physical therapy - Hope Clinic Care

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This day and age, stress is something that we all experience quite often. Whether we feel stressed out at school, at work, at home, or anywhere else, stress can easily build up over time. Before we know it, our muscles become tense. Worry not, this is where progressive muscle relaxation technique becomes handy! Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a deep relaxation technique that is mainly used to manage stress, anxiety, insomnia, and muscle tension.

PMR is based on the simple and specific practice of tensing or tightening one muscle group at a time, followed by a relaxation phase by releasing the tension. The purpose is to recognize what a tensed muscle and a relaxed muscle feels like, so that when you begin to become tense due to stress or anxiety, you will realize it quicker and be able to control it and return to a relaxed state.

How does progressive muscle relaxation work, exactly? It’s pretty easy! First and foremost, you need to find a quiet place, free from any distractions. You can start by lying on your back or sitting down. Make sure to remove any glasses or contact lenses if you are wearing them. Loosen any tight clothing, too.

Next, take several slow, deep breaths. Let’s try doing PMR from the bottom part of your body: your feet. Take a deep breath, then pull your toes downward as much as you can to tighten the muscles around that area, and hold them for about five seconds. Afterwards, let go to release the tension. Exhale slowly as you do this step. You should feel your muscles become loose. Shift your focus on the difference between tension and relaxation; remember, it is necessary to notice how different tension and relaxation feels. Remain in this relaxed state for about 15 seconds before working on the next muscle group.

Moving on to the next muscle group: your calves. Squeeze your calf muscles as hard as you can and hold for another five seconds before releasing the tension. Stay relaxed for 15 seconds, then work on your knees and thighs by moving your knees toward each other and squeezing your thigh muscles for five seconds. Like you’ve done before, loosen your muscles afterwards.

The steps are basically the same with every muscle group. You can work on your buttocks, arms, hands, shoulders, jaw, eyes, and eyebrows. With your hands, for example, you can tighten the muscles by clenching and unclenching your fists. With your shoulders, you can raise them toward your ears, and with your eyebrows, you can just raise them as far as you can. Of course, every session needs to end with a tension-release and relaxation.

Now that you get a hang of progressive muscle relaxation, let’s jump into how it can be beneficial in managing stress and anxiety. Progressive muscle relaxation has been proven to be effective in reducing symptoms or feelings of anxiety, depression, stress, and anger. By practicing PMR often, you will learn what relaxation feels like, enabling you to recognize whenever you start to get tense during the day. Progressive muscle relaxation can also improve your sleep and eases neck pain, because it induces relaxation.

But that’s not all! PMR helps decrease the frequency of migraine episodes as well, and it does so by balancing your serotonin levels. Furthermore, a high level of stress might lead to the clenching of jaw or grinding of teeth, which may cause you to develop a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. TMJ is the joint that connects your lower jaw (mandible) to your skull, and a temporomandibular joint disorder may cause facial pain, tenderness at the joint, and trouble in moving the joint. Through a consistent practice of progressive muscle relaxation, tension or stress levels can be reduced and TMJ disorder symptoms will be alleviated.

Progressive muscle relaxation is a simple practice, yet it turns out to have many benefits! So, if your days are filled with fast-paced activities, or if you tend to get stressed a lot, we recommend you to set aside some quiet time to do the PMR method regularly as one way to improve or maintain your overall well-being. Your body, and your mind, will definitely thank you!

Are you familiar with the term myofascial release? It’s a therapy technique commonly used to treat myofascial pain syndrome, which is a chronic pain disorder that affects the musculoskeletal system, caused by sensitivity and tightness in your myofascial tissues (“myo” means muscle, and “fascial” means fascia). Fascia itself is a thin casing of connective tissues that surrounds every organ, muscle, blood vessel, bone, and nerve fiber to keep each one of them in place. The muscle tightness sets off the trigger points within your myofascial tissues, where the pain originates.

Due to the pressure upon these sensitive trigger points, you may even feel pain in seemingly unrelated body parts. For instance, the trigger point is located somewhere in your upper back, yet you can feel the pain from your upper back all the way to your arm. Myofascial pain occurs in about 85% of people sometime throughout their life stages, yet it is often underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or overlooked. Both men and women are equally impacted, although middle-aged inactive women possess the highest risk.

