At Great Moves Physical Therapy in Colorado Springs, we have a broad range of physical therapy services for adults and children. Our physical therapists and specialists evaluate, diagnose and treat conditions that may be the result of injury or disease. But physical therapy can also be used to enhance motion performance.
At Great Moves, you always receive hands-on care from a fully certified physical therapist (PT). You should also know that in Colorado, you can see a physical therapist immediately, without a referral.
Our complimenting services include:
We get you on the fast track to pain-free living. Schedule a free consultation today:
VIDEO: Best Physical Therapy
What Is Physical Therapy?
Physical therapy (PT) involves the prevention, evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of physical, emotional, and psychological conditions (usually those that affect motion and mobility) to include:
- Low back, shoulder, neck, hip, knee and foot pain
- Pelvic and SI pain
- Rehabilitation after surgery, including total joint replacement
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Dizziness, vertigo, and balance issues
- Movement disorders after a stroke
- Incontinence, pelvic pain, pre and post-partum (women’s health)
- Difficulty walking
- Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ)
- Weakness
- Joint pain and instability
- Sprains and strains
- Arthritis and osteoporosis
- Sports injury
- And many others …
We’ve written a number of articles about conditions that can be treated with physical therapy …
Related Blog Articles:
> Arthritis: Can Physical Therapy Help?
> Spinal Stenosis: Got Back Pain?
> Plantar Fasciitis: Can PT Help End The Pain?
> Arthritis: How Can Physical Therapy Help?
> Urinary Incontinence: A Tough Issue In Life
> Sciatica: What Is It?
> Herniated Disk: When To See Your Physical Therapist
> What Is a Rotator Cuff Injury?
> Bunions: What Do I Do If I Have One?
> Bladder Health: PT Just Might Be The Answer
> Pelvic Health: Women Can Turn to PT for Help
What We Do for You
More and more, physical therapy is becoming a first line of care for many injuries and medical conditions. At Great Moves Physical Therapy, we:
- evaluate, diagnose and treat
- develop customized exercise programs while in the clinic and for home
- offer treatments that are supported by the most up-to-date scientific research
- custom foot orthotics casting and fabrication
- athletic and ‘Kinesio-taping’
- hands-on manual therapy treatment
- 1-to-1 treatments without the use of aides or techs
Related Blog Article:
> Physical Therapy History: When Was PT Invented?
What Does Physical Therapy Cost?
Generally, PT costs less than other invasive medical services. Surgery and medicines can get quite expensive. In many cases, physical medicine and rehabilitation is covered by most insurances. Contact your provider for coverage details.
‘Direct Access’
Did you know that Colorado is a ‘Direct Access’ state? That’s right. In the state of Colorado, you can directly make an appointment with a physical therapist without a physician’s referral.
Physical therapists are trained as first providers who are qualified to recognize if a patient presents with signs and symptoms that are outside the scope of physical therapy practice. We will make appropriate referrals to other medical providers when needed. Always contact your insurance company for coverage details. You may also call us at (719) 477-6870 to schedule a free consultation and for insurance benefit confirmation.
Benefits of Physical Therapy
1. Improve Mobility and Strength
A physical therapy program can assist you in restoring mobility. With many different exercises, strength training activities and the proper equipment, it is possible to reduce pain, and in some cases, eliminate the cause of the problem. Physical therapists have a good understanding about the limitations of the body and can help you regain mobility in the joints without a lot of pain. Your physical therapist will recommend and guide you through the therapy, working on the affected joints and muscles until mobility and strength have been improved.
2. Pain Relief
Ultrasound and electrical stimulation treatments are used to diminish pain and accelerate the physical therapy treatments. With these treatments, electrical currents and high frequency sound waves are used to restore blood flow to the affected tissue. Physical therapists use this approach as an effective way to provide quick alleviation of pain.
