Physical Therapy


Physical Therapy is a specialization focused on the evaluation and treatment of muscular, skeletal, and neurological disorders. The physical therapy staff at Andersen Physical Therapy is complete with highly-trained individuals who strive to provide excellent care in California's Stanislaus County.

The primary goals of Physical Therapy include:

Treatment Options May Include:


Stretching

Stretching is vital to maintain good range of motion around a joint. If a patient has stiff joints, normal activities such as opening a jar or climbing stairs can be severely affected. By proper stretching, these functions can be preserved. After an injury or surgery, scar tissue forms, and soft-tissue contracts; this is when stretching is most important.

Strengthening

Strengthening exercises are performed to help the patient improve the function of their muscles. The goal is to improve strength, increase endurance, and maintain or improve range of motion.

Closed Chain Exercises

The closed chain exercises are performed with the foot locked in position on the ground—for example a leg squat. These exercises are performed to help balance the muscle strength. By performing closed chain exercises, the weak muscle (e.g. the quadriceps) and its antagonist (e.g. the hamstrings), will both be exercised and balanced. Open chain exercises, such as a leg extension, do not balance the muscles this way.

Proprioceptive Exercises

Proprioception is the sense of knowing where a body part is in space. This can be a difficult concept to grasp, because so much proprioception occurs without conscious thought. When you lose proprioception of, for example, an ankle joint after a sprain, patients often complain of an unstable sensation of the joint. Proprioception training reteaches your body to control the position of an injured joint.

Ice and Heat Therapy

Ice and heat are useful to warm up and cool off muscles. In addition, these modalities can stimulate blood flow and decrease swelling. These can be important aspects of the therapeutic process.

Ultrasound

Ultrasound uses high frequency sound waves (not within our hearing range) to stimulate the deep tissues within the body. By passing an ultrasound probe over the body, deep tissues are stimulated by the vibration of the sound wave. This leads to warming and increased blood flow to these tissues.

Electrical Stimulation

Electrical stimulation or sometimes called TENS, can be effective in reducing pain or facilitating muscle contraction by stimulating specific nerve receptors throughout the body.

Joint Mobilizations

Joint mobilizations refer to moving one bone in relation to an adjacent bone in order to promote normal movement between the two opposing bone surfaces. For example, the spine is composed of many vertebrae which have joints called facet which contact each other. Often these facet joints can become restricted due to trauma or faulty body mechanics. By mobilizing these joints, it can facilitate improved mobility and decreased pain.

Soft Tissue Mobilizations

Soft tissue mobilization is a specific term describing manual, hands-on massage. The massage techniques vary from gentle gliding over the skin (effleurage) to hard pressure over localized regions (deep tissue). Mechanically, massage will assist the venus flow of blood, encourage lymphatic flow, reduce certain types of edema, gentle stretching of tissue, and relieve sub-cutaneous scar tissue.

Our friendly and professional physical therapists will determine the appropriate treatment based on each patient’s signs and symptoms related to musculoskeletal disorders.