Why most physical therapists struggle on Instagram
The physical therapy feed has one recurring problem: it is full of exercises. A clip of a glute bridge captioned "try this for lower back pain" is the single most common thing this profession posts, and it converts badly. Half the people who copy it have a different problem entirely, and the ones it does not help quietly decide that physical therapy does not work.
What actually brings people in is the reasoning, and the practical detail around it. Why a tendon got worse with rest, why the scan report frightened them more than the pain did, what the equipment in the room measures, how long an appointment runs and what to wear to it. None of that requires you to demonstrate a single movement.
The ideas below are built from assessment logic, load principles, timelines and red flags, and every one of them can be posted without prescribing anything to anyone. Each gives you the first slide, the sequence and a caption starter.
What actually performs for physical therapists
Timelines beat techniques. "Nine to twelve months" for an ACL or "one to three years" for a frozen shoulder answers the question people are actually searching, and no exercise clip can.
Content that sends somebody elsewhere earns more trust than anything else you publish. Telling a reader that a symptom needs a doctor today rather than an appointment with you is the opposite of what an ad would say.
Explaining the equipment. The plinth, the dynamometer, the step and the bands are the whole room, and describing what each one measures makes the case that you are paying for assessment rather than machinery.
Objective measures make results credible without a single patient image. Recording range, force and hop symmetry and re-testing them turns your outcomes into numbers rather than adjectives.
Local intent converts. Which conditions you actually see, how long an assessment takes, what the parking is like and whether you have early slots all outperform any anatomy carousel.
30 Instagram post ideas for physical therapists
Every idea below includes the first slide, the full slide sequence, and a caption starter. Swipe each preview to read the slides.
1.The symptoms that need a doctor, not us
Educational
First slide
“Back pain with these symptoms needs same-day medical advice”
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Back pain with these symptoms needs same-day medical advice
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Numbness in the saddle area, where you would sit on a bicycle.
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New trouble starting or stopping urinating. Any loss of control.
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Sudden numbness or weakness down both legs at once.
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These are the ones nobody should sit on overnight.
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Call a doctor or go to urgent care. Not us.
Caption starter
The post I would rather you saw than any other on this page. If back pain comes with saddle numbness, bladder changes or both legs going weak, that is a same-day medical problem rather than an appointment with us. Save this.
Why it works: Publishing the one situation where somebody should not come to you is the strongest credibility signal available, and it is the post that travels furthest beyond your following.
Twenty minutes of history before anyone touches anything.
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What you do, what makes it worse, what you have already tried.
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Then movement testing, strength testing, and measurements written down.
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Then a hands-on assessment of the joint and everything around it.
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You leave with a working diagnosis, a plan and a timeframe.
Caption starter
People arrive expecting a massage table and a hot pack. The first session is an assessment, and most of it is talking. Message us for the next assessment slot and wear something you can move in.
Why it works: Setting the expectation that this is a clinical assessment rather than a treatment removes the disappointment that leads to a one-visit patient.
“The exercises are the treatment. The appointment is coaching.”
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The exercises are the treatment. The appointment is coaching.
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You are with us for thirty minutes a week at most.
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The other hundred and sixty-seven hours are where change happens.
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Three sessions of home work a week beats six appointments and none.
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That is not us dodging work. That is how tissue adapts.
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Tell us honestly what you will actually do, and we will build that.
Caption starter
The most useful thing you can tell us at the first appointment is how much time you will genuinely give this. We would rather build a program you will do than a perfect one you will not.
Why it works: Naming adherence as the variable manages expectations and quietly explains why a course of treatment costs what it does.
Too much load, too fast: things get irritable and painful.
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Too little, for too long: capacity falls and the same task overloads you.
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The window between those is where rehab lives.
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That is why the plan changes every two or three weeks.
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Ask us what your current load target is. There should be one.
Caption starter
Rehab is not a fixed set of exercises. It is a moving target that should change every couple of weeks as your capacity does. Ask your therapist what the current target is and when it goes up.
Why it works: Explaining the underlying principle makes the whole course of treatment make sense, which is what keeps people coming back for session five.
“Hurt does not always mean harm. Here is the difference.”
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Hurt does not always mean harm. Here is the difference.
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Pain is an output from your nervous system, not a tissue meter.
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Sensitized tissue can hurt at loads that are doing no damage.
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That is why a mild activity can hurt more than a heavy one.
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Some discomfort in rehab is expected and acceptable. We set the limit together.
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Settling within twenty-four hours is the rule we usually work to.
Caption starter
The single idea that changes how people rehab. Some soreness during loading is expected, provided it settles within a day. Ask us where your acceptable limit sits before you start pushing.
Why it works: It removes the fear of movement that keeps people deconditioned and makes them far more likely to complete a program.
