Why do we advise exercise?
Why do we prescribe exercise?
Most people exercise with an objective in mind, whether it’s being more physically capable, losing weight or looking better. It’s possible to make progress towards these fitness-related or aesthetic goals with little guidance, but when using exercise to relieve back pain or recover from an injury or surgical procedure, you may need to be far more precise.
Everybody has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses across its muscles, so treating pain, injury or any other physical condition requires a precise prescription of exercise for the individual’s unique physical make up, not just a generic plan 1 size fits all!
Here are some examples of common physical complaints and how we might prescribe exercises to treat them.
Muscle weakness or imbalance
A common mistake people make when strengthening is to start too heavy with their exercises. You might think you’ll make faster progress by using heavier weights, but what’s more likely to happen is the muscle you want to work out becomes overloaded and offloads the force into surrounding muscles that you weren’t targeting.
It is also important to consider the function of each muscle in movement; that is, whether they are a prime mover to drive the movement or a stabiliser that provides a strong base to let other muscles do the work. The latter don’t require heavy resistances to be trained, and many simply “turn off” if they become overloaded.
Let’s say that you can feel your legs struggle when you run up the stairs. Such an action requires both strong and powerful quadriceps to push you up and along.
Your quadriceps and similar prime movers should respond well to training under progressive heavy loads as that is what they are designed to handle. Stabilising or postural muscles like glutes work at low levels repeatedly or for prolonged periods, and so you need to train them via lower resistance and high repetitions.
Stiffness
Sitting at a desk all day, intense exercise sessions and some health conditions can all leave your joints feeling stiff or muscles tight. When dealing with stiffness, the objective is to restore as much movement as possible to the affected area rather than strengthening.
A prescription for prolonged sitting-induced lower back pain might be to stand up for five minutes every hour or to perform 20 repetitions of a single, low intensity movement to ensure the affected muscles aren’t locked in place for too long. If your ankle is stiff after a big sprain, you might be advised to work at pushing your knee over your toes every hour.
In both cases, the exercises aren’t difficult, they simply try to get you moving. The more you move, the more likely you are to ease the restrictions caused by stiffness, which enables you to take on further exercises we prescribe and reduce feelings of fatigue.
Injury
Rehabilitation from muscle or ligament injury and surgery requires a broad and complex approach.
Say that you’re in rehabilitation for a knee injury and you want to return to running, cycling or sports. A knee that’s been out of action will have lost a significant amount of strength and mobility, and if this isn’t restored, there’s a high risk that the knee will be easily overloaded and injured again.
Getting your strength and movement back will therefore start with very simple, monotonous tasks (like bending your knee or squeezing your thigh) to make sure you move perfectly and use the right muscles before you progress to heavy or explosive exercises (like squatting with weight or jumping) that are required to get you back to 100%.
Pain
If you’re finding it painful to move, it may be because you’re not moving ‘correctly’. Even if you manage to achieve the desired objective – from grabbing something out of the top cupboard to serving in a tennis game – it may be the wrong muscles or tendons doing most of the work.
With our knowledge of how muscles function and interact to achieve movement, we can prescribe exercises that encourage your body to recruit or fire the right muscles to keep you moving and achieving your goals while relieving or entirely eliminating your pain.
If you’ve been experiencing niggles big or small, don’t just live with them. With the right exercise prescription, we can rid you of your pain and improve your overall function. To find out more then give us a call on 01202 604707 or email admin@wimbornewellnesscentre.co.uk.