After recovering from the acute phase after suffering an injury in an accident, your doctor may decide that you could benefit from regular physical therapy. Before your first session, be aware of a couple of mistakes that you need to avoid to keep from hindering your own recovery progress from your therapy.

1.  You Only Do Your Exercises During Your Scheduled Sessions with the Therapist

One mistake that you should avoid when you are going through therapy to help you recover from an injury is thinking that you can get away with only doing your exercises during your sessions with the therapist. You may believe that performing the prescribed exercises only during your scheduled visits will be enough to help you heal.

However, the therapist prescribes and gives you instructions for at-home exercises for a reason. Since the purpose of your therapy is to help you heal and to help you regain mobility, the types and frequencies of the exercises are designed to help you achieve these goals. If you do not follow these instructions, your road to recovery may become longer.

If you are having problems keeping up with doing your exercises, remind yourself by scheduling appointments on your personal calendar and setting alarms. You can also break up the exercises and commit to doing them during moments of free time.

2.  You Believe Discomfort Is Part of the Therapy and Keep the Symptoms to Yourself

Another mistake that you should avoid is believing that discomfort is part of your therapy. If you believe this, you may decide to keep any symptoms to yourself, even if certain movements cause sharp pain.

However, while you may feel some soreness during therapy, you should never feel an increase in the intensity or duration of your pain. If you are having pain, this could mean that you are exacerbating the injury or are trying to do too much too soon.

Make sure you let your therapist know of any unusual symptoms. If any specific movements are causing them, the therapist can re-evaluate the sessions as well as letting your doctor know.

Making sure that you complete your prescribed exercises at home and communicating any unusual symptoms to your therapist can help with your progress toward recovering from your injury. For more information on things that you can do during your sessions as well as at home to help with your recovery, speak with your physical therapist.