Tag Archives: mobility

Lets get moving again!

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Lets get you moving! In honor of National Senior Health & Wellness Day being celebrated this Wednesday, May 26th, we wanted to share with you the benefits of physical therapy for Senior patients. Seniors benefit in numerous ways from physical activity and physical therapy.

Benefits

  • Improve balance, gait and endurance to reduce fall risk
  • Maintain strength, healthy joints and muscles
  • Increase joint mobility
  • Help reduce or control blood pressure
  • Reduce the risk of diabetes and other chronic diseases
  • Ease symptoms of stress and anxiety
  • Reduce and prevent arthritis joint swelling and pain
  • Increase the ability to live independently

Why Physical Therapy?

Most importantly, physical therapy can help Seniors strengthen weak muscles and increase mobility so that they can get moving once again. It can also improve endurance, so that the patient can enjoy physical hobbies like gardening or golf for longer periods of time.

Overall, physical therapy can give Seniors back their independence and make daily tasks easier. Working with the staff at Elite will not only reduce pain, but it will also help improve overall strength and ability and reduce the risk for falls or injuries, helping patients maintain a higher quality of life.

What we do at Elite

Evaluate each patient individually to find which symptoms are affecting their ability to maintain the best quality of life. Our physical therapists then formulate a plan of care made up of manual therapy and exercises.

  1. Medical history
  2. Medication review
  3. Clinical observation
  4. Berg balance scale
  5. Complete Physical Therapy Treatment

Know someone that could benefit?

Know of a senior in your life that could use physical therapy?  Have them visit us at one of our three convenient Chester County locations in West Chester, Downingtown and Coatesville!  We’ll evaluate, treat, and rehabilitate! We make sure that when someone leaves our clinic, that they feel that they have gained freedom from pain, and have a new lease on life! We help improve patients mobility, balance, strengthen key areas, and give tips to stay in optimal condition and prevent injuries!

Tendonitis is a PAIN!

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Tendonitis is characterized by inflammation or irritation of a tendon — the thick fibrous cords that attach muscle to bone. The condition causes pain and tenderness right outside a joint. While tendinitis can occur in any of your tendons, it’s most common around your shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and heels. When tendons become irritated or inflamed, acute pain and tenderness make it difficult to move the affected joint.

       

If left untreated…

  • Tendonitis may become chronic
  • Can also lead to:
  • Weakening of the tendon (tendinosis)
  • Rupture of the tendon/permanent damage to the affected tissues

How can PT help?

  • Reduce pain
  • Strengthen muscles around damaged tendon to help avoid similar injuries in the future

Manual Therapy can…

  • Stimulate change in the tissue if the body is unable to do so on its own
  • Change the movement of a joint and the surrounding tissue by way of:
    • Joint manipulation/mobilization
    • Soft tissue mobilization

When it comes to reliable, highly skilled clinicians, we’ve got you covered from your head to your toes! Visit us at one of our three locations in West Chester, Downingtown or Coatesville, today!

FINDING THE ROOT CAUSE

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Elite’s Philosophy to Physical Therapy Treatment

Physical therapists are experts in movement. Often times, pain develops because there is an incorrect movement pattern, or a movement dysfunction. This is causing repeated microtraumas to the injured structure. The pain is the problem! The movement dysfunction is the cause of the problem – “the root cause.”

At Elite, our physical therapists focus on correcting those movement dysfunctions. This allows us to help improve your movement and quality of life. This is done through proper manual therapy techniques and/or proper prescribed exercises.

  • If a joint is not moving well or if a muscle is too short: This is causing the movement dysfunction. We use manual therapy techniques to give the structure more mobility and prescribe the proper exercises to keep it moving.
  • If a joint is moving too much or if a muscle is too long: This is causing the movement dysfunction. We will prescribe you proper exercises to stabilize the structure and to strengthen those muscles.

It is not only important to eliminate the pain, but to correct the movement dysfunction. That is the root cause of the pain in the first place. If the movement dysfunction is corrected, then the likelihood of the pain returning drastically decreases. Elite’s clinicians find the cause of a patient’s pain in order to correct their overall movement patterns. It’s what sets us apart!

With three convenient locations in Coatesville, Downingtown and West Chester. Elite is here for all of your physical and occupational therapy needs!