To help people with this chronic pain disorder, healthcare professionals and physical therapists often resort to myofascial release therapy. Myofascial release aims to ease the tightness and tension of your trigger points, thus reducing the pain you feel. However, determining the source of your pain might not be an easy task, which is why myofascial release is often applied over a broad area of muscle and tissue instead of at single points.

How does this work? Normally, myofascia should feel elastic and pliable, so, first, your therapist will gently apply pressure to the myofascial areas on your body while searching for stiff or tensed areas. Next, your therapist will conduct focused manual pressure, massaging, and stretching to loosen up restricted movement, and thus, lessening the pain. Sometimes, therapists will use essential oils as well during the therapy.

Due to its non-invasive and non-opioid nature, myofascial release has little to no side effects and risks. Nonetheless, this kind of treatment is not suitable for people with: burns and painful wounds, fractured or fragile bones, deep vein issues, and under blood-thinning medications. Overall, myofascial release therapy is beneficial and effective in treating pain—both mild and chronic. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Now, are you wondering where you can receive myofascial release therapy? We got you! Located in Scottsdale, AZ is a non-invasive and non-opioid pain clinic: Hope Clinic Care! Here, you can get myofascial release therapy for your muscle strains and any other injuries.

With an over 93% success rate, they offer other various excellent treatment procedures that are 100% drug-free! Using verified hands-on techniques and dual modality devices, Hope Clinic Care provides solutions to relieve pain by facilitating your body to maximize its healing and repairing ability. No drugs needed, yet just as effective—if not more.

Learn more and make appointments at www.hopecliniccare.com.

Have you ever pulled a muscle and had to visit a physiotherapist to treat it? Physiotherapy, also known as physical therapy, is beneficial in many ways! Generally, physiotherapy helps restore movement and function when a person is injured or disabled, and it is suitable for people of all ages. Physiotherapists usually perform a combination of hands-on manual and exercise-based techniques to help patients achieve the best results, such as improved range of motion and flexibility.

Some of the health problems that physiotherapy can help include:

Bones, joints, and soft tissue – for example: back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and sports injuries.
Brain or nervous system – for example: movement issues resulting from a stroke or Parkinson’s disease.
Heart and circulation – such as rehabilitation after a heart attack.
Lungs and breathing – such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis.

Other than these, physical therapy encompasses a wider range of varieties and benefits. There are several specific kinds of physiotherapy that serve different purposes. Here are 5 types of physiotherapy that you may not know!

Sports physiotherapy

This branch specifically deals with sport athletes and professionals, assessing and treating sports injuries at all levels. The main goal is to ensure that the athletes are not in pain anymore and are in their best condition, supporting their athletic performance and their overall health development.

Rehabilitation and pain management

Physiotherapy can help patients manage and get rid of various body aches and pains. The treatment methods are typically personalized to cater to specific patient needs and requirements.

Musculoskeletal physiotherapy

This type of physical therapy deals with pain experienced throughout the musculoskeletal system, which consists of the muscles, joints, bones, ligaments, and tendons. The purpose of the treatment is to increase mobilization, relieve pain, manage injuries, treat soft tissue damage, improve flexibility, and decrease the risks of getting injuries in the future.

Paediatric physiotherapy

If you have infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents who experience neuromuscular, developmental, or skeletal disorders, paediatric physiotherapy is the answer you need! The treatment techniques basically aim to enable children to move around freely and participate in the day-to-day activities, but physical therapy may also alleviate pain, improve fine and gross motor skills in children, help them regain range of motion & strength, and facilitate better cognitive processes.

Vestibular rehabilitation

Vestibular rehabilitation is an exercise-based program to improve balance and reduce dizziness-related problems. Signs of dizziness include: feelings of unsteadiness, being lightheaded, floating, tilting, sensations of moving and whirling (vertigo). Before the treatment plan is developed, a few tests must be conducted, such as balance, leg strength/flexibility, gait (the way an individual walks), neck mobility, neck & arm strength, visual stability & mobility, and positional testing (including an inner ear exam). The goal of your treatment plan is therefore to improve any deficits that were identified through the tests and the overall function of the body.

