Physiotherapy is known as the healthcare practice that heals and maintains the muscles and joints in the human body. Through assessment and treatment, which includes flexibility and strength training, functional and pain-free movement can be achieved.
But what if physiotherapy could do more than that?
What if it could keep a healthy body functioning for a lifetime, with reduced injury time and improved quality of life? What if physiotherapy could fix problems before they became debilitating? Fact is, it can.
Unfortunately, for many, a trip to the physiotherapist is an uninspiring chore that isn’t a priority until there’s actual pain. And why do we experience pain that sends us to doctors and physiotherapists? Mainly, it’s today’s increasingly sedentary lifestyle, compounded by other priorities crowding out what should be priority #1: taking proper care of ourselves.
Yet time and time again, research has shown that medical treatment alone can’t compensate for these twin threats to our health and wellbeing. And physiotherapy isn’t any fun.
Why can’t physiotherapy be more like yoga?
It can be – and now, at Healthletica, it is. We’re always looking for ways to meet our clients’ wellness needs and now we have a new one to add to our roster.
We know you love yoga, so we are delighted to inform you that our Registered Physiotherapist Will Guan is a big believer in yoga, too. So much so that he can incorporate yoga poses into your physiotherapy routine to help you recover from current injuries and prevent future ones in a way that you will actually enjoy.
With the help of Will and our highly-qualified team, you can get in touch with your personal motivations to live a healthier lifestyle – perhaps your family or your social circle, or your personal interests. Each person has a different reason for practicing yoga, exercising and engaging in periodic physiotherapy. Together, we will help you find yours to ensure that this step toward a healthier lifestyle is permanent and meaningful to you. We will also help you identify and overcome the barriers that may have stood in your way.
Together, we will accomplish this in a series of four steps:
- Goal setting
- Treatment planning
- Self-monitoring
- Reassessment
Could yoga + exercise-based physiotherapy be for you?
Registered Physiotherapist Will Guan says almost everyone is right for this type of health and wellness approach. But decide for yourself. How many of these warning signals do you have in your life, signifying that this program could be for you?
- You do a repetitive task all day (e.g., working at a computer)
- You sit or stand all day
- You periodically feel soreness in your neck and your back
- You feel more sluggish and stiffer than you used to feel
- Your energy, strength and flexibility have declined over the years
- You play sports (competitively or for fun)
- You have a family history of at least one chronic disease (e.g., cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, arthritis, Parkinson’s, MS…)
How does Will differ from other healthcare professionals?
Will allows you to be part of his prescription, using open communication to discover the best program for you. He doesn’t just treat the problems his patients complain about. He spots problems before they become apparent and takes steps to prevent them from worsening.
Here’s an analogy: A muscle or joint injury can be compared to a cardiovascular event. Life-saving clot-busting drugs work only if they are administered with eight hours of a patient developing the symptoms of a stroke or heart attack. They address the latter stages of a chronic disease that’s been developing for years. Had the early-warning signs been spotted in time, measures could have been taken to prevent that clot from forming. A serious medical crisis could have been averted and the patient’s quality of life could have been vastly improved.
Physiotherapists are doctors for the musculoskeletal system. As a Registered Physiotherapist, Will not only helps patients recover from life-changing injuries, but he helps prevent them from occurring in the first place, or from happening again and becoming chronic.
Exercise-based physiotherapy is covered by most healthcare benefits plans.
Both our private one-on-one sessions and our small group classes are covered under the Physiotherapy provision of most healthcare benefits plans because your regimen is prescribed by a Registered Physiotherapist who then monitors and adjusts it as your condition progresses.
Will can issue healthcare insurance receipts, so you’ll have everything you need when the time comes to submit your receipts.
Note: Few physiotherapists have the credentials required to prescribe yoga poses within a physiotherapy regimen. That’s another way Will differs from other healthcare pros.
What you can do to prevent musculoskeletal injuries:
- Don’t work out when you are tired or not in the mood.
- Keep your diet high in good fats* because Vitamin D is absorbed in the presence of fat and this vitamin improves the absorption of calcium and therefore improves bone health.
- Get enough protein in your diet to help muscle tissue repair itself.
To read about Will Guan, our Registered Physiotherapist, please click here.
To make an appointment, please call 905-951-6494 or email us at info@healthletica.ca.
