Joint pain is one of the most common ailments that people experience and can be incredibly frustrating. Nearly 25% of adults report cases of arthritis-related joint pain at some point in their life, telling you just how prevalent the condition is. Joint pain can make even the simplest tasks impossible, whether caused by an injury or just a natural part of aging.
Luckily, many treatments are available to help with this kind of pain. One of these is physiotherapy—also known as physical therapy—a treatment during which an experienced therapist helps patients recover from injury or other health conditions.
When it comes to treating joint pain, the most important thing for you to remember is that your physiotherapist knows what they’re doing. They’ve been trained in all kinds of techniques to help relieve pain and improve mobility, so if you have any doubts about whether or not a particular technique will work for you, don’t hesitate to ask!
This article will cover what physiotherapy is, how it works, and how your physio can help with joint pain.
What Is Physiotherapy?
Physiotherapy, also known as physical therapy or physical rehabilitation, is a health care profession that focuses on diagnosing and treating movement, coordination, and posture problems. Physiotherapists use a combination of therapeutic exercises and manual therapy techniques to help relieve pain and improve mobility.
It’s a common misconception that physiotherapists only deal with patients who have injuries or chronic conditions such as arthritis. But the truth is many physiotherapists work with healthy people who want to remain active and prevent future injury.
What Causes Joint Pain?
Joint pain is one of the most common complaints among people of all ages, and it can be a sign of a serious medical condition. While joint pain may result from an injury, overuse, or repetitive movements, it can also be a symptom of arthritis or other conditions.
1. Injury
If you’ve had an accident or experienced joint trauma (knee pain from knee injuries is common), this can cause inflammation and irritation in the area surrounding your joints. The resulting inflammation causes swelling, which puts pressure on your tendons and ligaments, triggering further irritation and pain.
Joint pain due to injury is often treated with rest, ice packs, and anti-inflammatory medications to help reduce swelling around the joint.
2. Overuse
Overusing a particular muscle group or activity can lead to inflammation of the joint and surrounding tissues. For example, runners often experience knee pain due to overuse; they may have worn out the cartilage on their knees or damaged their meniscus through repetitive motion.
Knee pain due to overuse can be treated with rest, ice packs, anti-inflammatory medications, physical therapy, and sometimes surgery, depending on its severity.
3. Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage within a joint begins to wear away over time due to repetitive movements of your body (i.e., walking). As this cartilage wears away, it allows for direct contact between bones and causes inflammation and pain within your joints.
4. Poor posture
Slouching or hunching over keeps pressure on your joints, leading to discomfort over time. The best way to avoid this type of knee pain is by maintaining good posture while sitting or standing up straight so that there’s minimal pressure on your joints when they’re not moving around much during the day.
What type of joint issues can your physio help with?
Your physio can help with a range of joint issues, including:
• Arthritis
Arthritis is a degenerative condition that causes inflammation in the joints. It’s usually associated with aging but can also be caused by trauma or overuse. The symptoms include pain and stiffness, particularly during movement.
• Ligament sprains and strains
Ligaments are the tough bands of tissue that connect bones together at the joints. When they’re stretched beyond their limits (for example, from falling or twisting), they sprain or strain and become inflamed. This can cause swelling and pain.
• Tendonitis
Tendonitis occurs when tendons — bands of fibrous tissue that connect muscles to bones — become inflamed due to overuse or injury. This causes pain and tenderness at their attachments to bone (where they attach to bone).
Fractures and dislocations occur when there is a break in a bone or when two bones slip out of alignment with each other (dislocation).
How do physiotherapists treat joint pain?
Physiotherapists have a wide range of treatments for joint pain. These include:
a. Manual therapy
Manual therapy is one of the most common back and knee pain treatments. It’s also used to treat neck pain, shoulder pain, and other types of joint pain. It’s not just for people with long-term conditions – it can also be used for short-term problems.
How does it work?
Manual therapy involves using hands to massage, manipulate and apply pressure to the joints and surrounding tissues. This can be done in different positions, such as lying down or sitting in a chair.
It usually involves moving joints through their full range of motion while applying gentle pressure on the skin around them. The aim is to improve blood flow through the area, reduce inflammation, and relieve muscle tension.
b. Exercise programs
Exercise is key to reducing pain and improving your ability to move around. Physios can help you develop a program of exercises that will strengthen the muscles around your joints, improve your balance and coordination, and increase your flexibility.
c. Taping
Physiotherapy tape is used to support joints and muscles, reducing tension and improving posture. It can also help increase circulation and reduce swelling.
d. Heat and cold therapy
Hot or cold packs applied to painful joints can help ease the pain for a short time by encouraging blood flow to the area. It may also reduce stiffness and enhance mobility by improving circulation in muscles and tendons around the joint.
Cold therapy is generally used when there’s inflammation around a joint (redness, swelling, or warmth) because it reduces inflammation in the surrounding tissue.
e. Electrotherapy
A doctor may use electrotherapy on your joints if you have osteoarthritis in one or more joints. Electrotherapy uses small amounts of electrical current or “microcurrent” to stimulate nerve endings in the muscles around your joint, causing them to contract and relax more easily.
It also helps reduce muscle spasticity (tightness) and improves joint flexibility by increasing blood supply to the affected area.
f. Dry needling
Also known as intramuscular stimulation, dry needling is a technique in which fine needles are inserted into the skin and muscles to treat pain. The needles may be inserted through the skin at different angles, depending on where they are used, stimulating nerves and improving blood flow to the area.
g. Myofascial release
A myofascial system is a group of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia (connective tissue) connected to each other. Myofascial release is a type of physical therapy that uses manual pressure and stretching to treat the connective tissue surrounding your joints.
The idea is to break up adhesions or knots in your muscles that cause pain and limit mobility. This treatment can help improve blood flow to your joints and relieve muscle tension.
What should I expect on my first physio appointment?
Your physio will assess your condition and ask questions about your symptoms. They’ll also ask about any previous injuries and any other health problems you have. This helps them ascertain which tests to carry out. You may also be asked to fill in a short questionnaire or participate in an “instrumented assessment” test.
The physiotherapist will usually carry out one or more of the following tests:
• Muscle tests
These assess how well your muscles work when they’re moved against resistance; for example, pushing against resistance with hand movements to see if there’s any weakness.
• Strength tests
Strength tests evaluate how much force you can exert with specific muscle groups; for example, using weights or pulleys attached to limbs to see how much weight someone can lift when performing certain movements.
• Functional tests
These tests assess how well different body parts work together in everyday movements; for example, walking up and down stairs, picking up objects from the floor and putting them down again, sitting on and waking up from a chair without using your hands, etc.
• Balance tests
They measure how well you stand up when there’s an abnormal movement in your balance system (the part of the brain that helps us stay upright).
How long will the appointment take?
This depends on many factors but usually lasts between 30 minutes to 1 hour per session. A physiotherapist may also recommend home-based exercises, which may take longer than a single session. Still, this depends on many factors, including the type of injury or illness, how long it has been present, and how well it responds to treatment.
Final thoughts
If you are experiencing joint pain and don’t know what to do about it, then it’s time to call a physio! Not only will a physiotherapist help with joint pain, but they can also work with you to prevent it from happening in the future.
Contact us at Enrich Physio today to book an appointment. Our experienced physiotherapists will work with you to ascertain the cause of your joint pain and discuss your treatment options. We’ll walk with you throughout this journey; until you recover and put the joint pains behind you!