4 Stages of Physical Therapy Rehabilitation at CORE Therapy And Pilates in West Lake Hills

Hey guys. What's up? It's Stephen Dunn with CORE Therapy and Pilates. We're in Westlake Hills, Texas and today I want to go over something that's very important. 

The 4 Stages of Physical Therapy Rehabilitation

It's called the four stages of recovery and we're going to talk about the recovery from a physical therapy standpoint here. This graph is showing us two different things. Recovery from zero percent to 100 percent and the number of visits in physical therapy from zero to 14.

4 stages of recovery

Now the reason we're using 14 here is because the national average is actually 11 and 11 is right here where it gets you from phase two to phase three.

So one visit to eleven visits stops you at phase t three and I'm going to explain that in just a second.

Basically the reason that people come back to therapy over and over without their pain problem being resolved fully is they get better in this phase one and two.

When they get to this area but they don't continue the process because if we look at 11 up here it's only 70 percent and I don't really like getting people 70 percent better. I want to get people more improved than that.

So with that said at the national average of 11 and this showing 14, the 14 is just getting into phase four and so that's where I want to now break down each phase.

The 4 Stages of Recovery

1 - Minimize Pain & Inflammation

Phase one is basically to minimize pain and inflammation and that's in this first six visits or so, usually twice a week in the first couple weeks. That allows your pain to lower and then we get into phase two as the pain is less.

2 - Restore Mobility, Flexibility, & Strength

Phase two is to restore mobility, flexibility and strength. From an again average standpoint across the whole nation, phase two is visit seven to eleven. All right, now again at the end of visit 11, we're sitting at 70% improved.

3 - Return to Normal Function & Activity

Phase three is the return to normal function and normal activity. People start feeling better here. A lot of people fall off the plan of care as soon as they feel better and then a lot of people fall off here because they're feeling better and they're moving better, their mobility is better but they're really not maybe ready to go back to tennis and ready to golf at full speed.

4 - Maintenance & Prevention of Injury

Stage four is the program that we're we're so proud of here at CORE, as it's the maintenance and the prevention of injury. For us, stage three and four is our pilates program.

Stage one and two is our physical therapy program and in phase three our physical therapists start progressing people into stage four on our pilates equipment with some clinical physical therapy or some clinical pilates or some pilates based physical therapy, whatever you want to call it.

Then stage four is really our pilates program where we have the ability for people to come in privately or in group sessions.

So... I wanted to go over that today because again most people get to this point here and they're 70% better. A lot of people will get to here and all of a sudden they're starting to make that 100 better and then they're not coming back into PT six months later. 

The reality is we teach people to do a lot of things at home and how to maintain it but people don't do it

Life takes over, their jobs, kids... reality takes over and it's hard to keep up with the program. Whereas, we’ve been designing programs that make it easy for you to stay committed and stay moving, progressing forward to meet those goals, to reach those goals and make those transformations. 

So, guys, thanks for watching those are the four stages of rehab broken down into each stage and y'all take care and we'll see you all soon.

Call 512-215-4227 if you would like to learn more about our programs to help you get out of pain.

Co-Owner / Physical Therapist at CORE Therapy and Pilates
Stephen graduated with a Masters in Physical Therapy in 1998 from LSUMC in New Orleans and is a licensed physical therapist in Texas since 2004. Immediately interested in hands-on therapy, he began to study with Brian Mulligan and became certified in the Maitland Australian Approach in 2003. Stephen has since studied the fascial system through John F Barnes Myofascial Release. Stephen completed a comprehensive Pilates training in 2002 and the GYROTONIC Expansion System® in 2009. The combined treatment of manual therapy with mind-body awareness exercises using Pilates and Gyrotonic concepts was the start of his whole-body treatment approach.
Stephen Dunn