Weeks one to six: range of motion, swelling, quads switched back on.
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Months two to five: strength, and a lot of unglamorous single-leg work.
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Months five to nine: running, cutting, landing mechanics rebuilt.
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Return to sport is criteria-based, not date-based. Hop symmetry, strength, confidence.
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Going back early is the strongest predictor of doing it again.
Caption starter
The timeline nobody wants to hear and everybody needs. Return to sport is decided by test results, not by the calendar. Ask us which criteria we use before you plan your comeback.
Why it works: A concrete, honest timeline for a high-anxiety injury attracts exactly the committed patients who will complete a long course of rehab.
Week one: swelling, walking aid, and bending it more than feels reasonable.
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Weeks two to three: straightening fully matters more than bending far.
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Week four to six: stairs, and getting off the walking aid.
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Swelling and night pain can run for months. That is normal, not failure.
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The range won in twelve weeks is largely the range you keep.
Caption starter
The first twelve weeks after a replacement decide most of the long-term range, which is why we push early and why it is uncomfortable. Book your post-operative sessions before the surgery, not after.
Why it works: Post-surgical patients are a reliable referral stream and this content reaches them in the anxious two weeks before their operation.
It can reduce pain and stiffness for a window of hours or days.
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It does not put anything back in. Nothing was out.
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It does not lengthen a muscle permanently or break down scar tissue.
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It is useful because it opens a window to load and move.
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If the plan is hands-on only, ask what happens after the window closes.
Caption starter
Hands-on work is genuinely useful and it is a door, not a destination. If you are being treated passively every week with no loading plan, that is a fair question to ask. Ask us what the exercise plan is on day one.
Why it works: Being honest about a treatment's limits distinguishes you from clinics selling open-ended passive appointments, which is the main complaint patients have about this profession.
Your therapist, who assesses you, plans and re-tests.
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The rehab assistant, who runs the gym sessions.
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The front desk, who knows the schedule better than anyone.
5/6
One therapist owns your case from first visit to discharge.
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Ask who you are booked with before you arrive.
Caption starter
Continuity matters more in rehab than in almost any other appointment, because the person who measured you in week one is the person who knows whether week six is progress. You see the same therapist throughout. Ask the desk who that is when you book.
Why it works: Being passed between clinicians is the main complaint patients have about larger clinics, so naming continuity as a policy converts people who have been shuffled around elsewhere.
“What every piece of kit in this room actually does”
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What every piece of kit in this room actually does
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The plinth adjusts so we can test you without straining.
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A handheld dynamometer measures strength in pounds, not by feel.
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The step is for calf raises and single-leg control work.
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Bands cover the small, boring, unglamorous end of rehab.
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Ask what anything is for. There are no silly questions.
Caption starter
Most clinics never explain the room, so patients assume the machines are the treatment. Almost everything in here is a way of measuring you, or loading you slightly more than last week. Ask what any of it does at your next appointment.
Why it works: Explaining ordinary equipment demystifies the appointment and quietly makes the case that measurement, not machinery, is what the fee buys.
The program updated and sent before you reach the parking lot.
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Anything unexpected goes to a colleague for a second opinion.
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The plinth wiped, the room reset, and thirty seconds of nothing.
Caption starter
The part of the appointment that happens after you leave. Numbers get written down so we can re-test them in a month rather than asking you how it feels. Ask to see your baseline measurements at any point.
Why it works: Documenting the measurement habit shows a standard of care patients did not know they should expect, which makes cheaper alternatives look thin.
No shockwave machine on the wall. No laser. No vibrating plate.
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Almost everything that works is load, progressed sensibly, over weeks.
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The kit you need for that costs less than one machine.
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We would rather spend the money on longer appointments.
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Ask any clinic what the machine is for and how it works.
Caption starter
Our treatment room is deliberately unimpressive. The money goes into forty-five minute assessments rather than equipment. Ask us what any piece of kit is actually for before you pay for it.
Why it works: Turning a perceived weakness into a stated principle pre-empts the comparison with flashier clinics and reframes it in your favor.
"How does it feel?" is the least reliable question in this job.
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Feeling tracks your week, your sleep and your mood.
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So we re-test the same measures, at the same intervals.
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Knee flexion in degrees. Calf raises to failure. Hop distance both sides.
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If the numbers are not moving, the plan changes. Not the encouragement.
Caption starter
Progress gets measured here, not guessed at. If your numbers have not moved in three weeks, we change the plan rather than telling you to be patient. Ask for your last set of measurements at your next visit.
Why it works: An objective standard for progress is a promise most clinics cannot make, and it converts patients who have already wasted money elsewhere.
A rough timeline: when it started, what changed it.
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The shoes you actually run or work in.
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Twenty minutes of thinking beforehand saves half the session.
