If you have undergone surgery or suffered a rather severe injury, one of the things you will need to do is attend physical therapy. You will also be expected to do various exercises on your own. Now, physical therapy has been proven to greatly improve strength, dexterity, and muscle tone. The problem, however, lies with people actually sticking to with their therapy until the end. Well, fortunately, technology – and the average smartphone – has begun to play a much greater role in this type of recovery which has made things easier for patients and therapists. Here are some ways that technology and digital devices can be used to help in this manner:

Utilize Telehealth Capabilities

One of the main reasons people give for stopping their physical therapy is a lack of time. After all, they have to often find time during or after work to stop by the facility and then spend at least an hour working out. Few people can find the time for this and so they tend to give this up fairly quickly. Luckily, telehealth is becoming more widespread. This gives therapists the opportunity to check in on their patients remotely. This way, they can track the progress of their client without having to see them face to face. With this technique, individuals are able to greatly cut down on the number of visits to your physiotherapist.

Include Physical Therapy Apps

It often feels like there is an app for everything these days, and this is actually quite accurate. In fact, there are quite a number of apps to help people undergoing physical therapy. Some of these apps contain workout programs that can be followed. They are complete with video guidelines so that patients can emulate the exercises perfectly. In certain instances, these apps allow their physical therapists to customize the instructions to better suit their situation.

Of course, it also helps that people can set reminders for themselves with the help of these apps. For instance, if someone needs to use a walking cane for a brief period of time, it can be difficult to remember to do this. PT apps, however, can remind them of this requirement, throughout the day. This makes it easier to enforce this behavior. Individuals can also jot down their goals, track their progress, and regularly check to see if you are achieving what you set out to do with apps as well.

Turn to Social Media for Support

Social media connects people across various communities from all across the globe. Although many people aren’t aware of it, there are actually a number of people undergoing physical therapy at the same time, around the world. These individuals can use social media, blogs, and more to help connect with others in a similar situation. This increases motivation to continue and complete physical therapy for many people. This form of communication can also help to alleviate many of the emotional side- effects experienced during this period of healing.

As you can see, there are many different ways that modern technology, in the form of smartphones, can take physical therapy to the next level.