Body Gears_The August Issue

CALLING PHYSICAL THERAPY STRETCHING AND STRENGTHENING IS LIKE CALLING ITALIAN FOOD PIZZA AND MEATBALLS. Maybe you can relate. Do your friends and family not fully understand what your job is?

Mary McMillan is regarded as the American Mother of Physical Therapy after returning from her training in England to practice at the Walter Reid Army Hospital in the 1920’s2. Since the British Chartered Society of Physiotherapy was founded by four nurses2, physical therapy’s roots are in working alongside physicians and that continues to be the case to this day. Physical therapy as we know it today really took off in 1916 during the polio outbreak and World War I with the first research study published in 1921 in the US1. Exercise, massage, and traction were the primary methods of treatment until joint manual therapy came into practice in the early 1950s, especially in the British Commonwealth countries1. Manual therapy was first introduced to the physical therapy community through one of the original osteopathic students, the Scottish physician J. Martin Littlejohn, who in the 1920s offered a two-year course in London to become a manipulative specialist1. Since that time, physical therapists have made significant contributions to the field of manual therapy, with notable names such as McKenzie and Maitland, shaping the therapy you experience today. Why Physical Therapy? With such a rich international history, physical therapy can’t be isolated to one style or approach. Many therapists will incorporate multiple approaches into their practice which means your treatment is completely customized based on your condition, preferences, and goals. With a multitude of techniques (stretching and beyond!) at our disposal, physical therapy is the most comprehensive solution you can get for restoring pain-free movement and function. You’re always welcome to put our expertise to the test with a complimentary screen of your current condition. To get your questions answered, discover the real root of the problem, and find an effective solution, simply fill out the request form on our website or email info@bodygears.com

For physical therapists, it can be frustrating to have your profession constantly reduced to two basic interventions. It takes three years of post-graduate education to become a Doctor of Physical Therapy. A university would be hard-pressed to create a three-year curriculum composed entirely of teaching stretching and strengthening exercises. There are two major reasons for the misconceptions about the physical therapy profession: 1) The majority of advertising and promotional material you likely see involves stretching and strengthening exercises because they’re easy and universally applicable content to produce, and 2) The practice of physical therapy varies wildly from clinic to clinic and even therapist to therapist with “best-practice” sometimes heatedly debated. While we only have ourselves to blame for the public’s limited understanding of what it is we do, it means we have the power to do something about it. At Body Gears, we strive to stay ahead of the curve and be leaders in our profession. That starts with promoting accurate information about the nature of physical therapy practice. How Did Physical Therapy Start? Physical therapy as a concept can be traced back to Hippocrates in 435 BC when he advocated for manual therapy, hydrotherapy, and massage for treating patients1. The earliest modern documentation of physical therapy comes from the founder of a Swedish gymnastics institute in 18131. While a German military physician appears to be the first to coin the term “physiotherapy” in 1851, physiotherapists (known in the US as physical therapists) were first officially recognized in 1887 in Sweden while a British society also formed later that same year1. The first two institutions to offer professional programs in physical therapy were the University of Otago in New Zealand and Reed College in Portland, Oregon1. References: Sharma,KrishnaNand. “Explorationof theHistoryofPhysiotherapy.”ScientificResearchJournalof India (2012) Pettman,Erland. “Ahistoryofmanipulative therapy.”JournalofManual&ManipulativeTherapy (2007)

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