Philosophy

Welcome to Home PT NYC where we pride ourselves on offering the highest level of physical therapy and personal training expertise, along with exceptional service. We strive to make your experience as beneficial and enjoyable as possible right in the comfort of you own home. Home PT NYC is dedicated to becoming the premier home-based rehabilitation and fitness provider in the NYC Metro area by redefining the standard for healthcare, wellness and physical medicine. Founded on the philosophy that exceptional people can achieve exceptional results, our goal is to work within your natural environment to facilitate maximum healing and personal results.

What is Physical Therapy and Personal Training?

Physical therapy is a health care specialty which involves evaluating, diagnosing, and treating disorders of the musculoskeletal and neuromuscular systems. The ultimate goal of physical therapy is to restore maximum functional independence to each individual patient by identifying specific physical impairments. These impairments typically include decreases in range of motion and strength, resulting in increased pain. Our physical therapists will not only focus on the area where pain is present, but they will dig deeper to appropriately address the driving dysfunction. Once a baseline of strength, range of motion and function is achieved, it is time to start to work toward personal fitness goals like losing weight, lower blood pressure, and increased performance – this is where personal training comes in. In short, we look at our patients and clients as a complete entity, realizing that there are many connections within the body, as well as factors in your home and work environment. For example, a knee could never function solo; every body part has to work in harmony safely.

Why Physical Therapy and Personal Training with Home PT NYC?

Typically, patients contact Home PT NYC because of an injury, surgery, or a feeling that their body is not the way it once was and they want a better quality of life. Everyone has physical impairments of the body, such as a weak hamstring or a stiff mid-back; however, sometimes the accumulation of these impairments is enough to result in damage, which will be perceived as pain. It is important to realize that even though the pain may have started at a specific time, in general, these impairments were present beforehand, and addressing these deficiencies will help take a patient back to being symptom free. We are here to identify these primary reasons and, with the help of our patients, to effectively address them with specific intervention tailored to the individual and their condition. Once these impairments are treated we are able to take our patients to the next level in fitness and know that we are doing so in a safe and healthy manner. Our physical therapists offer the safest possible personal training environment because of their superior knowledge of the body and its anatomy. Our physical therapists will help our patients to achieve the results they desire by keeping the risk low and the reward high, because if you are injured during training you can't possibly progress.

The Start of Our Trip

Your first home visit is of utmost importance, in order to determine the road we will travel together. Be prepared to answer questions about yourself and your condition or goals, as our PTs do their best to be detectives for the deficits that are causing you to perceive pain or to find reason for under-performance. In addition to the gathering of this subjective information, we will also be asking you to stand, sit, walk, bend, rotate, balance, and contract muscles, in order to get a better idea of exactly where your body is performing at peak levels and where it has deviated from the norm. This objective data, in addition to orthopedic special tests, will all be synthesized by your PT, in order to determine the clinical diagnosis and best exercises and interventions for you and your body.

You will also have a hands-on treatment session if you opt for physical therapy and will be given a home exercise program. This home exercise program may only consist of a few exercises at the beginning, but it is extremely important in your rehabilitation because they are the safest exercises that are most beneficial for you given your condition. It takes a minimum of 1,500 times to master a given task, and since you spend a lot more time outside therapy than you do in treatment, your participation is mandatory to ensure best results. Remember, we are here to facilitate your healing and we need you to be an active participant in this process and when the time is right we will be ready to train.

The Road

Physical Therapy is a journey with a finite beginning and end; however, personal training is on-going to maintain function. Hopefully, now you understand the start of the journey, so let’s talk about the road. Each session is equally important and has specific goals to move you toward your target of optimum function. Every time we come to you, your PT will use a combination of treatment techniques to progress you towards your personal goals.

