physical therapy is working – you might be surprised to find that you’re further along on your journey than you thought you were. 

Physical Therapy With PRO Therapy

At PRO Therapy you will always experience precise, caring, and one on one care from a Licensed Doctor of Physical Therapy – no tech aides, no rehab assistants, no personal trainers – to help you decrease pain by the time you walk out the door of your first session and create a plan to adhere to going forward.

If you want to make physical therapy a success, partnering with one of our Doctors of Physical Therapy is going to help you avoid future pain and resolve current pain.

We Love to Help People:

• Keep Active – So you can run after your kids all day, take your grandchildren to the park with ease, enjoy a nice round of golf, run or walk anytime that suits you.
• Stay Free From Painkillers – So you’re not always reaching in the cupboard for pills to ease the pain whenever it strikes, getting only a “quick fix” when you need a “permanent fix” – PLUS they’re no good for your long-term health, “mask” the pain and certainly don’t actually do anything to fix the problem.
• Avoid Dangerous Injections/Surgery – We’ll help you get to the root cause of what’s going on – so you don’t have to get to the point of having to face injections or surgery.
• Found Out What’s Wrong – We’ll help give you peace of mind and ensure that your problem is “corrected” and “healed” properly – also give you a set of exercises perfectly catered to you to help speed up recovery.
• Get More Enjoyment Out Of Life – So you can enjoy quality time with family and friends that your daily aches and pains steal from you – also finally get a good night of sleep without constantly tossing and turning.

 Read Now: Why Our Physical Therapy Team Are Amazing (And What They Have Taught Me)

Are you ready to make physical therapy work for you? Give us a call! We offer complimentary phone and in-person consultations. We aim to meet our patients wherever they are in their journey and answer all questions we can to ensure a smooth experience at PRO Therapy. We want to help you make the best decision for you!

PRO Therapy is an Independently Owned Orthopedic Physical Therapy Clinic. At PRO Therapy, we treat back, knee, neck/shoulder, ankle/foot, and hip pain as well as sports injuries, surgery rehabilitation, and anything else that’s causing you pain. We want everyone to have exceptional care, better access to care and be able to complete the activities in life that make them happy – free from a life of painkillers, injections, or surgeries.