3. Maintain Wellness and Fitness
Physical therapy can also help you improve your wellness and fitness and enjoy long life and good health. We can examine your functional skills and your needs for moving around your home and community. We then devise a custom take-home therapy and exercise program to optimize overall health and fitness.
Our Special PT Programs
We do more than physical therapy – even if you’re not hurt or in pain! We invested in some wonderful programs and technologies to achieve peak performance in sports such as golf, running, etc.
1. Anti-Gravity Treadmill
Great Moves is proud to be one of the few providers in the state of Colorado to offer its patients and clients the ability to train and rehab with the Alter-G® Anti-Gravity Treadmill. We can safely get you on the fast track to pain-free running and walking.
2. Return to Running Program
Is pain keeping you from your run? Whether your goals are recreationally or racer-minded, we can get you back to your running game.
We provide you a holistic physical therapist evaluation of your musculoskeletal system, pin-pointing fine discrepancies in your muscle length, joint mobility, muscle strength, muscle firing patterns, running form, etc., that are keeping you from reaching your full running potential.
3. Endurance Performance Program
Cyclists, runners and triathletes are at a high risk of sustaining an over-use injury. Our job is to keep you moving, whether you’re preparing for Olympic trials or for your first marathon at the age of 60. We are here to see that you get to the starting line, and sprint across the finish!
Who can benefit from our endurance performance program?
- Elite athletes
- Weekend warrior and high school athletes
- Post-operative patients
- Lower extremity sports injuries
- Cardiac rehabilitation patients
4. Sports Performance & Injury Prevention
Whether you are a high school athlete, a weekend warrior, or needing to peak for an Olympic event, we have the research-backed knowledge and tools to assist with the following:
- get you back to your sport as fast as possible
- maximize your performance
- reduce your risk of future injury
As an athlete, your body is your tool. Without proper maintenance, it can break down. We help you focus on any ‘power leaks’ so you can forge ahead to accomplish your goals, pain-free.
Research based tools that we use in Sports Performance:
- Head-to-toe assessment
- Manual therapy
- Core training
- Athletic and “Kinesio-tape”
- Alter Gravity Treadmill
- TRX: body weight exercise equipment
- Personalized exercise routine for strength, flexibility, balance and stability
- Plyometric exercises
- Speed and agility drills
“Overuse injury, which occurs from repeated motions over time, is responsible for almost ½ of all sports injuries in middle and high school athletes.” (Stopsportsinjuries.org and American Academy of Orthopedic Sports Medicine)
“Half of injuries to young athletes are preventable…” according to a 2003 study in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine (Emery CA).
5. SFMA
Want to improve your sports performance and/or prevent injury? Selective Functional Mobility Assessment (SFMA) is a quick tool to screen for overall musculoskeletal impairments – dysfunctional mobility and/or stability – helping therapists efficiently zero in on whether or not joint and muscle treatment needs to be the focus for your plan of care to regain motion or stability needs to be the focus for your plan of care to improve functional movements and help you play and live pain-free.
6. Health & Wellness
Ww coach patients/clients to identity and obtain appropriate health, wellness and fitness goals. Topics include:
- Food? You are what you eat; a guide to food choices for various ailments etc.
- Bad habits? Where to start? Do more of this, and less of that.
- Stressed out? Stress reduction, body image and relaxation techniques.
- Menopause; How to get through it in a Flash.
- Traveling? Great hotel room workouts.
- Hate the gym? Great workouts using a mat/floor, a Swissball or a theraband.
- Bad back, knees or shoulder? Customized, protective strengthening and appropriate activities.
- Poor balance? Vestibular, proprioceptive and core strengthening program.
- Osteoporosis? A guide to nutrition, activities and exercises key for osteoporosis.
We also offer a Cholestyc blood test which looks at cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides etc.
7. Trigger Point Dry Needling
Trigger point dry needling can be helpful in reducing muscle pain and muscle tightness … or getting out those ‘knots.’ The treatment is actually painless and the results are immediate. Overall, dry needling helps relieve pain and improve mobility.
