Exercise and Rehabilitation

30 Aug Exercise and Rehabilitation

Making a full recovery

Whether you visit an Osteopath, Physiotherapist or Chiropractor it is not uncommon for them go through some exercises they would like you to do. Unfortunately for some patients, depending on where they go and who they see, this may just mean attending an appointment only to be given a sheet of paper with a list of exercises for them to do at home. If you have experienced this first hand, you probably found the experience to be a waste of time. On the other hand when you attend an appointment where the exercises are demonstrated and you get the opportunity to go through them to make sure you are doing them correctly, surely you would agree that this can be the difference between making a full recovery and not making much progress at all.

So let’s discuss further…

What we know:

• Exercise can not only reduce pain but also has the ability to provide a great host of health and psychological benefits.
• If we want to improve muscular strength and endurance then we must exercise the muscle.
• National guidelines will always suggest using Exercise rehabilitation along with other manual therapy techniques to optimise recovery and prevent reoccurrence of injury.

The potential benefits:

Exercise can increase oxygen uptake and increase capillary density this contributes to increase in blood flow.

A 20–40% increase in strength can occur during the first weeks of starting a strength training programme. Just 6 seconds of isometric contraction repeated 5 x a day, 3 x per week can prevent loss of muscle mass and muscle function during periods of recovery from injury with joint immobilisation.

Exercise stimulates vital organs in the body, significantly improving kidney, respiratory, and liver function.

What bad rehab looks like:

1. list of exercises without any demonstration or chance to go through them
2. exercises without explanation of what is being targeted
3. exercises that are either too easy or too hard
4. exercises which lack progression
5. too many exercises

If the exercise rehabilitation you are provided with looks like the above, perhaps it may be time to find another provider.

What good rehab looks like:

An effective exercise program that helps make permanent changes whilst correcting muscle imbalances includes:

1. strengthening wasted muscles
2. improving posture
3. learning proper movement patterns

Exercise rehabilitation should play a big role in treatment and recovery, if you have experienced rehab as a patient feel free to share below (both the good and the bad)