If you would like to book a physiotherapy session, feel free to contact Hope Clinic! Located in Scottsdale, AZ, Hope Clinic provides non-invasive and non-opioid treatment methods to treat your chronic pain. Our therapists and professionals are equipped with adequate knowledge and skills to give you the best possible personalized treatment. Reach out to us through +1 480 659 5470 or visit our website: https://hopecliniccare.com/contact-us/.

by Efrem Lieber (Scottsdale, AZ)

Use it or lose it! That advice from my Mother resonated with me all through my life. She walked and cycled miles every day into her 80’s, so I vowed to emulate her.

I was a four-sport athlete in high school, two-sport participant in college and continued to play high-level baseball, softball, and basketball well into my 40’s. As I grew older and inevitably heavier, tennis and golf became my sports of choice, especially because I could enjoy them wherever my professional career took me: Long Island, the Boston suburbs, Chicagoland, Delaware, and Arizona.

Tennis requires quick reflexes for netplay, rapid side-to-side and forward-back movement for court coverage, and fast shoulder rotation for an adequate serve. After foot and hand broken bones, bad reaction to treatments for kidney stones, tennis elbow, peripheral neuropathy, and a sudden sciatica attack, I found I had lost these skills to leg, hip, and shoulder pain and weakness, at the age of 78. In addition, my sleep was interrupted by those pains and persistent discomfort. Even walking, to and from work or on the golf course, was painful and daunting.

I tried many possible treatments for relief: a competent chiropractor tried adjustments and acupuncture to no avail. Common NSAID’s had no effect; I even tried an opioid on two occasions to get some much-needed sleep. On the advice of one doctor, I took two weeks off from tennis and golf. The layoff did not help. I was desperate to avoid the aches and pains, so I considered quitting tennis altogether.

My daughter suggested that an evaluation at Hope Clinic by Dr. Okky Oei might help; he had treated an injury of mine previously, using the LaserTouchOne pain relief device. The evaluation was very thorough; Dr. Oei analyzed all possible concerns and issues I presented. Then he and his dedicated staff began attacking every possible cause of my pain, using a comprehensive combination of unique devices, electrical, mechanical, and manual stimulation, plus old-fashioned elbow grease.

By concentrating on my particular needs, Hope Clinic treatments began to relieve my pain. Even better, the individualized two-month program restored my reflexes and mobility. The program included instructions on proper warmup and stretching exercises. Sleep became more predictable and productive. No medicines were necessary to help me cope with pain or intense play. I can walk the golf course pain-free. My tennis partners are pleased by the improvement because together we win more often!

Well, Mom; I thought I’d lost it, but I got it back! All of this improvement is thanks to The Hope Clinic.

Read more:

Now, are you wondering where you can receive myofascial release therapy? We got you! Located in Scottsdale, AZ is a non-invasive and non-opioid pain clinic: Hope Clinic Care! Here, you can get myofascial release therapy for your muscle strains and any other injuries.

Learn more and make appointments at www.hopecliniccare.com.

Read more about myofascial release:

Read more articles from Hope Clinic:

Some of the health problems that physiotherapy can help include:

Bones, joints, and soft tissue – for example: back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and sports injuries.

Brain or nervous system – for example: movement issues resulting from a stroke or Parkinson’s disease.

Heart and circulation – such as rehabilitation after a heart attack.

Lungs and breathing – such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis.

Other than these, physical therapy encompasses a wider range of varieties and benefits. There are several specific kinds of physiotherapy that serve different purposes. Here are 5 types of physiotherapy that you may not know!

Sports physiotherapy

Rehabilitation and pain management

Physiotherapy can help patients manage and get rid of various body aches and pains. The treatment methods are typically personalized to cater to specific patient needs and requirements.

Musculoskeletal physiotherapy

Paediatric physiotherapy

Vestibular rehabilitation

Read more:

by Efrem Lieber (Scottsdale, AZ)

Use it or lose it! That advice from my Mother resonated with me all through my life. She walked and cycled miles every day into her 80’s, so I vowed to emulate her.

Well, Mom; I thought I’d lost it, but I got it back! All of this improvement is thanks to The Hope Clinic.