Rehabilitative Exercise
Exercise therapy is an important aspect of treatment and something we prescribe on just about every patient. The goal of treatment in our office is over restoration of the bodies normal function and while manipulative therapy is one type of functional treatment, implementing corrective exercises such as increasing core strength, improving postural awareness can all lead to better treatment outcomes and a faster recovery. The exercises and advice we prescribe we also highly encourage patients to do at home and to continue doing beyond their treatment in our office.
Exercise therapy is different than normal exercise one would do for fitness. When we prescribe exercise therapy it is to correct a specific problem that we will have identified in your exam and functional testing. Many patients have abnormal movement patterns and muscle imbalances that result in poor body mechanics which overstresses joints and tissues which lead to pain and premature degeneration in the joints.
This type of exercise is vastly different than exercises that are performed to improve physical fitness, which can be on your own and do not require professional help. When performing exercise therapy in our office the activity must be overseen and observed by the therapist or doctor in order to make sure the patient is performing them correctly and to progress the patient through the exercise protocol to achieve their treatment goals.
Exercise therapy includes many different types of exercise. There are corrective exercises which are the most commonly used and prescribed in our office. Corrective exercises are designed to re-activate or re-train muscles that are not firing correctly or have shut off completely creating muscle imbalance and joint dysfunction. Corrective exercises are the most important exercises we prescribe and often times given on the first visit. Many of the corrective exercises are easy to perform and not physically demanding but often time will have the biggest impact.
Additional types of exercise include endurance exercises, strengthening exercises, power exercises and cardio exercise. Many of these types of exercises are the more common types of exercise that patients are familiar with. Designing a patient specific treatment plan that starts with manipulative therapy and corrective exercises progressing to endurance, then strength followed with power exercises can be highly effective in not only resolving a patients pain or problems but to also making the body function better be less injury prone and help slow or delay age related degenerative changes.
We have been servicing the Youngstown and Mahoning Valley area since 2001 with convenient locations in Boardman, Hubbard, and Kinsman. At Advanced Chiropractic & Rehab, Inc. we are multi-disciplinary rehabilitation group that treats work comp injuries, whiplash, sports injuries and specializes in much more than just low back pain.