Physical therapy is a good way to improve your health without surgery or medication (or in some cases, alongside those two), but most people think of gym-like clinics when they find out they have to have therapy. However, home physical rehab is growing in popularity, and studies are finding that home rehab may be just as good as clinic rehab. In fact, home rehab could have more benefits for patients because the movements worked on in rehab can be applied directly to how you move around your home.

Portable Equipment or No Special Equipment

First, if your rehab doesn't need any special equipment, or it needs only portable equipment like a hand-weight set, then doing the exercises at home should be simple. While you could learn the exercises in a clinic and practice them at home, learning them at home may make it easier to remember them because you have familiar markers around you. It's similar to studying with music on and then remembering the information better when you hear that same music during the test.

Inability to Travel

If you can't really travel to a rehab clinic, then home rehab is essential. Arranging for special transit if you are in a wheelchair temporarily can be expensive. It may be cheaper overall to have the therapist come to your home and work with you there. The same goes for situations where, maybe you're well enough to travel, but the clinic is too far to go by taxi without the fare costing an arm and a leg, and the bus takes too long. If you can't drive and have no one to drive you, that therapist has to come to you.

Better Application to the Patient's Life

Physical therapy at a clinic is fine, but if the therapy is done at home, it can have more relevance for the patient. For example, doing a stretch at the clinic teaches the patient how to do that stretch. Doing that stretch at home teaches the patient not only how to do the stretch, but also how that stretch will allow them to reach items at the back of a closet, for example, or it will allow them to pick something up off the kitchen floor. Instead of visualizing these situations in a clinic, the therapist can actually bring the patient over to the kitchen counter and show them how the stretch relates to actual movement in the kitchen if something were to drop to the floor.

Being at home for the therapy can also be more comforting, and that can help your recovery. If you need to have physical rehabilitation and want to do it at home, talk to the therapist and to your doctor.

Share