chiropractor monitoring weightlifter rehabilitation

Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy in Wichita, KS

Why Should I Trust ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic with My Rehabilitation?

Within the greater Wichita, Kansas metro, a chiropractic clinic or a physical therapy clinic is a dime a dozen. But at ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic, we work to integrate the best of chiropractic, functional medicine, physical therapy-based services, strength training, pain management, and various other approaches under one roof. We apply these various approaches through our unique pain categorization assessment system which directs care. We also now taken this system and integrated it into telehealth and video programs for patients who are not seeking in-person care.

What Is Physical Therapy or Physical Rehabilitation?

This should be relatively simple to address; unfortunately, due to jurisdictions, legal definitions, Medicare, insurance companies, and ideological turf wars, it is not. This might be the most, or at least towards the top of, misunderstood concepts within health and wellness. The saddest part of this debacle is that the end user, or customer, gets tossed and turned throughout this system without ever being aware of it.
First, let’s identify what rehabilitation means.

Rehabilitation means, from its 1530s Latin origin, to re- “again” -habitare “make fit.” Simply it means to “make fit again.” For this usage, Physical Rehabilitation means to physically “make fit again.” Ironically, physical therapy or rehabilitation under insurance guidelines, is not allowed to bill to an insurance company to “make fit again.” Physical Therapy services are billable when a person is experiencing pain and desires to get out of pain. Pain reduction is not necessarily the same as to “make fit again.” As stated earlier, healthcare has become “hijacked.”

Regardless, we can work to better understand what physical rehabilitation means today, instead of its un-resembling origins. To do so, it might be beneficial to identify a starting point to reference all dialogue from. The simplest approach would be to define various health professions’ identifying statements.

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is a medical specialty that helps people regain body functions they lost due to medical conditions or injury. This term is often used to describe the whole medical team, not just the doctors.¹

Strength and Conditioning Profession

Strength and Conditioning Profession is a profession which involves the combined competencies of sport/exercise science, administration, management, teaching, and coaching.²

Chiropractic

Chiropractic is a health profession concerned with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, and the effects of these disorders on the function of the nervous system and general health. There is an emphasis on manual treatments including spinal adjustment and other joint and soft-tissue manipulation.³

Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy is a branch of rehabilitative health that uses specially designed exercises and equipment to help patients regain or improve their physical abilities.⁴

Pain Management

Pain Management is a medical approach that draws on disciplines in science and alternative healing to study the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pain. For painful spine and musculoskeletal disorders, pain management is employed as an aggressive conservative (nonsurgical) care program that helps to identify the source of neck and back pain and rehabilitate the patient as an alternative or follow-up to surgery.⁵

While reading through these identity statements, one can conclude, they all relatively are saying the same thing.

This “specialty” identifies mechanical, or musculoskeletal (MSK) problems then helps to facilitate physical stress for a person to produce wanted results.

Sure, there are shades of gray, but ultimately, they are all working toward the same goal; sometimes by the same means and with the same exercise at-hand. So, are these professions all one in the same? No, but also yes.

ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic Approach to Physical Therapy-Based Services

We offer a unique blend of Physical Therapy-based services. At the heart of it, we utilize a pain auditing, assessment system which we have critiqued over the years with knowledge gathered. With this system we have been able to identify and catalogue people into two camps of rehabilitation when rehabilitation is an appropriate course of action. From a birds-eye view, programming physical rehabilitation is this simple and this knowledge should not be held tightly to a few.

Healthcare has made simple ideas complex and confused the masses as a result. Unfortunately, exercises and physical rehabilitation are no different.

Identifying the Two Camps of Rehabilitation

When discussing physical rehabilitation, we must separate two concepts. Are you in pain and/or are you lacking in performance? Sometimes the answer is yes to both these questions; however, these are not the same question. The lack of understanding that these two questions are different, or assuming asking of one question is the answer to the other is haunting physical medicine practitioners. It is no wonder rehabilitation has become confusing to customers; it has become confusing to the provider who would be delivering the message to the customer. As a result, programming exercises has become a hodgepodge of a mess. This is where we, at ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic, are stepping in. Exercise(s) is quite simple. Programming for exercises should be viewed within two camps of a Venn-diagram.

