Did PT fail you, or did you have bad PT?

November 11, 2025•3 min read

Did PT fail you, or did you have bad PT?

How many times have you yourself or someone you know experienced this: You have knee pain so you tell your PCP and then you get referred to an orthopedic who specializes in the knee. They zoom in on the knee and give you some kind of diagnosis without looking at much of anything else. Then you go to PT with an order for knee pain and the PT only treats your knee. 6 weeks go by and your knee is not much better. So you think PT didn't help.

It wasn't PT that failed you, it was likely just bad PT.

Unfortunately we see this in all kinds of fields and it is just part of the process of working with humans. There are good and bad teachers, doctors, accountants, physical therapist, you name it.

What makes for good Physical Therapy then?

Comprehensive examination

Ground up, everything that might be involved needs to be looked at. Lower back dysfunction can cause foot pain. Poor foot mechanics can cause knee pain. If you only treat the thing that hurts you are unlikely to get it better and keep it better. If you are a runner with pain during a run, we need to see you run! If you are a lifter with pain during a lift, we need to see you lift!

Hands on care

Manual therapy has been shown over and over again that it improves outcomes when combined with resistive exercise. Manual therapy allows us to influence mobility of joints and create a window to load with reduced pain. The power of touch is great for mind and body.

Evidence based use of modalities

We have lots of tools in our belt as Physical Therapists and everyone and every diagnosis responds differently. Dry needling, TECAR, shockwave, cupping, and scraping all have evidence for them for specific uses. If you haven't experienced them in your healing journey, it is very well worth exploring! Any way we can influence healing and stimulating the body without surgery is worth it.

Aggressive and specific exercise loading

Our bodies are strong and robust and we are capable of loading them. If your goal is to be able to lift weights, run, jump and live life then we need load it in a manner that will allow you to do those things. Exercise needs to be graded for where you are, but it should be hard. We grow and build based on the demand we put on our bodies.

If you feel like PT has not worked for you we would love to show you what good PT can and should look like. Let us know how we can help!

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