Do you think Hot dog eating champion, Joey Chestnut, just shows up and wins? Heck no! He has to train his body to take in a whole lot of food, and like everything else, that takes practice. In fact, he probably started with cocktail weenies and worked his way up! The point is, to reach a goal, you need to continually work towards it. As they say, “practice makes perfect” and that couldn’t be more true than when it comes to physical therapy.
The goal of physical therapy exercises is basically to re-train your injured muscles, ligaments, and tendons to stay in the correct position and function properly. The exercises, when done regularly, will help your body to remember what it needs to do, and gain the strength, flexibility, and range of motion to do it! Consistency is the key to recovery, and we’re not just talking about regular appointments.
If you run only once a month, you’re not training your body to take on a marathon. If you try doing a cartwheel once a year, you’re probably not going to get any better at it. Correspondingly, if you only do your physical therapy exercises occasionally, you are simply prolonging your recovery. It’s like having to give your muscles a refresher course over and over rather than moving forward. At that rate, you’ll never graduate!
Just as you must put in the practice and training to get better at running, or even cartwheels and competitive eating, it’s critical that you do your exercises consistently at home! Only when your body repeats the motions over and over will it learn to continue those motions without effort, and only then will you achieve your goal of being fully recovered. Think of it as a shortcut on your road to recovery, and wouldn’t it be nice to get to where you want to be faster?
Visit us online or call (303) 805-5156 to find out the types of physical therapy available, how we can help you reach your goals, and how you can help yourself!