In our Harlow clinic we are lucky to have a fantastic gym space kitted out with a variety of equipment. Our physiotherapists use this for both assessment of a patient, as well as their and treatment. This is extremely useful for post-operative rehabilitation and sports injuries to perform those all-important tests when getting ready to return to play. This can be balance and jump testing or exercises involving resistance such as using dumbbells to assess your current ability following your injury.
Our physiotherapists will actively encourage you to undertake a gym-based/exercise-based programme to complement your physiotherapy treatment, encouraging a quicker return to your sporting and normal activities. Ultimately the aim is to guide your rehabilitation, allowing you to complete a programme independently, encourage a quicker return to your sport/activities and get you back doing what you love. This type of programme also helps to prevent re-injury or further injury. Focussing on not only the injured area but the body as a whole fix gets to the cause of the issue and not just provide a quick fix that does not last.
We also have the ability to perform gait analysis in the gym. This allows your physiotherapist to observe you walking or running and assess and biomechanical abnormalities that may be present that can either be an effect of the condition you are experiencing or the cause of it. This will then make it possible to implement strategies to correct this.
For more complex issues, we also have provision, with our Harlow clinic being based in the Leisurezone, to take people in the main gym in the building. We often do this with patients that really need to be put through their paces or those who would like to return to the usual gym routine but need some guidance on how to do this following an injury. Your physiotherapist can spend a session with you observing and facilitating this, ensuring you are safe, as well as providing new exercises for you to build in.