Here are some common forms of physical therapy treatment:

• Manual physical therapy: This is an area where our practice separates itself from the rest of the pack. A truly skilled clinician can make some very impressive gains by using their two best tools: their mind and their hands. Manual therapy will have a combination of soft tissue mobilization, myofascial release, massage techniques, trigger point therapy, along with joint mobilization / manipulation to help loosen restrictions in the body.
• Balance and proprioceptive training: Proprioception is the body’s ability to sense position, location, orientation, and movement. Since this is a very high form of sensation, it is very sensitive to disruption and is often compromised with injury. If balance and proprioception are not restored, greater problems could result down the road because, just as with core stability training, the rest of the body will have to compensate.
• Neuromuscular re-education: There are two major components that go into how hard a muscle can contract. One is the input it receives from its innervated nerve, and the other is the amount of muscle it has to work with. Often, a muscle will still be the same size, yet not working to its full potential. From something simple like tapping an underperforming muscle to much more complicated principles involving overflow from connected muscle groups, we find ways to switch your muscles back on.
• Therapeutic exercise and activity: Working hand in hand with neuromuscular re-education, therapeutic exercise and activity is another way to increase strength and flexibility. These exercises and activities will be specifically tailored to the weakness that is contributing to your dysfunction and the stiffness which is involved in your pain. Therapeutic exercises and activity can range anywhere from stretching out your calves against a wall, bending down with proper posture, or even squatting with weights.
• Core stability training: Recently, a greater emphasis has been placed on the muscles that control your trunk and stabilize your spine - and with good reason. If this section of your body cannot maintain stability, the rest of your body will have to compensate, which may result in injury. Simply put - you can’t fire a cannon from a canoe.
• Postural Training / Gait training: The position of our bodies, or posture, can be the single most detrimental task we perform throughout the day, if that posture is not using the body’s natural curves and structure correctly. For most of us, walking, sitting, standing, and sleeping make up the majority of our day. If we are not doing these activities correctly, there is a certain amount of wear and tear that will accumulate over time. We will help you to create an ergonomic set-up at work and home that is adapted to your specific size and shape, in order to attain and maintain a neutral position for your body. This will ensure a proper position for healing.
• Circuit and Interval training:Our bodies are very good at adapting to stresses that are placed upon them and becoming efficient with repetitive or on-going activity. It is with this in mind that our PTs will use circuit training (doing a series of exercises without rest) and interval training (using varying resistance during a cardiovascular exercise) so that your muscles never become complacent during an exercise and have to burn the maximum amount of calories to give you the maximum benefit.

Some of our exercises may appear basic in the beginning but realize that we have to build a foundation to have a safe home. Just as after an injury our bodies may become hyper-sensitive to any and all stimulus, it is important to realize that we may need to decrease activity in some areas in order to allow an increased activity in others. On this journey, think of us as your driver. We will guide you and take you to places you have not been before but you have to see the sights for yourself. Physical therapy and personal training are active processes, and we can’t forget that each stop, or session, has a specific purpose and will bring you closer to your eventual goals, so compliance and continuity is mandatory.

Arrival at your Destination

If you stay on course and physical therapy is appropriate for you, eventually you can be a proud graduate of the program and be able to personal train without worry of many of the common musculoskeletal injuries. This point of matriculation is not simply when you are pain-free, but it is when both you and your physical therapist have decided that you are now less susceptible to injury and able to perform the tasks that you desire. Once you transition, the PT will monitor your progress and do regular re-evaluation in order to assure quality results.

FAQs

1. What should I wear? Typical work out attire is necessary for most of our patients. Also, certain areas of the body may need to be accessible such as the neck or the hips depending on the diagnosis.
2. How long is a session? In general, plan on about an hour. This may vary from day to day but each therapist will plan on staying at your residence for approximately 1 hour.
3. How often should I set up appointments? This is up to your PT but plan on 2-3x per week for a minimum of 4 weeks. Our staff may be able to reduce your symptoms in a few sessions but as far as correcting the root of the problem 8 – 12 visits is commonly necessary.