How To Track Your Progress in Physical Therapy
Understanding where you are is vital to recognizing physical growth and improvement. Read on to learn how to track your progress in physical therapy.
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There are several key benefits to participating in physical therapy. From helping you heal from an injury to assisting with achieving your athletic milestones, these sessions can further your physical capabilities. However, if you aren’t properly tracking your steps throughout this process, how much you progressed since the beginning can seem unclear. Here’s how to track your progress in physical therapy and get the most out of each stage.
Set Realistic Goals for Physical Therapy
Benchmarks are a vital part of tracking your growth in anything, including your physical well-being. Whether your goal is to increase your strength or hone your reflexes for the next big fight, understanding these milestones makes it easier to tell when you’ve met them. So take some time to list out a few goals for yourself. This could be to improve some aspect of your athletic performance, or it could be to improve your range of mobility following an injury.
Monitor Your Pain and Mobility Levels
Next, you’ll want to start paying extra attention to your overall pain and mobility levels throughout the day. This is especially crucial for those in the process of recovery. Since you’re trying to manage your pain and improve your range of motion, these are key indicators of whether you’re doing better or worse than previous sessions. As you run through your exercises, take note of how you’re feeling. Do you have less pain than before? Can you stretch further? Acknowledging these changes can demonstrate how far you’ve come.
Regular Physicals and Screenings
While working with your physical therapist, they may have you receive occasional physicals and screenings to determine improvement. These tests have you perform a series of exercises to monitor aspects like mobility, speed, and comfort. Taking these exams over a period of time can show significant changes in how long you could hold certain poses and the amount of weight you could lift.
Talk With Your Physical Therapist
One of the most effective ways to track your progress in physical therapy is by communicating with your physical therapist. As industry professionals, it’s your therapist’s job to provide you with tailored resources and monitor how your condition improves throughout each session. As such, establishing an open channel of communication with them is essential to seeing prolonged success. If you notice your physical therapist doesn’t communicate with you, it’s one of the major signs you should find a new professional to work with.
Finding ways to check your progress throughout physical therapy can do wonders for your motivation and performance. So make sure you implement these methods as you navigate the challenges ahead.
Dianne Pajo is a writer based out of the Chicagoland area with a passion for music, combat sports, and animals. She enjoys competing in amateur boxing and kickboxing, but in her other leisure time, you can find her performing music around the city. She is also a dog mom of 2.
