“Every time I see my physio they give me exercises to do following treatment. I’m pretty lazy. Can’t I just go and get my back “cracked” and leave it at that?”
The prescription of home exercises is a vital part of treatment. Whilst ‘hands-on’ treatment is very important, you will obtain longer lasting and more permanent correction of your problem if you perform recovery enhancing exercises. By giving you these exercises, the physiotherapist is also showing you how to treat yourself, so that you don’t become too dependant on therapists and passive treatment for relief.
One of the features of physiotherapy treatment is that you will generally be given an exercise program to perform in between visits.
The purpose of a home exercise program is to help make the treatment you receive more beneficial and to enhance your recovery. A home exercise program will help prevent recurrence of your problem and it will reduce the need for multiple sessions of treatment. In a way, these exercises enable you to treat yourself.
Some of the things your physiotherapist will try to address with a home exercise program include:
- Increasing the amount of movement you have
- Improving your posture
- Improving muscle strength
- Unloading painful joints and tissue
- Improving function
To gain the best results from treatment, it is vital that you commit to doing these exercises as directed. You may need to carry on with these exercises long after you have finished having treatment; this will help give you ongoing benefit and will help reduce the possibility of recurrence.
Exercise classes
If you have trouble keeping up your exercises or you would like better supervision and progression, supervised exercise can be very effective in preventing flare ups and maintaining your condition as well as improving your general fitness and endurance.
Both 1:1 exercise sessions and exercise classes are available.
1:1 exercise sessions and exercise classes now available at Plympton Park, Lockleys, Woodville and Modbury.