exercise rehab burnaby

Is Exercise Rehab Right For You?

One of the goals of an physiotherapy exercise rehab program is to focus on stretching and strengthening your postural muscles. Posture is a window to your health and it connects your skeleton from head to toe. Having poor posture is like a door that is not hung properly or a house foundation that is not level. Depending on how crooked your door is, it can still be opened and closed with varying degrees of effort. However, it makes creaking sounds, the wood chips splinter off and then one day all of a sudden you can not close your door anymore because of how crooked it became..

Forward Head Posture

When you have forward head posture, you are likely still going about your day like you normally would. You may notice that your neck and shoulder muscles are tight and your neck may make noises sometimes. It might make creaking sounds when you shoulder check or turn your head.

Then suddenly, as you look down one day to check your phone you end up with excruciating pain in your neck. Or perhaps you were involved in a fairly minor fender bender but now you have minor whiplash which is taking much longer than you expected to get better.

resistance band exercises

Road To Recovery

The good news is that regardless of how your pain started, working on your posture can improve the efficiency of your body. This can lead to less pain and a more stable foundation for your body.
Just like the crooked door that is now fixed and aligned properly, it no longer creaks when opening or closing. Your exercise rehab program is a neuromuscular retraining approach to conditioning.

How Physio Exercise Rehab Fits Into Your Physio And Chiro Treatment

Treatment

Your chiropractor and physiotherapist will find the source of your problem. This could be tendinitis, forward head posture, whiplash injuries or sciatica. They will provide their expert treatment to address the source.

Rehab

There may be other areas of your body that are causing the injured site to be more vulnerable to injuries. Your exercise rehab program will begin by retraining your postural muscles in the affected areas. This can help re-establish coordination with the rest of your body.

clinical pilates physiotherapy rehab

Benefits Of Exercise Rehab

  • Empowers you to regain control of your body and posture
  • Exercise rehab acts as a complement to your treatment sessions with your physio or chiro
  • Includes both stretching and strengthening at the same time, leaving you feeling taller and
    more toned
  • Prevents future injuries and shortens the length of recovery for future rehab
  • Strengthens your body from an inside out approach resulting in longer lasting results

Things You May Notice With Your Exercise Rehab Program

  • Easier to stand up straighter
  • Feel better than even before your injury or accident
  • Feeling taller and lighter
  • Increased strength, able to sit for longer periods
  • Less neck pain from working on your upper back and chest
  • More flexibility in your spine
  • Slouch less
hip stretch exercise

Who Can Benefit From A Physiotherapy Exercise Rehab Program

In short, anyone can benefit from this program. With our modern life of busy-ness, we often forget to pay attention to our body. Over time, this can lead to poor habits being formed. Before we know it, our heads are positioned more forward than is ideal.

Patients that are going through their program are usually because:

  • Are dealing with a work-related accident
  • Difficulty with developmental issues
  • Have an overuse injury
  • Have arthritis
  • They have injured themselves in sports
  • Want to focus on prevention
  • Were involved in a motor vehicle accidents

Program length

The length of your program will depend on your goals. Most patients have noticed a change at the end of their first session. However, to obtain longer lasting benefits, 12-16 sessions done 1-2 times per week is a typical course of the program.

Homework

You will start by learning the fundamentals of your innermost postural unit and be given practice exercises to do daily.

As your movements improve, you will integrate more complex and dynamic patterns into your home program. At the end of your program, you will have a set of home exercises that you can continue to practice and learn to integrate into your daily routines.

small hand weights for active exercise rehab

Starting Your Physio Exercise Rehab Program

Let your chiropractor or physiotherapist know your interest in a physiotherapy exercise rehab program. They can then assess you to see if you are ready for the program and start the process for you.

Get Started With Your Physiotherapy Exercise Rehab Program

To learn more about if exercise rehab is right for you, schedule a time to visit your Burnaby physiotherapist at Cedar. They can help answer your questions and let you know if you are ready for an exercise rehab program

Phone 604-738-1168

Start Exercise Rehab

FAQ

Q: What does exercise rehab do?

A: Exercise rehab complements your current physiotherapy and chiropractic care. One of the goals is to improve the strength and flexibility of your many postural muscles. This can help you stand taller, move faster and feel better.

Q: How often should I do my rehab exercises?

A: Generally, stretching exercises can be done daily. You should have at least 1 days rest in between strength training your specific body part.

Q: Can I do this program if I am a patient at another clinic?

A: Yes, you certainly can. However as this is a physiotherapy supervised program, you must first schedule an assessment with your physiotherapist at Cedar who can then begin the process for you. You will then re-assessed by your physiotherapist at Cedar at regular intervals to see how you are doing.

On February 14, 2022   /   Blog