It’s no coincidence that people who come to IdealFit get better. The therapy skills are top notch, you get a full hour of dedicated therapy time with your therapist, and the exercises needed to be performed are carefully explained and thoroughly taught. But what has the biggest influence on our great results is the 3 phase treatment model we use to guide your progress. Let me walk you through it!
Phase 1
Relieve pain.
After we’ve spent the eval measuring and assessing and testing, a few minutes of the evaluation and the next few visits will be focused on significantly decreasing pain symptoms. We may use soft tissue massage, joint mobilizations, dry needling, cupping, taping, exercises- whatever we need! This phase will also bring rest from the things that hurt, or a substitution for those movements. Don’t worry! You’re dealing with therapists who will never tell you to stop what you love. This rest is very temporary and we get you back to it as soon and as safely as we can.
Phase 2
Correct the movement
Incomplete mechanics were likely the cause of the problem. In your movement, there’s something missing. It’s likely not a problem noticeable to the untrained eye. But it is there and lead to the painful problem. In phase two, we correct that movement problem. It could be a strength/stability issue or a mobility/flexibility problem. Either way, we find it and fix it using movements that look as much like your normal activity as possible. I love this phase, and we transition to it as quickly as we can get your pain symptoms under control.
Phase 3
Prepare for activity.
At this point, we are well on our way to having you back to what you love! In fact, we are likely going to start spreading visits out to see how you do without weekly therapy. In the time between visits, we see how your normal activity feels and make plans based on the report at each visit.
Fit Forever
This isn’t an official phase in our process. But a lot of our clients choose to stay on for visits once a month or every two months for maintenance. At these visits, we spend an hour checking in, assessing movement to make sure no injuries are on the horizon, and addressing any little nagging aches that are bound to pop up for any active individual. These visits decrease the likelihood of having to take another break from doing what you love when an injury gets ahead of us.
If you have more questions about our treatment model, holler at me!
Rachel Atufunwa PT, DPT