Rehabilitation Exercises
Many people avoid fitness and exercise because of a fear of being hurt, or they just don’t know what to do. However, when you’re injured, exercise and targeted movement are among the most effective forms of treatment. Therapeutic and reabilitative exercises don’t have to be boring – they can be healthy, sustainable, and a fun way to recuperate from an injury and live a healthier life!
Our approach to rehabilitation focuses on kinesiology, or the study of human movement and activity, to ensure your body’s joints and muscles maintain proper joint movement through their full range of motion. Because no two bodies are exactly alike, the approach to therapeutic exercise is individually tailored to you and your needs.
The key to injury rehabilitation and prevention isn’t simply strengthening or stretching muscles; it’s to reinforce stability. Exercise doesn’t require intense equipment or long hours within the confines of a gym. Exercise and rehabilitation can be skillfully performed within our chiropractic office setting, with progression and instructions for you to perform the therapeutic exercises within the comfort of your own home.
How does therapeutic exercise work?
Tight muscles, stiff joints, or muscle weakness are ways the body communicates to us that something isn’t working well.
If you’ve ever felt muscle cramps, restricted range of motion in a joint, or achiness after poor posture, there’s a chance your body has learned to compensate for an injury or prolonged position.
This adaptation, although initially helpful and efficient, uses other muscles to help overcome the loss of healthy body motor functioning. This causes muscle fatigue and excessive strain, or wear and tear, on a muscle that’s not doing its primary job. The changes become cumulative when sustained over time.
More stretching isn’t always the answer, either. Oftentimes, tight muscles, achy and unstable joints, or loss of stability isn’t resolved from more foam rolling or additional stretches. A goal of therapeutic exercise is to help strengthen targeted muscles. In turn, the strengthened muscles become more effective at their primary jobs, allowing the ancillary muscles to heal and resume their normal functioning.
The result is a patient who feels better and stronger, sleeps more deeply, is more flexible, and has greater ranges of motion in the affected area of their body!
Knowing when to use soft tissue techniques like therapeutic exercise and rehabilitation is one of our specialties at Lake Effect Chiropractic.
Who can benefit from rehabilitative exercises?
Our office uses rehabilitative and therapeutic exercises in the Bay City Area for many patients. We use mechanical force and movement to improve mobility, function, and even quality of life through examination, diagnosis, prognosis, and physical intervention.
There are many reasons patients come to us for care. One of the main reasons is recovery from an injury from sports, work, or even regular life. Other times, it’s achy muscles and poor posture. Whatever the cause may be, therapeutic exercises help someone get their body back to feeling normal and keeping it that way, and even prevent future injuries from happening!
Exercises are important to perform because like the brain, muscles also have a keen memory. This explains why we can ride a bicycle, throw a ball, or run fast even if it’s been a long time since we’ve performed an activity.
Reprogramming a muscle or area of the body after an injury is important. Even after the initial injury has healed, muscles may retain some of the dysfunctional aspects of the injury. This results in longer-term compensation patterns.
If an injury also leaves behind inflammation, scar tissue, fascial changes, muscle adhesions, or joint restrictions, then rehabilitation and therapeutic exercise is especially important and even essential to the recovery approach!
Therapeutic exercises are not a one-size-fits-all approach. Exercises prescribed to one person may not be appropriate or even necessary for your unique care.
Therapeutic exercise is a non-invasive therapy that focuses on improving motion patterns and promoting healing for your body’s individual needs, including strengths, weaknesses, ranges of motion, and injuries.
You may be given exercises throughout the course of your treatment or only when you’ve hit a certain threshold of healing. Your exercises may change, too, once a targeted goal has been met.
Conditions that benefit from rehabilitative exercise:
Our trained and experienced chiropractors use therapeutic exercise for a variety of patients. At Lake Effect Chiropractic, we first analyze and examine the body to evaluate the location and the source of the pain, which may not be in the same place! From there, we decide which treatments and exercises would benefit a patient the most.
Rehabilitation exercises improve stability to reduce harmful muscle compensations and promote healthy movement patterns and ranges of motion. Many muscle and joint conditions benefit from a skilled practitioner utilizing several forms of rehabilitation within a treatment plan. Some examples include:
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Headaches
- Muscle fatigue
- Tennis elbow
- Bicep tendinitis
- Nerve entrapments
- Plantar fasciitis
- Shoulder pain
- Sciatica
- Knee pain
- Golfers elbow
- Tarsal tunnel syndrome
- Shin splints
- Lack of mobility
… and more!
Are rehabilitative exercises appropriate for me?
In many instances, yes! Exercises are versatile and an essential form of movement. In fact, people have been exercising since they learned to crawl and walk, making therapeutic exercises a very effective treatment for back pain, neck pain, knee pain, nerve entrapments, and many other musculoskeletal conditions.
After an injury, the supportive soft tissues of the body in that region change, and not always for the better. Targeted therapeutic approaches like exercise and rehabilitation result in improved performance after an injury, and even help a person prevent future injuries, too.
The results are beneficial and can be felt during daily activities with decreased pain, improved ability to move, and less time spent while injured.
Every patient is unique and valuable to our chiropractic office. During the initial appointment, our doctors will discuss your unique needs and create a specific treatment plan for you and your condition.
If you’re in the Bay Area and interested in learning more about therapeutic and rehabilitative exercise, give us a call! We would love for you to speak to our team or visit our office to determine if chiropractic adjustments are right for you.
What Our Patients Are Saying
"I've been to multiple chiropractors, this is the first one that has given me a plan that includes an at home routine care program, so eventually I won't require a visit every week or two to re-manipulate my spine. I'll be able to strengthen the muscles around it to help them stay in place. The staff is friendly and there is a good/positive vibe inside the building."
-Keith from Standish, MI
"I love everything about Lake Effect Chiropractic. All of the ladies in the office are so nice and knowledgeable. Dr Ashley is amazing, I have literally never felt better since I started seeing her. They explain things to you so you understand them, and they don't try to push any unnecessary treatment on you. If you're looking for a chiropractor definitely give them a call!!"
-Emily from Hampton Township, MI
"Caring and approachable staff who are eager to answer your questions and customize a treatment plan that is best for you. If they aren't familiar with your obscure medical condition they take the time to research it to determine the correct treatments. Modern, state of the art facility with the comforts of home. They take the time to get to know their patients and follow up on phone calls and respond to text messages very quickly. They are on top of things. They also have a very chill office dog. Best of Great Lakes Bay Region for sure!"
-Susan from Portsmouth Township, MI