What is manual therapy?

Manual therapy, also called manual medicine or manual therapy, is one of the oldest therapeutic treatment methods in medicine.

Here, the therapist works with his hands (lat. Manus) to treat problems with the patient’s supporting apparatus with certain hand movements.

In manual therapy, the hands, so to speak, are the tools of the therapist.

But what is manual therapy suitable for, who is allowed to perform it and what to consider?

The therapist for manual therapy

Manual therapy may be performed only after a thorough diagnosis performed by a doctor.

In this form of therapy, it is especially important to have a perfect command of each hand movement, as well as the anatomy of the human body.

An improper manual therapy could thus lead to an increase in the patient’s discomfort and simply be ineffective.

For this reason, only professionals such as physiotherapists or doctors are allowed to perform manual therapy.

The goal of manual therapy

Manual therapy is used when there are limitations in a patient’s musculoskeletal system.

If, for example, a patient has complaints due to restricted movement in the spine, manual therapy can do a good service.

The classic case is a displaced vertebrae. Here, the therapist intervenes manually, meaning with his hands, to set up the vertebra again.

The goal of manual therapy is to loosen tensions and blockages in the body. This is done, as mentioned above, with targeted hand movements.

The treatment is carried out without much effort on the part of the therapist and is primarily intended to relieve the patient’s pain.

For whom is manual therapy suitable?

This form of therapy is useful for people who have a movement restriction in a joint.

An example of this are complaints in the area of the spine, such as the cervical spine, rib area or in the lower area.

If the muscle segments adjacent to the spine are hardened, this can cause severe pain. These should be treated then absolutely.

Furthermore, manual therapy, like manual therapy in Frankfurt, is suitable for people who have a limitation in the movement or function of their spine.

This can be caused, for example, by wear and tear or injury to the spine, or years of poor posture.

These malpositions should definitely be corrected and treated.

For whom is manual therapy not suitable?

As effective as the treatment form of manual therapy is, it is unfortunately not suitable for every clinical picture of the musculoskeletal system.

If, for example, the patient has an inflammatory disease of the spine, such as rheumatoid arthritis, manual therapy is not suitable.

The same applies if the patient suffers from vertigo – z.B. because of poor circulation in the artery that supplies blood to the brain.

An acute herniated disc as well as tumors or degenerative changes in the joints and spine are also part of the treatment.

What happens with the manual therapy?

Manual therapy is based on the fundamentals of human physiology and anatomy.

Here the connection between the movement segments and/or the joints is particularly in the foreground.

A movement segment, for example of the spinal column, consists of two vertebrae, which are arranged side by side.

In a healthy state, these two vertebrae have a certain range of motion. This is often restricted or even blocked in the case of complaints.

Depending on the nature of the patient’s complaints, the joint parts can then be separated from each other, for example by traction. This can often relieve the patient’s pain.

Another possibility is to move the joint parts parallel to each other. Hereby the original scope is to be restored.

The therapist works with gentle movements such as stretches and rotations. This can often lead to pain in the patient during the procedure.

After treatment, however, there is usually a significant improvement.