What happens if I don't feel any improvement with physiotherapy?

Here are all the reasons that may explain why you are not feeling any improvement during your physiotherapy treatments:

• Improvement in physiotherapy can be felt in different ways
• Your body is being overused
• Sleep is not restful
• The exercises are not performed optimally
• You don't have the right diagnosis

Improvement in physiotherapy can be felt in different ways

The most well-known being the reduction of pain itself, but this is not the only way to improve.

There are several types of improvement

• Pain reduction
• Decreased frequency of pain
• Increased movement before the same pain appears
• Increased time to do an activity before the same pain appears
• The pain decreases faster for the same movement or activity

So, it is possible that you have had an improvement, but without realizing it because you have been more attentive to the reduction of pain and not to the other signs of improvement...

Your body is being overused

One of the reasons for the lack of improvement in physiotherapy is the amount of aggravating activity or movements done between sessions. The physiotherapist will have already indicated to you during the evaluation which movements, activities or postures to avoid. Despite all your good intentions, you may have done too many aggravating movements or activities without necessarily realizing it. In this case, it is normal not to see an improvement.

Sleep is not restful

To heal properly, it is essential to have restful sleep. If you wake up and don't feel rested, then this is problematic and should be discussed with your physiotherapist.

The exercises are not performed optimally

A lack of improvement can be explained if the prescribed exercises have not been done for long enough, are not done often enough, or are not performed adequately. It is difficult to do your exercises well and be motivated to do them regularly, especially if the pain is very present. We understand this very well and it is our job to find exercises that are adjusted to your condition and that will motivate you. So if you have any difficulties, tell us about them and we will explore possible solutions.

You don't have the right diagnosis

The human body is not a car where you plug in a scanner to get a diagnosis. The human body is infinitely more complicated than a machine and there are several diagnoses for the same group of symptoms. The physiotherapist is aware of this and always has more than one hypothesis in their clinical reasoning. If you do not see any improvement after 3 treatments and the above reasons do not apply to you, then the physiotherapist will disprove their first diagnostic hypothesis to move on to the second most probable hypothesis.