📚Knowledge is Power

🕵🏻‍♂️ Read below for the not so secret secrets to a successful rehab plan.

❶ The body responds to exercise 🏋🏻‍♀️. 

• It remodels, reinforces, and becomes more resilient to the stresses you apply to it.  However, you don’t need pages of rehab exercises to make your body respond positively. 

• Studies have shown that 3-4 exercises is the optimal number of exercises. 

• Any more, then patients find that the home exercise program (HEP) takes too long and is too complicated.  As such, adherence to the HEP dwindles quickly.  Patients don’t put in the consistent progressive effort over time and they don’t get better.

❷  Patients have to CONSISTENTLY do the HEP 🌱.

• The body follows the principle of “Mechanical Stress Quantification”, where you apply a stress to the body. 

• The body wakes up and says “Hey!  My owner is asking me to manage forces and loads in these directions, so I better increase my physical capacity to manage these loads!”. Then the body adapts to the forces and loads that were applied during the HEP.

• After this, it has evolved and is ready to accept the forces and loads again, which should be a bit more than the last time you did the HEP.  Another repetition or two.  A bit more of a load or weight.  Or, a bit more unstable.

❸ The HEP should be PROGRESSIVE 📈. 

• Imagine, you were given 3 sets of 15 reps of an exercise.  Over the next several weeks you did the same number of reps, same number of sets, with the same resistance … you would find it hard at the beginning, but eventually, you wouldn't find it hard at all as your body evolves.

• It is like blowing up a balloon.  Every day, you add another breath to the balloon.  You add a stress to the balloon (more air) and the balloon adapts (the skin stretches), and it evolves. Ready to receive the next breath.

❹ Success takes TIME ⏰. 

• Usually, after 6 weeks, patients will see an improvement in FUNCTION, and maybe some improvement in pain. 

• Why is this?  Well, we all will deal with the pain in order to gain function.  To be able to do more and get back to our pre-injury state. 

• After 12wks, most people see that they are back doing what they did before, the pain starts to go away.

So, keep these points in mind when you are going through the rehab process. If you found this useful, then please consider sharing it with your friends who might need a little positive reinforcement or reminding…