Honestly it feels all the complaints in this thread should be directed at the american medical system.
Go to out an out of network therapist that costs you real money out of your pocket and you'll get much better treatment.
If you stick with in network, you're going to go to a place where you're lucky to see an actual DPT for 5 minutes before slapping some electrodes on you and having a tech work with you afterwards. They can't afford to spend more time, because the insurance companies keep cutting down what they pay so they have to deal with more and more patients. But that's what you get for your $10 copay
I'm stunned at these responses. My PT has taken me from I'd be happy to walk without pain, to running again. It's a new lease on life. I might donate to the place for some equipment.
Same. I had some weird, undistinguishable leg/foot issues leading into my spring marathon and they didn't go away with the usual rest. Decided to try my local PT place, lucked out with a guy who is a runner. Spent the time listening to me and spent a few sessions seeing where the trouble was stemming from. A few weeks of stretching and an intro exercises turned into a really good strength workout once a week. Running is great right now.
I did the ice/heating routine for two years in college with no results whatsoever but sadly much later found a physical therapist who showed me how to do quad training work that allowed me to finally be able to walk up stairs normally and eventually run well over 100 mpw injury-free and take down almost all of my pr's from my youth, so just have them focus on rehab exercises with ankle weights and that sort of thing and they far, far outshine doctors in dealing with running injuries.
A good physio does not just have you do isolated exercises for one thing but a wide range of exercises so that you don't get imbalance related injuries.
I'm stunned at these responses. My PT has taken me from I'd be happy to walk without pain, to running again. It's a new lease on life. I might donate to the place for some equipment.
Yeah the recurring theme of this thread shows that there are good, great and not-so-great PT's out there. They have varying education backgrounds (BA vs MPT vs DPT), varying levels of experience with athletes-versus-couch potatoes and varying levels of personal exercise/athletic experience. You, as the patient, need to seek out the right PT for you.
I think too many people assume that PT's should be like dentists where they effectively deal with a uniform set of problems with a uniform set of outcomes. PT is both overt ("I had surgery and now need rehab") and very vague, requiring skill and problem solving ("my knee hurts, my back hurts"). A good orthopedic PT can handle both sides of that job, a bad one handles one or neither and just follows what they know or what they read.
Being that this is Letsrun, you have plenty of younger, know-it-all males who claim that everything can be accomplished by watching a YT video, reading a Reddit thread or dOiNg tHeIr oWn rEaSeArCh. Sure, if you have IT band pain, that can be accomplished. If you're recovering for shoulder surgery, that's going to be a big challenge. PT is a case by case basis and a lot of it is hand-holding to get Joe Plumber to do his stretches and exercises (that he's unlikely to do on his own, without reminders and bi-weekly appointments) but it's also a lot of hand's on work, problem solving and long term strategy to create outcomes and potentially life-changing results, as noted above.
Generally your body will heal itself. PT's make a fraction of what the Co. charges. It's a big business that insurance pays a big chunk of. You can strengthen your own muscles on your own and save $.