Exercise Therapy
Predictably, physical activity and targeted exercises are essential components in the treatment of most injuries, as well as chronic pain, stress, and tension. Exercises that specifically target relevant muscles, joints, or regions can optimize one’s healing timelines.
I tend to break down the wide world of ‘Exercise’ into general categories based on the goal it is looking to achieve:
Strengthening:
There are 4 common types
o Strength: Increasing the ability of muscles to produce force.
o Power: Contracting muscles as forcefully as possible, very quickly.
o Hypertrophy: Increasing the physical size of the working muscles.
o Endurance: The ability to repeat a movement over and over.
“You can’t go wrong getting strong!”
Stretching:
Applying tension onto a tissue to encourage it to lengthen and, potentially, become more supple. Stretching is a movement you can apply to muscles to reduce their tension and help them become more flexible. Stretching can also apply to a joint, termed mobility, where you’re looking to gain greater range of motion (ie. movement) of the target joint)
Tension release:
Using objects like a foam roller, lacrosse ball, mobility band, or other objects to reduce the sensation of tension in a tissue. I also have training in help patient learn to use natural, involuntary muscular shaking or tremoring to reduce chronic patterns of tissue tension. You can learn more in my blog post on TRE!
Cardiovascular or “Cardio”:
Exercise that elevates the heart rate and is performed over a period of time (often >5 minutes). A few examples of cardio exercises include walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, elliptical, jumping, or even weight lifting in a circuit (ie. not taking many breaks).
Exposure/Desensitization:
This is a term I use to refer to movements or positions in which we are trying to become progressively more comfortable with. While many exercises could fall in this category, a common one would be balance exercises. Another example would be testing out hopping or jogging before returning to your activity after sustaining a sprained ankle. A further example is testing kneeling pressure after having had knee surgery. The trick is choosing the right challenge of exercise for the stage of healing your body is in.
A skilled rehabilitation therapist can assist you in deciding what the most appropriate exercises are, considering your injury status and previous level of training, to meet your performance or rehabilitation goals!
Exercise Therapy is regularly completed with me in the clinic setting but it is also important to start incorporating your exercises into your daily/weekly routine once you’re back home, too. It can be hard to remember everything we go over in a session so I always send a PDF copy of the Exercise Program we create together!