Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy in Wichita, KS
Why Should I Trust ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic with My Rehabilitation?
Within the greater Wichita, Kansas metro, a chiropractic clinic or a physical therapy clinic is a dime a dozen. But at ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic, we work to integrate the best of chiropractic, functional medicine, physical therapy-based services, strength training, pain management, and various other approaches under one roof. We apply these various approaches through our unique pain categorization assessment system which directs care. We also now taken this system and integrated it into telehealth and video programs for patients who are not seeking in-person care.
ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic Approach to Physical Therapy-Based Services
We offer a unique blend of Physical Therapy-based services. At the heart of it, we utilize a pain auditing, assessment system which we have critiqued over the years with knowledge gathered. With this system we have been able to identify and catalogue people into two camps of rehabilitation when rehabilitation is an appropriate course of action. From a birds-eye view, programming physical rehabilitation is this simple and this knowledge should not be held tightly to a few.
Healthcare has made simple ideas complex and confused the masses as a result. Unfortunately, exercises and physical rehabilitation are no different.
Identifying the Two Camps of Rehabilitation
When discussing physical rehabilitation, we must separate two concepts. Are you in pain and/or are you lacking in performance? Sometimes the answer is yes to both these questions; however, these are not the same question. The lack of understanding that these two questions are different, or assuming asking of one question is the answer to the other is haunting physical medicine practitioners. It is no wonder rehabilitation has become confusing to customers; it has become confusing to the provider who would be delivering the message to the customer. As a result, programming exercises has become a hodgepodge of a mess. This is where we, at ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic, are stepping in. Exercise(s) is quite simple. Programming for exercises should be viewed within two camps of a Venn-diagram.
Everyone lives somewhere on this continuum at any given time. When pain is present, our goal is to identify if the area of complaint can be moved in a way, based on 4 golden rules, and if so, transition them into the sliver where we perform both pain reducing exercises and performance exercises. The overall goal is to move individuals entirely into the performance circle and out of the pain circle. Our definition for performance could be sport specific, gym specific exercises, gardening, or playing with kids. Performance is whatever you want it to be. Our goals are your goals.
Hopefully, this visual helps to explain and bring to light a deeper understanding of not only what rehabilitation is but when different styles or types of rehabilitation exercises are to be introduced, and/or performed, to help facilitate you from pain to performance.
Pain Camp for Rehabilitation Exercises
When someone is in intense pain (let’s use low back as an example) they are not going to attempt a heavy deadlift or squat due to the pain. Under almost all circumstances, all healthcare professionals will agree to this statement. It would be silly to program heavy squats for an individual experiencing intense low back pain. Pain reducing exercises should focus on producing 1 or more of our 4 Golden Rules of pain to performance.
4 Golden Rehab Rules
- The size of the pain should get smaller
- The pain intensity should decrease
- The joint’s active range of motion (AROM) should improve
- The functional or orthopedic test(s) should improve
These 4 Golden Rules exemplify healing is occurring within the body. If we can identify 1 pain reducing exercise, which allows 1, hopefully all, of these 4 Golden Rules to occur, then this 1 exercise is the only or the bulk exercise you should be performing. If you are in intense pain, and performing multiple exercises, particularly those which have you moving into all directions, then you will more than likely be in pain for a longer duration of time. These principles of the body, or Golden Rules, will always hold true regardless of where you may be experiencing pain. There is extreme power in knowing and understanding when a principle, not a specific exercise, is what gets you out of pain. This is a uniqueness in trusting us with your overall health desires.
Performance Camp for Rehabilitation Exercises
Introduction of performance exercises should be incorporated reasonably at the end of an individual’s pain cycle. As started earlier, rehabilitation’s original definition is to “make fit again.” In doing this, one can work toward helping to not only prevent an occurrence again, but to make fit again.
From a macroscopic view, rehabilitation exercises should be introduced to make movement patterns, which the individual is using, throughout their day, become more efficient in some manner.
It is important to understand, again, these exercises should be introduced or performed, more than likely, only toward the end of the pain cycle. Performance rehabilitation exercises can potentially help end the pain cycle and prevent future occurrence, but there is a time and place for all exercises.
What Is the Point of Physical Therapy or Rehabilitation?
The point, or goal, of physical therapy is dynamic. There are many factors such as thoughts, hopes, wants, desires, fears, which all play a factor in deciding what the “point” of physical rehabilitation may be. Remember, physical rehabilitation is to “make fit again,” not merely to get out of pain. The point is to alter, increase or decrease, a person’s physical stress to their body to the degree at which they can repair and remodel the desired tissue.
4 Quadrants of Exercise
Largely, we can identify 4 quadrants (aerobic capacity, anerobic capacity, strength, and stability) in which an individual may need to alter the physical stress to their body in order to become “healthier” or to improve performance. These 4 quadrants are designed to assess in what aspect a person may be lacking and which is altering or hindering their physical health. When out of balance within these 4 quadrants, a person may be at an increased exposure to injury. Our goal is to identify which quadrant is underperforming and challenge that tissue in a manner to which you can handle without distress.
Working through these 4 quadrants with our clients is where we truly see remarkable changes. We love helping people get out of pain, but we really love to see the overall health of our clients improve. This can drastically impact the quality of their lives – which is our overall goal – to improve the quality of health for years to come.
