Preventive Medicine and Wellness Programs
A Comprehensive Approach to Your Health and Wellness
reventive health is the key to overall wellness. It’s about being proactive—making daily changes that positively impact our lives now and in the future. While our immediate goal is to restore your function after an injury, our long-term goal is to equip you with the knowledge and resources to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Restoring function and wellness involves nurturing the mind, spirit, and body. Our comprehensive approach includes preventive programs that go beyond just treating your injury, giving you the tools you need for lasting health.
We understand that life is busy. Family and work commitments often leave little time to focus on our well-being. However, preventive strategies don’t have to be time-consuming. Preventive care begins with the right attitude and a desire to change behaviors. Our programs are integrated into your treatment sessions and tailored to your specific needs, helping you heal now while minimizing the risk of future issues.
Let’s partner together on this journey toward better health and wellness!
Advance Fitness Program
Advance Fitness is designed to further improve clients’ conditioning beyond their rehabilitation in physical therapy. This gym program allows individuals to improve their conditioning and focus on specific training and exercise independently at our Redwood City facility while benefitting from the direct supervision provided from our clinical staff. Participants exercise at their own pace, use the specialized equipment that they have become familiar with, and feel confident and safe that they are implementing exercises appropriately to avoid injury. Participants comment that this program fuels their natural desire to attain a higher level of fitness after their course of physical therapy and provides a smooth transition to independent management.
Beyond just a work out…
- Independent access to gym facility
- Constant clinical staff supervision
- Proper guidance for exercise progression
- Safe workout environment minimizing risk of re-injury
- Familiarity with using state of the art specialized gym equipment
- Easy transition into an independent program after discharge from physical therapy
Ask how to sign up for Advance Fitness, our gym membership program today!
Annual Physical Therapy Screening
Why should you consider an annual exam with your physical therapist? Isn’t it better to wait until you have a problem? Think about it: maybe you’ve tried to get back into a fitness routine at the gym but have been held back by injuries, leaving you wondering if you’ll ever be able to run and lift weights like you used to. Or perhaps you’ve been deconditioned for a while due to work and back strains, and now you’re ready to jumpstart a fitness program that won’t trigger those old issues.
These situations highlight a common concern: whether our bodies—or more specifically, our movement systems—are ready for the activities we want to do. Just as we visit the dentist regularly for a preventive check-up to maintain oral health, an annual exam with a physical therapist is a smart way to ensure your musculoskeletal and joint systems are functioning well and free from movement patterns that could lead to injury.
As experts in movement analysis, we assess all components of your movement system, including your muscular, skeletal, neurological, and cardiopulmonary systems. We know what’s required for any activity and can quickly pinpoint the “weak links” in your kinetic chain. We believe that everyone—regardless of age—can benefit from an annual exam. Whether you’re dealing with an issue or not, let us give you a “check-up” to ensure you’re ready for the activities ahead. Call us today, and we’ll help get you prepared for tomorrow’s challenges!
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of work, blending principles from physiology, biomechanics, psychology, anthropometry, kinesiology, and industrial engineering to reduce physical stress on the body. Ergonomic evaluations are essential not only in the workplace but also in any setting where we spend extended periods sitting or standing and performing repetitive tasks. At Advance Physical Therapy, Inc., we treat many individuals experiencing office work-related aches and pains, with the most common issues affecting the neck, back, shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Our assessments include a detailed analysis of your posture, workstation, and behavioral habits to identify factors that may be contributing to ongoing symptoms, which often develop into chronic problems.
There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach when it comes to designing a workspace or maintaining proper posture. Every person is different, and symptoms can affect individuals in unique ways. We provide you with the resources and strategies necessary to make the right ergonomic adjustments to your workstation, and more importantly, we’ll teach you how to improve your postural alignment and stability to minimize recurrence. The key is adjusting your environment to fit your needs, not forcing you to conform to it.
Pilates Mat Class Program
Pilates is a form of exercise, focused on core strength and stability and was created by Joseph Pilates in 1926. Joseph Pilates created exercises and invented equipment that would target every part of the body as well as heighten mind-body fitness.He worked with people from all backgrounds and professions, yet, grew great recognition within the dance community for his movement patterns of precision, rhythm, and whole-body engagement.
The effects of Pilates classes help people to learn how to move their bodies with greater posture, balance, and stability in ways that carry over to many other activities in their daily living and recreation. These classes have gained popularity for their attention to increasing strength, improving coordination, and decreasing stress.
Pilates mat classes are now being offered at Advance Physical Therapy clinic in Redwood City to help train members of the community as well as our patients to strengthen core stability, increase flexibility, and improve overall fitness.
Nutrition and Supplements
Our bodies need the right nutrients to heal and restore themselves. We are, quite literally, what we eat. What we consume plays a significant role in the amount of inflammation we produce, which can directly impact how our tissues heal from injury. Maintaining good nutritional support means not only fueling our bodies with beneficial foods but also avoiding those that may contribute to inflammation.
Our bones provide the structural framework for our muscles, tendons, and ligaments to function properly. Without proper nutrition, our bones can become vulnerable to conditions like osteoporosis. Similarly, inadequate nutrition can weaken tendons and ligaments, making them more susceptible to repetitive stress. Poor nutrition can also disrupt our mental, physical, and physiological systems, increasing the risk of developing conditions like cancer, depression, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
As part of your physical therapy treatment, we discuss the proper nutrients that promote tissue healing and identify foods that can hinder healing and contribute to inflammation. Our approach is centered on prevention, aiming to support your long-term health and wellness.
Motor Imagery
Motor Imagery utilizes your focused attention to activate your brain’s electrical signals into formulating the desired movements, just as in physical practice, only on a much smaller scale. The imagery helps re-create motor patterns and muscle memory by acting as a form of practice without voluntarily moving a muscle. Your brain begins to see how you want the signals to be sent, when you want them to be sent, and how great or small of a magnitude to send the signal when you imagine the physical practice. Largely, the movements you are training are based on actions you have done before, therefore, the brain has a basis of muscle memory for which to build on. Further, when imagining an action, you can even begin to train your brain to modulate the sensation signals within your body. In other words, you can begin to quiet and turn off the pain signal when performing a previously painful movement pattern. The brain training occurring during Motor Imagery manifests results similar to physical practice because you are creating, through mental practice, a new motor pattern. All motion is simply a series of electrical signals; whether they are manifested via physical practice or mental practice, the result of better, quality movement is possible.
At Advance Physical Therapy, we offer a scripted form of Motor Imagery to assist you in your healing journey. This approach simply requires you to sit still with your eyes closed and listen to a script as it is read to you. That’s it! No movement, just focus. Your brain is the epicenter for all functioning, now you get to uncover the power of your mind and unleash a more well-rounded, holistic path to total wellness.
Please contact our office for more information and see how this approach can assist in your healing!
Advance Physical Therapy is truly a one stop shop and their expertise and attention to detail is second to none. Not only did I make a quick, full recovery from my back injury, but I haven’t had a recurrence in years thanks to the knowledge I gained about postural mechanics, nutrition and preventive exercises. They went beyond treating the entire me and not just a body part. Thanks so much for the experience!