Since we started offering the Medical Therapeutic Yoga at Rebalance, some patients and medical practitioners have asked us, “What is Medical Therapeutic Yoga and how is it different than regular physical therapy?”

What is Medical Therapeutic Yoga?

Medical Therapeutic Yoga goes hand-in-hand with Rebalance’s Integrative Physical Therapy, which looks at the person as a whole, rather than just the body and its systems, to assess and treat the ailment.

At Rebalance, our evaluation includes questions about your personal interests, level of stress, diet, general life satisfaction as well as how your physical dysfunction affects these things. Medical Therapeutic Yoga adds another dimension to the plan of care for treatment.

How does it compare to traditional PT?

Here’s how Integrative PT and Medical Therapeutic Yoga compare to a traditional physical therapy session for a hip injury:

A Traditional PT will:

• *Assess how your hip and other areas of your body move together
• *Gives you exercises to work on at home

An Integrative PT + Medical Therapeutic Yoga program will:

• *Assess how your hip and other areas of your body moves together
• *Assess how your whole body is moving, down to the simplest movements (e.g., breathing)
• *Determine how your social, emotional and work/life balance could be impacting your pain and the problem
• *Give you exercises to work on at home
• *Teach you yogic principles of movement and Ayurvedic diet solutions to help you make changes to your lifestyle
• *Make recommendations on stress management and self-care routines
• *Teach you breathing exercises to help you relax your muscles and meditation techniques to manage stress and muscle tension

Ultimately, the goal is to integrate a holistic solution to improving your overall health and wellness of which the injury is a part.  Self-care in this therapy model is more than just exercises for the problem but treatment of the person whose pain could be a manifestation of or exacerbated by other health issues.

Holistic Approach: How Outside Factors in Your Life Can Contribute to your Injury

The holistic approach can help you identify factors in your life that are exacerbating or even causing your pain. For example:

• Stress: If you have a high stress level at work, this could be affecting you on both a physical and emotional level. An integrative/MYT PT might help you recognize the physical ways you react to stress, such as holding your breath or tensing your muscles.
• Sleep Quality: Your sleep quality can affect your body’s ability to heal. An integrative/MYT PT will help you to improve your sleep patterns without medicine to expedite your body’s healing time.

Applying Yoga Principles of Movement to Your Every Day Life

Your integrative/MYT PT will also instruct you in yoga movement principles that you can apply to everyday activities, such as getting up and down from a chair.

The ultimate goal would be to give you a movement routine so that you could reproduce with things you do during the day, as well as apply these same principles to a personal yoga practice. Even if you have never done yoga before, the goal would be to help you to apply the principles of yoga to better your overall physical and mental health.

Everyone, regardless of age, flexibility or health issue can benefit from yoga.  It is a form a physical medicine that when dosed correctly, can benefit everyone of us.

Want more information?

Contact us at Rebalance 267-282-1301 and Stephanie Muntzer would be happy to speak with you and give you more information about treatment specific to your condition.