Have You Scheduled Your Annual PT Exam?

By Biagio Mazza

Today we are going to talk about the concept of an annual physical therapy visit. Obviously, I'm biased, I'm a physical therapist. But I'll tell you that, as a healthy person, many people think about going to their doctor once a year.

They think about going to their dentist once a year.

How many times do you take your car in for oil changes, or should you take your car in for oil changes multiple times over the course of the year?

The sad thing is is people will take their car in for oil changes way more frequently than they will go see somebody for their own health.

When it comes to the movement of your body, physical therapists are the experts.

We are the ones that are going to be able to...

• Look at how your body is moving around
• Where you might be stiff, where you might be weak
• Where you might have potential injury risk factors that could lead to a problem if you don't address those things

So today we really are trying to think about the idea of an annual physical therapy visit and asking those questions when you go to the physical therapist about, "How can I prevent in coming in to seeing you?"

If more people would do an annual visit on the back end before they start hurting and having problems, that would help you long term much better than waiting until you get hurt and then trying to recover after that.