Joint Manipulation & Mobilisation

These treatments are known as joint mobilisation and manipulation, and they are aimed at providing the joints with full, pain-free movement. Pain is usually felt when joints become restricted or locked in any direction. This is where mobilisation and manipulation treatment can help restore your normal range of motion.

Mobilisation of a joint stretches soft tissues and lubricates the joint. By improving the joint mobility, it helps ease muscle spasm, thus reducing pain. The techniques used during joint mobilisation range from small, gentle and pain-free to more forceful – it all depends on whether pain or stiffness is the main symptom that you are experiencing. The grades of joint mobilisation range from grade 1 to grade 4.

Manipulation can be used if a joint is particularly stiff. By applying a small, quick movement, the therapist opens up the joint, which decreases the intra articular pressure, increases movement, and reduces muscle spasm. The ‘clicking’ associated with a manipulation is caused by gas bubbles within synovial fluid bursting as the pressure changes, freeing up the joint and is known as cavitation.

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