Why You Should Consider Physical Therapy Even If You Aren't Injured
How long do you typically sit in a day? Most activity trackers can give you an idea. While sitting for too long is linked to conditions such as depression, weight gain, and diabetes, it can also lead to muscular imbalances. Oftentimes, what causes much of our chronic pain has to do with imbalances in our bodies. In other words, our bodies can become chronically out of alignment if muscles are too long or short in certain places. These muscular imbalances can result in common ailments such as tension headaches, neck pain, tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, and sciatica.
Although you might try treatment through a doctor, they will usually address your pain with medications rather than dealing with its root cause, according to neuromuscular therapist Lee Albert (via Kripalu). Physical therapists can isolate the source of your balance issues by testing your movement, strength, and coordination. From there, they can prescribe the correct physical treatments to help improve your mobility, strength, and balance (per Choose PT).
How muscular imbalances can occur
You might not notice an imbalance, but you could have one if one side of your body tends to be sore after exercise. Your exercise program might include repetitive movements that could exacerbate muscular imbalances. Doing the same exercises on a single plane of motion (e.g. lat pulldowns and crunches) can be too restrictive on your body. Instead, a balanced exercise program that includes lateral and rotational movements can minimize muscular imbalances.
Similarly, repetitive movements at work — even sitting too long in the same position — can throw your body into an imbalance. When you're sitting, your hip flexors shorten and limit the range of motion in your hips. With shortened hip flexors, your glutes can't engage properly to fully extend the hip when you stand up straight (per American Council on Exercise).
Repetitive movements sometimes result in overuse injuries, according to a 2022 article in Missouri Medicine. Rather than address the pain itself, a physical therapist can address the functional movements that might have caused the injury. Some shoulder impingements could be the result of tight chest and upper back muscles and weak mid-back muscles. Lower back pain might be caused by tight or weak muscles in the hips. Weak hip muscles and quads could lead to knee pain.
How physical therapy can address imbalances
Even if your muscular imbalances might not result in pain, they could cause problems as you get older. You could experience problems maintaining your balance while standing and walking, which could result in falls. Because physical therapists specialize in movement, they can identify areas of weakness or stiffness in your body that could lead to problems with balance.
A physical therapist can isolate the source of your balance issues by testing your movement, strength, and coordination. From there, they can prescribe the correct physical treatments to help improve your mobility, strength, and balance (per Choose PT).
A physical therapist can look at the strength of opposing muscles such as your quad and hamstrings. Certain muscles are strengthened while others are treated by stretching. Calves, adductors, glutes, stomach, and chest muscles are more likely to be weak, so a physical therapist can provide exercises to help you strengthen them. The Western lifestyle also makes muscles in your lower back, thighs, and hip flexors more prone to be shortened through sitting at a desk, so these muscles should be lightly stretched (per EGym).