When should you see a physio?

Most people wait too long. That's the honest summary.

The usual pattern is a few weeks of hoping it settles, a bit of internet research, a fortnight of the exercises that came up, and then a booking made when it becomes clear none of that has worked.

Sometimes waiting is right. Plenty of aches do settle on their own. Here's how to tell which situation you're in.

Book sooner rather than later if

• It's been more than two weeks and it isn't improving. Not gone, just improving. If the trend is flat, something needs to change.
• It keeps coming back. A third episode of the same problem is a pattern, and patterns have causes worth finding.
• You're changing what you do because of it. Avoiding stairs, dropping a session, choosing a different route. That's the point most people don't notice.
• It's waking you at night. Night pain is worth getting looked at properly.
• You've got a date in the diary. A race, a holiday, a season. Timelines change the plan, so the earlier we know the better.

You can probably wait if

• It came on after an unusually heavy session and it's already easing day by day
• You know exactly what caused it and it's settling in the way it has before
• You can do everything you normally do without thinking about it

Go to a GP or urgent care instead if

• You can't put weight through the limb at all
• There's obvious deformity after an injury
• The joint is hot, red and swollen, particularly with a temperature
• You have numbness or weakness that's spreading
• Back pain with any change to bladder or bowel control, or numbness around the saddle area, needs urgent attention the same day

What waiting actually costs

It isn't just the extra weeks of discomfort. While you're avoiding a movement, the muscles around it get weaker, and that weakness becomes a second problem to solve on top of the first.

The people who get through this fastest are usually the ones who came in early, got a clear explanation and knew what they were doing about it.