Wilderness Fitness Podcast with Dr. Rob Minturn PT, CSCS · Dr. Rob Minturn PT, CSCS

Ep 54: Why Physical Therapy Didn't Work For You In The Past

·22 min·2 clips

Physical therapy is strength and conditioning in the presence of injury, not just bands and stretching.

Dr. Rob Mintern opens from Wasilla, Alaska, still not fully settled into the apartment but already shifting the recording schedule to Thursday mornings. He says Thursday works better with his day off and that mornings may suit him better than Friday evenings after a long work week. From there, he turns to a subject he says he feels strongly about: why PT did not work in the past. He starts by saying the first step is defining what PT actually is, since people often arrive with the wrong idea of what it can do. He has seen that across different clinics and settings, and he wants to separate real physical therapy from the version that just repeats itself. In his view, a lot of rehab fails because it never really moves. People do the same exercises for three or four visits, there is no structure, and the plan is basically random. His own clinic approach is different. He tries to make one day feel like one workout and the next day feel different, then build those sessions forward through the plan of care while adjusting and modifying as needed. He talks about loading and unloading tissues based on what they tolerate, pushing when the body is ready and backing off when it is not. He also pushes back hard on the idea that PT is mostly bands and stretching. He says PT gets a bad reputation for that, and in some places that reputation is earned. He says people often show up and have never had a PT ask them to think about lifting a barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell. If a clinic only gives stretches for a few sessions, then bands for a few more, and nothing changes, he calls that a red flag and tells people to get out. He does say that sometimes he spends a session on stretching, but only when it serves a purpose, such as teaching someone how to do it at home with a strap before moving back to skilled exercise progression. He is not interested in burning clinic time on work the patient could do themselves. He also corrects another bad assumption: a session does not have to leave you drenched to matter. You do not have to break a sweat for physical therapy to be effective, but you should leave feeling like you did real work. He closes by saying he blends rehab with strength and conditioning in his practice, with the goal that after about 12 weeks people leave with a solid strength and conditioning basis and fewer injuries to deal with while they train. He ends by asking listeners to share the podcast and leave a review.

As heard by us

A blunt rehab reset for anyone who was handed stretches and called it treatment.

The episode makes a clear case that physical therapy can miss the mark when it does not load the body enough, repeats the same plan visit after visit, or leans too hard on bands and stretching. Dr.

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Why you'd press play

When PT feels like bands, stretching, and no real progression, this explains why.

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