Physical therapy center helping seniors regain balance after the pandemic

GRANGER, Ind. --- For many the pandemic brought very limited outings, but now as the return to pre-pandemic life continues some seniors aren’t able to get around as well as they used to.

Some physical therapy offices like FYZICAL FITNESS in Granger are using balance retraining techniques to help patients get back to their normal lives.

“You know I come in here because I couldn’t hardly walk. Walked like a drunk, you know," said Lonnie Baldwin, a patient at FYZICAL FITNESS.

Baldwin came in hoping to regain some of his strength and balance.

Like many seniors his age post-quarantine, he’s been struggling with doing every day normal things - like lifting his arms. It’s something physical therapist Rob Amico says has increased over the past year.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who are reconditioned, they can’t walk far. So we have had to adjust to a large population of people who have become inactive for a period of time and now wish to return to their previous level of function," said Amico.

Amico who’s been a therapist for 26 years says the pandemic affected normal mobility for a lot of his new patients.

Using an overhead support system he’s been working with patients like Lonnie to help recondition normal body movements.

It’s a device, structured to help prevent falling for those still working on regaining their normal balance.

“I feel in the last 3 weeks, I really feel better. It’s really helping it really, you know when you feel like you can’t hardly walk and then they show you the right way to do it," said Baldwin.

While not every patient’s treatment plan is the same, Amico says the goal is to help patients regain their muscles, so they can get back to how things were before the pandemic.

“You know prior to COVID we want people to be able to return to what they were doing then. Your pre-COVID life, you can have it back right. So that’s, that’s what we want to do going forward," said Amico.

The National Institute of Health published a study this past June saying mobility has been one of the most impacted parts of life during the pandemic.