Throughout my teaching job in physiotherapy tutoring and around the world, I am always asked to recommend a book that helps therapists become referral physiotherapists. Well, today I made a list.
You are reading: Best physical therapy books
I have been collecting physical therapy books for my entire professional life. I have thousands of these at home and in my practice. I can’t tell you how much they’ve taught me. They have given me new insights into best practices, muscles, physiology and helped me build my own system which I have now taught to over 600 therapists worldwide.
so, whether you’re just out of college or well into your career, all of these books will be an endless source of information.
Keep reading to find my list of the top ten physical therapy books that will help you become the go-to therapist.
top 10 physical therapist book recommendations to help you become the go-to therapist
color anatomy atlas
by rohen, johannes w, yokochi, chichiro, lutjen-drecoll, elke
Throughout my career, this is a book I always come back to when thinking about my practical treatment. there is so much detail about muscle architecture and movement.
I study this when I address my own principles when I try to evidence what I am doing and why I am doing it, and when I try to understand the movement. there is something for everyone in this book. it is definitely essential in any physical therapy practice.
the changemaker
by john berardi doctorate
I recently purchased this book, but any therapist in mentorship will see its influence on how we make our subjective assessments and how we build our rehabilitation progressions.
This book delves into the psychology of what a person wants and encourages all physical therapists to look at the person in front of them instead of just looking at the site of their pain.
the muscle testing manual
by joseph shafer, hans garten
In terms of physical therapy assessment techniques, the content of this book is really helpful. it’s more of an applied kinesiology approach, which I don’t necessarily use, but it’s a great muscle testing book.
I’m really interested in force stability, the ability to tolerate loading in certain directions in submaximal contractions. when I muscle test I don’t do it to the max. I am really interested in the proprioceptive ability to tolerate the load in submaximal contractions.
This really interests me because I see it a lot in the clinic where patients really struggle sub-maximally but are fine when using a high threshold strategy. I don’t work from a kinesiology approach, but in terms of putting load through the tissues, I think it’s a useful resource.
biomechanics and motor control
by mark latash, vladimir zatsiorsky
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Frans Bosch recommended this to me when I spent the day with him in the Netherlands a few years ago and it has really been a huge influence on me.
This delves into the movement information. It really helped me get clarity on the transition from top-down exercises to bottom-up exercises. it is very heavy and you may have to read a paragraph several times, but the content is amazing. reading this really helped me design better rehab exercises.
the art of explanation
by lee lefever
In fact, this is one of the good books I picked up on vacation and almost tore it up poolside. it really is marketing oriented, but translated to the world of physiotherapy and information is pure gold.
One of the 8 pillars of the physiotherapist is patient communication and effective explanation. Anyone who understands those pillars will see the many lessons I have learned from this book. It really changed the way I think about communication and how I convey ideas to patients.
active isolated stretch
by aaron l. math
Now we are starting to get familiar with our treatment techniques. but this is not really a practical book. In terms of hands-off and influencing the tissues and nervous system, I found some excellent methods and got the best results from this book.
With this reading, I found that if you want to change range of motion, influence these tissues, and influence the nervous system, then this is probably one of the best.
With the current climate, the use of telehealth, and our inability to use our hands, this has become even more important. I find myself coming back to this book over and over again.
running: biomechanics and exercise physiology in practice
by frans bosch hbo bsc, ronald klomp drs. msc
This book is key to understanding rehabilitation.
I have used this book many times when I have a muscle injury, femoral or soleus tear, and want to double check the anatomy. I can easily see all the other muscles that are supposed to play their part, see the synergies that may not be doing their job, so I can create better exercises and rehab programs.
I trust this book a lot. I come back to it over and over again. if you just finished your degree or are very advanced in your career and are looking for rehab therapy advice then this is the one for you.
strength and coordination training: an integrative approach
by frans bosch hbo bsc
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I don’t use many of these exercises in my physical therapy work now, but I still love this book. it really shows you the big picture. It’s not just about the muscle, it’s about the system. for me it has been invaluable. I took the key principles, mixed them with some of these other books, and put them all together.
I tried to do a lot of the exercises of frans and my athletes, but I saw a lot of back pain or the patients had no mobility, so I see my work as a rehab version of bosch. I help athletes earn the right to progress so they can do bosch exercises.
triphasic training
by cal dietz, ben peterson
This title has had a great influence on me. Cal Dietz has many similarities to my beliefs and approach. This book helped me understand why the things I was doing were helping, but it also made me appreciate that I wasn’t always right.
It made me appreciate that I was doing too much concentric contraction or too much co-contraction around the knee, but in everyday life, you have to bend the knee. I was too focused on isometrics and co-contraction around the knee. So, I went back and changed the tutoring. when I read this, I knew I was missing something, so we went back and improved the system.
when I was working with england rugby at the world cup they had done a lot of work with lime so it was great to see everything in play.
aches and pains
by louis gifford
Louis Gifford is someone I have always admired and this book has had the greatest influence on my work. reading this changed everything for me.
In terms of the science of pain, it’s amazing and you’ll see its influence from graduated exposure in mentoring. but everything is so simple. the way louis gifford writes is something you don’t see every day in the physical therapy profession. it’s high-quality information written simply enough for first-year students to digest.
He has influenced me with the way I teach and the way I write. if he has chosen any of my books, you will see something of his style there. It’s not about sounding smart, it’s about using evidence and research and putting it all together.
final thoughts on the best physical therapy books
these are really great books, all in good company. Of course, I really had to narrow down a long list, but these leaders will certainly give any physical therapist a comprehensive foundation of knowledge that will help them achieve their goal of becoming the go-to physical therapist.
If you’re interested in reading more or finding out how each book has influenced my own work, you can view each of my posts below.
physiotherapy books
The Physiotherapist of Reference: The Physiotherapist of Reference is more about the system than the instructions. If you’d like to learn more about my step-by-step system, this is a great place to start.
practical team sports injury prevention: I have been fortunate to consult with many professional sports teams. When I was with the Huddersfield Giants we had excellent injury records and this is an organized brain dump of everything we did during those three seasons.
overcome back pain without pills, injections or surgery – this is more for patients with back pain. I wrote this to encourage people to look at the body as a whole; integrating the respiratory, neurological and musculoskeletal systems.
If you’d like help using this information to implement your own system, click the link below, schedule a free strategy call today, and find out how it all comes together to produce real, lasting results with every passing patient. the door.
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