Why Everyone Should See a Physical Therapist

PNF Stretching

Why all Martial Artists should receive regular check-ups by Physical Therapists

Due to all of my recent injuries, I was forced to seek external help from my normal massage and stretching routines. I tend to refrain from visiting doctors and hate taking unnecessary medication and had already visited Masseurs, Chiropractors, Acupuncturists, and a few specialists before seeing the Physical Therapist who helped me recover from my back injury. Art is a doctor of Physical Therapy, has done martial arts before and loves teaching people how to heal their bodies in addition to being one of the most skilled healers I have ever met. He was able to clear all of my bodies ailments in a couple of visits and set me back on the path to recovery as opposed to the stagnating injuries I had lingering. This was done through a series of tests and very unaggressive Nervous system alignments that I would describe as similar to a mixture of Assisted Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Stretching ending in a very small forced extension of your range of motion. Other techniques that were used on me were the Stoddart gapping technique and assignment of various low impact exercises that assisted in strengthening any muscular imbalances or weakened areas in my body.

Art explained that due to our everyday activities, especially those of us who participate in high impact and demanding sports, our bodies will eventually be thrown out of whack. It is extremely important to receive regular check-ups, similar to bringing your car into the automobile shop every few thousand miles. Since we are definitely not made of metal and a living ever changing organism, we should be checked out much more frequently and much more often than some of us bring our cars in. My IlioPsoas joint had been thrown out for an extremely long period of time and unbeknownst to me, I had adjusted my left kicks in order to circumvent this issue by turning my hips much more than usual so that my torso was almost parallel to the ground. The changes weren’t felt immediately like a chiropractic adjustments relief, however, following an adjustment in my right elbow I was able to feel an influx of blood flow down to my hand and an immediate increase of my range of motion as well as actual healing progress over the next few days.

To anyone with any lingering injuries, or even if you think you’re okay I sincerely recommend going and getting checked by a skilled Physical Therapist to either ensure or place you back into your peak performance.