Manual Therapy Is What Separates Us From The Rest
Our patients deserve to feel their best…all the time!
When you go to physical therapy you hope that your pain goes away and you are able to move again. Part of your rehabilitation is getting your soft tissue (think joint, muscle, fascia) moving again. Our therapists have learned techniques to get your soft tissue moving again, here are a few of them.
- Joint Mobilization
- Joint Manipulation
- Mulligan Mobilization
- Instrument-Aided Soft Tissue Mobilization
- The McKenzie Method
Manual Therapy means a lot of things to many people. At Coppola Physical Therapy, our therapists have taken hundreds of manual therapy courses to help you feel your best. Each therapist chooses which manual therapy technique(s) work best for your individual needs to improve the quality of your movement.
Remember to ask your physical therapist about their specialties and how they have been trained. You will be pleasantly surprised at how skilled our PTs are.
Joint Mobilization and Joint Manipulation
What is Joint Mobilization? How Does It Help?
Joint Mobilization is passive movements to your joints that help improve your pain, reduce joint restrictions, and increase normal movement and joint range of motion. What that means is you are able to move better to reach into a cupboard, squat down when gardening, or go up and down stairs without discomfort.
What Is Joint Manipulation? How Does It Help?
Joint Manipulation is similar to mobilization in that it is a passive movement of the joint. However, manipulation is done more quickly. During joint manipulation, the joint is moved through high-velocity and low-amplitude force application.
What this means is you will be able to move your joint in a new range of motion rather quickly. Ask your therapist if they perform joint manipulation.
Mulligan Mobilization
What Is Mulligan Mobilization? How Does It Help?
Mulligan Mobilization is named after New Zealand physiotherapist, Brian Mulligan. Like other mobilizations its aim is to move the joint to provide relief and increased motion. Where it differs is that Mulligan Mobilization is a combination of mobilization and active movement. Dr. Mulligan believes that manual ‘repositioning’ helps to restore normal joint function while gaining new pain-free movement.
Terms that you will hear are NAGS, SNAGS, and MWM or “Natural Apophyseal Glides, Sustained Natural Apophyseal Glides, and Mobilization with Movement”. These are used for the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries.
Instrument-Aided Soft Tissue Mobilization
What Is Instrument-Aided Soft Tissue Mobilization? How Does It Help?
Instrument-Aided Soft Tissue Mobilization is when our physical therapists use specially-designed instruments to help break up adhesions in your muscles and fascia and bring fresh blood flow to or near your injured areas.
For example, when someone has surgery the scar tissue may get bound up. This scar tissue reduces the quality and quantity of movement around a joint preventing effective healing. When this happens you are not able to get the motion that your joint needs so IASTM helps to break up the adhesions to get you moving again.
IASTM by its very nature speeds up healing and recovery after an injury or surgery.
McKenzie Method
What Is The McKenzie Method? How Does It Help?
Introduced by physiotherapist Robin McKenzie in the 1950s, the McKenzie Method is a safe and effective system for treating spine and extremity musculoskeletal disorders. The Method emphasizes patient empowerment and self-treatment.
Your physical therapist performs a thorough evaluation and offers a set of specific movements (exercises) for you to start immediately. These exercises are updated in the clinic based on where you are in your recovery.