09/08/2026
FIVE THINGS THAT WE WILL NEVER DO AT HIGHER PHYSIO
Tell you to do exercises and then leave
Have you leave without hands on treatment
Tell you to do something you don’t understand
Give you a surprise bill
Be treated in a room with more than one other person
5 things we never say to someone with back pain
Your spine is out of alignment: we all are, nothing is wrong
Get an xray or MRI so i can see the problem: benign problems can show up and create confusion
Rest your pain away: movement is medicine
Crack your pain away: passive therapies do not work. The patient and therapist are partners.
You need to keep coming back to feel better: eventually, I want you to leave.
5 things we never do physical therapy
It's often a combination of things that lead to an injury. Don’t overanalyze, There’s never just one cause. View that positively.
Learn about what modifiable factors were related to the pain or injury, especially if it was a non contact injury. If we just treat the symptoms instead of learning about what contributed to it, we miss an opportunity.
Rehab is a delicate dance between challenging your tissues and helping them adapt, while also respecting your symptoms and not pushing too hard. Listen to your body and stay consistent with your efforts.
Find a health care professional who is willing to make sure that your rehab matches the demands of whatever activity it is that you want to get back to. Be patient with your body’s healing process, consistent with your exercises, and the not so little things, of nutrition and rest.
Each rehab experience is unique. Although you may have had family or friends who have gone through something like it, remember that yours will be different. Maybe a little, maybe a lot.
WE NEVER SAY
PT is going to hurt: PT should not be painful or make your pain worse. To develop strength, the muscles do need to deal with stress in order to develop stronger. They will not develop if they are not challenged. However, when there’s tissue that’s fragile, or overly tense, or weak, the first goal is helping it to return to a healthy state, before adding more stress to it.
Just because someone has Dr in front of their name does not mean that they know how to help.