Everyone lives somewhere on this continuum at any given time. When pain is present, our goal is to identify if the area of complaint can be moved in a way, based on 4 golden rules, and if so, transition them into the sliver where we perform both pain reducing exercises and performance exercises. The overall goal is to move individuals entirely into the performance circle and out of the pain circle. Our definition for performance could be sport specific, gym specific exercises, gardening, or playing with kids. Performance is whatever you want it to be. Our goals are your goals.

Hopefully, this visual helps to explain and bring to light a deeper understanding of not only what rehabilitation is but when different styles or types of rehabilitation exercises are to be introduced, and/or performed, to help facilitate you from pain to performance.

Pain Camp for Rehabilitation Exercises

When someone is in intense pain (let’s use low back as an example) they are not going to attempt a heavy deadlift or squat due to the pain. Under almost all circumstances, all healthcare professionals will agree to this statement. It would be silly to program heavy squats for an individual experiencing intense low back pain. Pain reducing exercises should focus on producing 1 or more of our 4 Golden Rules of pain to performance.

4 Golden Rehab Rules

The size of the pain should get smaller
The pain intensity should decrease
The joint’s active range of motion (AROM) should improve
The functional or orthopedic test(s) should improve

These 4 Golden Rules exemplify healing is occurring within the body. If we can identify 1 pain reducing exercise, which allows 1, hopefully all, of these 4 Golden Rules to occur, then this 1 exercise is the only or the bulk exercise you should be performing. If you are in intense pain, and performing multiple exercises, particularly those which have you moving into all directions, then you will more than likely be in pain for a longer duration of time. These principles of the body, or Golden Rules, will always hold true regardless of where you may be experiencing pain. There is extreme power in knowing and understanding when a principle, not a specific exercise, is what gets you out of pain. This is a uniqueness in trusting us with your overall health desires.

Performance Camp for Rehabilitation Exercises

Introduction of performance exercises should be incorporated reasonably at the end of an individual’s pain cycle. As started earlier, rehabilitation’s original definition is to “make fit again.” In doing this, one can work toward helping to not only prevent an occurrence again, but to make fit again.

From a macroscopic view, rehabilitation exercises should be introduced to make movement patterns, which the individual is using, throughout their day, become more efficient in some manner.

It is important to understand, again, these exercises should be introduced or performed, more than likely, only toward the end of the pain cycle. Performance rehabilitation exercises can potentially help end the pain cycle and prevent future occurrence, but there is a time and place for all exercises.

What Is the Point of Physical Therapy or Rehabilitation?

The point, or goal, of physical therapy is dynamic. There are many factors such as thoughts, hopes, wants, desires, fears, which all play a factor in deciding what the “point” of physical rehabilitation may be. Remember, physical rehabilitation is to “make fit again,” not merely to get out of pain. The point is to alter, increase or decrease, a person’s physical stress to their body to the degree at which they can repair and remodel the desired tissue.

4 Quadrants of Exercise

Largely, we can identify 4 quadrants (aerobic capacity, anerobic capacity, strength, and stability) in which an individual may need to alter the physical stress to their body in order to become “healthier” or to improve performance. These 4 quadrants are designed to assess in what aspect a person may be lacking and which is altering or hindering their physical health. When out of balance within these 4 quadrants, a person may be at an increased exposure to injury. Our goal is to identify which quadrant is underperforming and challenge that tissue in a manner to which you can handle without distress.

Working through these 4 quadrants with our clients is where we truly see remarkable changes. We love helping people get out of pain, but we really love to see the overall health of our clients improve. This can drastically impact the quality of their lives – which is our overall goal – to improve the quality of health for years to come.

