Common Rehab Mistakes That Slow Your Recovery

What Drives Your PT Nuts

1. You’re not a victim. You’re an active human dealing with musculoskeletal injuries because you’re active. These things happen. We try to reduce them, but tweaks are part of the deal. It’s OK—keep moving.
2. Get off Instagram—and ChatGPT—for medical advice. Use it to supplement real guidance, not replace it.
3. Just because running/swimming/skiing, etc. are freely available doesn’t mean they’re free from responsibility. You still have to strength train regularly if you want to do them without pain or injury. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that's the deal.
4. It’s rotator cuff, not rotary cup.
5. Stop “checking in” with painful movements every day. You know it hurts. Doing it repeatedly won’t help, it just makes you angry. Recovery takes time.
6. Treating your nervous system is part of the healing process. If your brain is interpreting harmless input as pain, that matters. Ignoring it slows down recovery.
7. Uncertainty is part of medicine. Good providers will answer your questions, but don’t expect a perfect diagnosis every time, especially for vague or slow-onset pain. That doesn’t mean we’re clueless.
8. Having a “clear” MRI is a good thing. I get that it feels invalidating when you’re in pain, but less pathology is good. 
9. Stop googling MRI findings unless you have a solid reason to. You'll just freak yourself out.
10. Plans change. Sometimes people get frustrated when plans change due to lack of expected response or outcome. Try to understand that a health care provider's job is like being a mechanic on the most complicated and ever evolving systems. A good provider may change the approach when necessary, not because they got it wrong, they have new, or more information now.
11. You're not strong enough. You're not strong enough, sorry. I know you are fit, but you probably aren't strong. Running and cycling don't strengthen your glutes. Rowing doesn't strengthen your rotator cuff. Those are hard exercises, but aren't strength exercises.
12. You ARE making progress. Remember when you couldn’t sit for 10 minutes and now you can go an hour? That’s progress. It won’t all improve at once—but pain severity, irritability, and function are changing.  So stop saying it's not better—it objectively is.