Obesity or excessive weight is considered a chronic disease that affects people of all ages, races, and economic levels. Being overweight can affect your health and put you at an increased risk for chronic conditions including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even depression.
Obesity can also affect muscles, bone strength, and posture and can significantly reduce a person’s ability in doing everyday activities. Therefore, your weight loss plan should not only focus on losing a few pounds but must also take into consideration the different ways to improve muscle and bone strength. Every weight loss plan should be more than the usual attempt to reduce overweight, rather it should focus on significantly improving your overall health and flexibility.
Physiotherapy is one such treatment plan that can holistically help you reduce weight while improving your physical and mental health. Although the myth around physical therapy is that physiotherapy treatments are only beneficial for patients suffering from injury or pain such as back pain, joint disorders, osteoarthritis, neurological problems, etc.
This is not true! Physical therapy treatment plans and methods are more than that.
Physiotherapy treatment methods are suggested by healthcare professionals to holistically heal a patient and promote well-being. Moreover, physical therapists are proven highly efficient in weight loss programs as they are movement experts that treat pain and movement problems that are a result of an inactive lifestyle and obesity. The experts doing physiotherapy in Caledonia can help improve the quality of life through hands-on care, patient education, and prescribed movement.
The Importance of Physiotherapy in Weight Loss
The most common question that people ask is:
“Why do we need physiotherapy for weight loss?”
There are numerous workout routines on the internet that you can perform right at your home and moreover, there are gyms all around the corner. So why not leverage those services and reduce weight rather than hiring a physical therapist?
This is because reducing overweight or overcoming obesity is not as easy as going to the gym. Excessive body weight, lack of physical activities and movement will tremendously affect your body. Hence, when people start exercising after a continuous sedentary lifestyle, they start experiencing joint aches, knee pain, backaches, muscle strains, bone fractures, and much more.
It is extremely difficult for such people to even achieve the recommended 30 minutes of daily exercises and workouts in order to control their weight. Such people who are suffering from obesity and excessive weight, need an individual physical therapy program customized to meet their particular needs, their body, and their environment. Physical therapy is therefore considered an effective treatment method to not only reduce and prevent overweight but also to prevent musculoskeletal problems, especially in weight-bearing joints.
How Physiotherapy Transforms Your Weight Loss Journey
1) Physiotherapy can eliminate the fear of injury during exercise
The fear of injury is a significant deterrent to exercise especially among the elderly. Older people who are overweight or obese will not be able to perform the same exercise routines prescribed to younger people. Such exercises will only increase the risk of injury and may even lead to halting the complete exercise routines. Physical therapists can include injury prevention strategies during the treatment with the help of therapeutic exercise and physical activities. They provide specific stretching and strengthening exercises along with intensive behavioral therapy for obesity. These treatments and exercise routines ensure that the risk of injury is reduced and proper warm-up, cool down periods are implemented.
2) Physiotherapy can help you overcome diseases
There are a lot of health risks associated with being overweight & obese. People with excessive weight are often affected by conditions such as osteoarthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and much more. Continuously exercising without considering your cardiovascular capacity or other health factors can lead to increased risk and put you in more danger than before. However, physical therapists can play a significant role in educating clients and utilizing exercises not only as a means of reducing obesity or fat mass but also to overcome metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease risk, inflammation, etc.
3) Physical therapists provide constant follow-ups
Exercise programs are considered to be more effective if it is custom designed for each individual based on their body type and goals. Physical therapists offer individually designed and supervised, physiotherapy weight loss programs that are combined with regular follow-up. This is essential for obesity and weight loss programs, because individuals who are undergoing significant weight loss routines, will need proper assistance with daily activities such as walking, running, bending, etc. Physical therapists will continuously modify the treatment levels based on the weight loss progress and make changes in the exercise program if circumstances change.
4) Physiotherapy offers weight loss with no side effects
Lipomassage is an effective method for weight loss that is often leveraged by expert physical therapists. It is also a great way to avoid side effects such as stretch marks on the skin which are mostly found in people suffering from obesity or excessive weight. The lipomassage physical therapy technique helps in the targeted reduction of fat mostly in the person’s legs, belly, and waist. Physical therapists usually combine an effective low-fat diet and other treatments along with lipomassage to deliver results in just a few sessions. Moreover, such physical therapy treatments ensure that the sudden changes in the body due to exercises does not adversely affect any other part of the body. Hence, physical therapy treatments are a great way to reduce overweight as it also eliminates fluid retention, and improves posture and musculature.
5) Physical therapy is highly beneficial after bariatric surgery
Physical therapy is considered highly effective both before and after a bariatric surgery. Physiotherapists offer multiple treatment options that can help in the preparation and recovery of your bariatric journey. The physical therapy treatment methods before surgery will specifically focus on safety, endurance improvements, strength and muscle regeneration, and moreover it will be entirely about creating an individualized exercise program that can efficiently help you manage your weight loss. Since weight-loss surgery will include a group of operations that make changes to your digestive system, coping up with a new lifestyle after these operations can be quite difficult. Therefore, physical therapists will offer an exercise program relevant to your level of function. It will include exercise programs and activities that can improve mobility and balance. Physiotherapists will also provide a post-operative analysis to initially address the weight loss transformations in your body, orthopedic challenges and more.
Conclusion
Obesity and being overweight are not something you can eliminate in just a few days’ time. It is a challenging and long-term health problem that many people are faced with. Hitting the gym and maintaining regular intensive workouts are not easy for everyone with obesity. Especially for the elderly and people suffering from health conditions, diseases, or musculoskeletal disorders. For them, going to the gym is not seen as a healthy option, as there is an increased chance for injury and risk. In such cases, physical therapy can play a pivotal role in helping restore flexibility and increasing strength as well as cardiovascular endurance. It can reduce body pain, joint aches, etc,. that could have been a result of obesity or being overweight; and it can also improve posture and body balance.
