New Year, New You? Let physical therapy help you keep your goals!

As the holiday season winds down, and the calendar rolls over into the next year, gyms and health clubs fill up. People set goals to lose weight, get in shape, or just work off the few extra pounds they put on during all the celebrating. While getting more exercise and physical activity is great for health, energy levels, sleep, and mood, ramping things up too quickly can lead to pain, injury and disappointment if the body isn't ready for it.

How can Physical Therapy Help

Physical therapists can play an important role in preventing injuries as people start working towards their goals for the new year. As movement experts, PTs can assess strength, range of
motion, balance, coordination and functional movement patterns - think squatting, running, jumping or lifting.

Many common injuries from new fitness routines are caused by underlying weakness, range of motion deficits, or compensatory movement patterns that a PT will find during an assessment.
They'll then prescribe exercises or movements to address these issues and prevent them from becoming injuries that put new exercisers on the sidelines. The other common way people get injured while working towards their resolution is with overtraining, or doing too much too soon. Physical therapists are also experts in exercise prescription and program design. They can help create a routine specific to an individual's needs and goals that will progress appropriately and keep them out of trouble.

A little goes a long way

For fitness related new year's resolutions, an ounce of prevention can really be worth a pound of cure. A visit to a physical therapist before starting a new routine can keep people healthy, injury-free, and on the right path to meet their goals for the new year!

If you would like to start the new year with some guidance, reach out to your local physical therapist to help get you on the right track. If you are in the Fall Church, Arlington, or Annandale area, give us a call so we can get you an appointment with one of our physical therapists. 

About The Private Practice Section of the American Physical Therapy Association
Founded in 1956, the Private Practice Section of the American Physical Therapy Association champions the success of physical therapist-owned businesses. Our members are leaders and innovators in the health care system. The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) represents more than 85,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants and students of physical therapy nationwide. For more information, please visit www.ppsapta.org. 

Author

Alana Hamilton Alana Hamilton is a physical therapist at Advantage Physical Therapy in Falls Church, Virginia. She is a proud Hokie from Virginia Tech with a major in Biology and a minor in psychology and sociology. Following graduation, she immediately got her doctorate in Physical Therapy from Radford University. She is an avid fan of Pilates, running, and hiking. On the weekends, she can be found hanging out with her family and baby as well as doing Spartan races with her old physical therapy classmates and friends. She is a big believer that during rehabilitation, "Motion is the Lotion" and that staying active is key to remaining healthy.