What is manual therapy and what does it do?
What is it?
Manual therapy refers to any technique applied by a therapist’s hands (physio, osteopath, chiro, sports therapists etc). Generally (but not always) manual therapy is a passive treatment whereby the patient is not moving and the therapist applies forces to move the patient. For example, sports massage is where the therapist applies forces to manually stretch the patient’s muscles, this can be done either with or without movement from the patient.
What does it do?
Manual therapy has great and many different effects. Figure one shows the listed effects from a research article on the topic. In essentials, manual therapy effects the nervous system (brain and spinal cord) along with the endocrine system (releasing endorphins) that decreased a patient’s symptoms. Interestingly, manual therapy is not seen to be effective due to the mechanical changes to one’s body (muscle length, joint movement etc). Therefore, manual therapy is more likely to reduce ones pain perception and pain pathways.
Is it effective?
In a word, yes. Manual therapy is effective for treating pain. Along with the above explanation of how manual therapy works to decrease pain, the placebo effect is a prominent reason that manual treatment works. Some techniques are more validated than others. Specifically within physiotherapy techniques used such as manual therapy are research, scientifically proven to work and usually regulated by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).
What techniques do we apply at J and P?
Here at J and P we apply:
- Massage
- Mobilisations
- Mulligan
- Maitland
- Etc
- Acupuncture
- Spinal manipulative therapy
- Neurodynamics
- Taping
Face to face and hands on treatment is available in the Bromborough office. Since lock down we have also been providing remote Physio and Talking Therapy services and have received great feedback so far. All because you are staying safe at home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have access to help when you need it! Our physiotherapist’s are available to offer any help we can, DM, email or call us.
Office number – 0151 345 6823
Office email – [email protected]