By Leon Green
Physiotherapist at Life Ready Physio + Pilates Camberwell

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You’ve just had surgery and been told you need to follow up with physio. You do a Google search of “physiotherapy [suburb]” and are swamped by thousands of results that all basically look the same. How are you meant to know what facility to choose and what to look for? 

Here are the three must have’s in a facility for post-surgical rehabilitation.

• Specific rehab plans

Your condition requires a specific plan and attention if you are to recover well. The timeline of your healing, exercise selection and progression are different from surgery to surgery. “Cookie cutter” programs are not the way forward. You need someone to listen and understand the procedure you’ve had, figure out your baseline and cooperatively plan out your goals.

• Exercise equipment

The old days of post-surgical recovery are done. We used to say “rest up in bed” for weeks at a time following surgery. This led to extreme weakness and stiffness, making the overall recovery process far too long.  

Post-surgery, your body doesn’t want to move how it did before. You will develop compensatory ways of moving that, if left untreated, can become detrimental post surgically. 

A good rehab facility will have equipment that allows you to override these movement compensations and restore your body to an optimal state for recovery. 

So when you’re looking for a facility, you’re going to want a facility with exercise equipment. This can take many forms, like a small gym set-up or Pilates equipment – essentially anything that can facilitate movement in a controlled way.

• A treatment plan

It’s important to understand that the recovery process is slow. You’re potentially looking at weeks or maybe months of rehabilitation to get back where you were before your operation. Treatment plans ensure that you’re appropriately challenged over the course of your rehab and meet your stage of function or healing following surgery. If you do too little then your body won’t improve, and if you do too much then you’ll create further problems. 

A great rehab facility will set goals with you and then map out a treatment plan to get you to these goals. 

Life Ready Physio would like to wish you good luck. Remember the road to recovery is long, but under the right guidance, ever forward and better than the last. Discover more about how we can help you along your post-operative journey here, or if you have any queries about our services or would like to make a booking, reach out to us today.