Is it just me, or are all physical therapists incompetant?

on a side note, what were the exercises that were recommended to you that cured your achilles problems? I'm doing the weighted eccentric heel drops and foam rolling and finding improvement, but am curious if you did something else.

The concept of "sports medicine" is mostly a gimmick. Physical therapy is only of value to people who have real functional deficits, such as post-surgery patients, people with chronic pain and debility, and older people with sarcopenia. Most PTs can't even treat those patients properly, but if the profession were rational, those are the prople whom it would cater to. Young, healthy runners with shin splints, tendinitis and PF have almost nothing to gain from PT apart from advice that most of them don't want to hear. PTs cannot administer special exercises to sort out the subtleties of your bionechanics and make you injury-proof—the knowledge of how to do that, if it is even possible, simply does not exist. I am a firm believer in minimalism and conservativism with respect to training volume, but those are just my opinions, not things I can prove, and not interventions that I can provide in a PT clinic. High volume running is inherently risky, not everyone is suited for it, and if you aren't, there is nothing a PT can do for you.

I broke my femur and had a syndesmosis injury of my ankle in November. I had 30 sessions of PT in January-April. I am very thankful for the help of my PT. I can run again and am able to do everything functionally that I couldn't. I still have a little bit of strength the gain in my left leg.

PTs vary quite a bit, just like anyone else. It's not fair to make blanket statements. I had a friend that actually developed an injury from seeing a poor PT. I have also seen seemingly miraculous progress from competent PTs. The human body is an amazing machine, and it is incredible how some excellent PTs are able to help patients make progress.

The only reason I am still running is because of a very capable athletic trainer. He traced my multiple stress fractures to a hip weakness and recommended that I complete daily hip strengthening exercises and change my stride to decrease the impact on my tibias.

That was four years ago. I haven't had a stress fracture since then, and I had 3 stress fractures before I entered college, had another stress fracture, and talked to him. I am also running twice the mileage I ran in HS and college without any injuries (other than some mild tendentious that comes and goes).

I'm going to have to disagree with people on here saying that PTs aren't suited to treat runners. I have helped several runners in the Indy area get back to form. Pain is pain and it doesn't matter if you are 90 years old and sedentary or a 20 year old machine pumping out 100 mile weeks. If you can rid the patient of their pain then the 90 year old can go back to sitting on the couch for hours pain-free and the 20 year old can get back to 20 mile long runs. Good PTs or MDs for that matter are the ones that truly understand what pain is and can relate it to the patient in a way that makes sense and is part of the rehab process.

I've talked about this before on other threads and I will try to keep it short. We rely way too much on imaging as to why we hurt. Example: A 60 year old develops back pain and see his primary MD. Pain does not ease with muscle relaxers and is referred to a specialist (surgeon). Specialist (surgeon)decides to perform MRI. MRI reveals DJD and arthritis. He then tells the patient that his back is really bad and is "bone on bone" (specialists favorite thing to say). The news really scares the patient and he avoids moving his back for fear of damaging his unstable and disease ridden back. Congratulations...we now have a chronic pain patient. The system has failed this patient and it happens all the time. The truth is that, the patient has had the DJD and arthritis for years but it happens so slowly that the brain does not perceive it as a threat. The nervous system is what causes pain in EVERY situation and yes there are ways to get rid of the pain quickly. You just have to see the right people.

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i hate PTs wrote:

I've been to many PTs and never found any of them to be helpful. They always seem more concerned your insurance than they are about treating your injury- everything about the treatment from the moment you walk in until the moment you leave revolves around insurance. Also, there is a very common tendency for therapists to ignore clinets while trying to cram in as many patients as possible at the same time. Finally, most of the exercises that PTs prescribe are utterly worthless. It's deplorable. Anybody else disgruntled with phyiscal therapy?

You need to stop posting complaints on a message board and get recommendations from local runners, based on their experiences with medical professionals in your area.

There are also sports doctors, chiropractors, physiatrists, acupuncturists and massage therapists who specialize in treating running injuries.

My sports doctor treats Meb, my physical therapist works with the New York Knicks, my acupuncturist works on Olympic athletes and my chiropractor on elite Triathletes. Show some initiative.

Sorry for being terse but it pees me off when people slander an entire profession.

100% pure bullsh*t, sorry. There is no such thing as "hip weakness" (the hip is a joint, not muscle) and nobody who knew anything would say that. You don't know why you got better and falsely ascribe it to your crank therapist.

