What is Physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy is a simple science: we strengthen what’s weak and loosen what’s tight. If you’re having difficulty moving then we work on the muscles that are failing to carry the load; if you’re in pain we treat the injury and balance the body to relieve the burden.

While treating acute injuries makes up a large part of our services CGP, you don’t have to be limping to benefit from physiotherapy.

In fact, everyone can benefit from it. Few of us, if any, make it through life without some sort of muscle imbalance, weakness or aches and pains, from the very fit to the sedentary, from young to old.

We help people at the top of their game maintain their athleticism, and help people who can barely walk rediscover the joy of movement. We treat sprained ankles in children and bad backs in office workers. If your body needs help, we help it.

Simple treatments delivered precisely

For the vast majority of our patients, full recovery can be achieved through relatively simple, non-invasive treatments with a much better outlook than the worst-case-scenario that is so easy to expect when you’re injured.

The skill in physiotherapy comes down to identifying the wide range of personal factors that may have contributed to the injury and may also complicate recovery rather than just the treatments themselves – which is why seeing a physiotherapist, not just self-diagnosing, is so important.

For example, strengthening a problematic muscle group is a relatively simple process but knowing which specific muscles to target requires both a deep understanding of human anatomy and insight into your lifestyle and what you hope to achieve to find the most effective treatment programme tailored specifically to you.

Everybody’s different, but every body isn’t

The human body that we work on today hasn’t changed all that much for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Modern living may stress it in ways it’s not adapted for and there are always individual circumstances to take into account, but overall we work on a fixed object that isn’t going to undergo any radical transformations in our lifetimes.

This means that there is no “new weird trick” to curing a knee injury, there are just simple treatments delivered precisely.

Our approach at CGP is, on the surface, often very simple. It may involve nothing more than a precise regime of a handful of easy movements, joint stretches and take home exercises followed by regular contact to check in on you and remind you to maintain healthy habits.

At the end of the day, if we do our job right then we shouldn’t often need to see you again for the same thing.

We take the pain out of recovery

Our approach to physiotherapy is hands-on, empathetic and collaborative. The more we understand about your lifestyle and your objectives, the more effective our treatments will be. Our patients are often surprised by how closely and carefully we work with them, and how much time we dedicate to them.

During our sessions, we won’t just treat your condition, we’ll also teach you how to prevent it reoccurring. Injuries and pain are rarely a one off, they’re usually the results of bad physical habits that you’re not even aware you have.

Breaking these habits involves educating you on your body so that you understand the stresses and strains you’re putting on it, then giving you easy steps you can take to relieve them.

Most of the exercises we recommend can be done at home with little or no equipment and minimal time commitment. The more convenient the treatment is, the more likely you are to recover.

And that convenience extends through everything we do. If you have pain or immobility you want to be cured but the more resistance the treatment involves the less likely you are to continue. That’s why I make sure the practice is comfortable, that everything runs on time and that crucial information is emailed – all small encouragements that help you get better.

If you’re in pain or having difficulty moving, email us at info@coventgardenphysio.com to start on your road to recovery.