If joint pain or an arthritis diagnosis is starting to change what you can do, our team in Eden Prairie can help. We take a coordinated approach to managing pain, restoring strength, and protecting the joints you depend on.
Joint Pain & Arthritis: what to expect and why it happens.
Joint pain can affect knees, hips, shoulders, hands, wrists, elbows, ankles, or the spine. It might feel sharp, dull, or stiff first thing in the morning.
Pain depends on more than the joint itself. Muscle imbalances, weight, sleep, activity, and stress all influence how a joint feels day to day.
Joint pain rarely has just one cause. At Wellspring, your team looks at all of it together.
Evaluates the root cause. Orders imaging or diagnostic testing when appropriate. Ensures your treatment plan has a solid medical foundation before hands-on care begins.
Manual therapy, movement retraining, and targeted exercise to restore function and reduce pain. Your PT team works with you through every exercise. Identifies and corrects the muscle imbalances and movement patterns contributing to your pain.
Targeted, therapeutic work designed to address the soft tissue tension and restriction that contributes to your pain. Coordinated with your PT plan. 60-minute sessions using deep tissue and hot stone techniques.
The goal is to address what is causing the pain.
Physical therapy can absolutely help. Arthritis affects the joint, but the muscles around the joint, the way you move, and how much pain you experience are all things that can change. Many arthritis patients move better, hurt less, and stay active longer with consistent team care. PT does not reverse arthritis, but it does change how arthritis affects your life.
Many patients with arthritis do not need surgery, even when imaging shows significant changes. Conservative care can often manage pain and preserve function for years. Some joints do reach a point where surgery becomes the right call. Your evaluation will help you understand where you are on that spectrum, and we will tell you honestly.
We do not manage rheumatoid arthritis or other inflammatory arthritis as a primary diagnosis. Those conditions are best managed by a rheumatologist. What we can help with is the musculoskeletal pain, stiffness, and weakness that often comes with inflammatory arthritis. Many patients work with us alongside their rheumatology care.
The right exercise actually protects arthritic joints. Weakness and inactivity tend to make joint pain worse over time, not better. Your PT team will guide you through movement that strengthens the muscles around the joint without aggravating it. The goal is to load the joint in a way it can tolerate and benefit from.
Yes. This is sometimes called prehab. Patients who go into joint replacement surgery stronger tend to recover faster and more completely. We can build a focused pre-surgical plan that targets the specific muscles and movement patterns that matter most for your recovery.
No. You do not need imaging before your first visit. If imaging would be helpful to clarify your diagnosis, your nurse practitioner can order it as part of your care.
A free consultation is the first step. No referral needed.