Physical Therapy Services
Manual Medicine
Skilled hands-on assessment and treatment of muscles, joints and connective tissue.
Manual Medicine
Manual medicine covers the hands-on portion of your care — the assessment and treatment your therapist performs directly, without a machine between their hands and the problem.
In practice that means soft tissue mobilisation, myofascial release, trigger point work, muscle energy technique and joint mobilisation, selected according to what the examination finds. Because it is hands-on, your therapist can feel how tissue responds and adjust within the same session.
Manual medicine is almost always paired with movement. The hands-on work creates the range; the exercise programme teaches your body to keep it.
How This Works
What manual medicine treatment involves
Manual medicine is the hands-on portion of your care — the assessment and treatment your therapist performs directly, with nothing between their hands and the problem. In practice that means soft tissue mobilisation, myofascial release, trigger point work, muscle energy technique and joint mobilisation, selected according to what the examination finds.
Its particular advantage is feedback. Because the therapist is feeling the tissue as they work, they can tell how it is responding and change technique, direction or pressure within the same session, rather than waiting until the next visit to find out whether something worked.
What to Expect
Your visits, step by step
Assessment by hand
Your therapist palpates and moves the area to find which tissues and joints are restricted or provocative. This is what establishes the cause and effect relationship between what you feel and what is actually restricted.
Technique matched to the finding
Different problems get different hands-on work. Tight, guarded muscle gets soft tissue mobilisation or trigger point work; a stiff joint gets mobilisation; a muscle that will not lengthen may get muscle energy technique, where you contract gently against resistance.
Adjusted as it responds
Because your therapist can feel the change, the approach is modified during the session. If a technique is not producing a response, another is tried.
Paired with exercise
Manual medicine is almost always paired with movement. The hands-on work creates the range; the exercise programme teaches your body to keep it.
Benefits
What manual medicine treatment is used for
- Used to address soft tissue restriction, muscle tension and trigger points.
- Used to address stiff, restricted joints and the movement limits that come with them.
- Allows treatment to be adjusted within a session based on how the tissue responds under the therapist’s hands.
- Applied alongside a specific exercise programme rather than as a standalone treatment.
Results of an injury vary from person to person. What is appropriate for you is decided at your evaluation — call (718) 714-6995 and we can talk it through.
Common Questions
Manual Medicine FAQs
What actually happens in a manual medicine session?
Your therapist assesses and treats by hand — soft tissue mobilisation, myofascial release, trigger point work, muscle energy technique or joint mobilisation, chosen for what the examination found. You are usually asked to move or contract against resistance at points during it.
Does it hurt?
Work on a tender or guarded area can feel firm, and trigger point work in particular can be briefly uncomfortable. It should stay within what you can tolerate, and your therapist adjusts as soon as you say it is too much.
Do I still need to do exercises if I am having hands-on treatment?
Yes. The hands-on work creates range and reduces tension; the exercise is what teaches your body to hold on to it. Treatment here uses the two together for that reason.
What should I wear?
Clothing you can move in that allows access to the area being treated — shorts for a lower limb, a vest or loose t-shirt for the spine and shoulders.
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