5 Reasons Your Rehab Professional Is Stealing From You

There are numerous avenues to receive physiotherapy care in the UK. You may be receiving physiotherapy via the NHS, through self-pay private physiotherapy, Insurance-backed physio (eg. AXA and BUPA), or via your sports team’s physiotherapist. Although most physiotherapists have your best interests at heart, unfortunately there is a dark side of the physio world where profits and quotas are valued higher than your recovery from injury. here are a few things to look out for when deciding where you get your physio care.

Short Appointments

Be wary of the ‘Fast Food Physio’ Model. There is a growing pattern in the private physiotherapy world where the aim is to squeeze as many patients into a day’s diary as they can. If a physio clinic has 30 minute initial and follow-up appointments, be wary that they may be a ‘high volume’ clinic, rather than a ‘high quality’ clinic. Look for a clinic that wants to give you the time and service that you’re paying for.

Due to constant pressure, NHS appointments tend to be 30 minutes, but don’t hold this against the system. They’re doing a great job but having to serve 60 million of us all year round.

Lack of Gym Equipment

It is important during your first session to identify if the clinic has the equipment necessary to rehab your injury. If you play contact sports, then you need to have access to heavy weights to ensure you’re strong enough to return. If you’re a runner, then there needs to be a treadmill at the clinic to assess your running during treatment and before discharge. If your physio clinic has a few resistance bands and a 10kg dumbbell and you normally lift much greater than that, then that’s probably not the right clinic for you.

‘Just have a lie down on the bed’

There is a role for hands on treatment in physiotherapy. Not only during assessment, but in the cases of acute muscle pain and joint restriction, manual therapy is often very beneficial. However, if the vast majority of your treatment involves you lying on the bed, then that physio is not giving you any autonomy on your recovery. Their aim is to keep you coming back week after week.

Did you break a sweat?

Rehab should be hard. A major problem in current physiotherapy care is that rehab is generic and massively underloaded. If you don’t feel challenged by your rehab, then it probably isn’t making you stronger. Good rehab and gym training should look very similar to a passer-by.

Weekly Sessions

This topic is related to the short appointments. In a productive 45 minute - 1 hour physio session, you should be able to implement enough rehab and training that a follow up appointment isn’t required for a few weeks. In this timeframe, you can get stronger and work on the weaknesses. Nobody gets stringer in a single week. If your physio wants you back in a week, they’re either just filling their diary, or the rehab is sub-par.

 If you have any questions on whether physio is the best option for you, or you have any questions about MVMNT in general, feel free to contact via email.

- Jay Towolawi, Specialist Sports Physiotherapist and MVMNT Founder.