Caption starter
The people who get most from a first appointment have thought about the timeline before they arrive. When it started, what makes it worse, what you have already tried. Bring the shoes and any old scan reports too.
Why it works: Preparation content reaches people in the days between booking and attending, and a better history genuinely produces a better first session.
Two orthopedic surgeons who see the post-operative results themselves.
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Three family medicine practices, mostly for backs, shoulders and knees.
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A running club and a soccer club that watch the return-to-play calls.
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Surgeons stop referring when rehab is poor. It is a hard audience.
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Ask any clinic who refers to them and how long they have.
Caption starter
The people who refer to us see the outcomes long after we do, which makes their opinion worth more than a review. Ask your doctor or your surgeon who they send patients to.
Why it works: Professional referral relationships are checkable social proof, and the people making them see the outcome long after the clinic does.
You leave with a maintenance plan, usually twice a week.
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Most repeat injuries happen six to ten weeks after stopping.
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Capacity fades faster than almost anybody expects it to.
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One review appointment at three months catches the drift.
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Book the review before you leave, not after it hurts.
Caption starter
The gap between feeling fixed and being fixed is where most people get hurt again. A short maintenance plan and one review at three months costs very little next to starting the whole thing over. Book the review on your way out.
Why it works: Aftercare content addresses the discharge cliff that produces repeat injuries, and it books a low-effort appointment that keeps the relationship alive.
Plenty of people sit badly for decades and never get back pain.
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Plenty of people with textbook posture are in agony.
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The best posture is generally the next one. Position tolerance is the issue.
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Sitting still for four hours is the problem, not the shape.
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Move every half hour and stop worrying about your shoulders.
Caption starter
The posture industry has sold a lot of chairs and cured very little back pain. Changing position often matters more than which position you pick. Ask us about your desk setup at your next appointment.
Why it works: Dismantling a myth your audience has paid money for is memorable, shareable and positions you as the person who tells the truth.
“That scan report is frightening you more than it should”
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That scan report is frightening you more than it should
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Disc bulges, degeneration and wear turn up on scans of people with no pain.
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Radiologists describe what they see. They are not describing your pain.
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"Degenerative change" is closer to wrinkles than to damage.
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Findings and symptoms often do not match at all.
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Bring the report in. We will go through it line by line.
Caption starter
A lot of the fear people carry comes from a document written for a surgeon, not for them. Bring your report to your appointment and we will translate it properly.
Why it works: Scan anxiety is one of the strongest drivers of persistent pain, and offering to translate the report is a specific, low-friction call to action.
Tendons respond to load. Take it away and capacity drops.
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Six weeks off feels better, right up until you start again.
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Then the same run hurts more than it did before.
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The answer is usually less load, not none, then slowly more.
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Complete rest is for fractures, not for tendinopathy.
Caption starter
The advice to rest until it stops hurting is why so many tendon problems run for years. Load has to come down, not disappear. Book an assessment and we will work out where your starting point is.
Why it works: It contradicts the advice most patients have already been given, which makes the post feel like insider knowledge worth acting on.
Back pain caused by one lazy deep muscle has not held up.
3/6
Bracing constantly all day is more likely to irritate than help.
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Backs need capacity, variety and confidence to move under load.
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Planks are fine. They are not a treatment plan.
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If your program is only planks, ask what else is in it.
Caption starter
Twenty years of core stability advice has not reduced back pain much. Strength, variety and confidence do more than any single deep muscle. Ask us what your program is actually targeting.
Why it works: Overturning the most widely repeated instruction in this field earns comments and saves, and it justifies why your plan looks different.
It runs in three stages and often takes one to three years.
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Freezing: increasing pain, worst at night, range starting to go.
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Frozen: less pain, badly restricted movement, and a long plateau.
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Thawing: range slowly returning, usually over many months.
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Knowing which stage you are in changes what we should be doing.
Caption starter
The most frustrating shoulder condition there is, largely because of the timescale. Treatment depends entirely on which stage you are in. Book an assessment and we will work out where you are.
Why it works: It answers the exact question people type into a search bar at two in the morning, which is where a large share of new patients come from.
“How long a physical therapy appointment actually takes”
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How long a physical therapy appointment actually takes
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First assessment: forty-five minutes, and most of it testing.
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Follow-ups: thirty minutes, sometimes twenty once you are running.
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Add ten minutes if you need to change here.
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We do not double-book. One person, one room, one therapist.
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Early and late slots exist. Ask the desk for them.
Caption starter
The most common reason people delay booking is not knowing whether it fits around work. Assessments run forty-five minutes, follow-ups thirty, and there are slots before eight and after six. Ask the desk which ones are free this week.
Why it works: Appointment length and slot times are the practical detail that decides whether a working person books at all, and hardly any clinic publishes them.
