Body Awareness: where the Catalyst PT roadmap begins

Author: Dr. Blair Green PT, DPT, OCS, PHC

Awareness involves connection. That’s why the Catalyst PT roadmap starts with awareness. How conscious and connected are you with your own body? The two key principles of body awareness are restoring movement and connecting the core. This is where the healing and recovery process almost always begins.

Do you have a history of pain? Did you know that your body changes in response to pain? Pain alters how we move and how our brains and bodies interact. We see in our patients (and research shows) that when there is pain or injury, the brain disassociates from this area of the body. In other words, they stop talking to each other. Things change. How we move, how we respond to movement, how we perceive ourselves. Part of awareness is helping the brain and body start talking to each other again in productive ways. Tapping into the body and creating awareness helps it understand what has happened - whether that is an injury, pain, childbirth, overuse or something else. Injury and pain are unique experiences and moving forward in the recovery process begins with re-connecting and becoming more aware of how we move.

There are 3 fundamental pieces of body awareness that need to be addressed:

     Mobility

     Breathing

     Core control

This is where the recovery process begins at Catalyst Physical Therapy; retraining the brain to body connection, creating successful movement and increasing awareness. The treatment techniques and exercises early on in the program focus on:

     Basic Mobility exercises for the spine, pelvis and extremities

     Diaphragmatic Breathing

     Pelvic Floor activation AND relaxation

For some people this happens quickly and for others it can require more time and attention. There is no right or wrong here, just how the body responds to each particular situation. Likewise, there is not a best exercise or a worse exercise; it’s whatever works for you! The fun part of physical therapy from the clinician’s side is creating a program unique to your specific situation. Luckily, the PTs at Catalyst have many different tools and techniques and work with you to figure out which combination is best for you.  

Once you connect with your body and have more awareness of what feels good and does not feel good, you can advance in the recovery process to build strength, retrain movement patterns, start to exercise regularly, develop modifications and progressions and key in on the main areas that require attention. Body awareness is a tool that will help you not only to recover from pain or injury, it will also build resilience and is a building block of all around better movement.

Want to work on improving your body awareness? Ready to make lasting changes in your movement? Not sure you are connecting your core? Set up time now for your Catalyst Physical Therapy assessment and together we will create the best plan of action for you!