The Importance of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation After a Car Accident in Portland
Most of the time we think of strength training as a way to hit fitness goals. In reality, there is a huge clinical component to beginning a strength training program. We’ve outlined a few of the reasons strength programming must become part of a client’s healthcare program.
1. Protecting The Spine
Strength training doesn’t necessarily mean throwing around heavy weights. It also entails learning fundamental movement patterns that protect the body from future irritations. Training how to hinge from your hips protects the low back from further injury. Programming how to generate power from our hips creates stability up and down the kinetic chain. Proper breathing mechanics and timing creates a stiffness that protects the spine during activity.
2. Creating Stability
Whiplash, sprain/strains, and other injuries sustained in a car accident lead to a certain amount of instability in the body. While passive therapies (massage, adjustments, heat/stim, ice, etc) provide pain relief and healing, they fail to create long term stability that is needed for long term recovery. By strengthening the muscles that support our spine we create stability by taking pressure off our passive structures (joints, ligaments, tendons, etc).
3. Improving Confidence
Fear avoidance behaviors are often developed as a result of a car accident. This leads to patients avoiding certain movements and activities for fear that they’ll be painful. This leads to compensatory movements which only serve to prolong recovery. By strengthening and retraining injured areas we can improve a patient’s confidence and trust in their body following a trauma.
So while pain reduction and faster healing are primary goals of any treatment plan, restoring confidence and trust in our body through a strength training program is vital for long term recovery.
We’ve seen numerous MVA cases where treatment has exceeded a year and still the patient hasn’t been put on any sort of rehabilitation/strength program. At Evolve Performance Healthcare we specialize in creating individualized healthcare and rehab/strength programs for the long term recovery of patients that were involved in a car accident.
WE HELP ADULTS 40+ BUILD THE STRENGTH AND CONFIDENCE TO PUT AN END TO PAIN SO THEY CAN CONTINUE TO WHAT THEY LOVE - WITHOUT THE USE OF PAIN PILLS, INJECTIONS OR SURGERY.