A simple, recent, single-joint problem: often three or four.
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Post-operative or long-standing problems: months, not weeks.
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We will give you a range at the first appointment, not a number.
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If the numbers are not moving by session three, we rethink it.
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Nobody here is on a target to book you in again.
Caption starter
We will give you a range after the assessment and a review point where we decide honestly whether this is working. Ask for both at your first appointment.
Why it works: Naming a review point and refusing to promise a fixed number pre-empts the biggest suspicion patients hold about this industry.
“What should you wear to a physical therapy appointment?”
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What should you wear to a physical therapy appointment?
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Something you can move, squat and lie down in.
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Shorts for anything below the waist. Knees need to be visible.
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A tank top or a strappy top for shoulder and neck problems.
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We have gowns and shorts here if you come straight from work.
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Say the word at any point and we stop.
Caption starter
A small practical question that puts people off booking. Bring shorts for a knee or hip, a tank top for a shoulder, and tell us if you would rather have somebody else in the room.
Why it works: Practical, mildly embarrassing logistics are exactly what people search before a first appointment and almost no clinic answers them.
Tuesday seven fifteen in the morning, before work.
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Wednesday one o'clock, and Thursday at six.
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Forty-five minutes, full assessment, written plan on the day.
5/6
If we are not the right people, we will tell you and refer on.
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Message the slot that suits and we will hold it for an hour.
Caption starter
Three assessments left this week including an early one and a late one. Message the day that works and we will hold it for an hour while you check your diary.
Why it works: Naming exact times, including the awkward ones people need, removes the friction of assuming a clinic will not fit around work.
Strength either side, hop tests, ankle and hip range, calf endurance.
3/6
You get the numbers, not a verdict. They are yours to keep.
4/6
Asymmetries found in July are much easier to fix than in October.
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Teams welcome. We will do a squad in one afternoon.
6/6
Message us with your squad size and we will quote it.
Caption starter
Screening is not a prediction and it does not prevent injuries. It gives you baseline numbers, which matter enormously if something does happen later. Message us for squad availability.
Why it works: It sells a defined, one-off, easy-to-price service while explicitly refusing the overclaim that competitors make about injury prevention.
Nothing at all in December, then four runs a week from the first.
3/6
Bone and tendon adapt far more slowly than lungs and legs do.
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Fitness arrives in three weeks. Tissue capacity takes months.
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That gap is where shin pain and Achilles trouble live.
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Add distance gradually and keep one hard session, not three.
Caption starter
The February clinic is always full of people who started running properly in January. The problem is almost never the running, it is the rate of change. Message us if something has already started niggling.
Why it works: Seasonal injury patterns are predictable, so the post can run every year and it arrives exactly when the searches spike.
Skiing is sustained quad work in a position you never otherwise use.
3/6
Wall sits, step-downs and single-leg work, three times a week.
4/6
Calf and hip strength matter more than any amount of cardio.
5/6
If a knee is already grumbling, deal with it before you fly.
6/6
Book a screening now rather than a rehab block in February.
Caption starter
The people who get hurt on day two are usually the ones who did nothing beforehand. Six weeks of specific work makes a real difference. Message us and we will build you a six-week block.
Why it works: It turns a seasonal, date-driven worry into a clearly bounded package that people are willing to pay for in advance.
We cannot assess anybody in a comment, so nothing individual.
3/6
We can explain what a term means and how something usually behaves.
4/6
Last time: what tendinopathy is, and why ice fell out of favor.
5/6
Everything specific to you needs an assessment. That is not a sales line.
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Drop a general question below and we will answer all of them.
Caption starter
Comments open for general questions about how things work. Anything about your own knee, back or shoulder needs an actual assessment, so book in for that.
Why it works: It harvests the vocabulary your audience actually uses while stating the scope limit publicly, which keeps the thread defensible.
“I spent four years treating people with a machine”
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I spent four years treating people with a machine
Swipe →
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Ultrasound, heat, twenty minutes, next patient, repeat.
3/6
People felt better for a day and came back every week for months.
4/6
Then I did a strength and conditioning course and it reorganized everything.
5/6
Now the plan is load, progressed, measured, and reviewed.
6/6
Fewer appointments per patient. Considerably better outcomes.
Caption starter
How I ended up practicing the way I do, including the years I spent doing it differently. Ask me about the reasoning behind your program any time.
Why it works: Admitting to having practiced differently is disarming and makes your current method sound like a conclusion rather than a sales position.
Two posts a week is realistic with a full caseload: one carousel explaining a timeline, a principle or a red flag, and one shorter post about availability or a question asked in clinic. Write two weeks of them in one admin session.
Hashtags for physical therapists
Mix these with location tags for your own area. Put them in the first comment so the caption stays readable.