Neuromuscular Re-education

Rehabilitation Services In Hutchinson, Kansas

Nerves send signals between your muscles and your brain about when, where, and how fast to move. An injury to nerves or muscles, repetitive motions, poor posture, and unhealthy biomechanics (the way muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments work together) can disrupt these signals and interfere with movement patterns of the affected body part.

Neuromuscular re-education is an approach that physical therapists use to restore normal movement. It can help improve a number of conditions that involve back and neck pain, limited joint mobility, and repetitive strain injuries.

At Hutch Physical Therapy & Wellness in Hutchinson, Kansas, Dr. Terry Goss utilizes neuromuscular re-education exercises to improve balance, coordination, posture, and proprioception, which is the ability to sense the orientation of your body in your environment.

As an experienced physical therapist, she understands the relationship between the stabilization and mobilization of muscles, proper sequencing, and optimal biomechanical motion patterns for a wide variety of daily tasks, occupational activities, and sports-specific physical performance.

Dr. Goss will perform a thorough evaluation to identify your neuromuscular deficits and observe your posture and biomechanical patterns. She will then create a treatment plan that includes functional strengthening, stretching, and balance and coordination exercises that encourage you to focus on joint positioning while performing specified movements.

Neuromuscular re-education initially breaks down exercises into simple single-joint movement patterns, which are then perfected with proper alignment, breathing, and muscle stabilization using non-weight-bearing posture and manual or mechanical assistance. The exercises will progressively become more difficult by incorporating multi-joint movements, weight-bearing postures, progressive resistance, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), a more advanced type of flexibility training that involves the stretching and contraction of the targeted muscle group. The goal is to retrain the nerves and muscles to “map” healthy movement patterns.

To learn more about neuromuscular re-education and our other physical therapy services, call Hutch Physical Therapy & Wellness at (620) 669-9190 or request an appointment online.