Physical therapy and weight training – you would think the two were worlds apart. Physical therapy is the art of recovering from (and preventing) injury, while weight training is the art of building and maintaining strength. What the Park Slope community wants to know is what these two art forms have in common.
Well, let’s think about it for a moment. Personal trainers often promote stretching as a way of warming up and cooling down – they also encourage massages for improved recovery. Meanwhile, physical therapists often use resistance training in their treatment plans because it helps build resilience and prevent injury.
The two art forms are more connected than once thought, but physical therapists and personal trainers are starting to catch on to this – including our talented team at PhysioRX. By combining physical therapy with personal training, we believe we can maximize the healing and strengthening benefits of both.
People often say there’s strength in numbers, and they’re not wrong, but we like to think there’s strength in therapy – and therapy in strength, for that matter. That’s why we’ve assembled an expert team of physical therapists, personal trainers, and nutritionists – the type of support team we can all benefit from.
Speaking of benefits, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of combining physical therapy and weight training:
So, how is all of this possible? Well, I like to think of there being five pillars to physical therapy weight training: manual therapy, stretching, resistance training, injury recovery, and injury prevention. Through these five pillars, your physical therapist or personal trainer can help build both strength and resilience.
The body has a way of healing itself through proper movements, but that healing process is disrupted anytime the body develops abnormal or dysfunctional movements. These unhealthy habits – whether it be improper form while exercising or bad posture while walking – contribute to all that pain you experience.
Manual therapy is a hands-on approach where physical therapists use their hands (literally) to correct improper movements that the body recognizes as ‘normal.’ This not only reduces pain, but increases mobility, flexibility, and range of motion – all of which allow you to perform better, longer, and safer.
Most of us stretch, but we do it without a rhyme or reason. We don’t know what the stretching is doing for our workout, and we don’t even know what stretches to do before specific exercises. That’s why physical therapists and personal trainers both emphasize the importance of stretching before and after a workout.
By doing the proper stretches before certain activities or exercises, you’re preparing your body for what lies ahead – ensuring the right areas of the body have full mobility and adequate blood flow to perform their best. Not stretching can be detrimental to your goals, but so can stretching improperly – we can prevent that!
Resistance training involves using free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, and/or your own body weight. It’s what personal trainers are best known for, but it’s also a vital component of any physical therapy treatment plan. If you’re not getting stronger, then you’re setting yourself up for another injury.
Since physical therapists specialize in motion and movement, they can help you get the most out of your resistance workout by helping you perfect your form and technique. Athletes forget that the right form can be the difference between a new PR and disappointment – and the difference between health and injury.
Nothing can halt your goals like an injury – it’s an athlete's worst nightmare. That’s because time spent recovering from an injury is time not spent working on your goals – it’s a distraction, really. At the same time, it’s necessary if you want to get back in the gym or back on your feet, so you can’t avoid it.
At PhysioRX, our goal is to get you back on your feet faster – that way, you can get back to the workouts that you enjoy. And since we utilize strength training in all of our physical therapy programs, you’ll also gain a little muscle in the process – so that time spent recovering from injury won’t be a waste, after all.
Recovering from an injury is never easy – no matter how small or big the injury might be. With that said, the only thing worse than having to recover from an injury is having to do it again. That’s why physical therapists aren’t only interested in helping you recover from the injury, but also in preventing further injury.
This, of course, means you won’t be disrupted by random injuries and will be able to perform at your absolute best consistently. No more aches, no more pain, no more discomfort – just you, your progress, and your results. And with the right expert guidance, those results are going to look superb!
Are you constantly injuring yourself while working out or playing sports? Are you scared to push yourself in the gym out of fear of injury? Do you feel like you could improve your form while weightlifting? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions above, then physical therapy weight training is right for you!
At PhysioRX, we take pride in serving the Park Slope community with top-of-the-line physical therapy, personal training, and nutritionist programs designed to meet each client’s individual needs. To learn more about how we leverage technology to maximize your results, book your consultation with PhysioRX today!
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