How Physical Therapy Helps Manage Arthritis Symptoms

There is no cure for arthritis. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fight it and its symptoms – through a healthy diet, weight management and staying active.

Regular physical activity offers significant benefits for your joints by keeping them lubricated and limber. And while you can go it alone, there are distinct advantages to working with a physical therapist.

The most common form of arthritis (osteoarthritis) is a disease that damages various joints in your body, but is most often found in the hands, hips, knees and spine. Among the most common symptoms:

• Pain or discomfort in the joint
• Stiffness
• Swelling
• Limited range of motion

In the past, this type of arthritis was often referred to as wear-and-tear arthritis. One of the problems with that name is that it suggests the disease is simply a part of getting old. But these changes to your joints don’t necessarily need to come with pain.

A challenge in dealing with arthritis on your own is that this is a complex disease with the potential to evolve over time. A physical therapist will help you develop an exercise and treatment plan for where you are now, but will also help you make adjustments to the plan as your condition changes.

Strategies for Joint Support and Pain Relief

Your first visit with a therapist will largely be an information-gathering session. Your therapist will need to know more about your symptoms, including the amount of pain you are experiencing, what sets it off and whether anything seems to make it feel better. Tests and measurements will also be used to establish a baseline for how well you can move your joints.

At the heart of the evaluation is figuring out how the arthritis is limiting the activities you can enjoy – and then developing a game plan to help you achieve your goals. This plan could involve several strategies, including:

• Strengthening exercises to offer more support to the afflicted joint
• Stretches and mobility exercises to increase movement in the joint
• Work on posture and body mechanics to help ease pressure and relieve pain
• How to use assistive devices – a cane, for example
• Making your home space more friendly – cushioned mats or ergonomic chairs, for example
• Hot/cold therapy for joint pain and stiffness

While much of the work will initially take place in your therapy sessions, you will also be given a set of stretching and strengthening exercises to work on at home. These will be key to making progress beyond what you can achieve during office visits.

Can Physical Therapy Reverse Arthritis Damage?

Unfortunately, there is nothing physical therapy can to do reverse the structural changes that have damaged your joints.

Instead, your therapist is working to help you compensate for those changes. If arthritis is limiting your range of motion, you will work on exercises that loosen up the joint. If it is causing weakness, you will be gradually exposed to increasing levels of resistance to improve your tolerance to heavier loads.

To get the most out of physical therapy, you need to accept that your therapist isn’t fixing you. Rather, your therapist is helping you fix yourself. They will provide you with the education, guidance and exercises to put you on a path forward. But it is up to you to make it happen, by attending your therapy sessions, doing your homework and avoiding anything that might worsen the inflammation.

Timeline for Recovery

Once your therapy sessions start, you will probably be visiting the clinic up to three times a week – usually for several consecutive weeks. Change will not come overnight.

It will take repeated efforts and your reliable attendance to get your joints moving in the right direction. It is often said that movement is its own form of medicine. The more you can do with your joints – without causing irritation or inflammation – the better it will be for your rehab.