How Many Days A Week Should You Do Physical Therapy?
See A Physical Therapist
The lifestyle of each person will measure how often a physical therapist visits to maintain a safe, active lifestyle free from new or recurrent injury. If you are involved in sports and exercise, then you need to work on a regularly scheduled basis in collaboration with the spine and sports medicine team of physical therapy specialists and sports physicians to really preserve and optimize the ability of your body.
See a Physical Therapist
For a patient to achieve optimum benefits soon after diagnosis, most clinicians initially prescribe three visits per week. Your physical therapist will advise you as to the appropriate number of visits after your initial assessment.
Frequency of Physical Therapist Visits
Depending on the existing and ongoing frequency of physical therapy appointments:
- Your physician’s diagnosis of your condition
- Your physician’s individualized plan of care
- Your physician’s recommendation for frequency of visits
- Your progress during Physical Therapy
Physical Therapist Follow Ups
- For each session, all performance input from your recommended therapy activities and strategies will be recorded by your physical therapist.
- An assessment will be completed by your physical therapist approximately every four weeks based on your reaction to the recommended treatment regimen.
- In the fourth week, you can see your doctor for an update on your progress and to receive referrals for physical therapy for potential care.
- Once you have been released from your physical therapist’s treatment, scheduling a follow-up appointment at least regularly would be a recommended best practice of care to ensure the continuity of corrective therapy and avoid re-injury.
Physical Therapy Expertise
It is a physical therapist’s responsibility to customize the physical rehabilitation program of a patient to improve flexibility, joint motion range, as well as balance and strength. Customized exercise routines promote recovery and decrease the risk of re-injury.
How often do I need to go to physical therapy?
For a frequency of 2 or 3 days per week, a standard doctor’s prescription or reference to physical therapy. Although due to diagnosis and degree of injury or illness, each person’s frequency can vary, you can usually count on being asked to attend therapy with this consistency.
You may think that 2 to 3 physical therapy visits a week is too many when you have just undergone surgery or suffered an injury. The truth is that two or three sessions of therapeutic exercise and movement, including stretching and strengthening, have proved to be most successful in recovering the range of motion and strength when there is an accident, surgery or disease / disorder causing malfunction within the musculoskeletal system.
Although you may believe you can independently perform the exercises and activities you complete during your counseling session, thereby decreasing your therapy frequency, it is important to consider how the experience, expertise and direction of your therapist in the treatment of movement-related disorders can influence your recovery rate. In general, slower recovery is shown in patients who are less consistent with daily therapy attendance, thereby prolonging their return to operation.
Your psychiatrist will consult with you on the initial assessment to assess a frequency that fits the prescription of your doctor and takes the degree of disability into account to help you make recovery possible as soon as possible.
Are You Looking for Relief From Neck Pain?
Pace Physical Therapy in San Jose, California specializes in non-surgical neck pain relief and recovery therapies. We pride ourselves on offering the best possible physical therapy available and going above and beyond for our patients. Our highly experienced physical therapist will work with you to improve your function and relieve your pain. We start by assessing the body as a whole. Oftentimes the cause of pain or an injury extends far beyond just the body part or muscle hurting. Without taking a comprehensive look at your entire self, we would be doing you a disservice in fully helping you heal and preventing future limitations. We then move on to fixing your areas of limitation. Not all diagnoses are created equal. One person with neck pain may have completely different limitations than the next person. Your recovery program needs to be specific to what YOUR body needs and not just the typical exercise program that you can find online. Just because your pain decreases or you can walk longer doesn’t mean that it is enough to get you functioning at the level you want to be. While this often signifies the end of care at your typical PT clinic we don’t stop providing guidance until we help you successfully meet every goal you set for yourself with us on day one. Contact us today to schedule your appointment!
