What is Exercise Rehab?
Exercise rehab is an individually tailored set of exercises to help patients recover from injury without limitations on what they are able to do.
When working with athletes, exercise rehabilitation plays a key role in maintaining fitness. This helps avoid global deconditioning, thus not reducing the ability to return to sport. While many patients may not view themselves as athletes, our aim is to help you recover in the shortest time possible with minimal risk of re-injury.
The 5 main stages of exercise rehab
- Resting the injury. This reduces pain and allows the body to heal. Physio and manual treatments may help in reducing swelling and maintaining mobility.
- Restoring the range of motion. It’s important to start moving as soon as possible with low impact work and stretching, this will also help avoid inflammation which can slow rehabilitation.
- Rebuilding strength. This is a gradual process. Start with bodyweight exercises and progress to using light weights, being careful not to overload and cause re-injury.
- Recover function. Injuries reduce our ability to move as we normally would. Exercise at this stage focuses on improving mobility, flexibility, stability and coordination.
- Return to “normal”. Having followed steps 1-4, day to day tasks should be achievable and pain free. Continued exercise will help to prevent future injury.
Exercise rehab can include a wide range training methods. Here at Zest Podiatry & Physio we use active movement, dynamic stretching, and strengthening exercises using therabands and body weight. Each exercise plan is unique and dependent on the needs of the client’s condition and findings during their initial MSK assessment.
We are here to support you through your recovery, and our Rehab Specialist Liv, will work with you to keep you motivated and ensure you get the best results.
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