If you have suffered a sports injury, your physician may refer you to a physical therapist. A physical therapist will work with you to strengthen the injured part of your body, helping you to recover and get back to the sport you love.
However, every injury and person is different, and as such, so is your treatment plan. A physical therapist will consider many factors when putting together a treatment plan for you. If you are attending your first appointment, you may be wondering what to expect.
During your first appointment, your physical therapist will likely conduct many tests in order to put together a treatment plan that is ideal for you. Here are a few of the tests that are done during your initial visit in order to make this treatment plan.
Strength Test
A strength test measures the muscles ability to contract and produce force. A physical therapist will perform this test to determine how much strength you have in the affected body part. This will help them determine how much strengthening the body part will need and how to best go about strengthening it. The type of test done will vary, based on the body part affected.
However, a manual muscle test is one of the most popular strength tests. The therapist pushes on different muscles to see how they react and contract. They will then give you a grade of 0 to 5, with 5 being the highest.
Range of Motion Test
A range of motion test helps determine the distance that your joints can be moved in different directions. There are three different ways that range of motion tests are done by a physical therapist. The first is a passive range of motion test. The therapist will move the joint on their own as far as it will go, or until you encounter any pain.
The second test is an active-assistive range of motion test. With this type of test, you, the patient, move your joint as much as you can, with the therapist helping to move the joint if you feel weak. The last test is an active range of motion test. With this test, the therapist provides no assistance. They measure how far your joint moves with you doing all of the work.
Joint Stability Test
The last test a physical therapist will do at your first sports injury physical therapy appointment is a joint stability test. This test determines your ability to maintain or control your joints' movement and position. There are different tests done to test the stability of a joint, depending on what body part is injured. However, you can expect to be asked to perform different stretches and hold them as long as you can. This allows a physical therapist to see how you can move the joint and if it is stable enough stay put in different stances.
You can expect to have many different tests done at your first sports injury physical therapy appointment. These tests will allow a physical therapist to determine the extent of your injury and what areas you need to improve on. This allows them to put together a treatment plan based on your injuries. These tests also give baseline readings. As you progress through physical therapy, some of these tests will be conducted again to see how much improvement you have made. Contact a company like Advanced Physical Therapy for more details.
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