4 Quadrants of Physical Health Rehabilitation Chart

Physical Therapy/Rehabilitation and the Future of Healthcare

We believe Healthcare is quickly going to evolve. Healthcare, like all businesses, must adapt for various reasons ranging from technology to inflation. This rate of change is going to accelerate soon with noticeable changes seen by the layperson within the next few years.
Entrepreneurs and the free market are quickly pushing toward this adoption. A $10 gym membership or online company with a subscription can have you riding the same bicycle for knee rehab as a fancy place for $75 or more per visit. The free market is going to decide value. Once the general population identifies and understands this dynamic interplay then physical medicine will undergo the next evolution. Physical medicine specialists will have to evolve to survive.

We believe physical rehab-based services, functional medicine and technology will link directly into one another, more so each year, with it appearing seamless within 20 years. For us to survive, adopting technology and understanding its parameters within healthcare will completely change the landscape of the declining health within industrialized nations. The adoption is happening (Fitbit, Whoop, Oura) but this technology and integration is within its early phases. Like all new waves of change, there will be resistance. However, once better technology comes along at a cheaper rate, markets do not go backward – only forward.

We believe private, integrated micro-clinics will emerge. These may appear, or be viewed as, health spas in the beginning but they will evolve into proactive, micro, full-body health clinics instead of reactive hospitals. Hospitals serve a purpose and are much needed; however, it does not change that these institutions serve sickcare – not healthcare. Our goal is to be at the forefront of the healthcare wave.

How Our Chiropractic Rehabilitation Services Can Help You

Our Chiropractors have extensive education into physical therapy-based services, functional medicine, neurology, and strength training to integrate a unique, and often times simple, rehabilitation plan to which people can execute at home or in office.

An evolution must emerge within healthcare to become more affordable. Through the integration of many techniques into a single visit, being directed by an evolving advanced pain auditing system, healthcare can reclaim patient trust, decrease a patient’s cost(s), while becoming deflationary in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) expenditure.

We are excited to also offer our rehabilitation services now through our Specialty Programs and Video Series Programs empowering you in many ways with your health. These programs will become the staple of proactive healthcare.

Content written by Dr. Keith Sparks, DC | Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) Certified Exercise Trainer, Functional and Kinetic Treatment with Rehabilitation (FAKTR) Certified, Selective Functional Movement Assessment Certified (SFMA) Certified, Functional Movement Systems (FMS) Certified, Buteyko Instructor
Content Reviewed by Dr. Samuel Reals, DC | DNS – Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization Technique – Part A, B, C, Exercise 1, ACSM-EPC – American College of Sports Medicine – Exercise Physiologist Certified

View Citations and References

¹ U.S. National Library of Medicine. (n.d.). Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Medlineplus medical encyclopedia. MedlinePlus. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007448.htm

² Address correspondence to the NSCA National Office at [email protected]. Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: The authors report no conflicts of interest and no source of funding. (n.d.). NSCA strength and Conditioning Professional Standards and... : Strength & Conditioning Journal. LWW. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/fulltext/2017/12000/nsca_strength_and_conditioning_professional.1.aspx

³ Definition of Chiropractic. https://www.wfc.org/website/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90. Accessed 27 Jan. 2022.

⁴ Definition of Physical Therapy. https://www.medicinenet.com/ physical_ therapy/definition.htm

⁵ Definition of Pain Management/Pain Medicine. https://www.spine-health.com/glossary/pain-managementpain-medicine

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If you are in the Wichita, KS, area and are having frustrations, complications, or stagnant results with care, then contact us for in-person help with our unique healthcare approaches. If you are not within the greater Wichita, KS metro, we have created amazing Telehealth and Video Programs to provide you the same high-quality care. Contact our professional chiropractic staff at our East Wichita clinic or West Wichita clinic about possible treatments for your muscle, joint, nutrition, and health-related concerns today.

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