"People on this board continue to post shit about PT's on this board without any knowledge of the profession or why we do what we do"That in itself confirms the failures of the "PT industry." It's your job to inform clients why you "do" what you do. As well, one does not have to be part of the banking profession to critique it, why would PT be immune from it?I have been to PT for years and NEVER received any benefit.It's a racket, up there with Chiro.

holy cow...where do you people learn to spell???

It's only an anecdote, so of course it doesn't scientifically prove anything.

I am not an expert, and I don't remember the exact terms that he used, but the routine did change my stride, and I haven't been injured for a few years.

There could have been other factors, but I think that changing my stride under the advice of a poor PT/AT would have been far more likely to cause--not prevent--injury. This particular AT had a very good reputation and had helped multiple college athletes overcome various injuries. He even worked with our coach to create an injury prevention routine.

Could it have been the placebo affect? To a point, yes, but I still think there is validity to selectively strengthening muscles to overcome structural deficiencies.

I know. For starts, OP, you may want to learn to competently spell incompetent before you knock another profession.

I've never been to a PT, so I can't say. I am slightly biased against people who constantly go to see PTs. They always seem to have problems and never seem to be fast runners. Save your money and train better, or pick up another sport where you aren't constantly getting injured.

I think PTs are mostly a waste also. It's called resting. When PTs or patients have a success story regarding visiting PT, it's just that they gave their body enough rest. If you would've done nothing more than not aggravating where it hurt, you would've been healed anyway from the rest.

Freddie McFrugal wrote:

I think PTs are mostly a waste also. It's called resting. When PTs or patients have a success story regarding visiting PT, it's just that they gave their body enough rest. If you would've done nothing more than not aggravating where it hurt, you would've been healed anyway from the rest.

Rest does not fix all injuries. Rest never fixed my injury.

drivel wrote:

Freddie McFrugal wrote:

I think PTs are mostly a waste also. It's called resting. When PTs or patients have a success story regarding visiting PT, it's just that they gave their body enough rest. If you would've done nothing more than not aggravating where it hurt, you would've been healed anyway from the rest.

Rest does not fix all injuries. Rest never fixed my injury.

Did something else fix your injury?

Next comment is not directed to you, but I can't trust a profession utilizing ultrasound as a therapy.

Mebechelle wrote:

Some PTs ARE Dr.s. They literally have a doctorate degree and study the body for 7+ years. What you mean is that they are not an MD...and since any MD who is not a sports med doc or orthopedist has four thousand other things to remember from med school or about their specialty, I'm not sure how that's a bad thing.

Took you almost 8.5 years to reply to this thread!

Pretty sure a DPT is a glorified masters degree. That doesn't mean the profession is unnecessary, but they aren't on the same level as a doctor by any means.

I'm more disgruntled by your complete inability to spell.b

i hate PTs wrote:

I've been to many PTs and never found any of them to be helpful. They always seem more concerned your insurance than they are about treating your injury- everything about the treatment from the moment you walk in until the moment you leave revolves around insurance. Also, there is a very common tendency for therapists to ignore clinets while trying to cram in as many patients as possible at the same time. Finally, most of the exercises that PTs prescribe are utterly worthless. It's deplorable. Anybody else disgruntled with phyiscal therapy?

the first real PT wrote:

There is no such thing as "hip weakness" (the hip is a joint, not muscle)

Sometimes I despair

spikes wrote:

OP, you are sooo right! I went to a top twenty school, you might think the PT program is good BUT the help in the training room was a joke!

Funny story: My first year my knee was killing me so after a run the PT told me to heat it, the next day she told me to ice it. I was like "heat or ice? what should I do?" She seemed confused and told me it didnt matter, just do one of them!

PT's are a joke when it comes to overuse injuries. Give them a sprained ankle and they can wrap it like a champ, give them tendonitis and they have NO IDEA what to do.

Probably 2 reasons for this. 1.. Might have been an Athletic Trainer in the training room, if it was a PT consider yourself lucky you had one in your college training room. 2. Most training rooms don't have much time for runners or tennis players, etc.... they focus their time on wrapping 100 ankles a day and treating acute injuries from football and basketball.

To be honest my experience with physios has been sht and I've seen some supposedly top notch ones.

The one I found that helped the most had less credentials ironically.