What is the Be Activated approach to Physiotherapy, and how is it different from regular treatment?

The Be Activated approach is a client-centered framework for treatment which seeks to empower you in taking personal responsibility for your own healing process. It aligns you and your practitioner with the body’s two survival priorities:

1. Keep Breathing

      And 

1. Keep Moving

Instead of relying on passive treatments at the injury site, your physiotherapist assesses your whole body with specific muscle and movement tests. This process reveals the strategy your body uses to meet those two priorities, how that strategy affects your condition, and what education and tools will help you re-orient toward healing and better performance.

How does the Activation process work?

Part One: Breath

It all starts with the breath – specifically, rediscovering our diaphragmatic breathing pattern.

When we are stressed (example: in the case of injury or pain – both chronic or acute) your body must continue to find a way to meet its priorities for survival – oxygen intake and movement. To meet the demands for oxygen, your body often defaults to short, sharp breaths, primarily using the upper chest and neck muscles. This is excellent for getting us as much oxygen as quickly as possible, but is only meant to be used for a short period. Similarly, when your body has to move, it will find one way or another to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Even if it means using more effort than usually necessary, or recruiting multiple muscles to accomplish the job meant for just one.

When we are unable to come out of these emergency strategies, we end up stuck in a high alert, high tension, and high effort state, even long after the threat has passed or the physical injury has healed. This can lead to lingering aches and pains as well as compensatory movement habits that hold us back from feeling and performing our best. The longer your body stays in its compensatory strategy, the more compromises it will make in how it moves. These compromises put us at further risk of injury, and continue to over-stress old injuries.

Part Two: Movement

Your physiotherapist combines movement assessments and muscle tests, paired with specific neurolymphatic, neuromuscular, and myofascial manual techniques, coaching cues, and education. Your physiotherapist is able to help you gain awareness of your compensations and rediscover your diaphragmatic breathing pattern. This return to a diaphragmatic breathing pattern allows your body to shift from an active “fight or flight” state to a relaxed “rest and digest” state. As a result, it allows your body to let go of old tensions and postural habits, more effectively learn new movement skills, and better respond to therapeutic exercise.

Most importantly, the Be Activated process provides you with a clear understanding of how your body responds to stress, and gives you the skills and knowledge necessary to shift out of your stress response. In being able to return to relaxed comfort and performance, you are empowered in your personal responsibility for your recovery.

Who is Be Activated for?

Everyone!

From children to older adults, from office workers to weekend warriors and professional athletes, regardless of whether the injury or pain is acute or chronic, everyone can benefit from better understanding how their bodies are designed to function.

If you’re stuck in your healing journey, and are curious about experiencing the Be Activated approach, please feel free to reach out to Chris at ckrammer@restorerehabandwellness.ca or book your consultation with him!