8. TRX Training
TRX training is one of our physical therapy services which includes a suspension strap (suspension training) and weighted bar exercise tool (rip training) that helps you build lean muscle, boost your metabolism, tighten your core, and increase endurance.
Born in the Navy SEALs, suspension training bodyweight exercise develops strength, balance, flexibility and core stability simultaneously. Rip Training complements suspension training by providing a unique mix of rotation, core stability, control, power, balance, and coordination challenges for all fitness levels.
9. Dizziness & Balance
Do you have a fear of falling? Have difficulty reading while moving? Do you get motion sickness? Great Moves can help with a customized balance and dizziness program.
Risk factors associated with falls:
- Age: over 65 years old
- Weakness
- Difficulty with balance or walking
- Poor vision
- Pre-existing medical conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, stroke, or diabetes
- Polypharmacy: taking 3 or more prescription medications
- Vertigo or a feeling of dizziness
- Environment
- History of falls
How Great Moves can reduce your risk of falls:
- Perform a complete medical history to educate you on your health risk factors.
- Conduct a thorough examination to identify any musculoskeletal risk factors.
- Perform a balance, proprioception and vestibular examination.
- Develop a personalized plan to address all risk factors identified during examination.
- Track and document your therapy progress.
- Educate you on common risk factors and how to correct them at your house and in the community.
- Teach you a take-home fall prevention program.
10. Women’s Services
Common female-specific diagnoses we treat:
- Urinary incontinence
- Pregnancy and post-partum pain
- Osteoporosis
- Pelvic pain
- Low back pain
- Hip pain
Related Blog Article:
Urinary Incontinence: A Tough Issue In Life
Diagnostic Tools
Physical therapists use diagnostics much the same as doctors to evaluate conditions. However, a physical therapist doesn’t do the actual screening. That’s typically done by a radiologist – a doctor who specializes in medical imaging or radiology. But a physical therapist can use an image to help determine the best course of physical therapy for a patient.
Below is a list of diagnostic tools commonly used in physical therapy:
CT Scan
Also known as a CAT scan, computed tomography uses x-rays and computers to take images of your body. CT scans are most often used to take pictures of bone, blood vessels, check for cancer, blood clots, and to see if there is internal bleeding. Sometimes dyes are injected into the blood stream so that it is easier to see a contrast between different types of tissues.
EMG
Electromyography is used to measure the electrical activity of the muscle. Muscles and nerves have an electrical signal that can be measured when they are contracting. By recording these signals, trained personnel can determine if there is something going on at the muscle, the nerve, or the junction of the muscle and the nerve. EMG is often done together with a nerve conduction velocity test (NCS- see below) to gain more complete information.
MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging is a safe and noninvasive way to take pictures of the inside of the body. Strong magnetic pulses cause the hydrogen atoms in the body to line up in the same direction (like a needle on a compass). The signal that they give as they return to their regular position gives the technician a picture of the soft tissues of the body. There is no ionizing radiation with an MRI like there is with an x-ray or a CT scan, so MRI is often a preferred test.
NCS
NCS (Nerve Conduction Study) is a test that’s done to see how well the nerve is conducting a signal. If the impulses are not transmitting as quickly as they should, it indicates that there is something abnormal about the nerve. There are a number of different problems that this could indicate. The test is done using electrodes on the skin and using mild electric shock. This test is also known as a nerve velocity test, or NCV.
X-ray
X-rays are one of the most common types of imaging that is used. Electromagnetic radiation is used to capture pictures of the body. Bones absorb the most radiation, so they appear white on the x-ray. Soft tissues absorb less, so they appear gray on an x-ray. X-rays are most typically used to diagnose problems with the skeleton, because soft tissue is not well seen on an xray. X-rays are fairly cheap and easily obtained, but amount of radiation is a precaution.
Free Physical Therapy Consultation
Give us a call to schedule your free PT consultation and get on track to pain-free living.