In pain? Therapeutic Exercise can help!
Therapeutic exercises are specific exercises meant for correcting specific problems. It does not have to involve heavy weights or long work out sessions. Sometimes they do involve weights at all and may be just a few reps at a time. Depending on your condition, your chiropractor may give you a list of exercises to perform to reduce discomfort. The focus of therapeutic exercise is to regain flexibility, strength, and endurance related to specific physical problems. They should not cause pain, but should help relieve your pain.
Therapeutic exercise aims to improve, restore, and prevent loss of physical function. It can also improve a patient’s overall health, fitness, and sense of well-being.
Additional objectives of Therapeutic exercise include:
- Increasing mobility
- Releasing contracted muscles, tendons, and fascia
- Mobilizing joints
- Improving circulation
- Improving respiratory capacity
- Improving coordination
- Reducing rigidity
- Improving balance
Therapeutic exercises are classified into three major categories:
- Endurance training
- Resistance training
- Flexibility training
No matter what type of exercise is prescribed to remedy a patient’s specific condition, the final goal of rehabilitation is to acquire a maximum level of physical fitness, without the use of more invasive methods. Therapeutic exercise can be performed at home, and gives you the power to improve your quality of life.
Once we determine the cause of your pain, we will treat you the same day if warranted, and show you the best exercises and stretches to expedite your healing process. We will e-mail you a report of findings (ROF). This ROF will explain your condition, give you home advice on what to avoid, list your stretches and exercises prescribed during your visit (videos and or pictures included), additional advice (i.e. to heat or ice), treatment modalities we will use, goals and plan of action to get you well in as few visits as possible.
For an example of what our ROF looks like, check out:
You don't have to be in pain!
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In Pain? Taking pain pills? STOP!
I cannot stress enough that if you have pain, it is imperative that you stretch your tight muscles and strengthen your loose muscles. When your muscles aren’t too tight and aren’t too loose, you will hold the beneficial effects of your treatments longer and be less vulnerable to injury. Research supports that home exercise is more effective than taking medicine.[1]
[1] Bronfort et al., “Spinal Manipulation,” Annals of Internal Medicine.
I can’t stress enough how taking pain relievers on a regular basis is not healthy in the long run. Still, I often hear from new patients that they take over-the-counter pain relievers almost every day for their pain!
After they learn to move their body more often throughout the day, eat healthier, avoid their personal triggers, and get more sleep, they often find they no longer need to take pain relievers. If you are in pain, we can help you feel well enough that you no longer need pain medication!
Taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like acetaminophen or aspirin, are not as safe to take as many people think. Such drugs have side effects and are very hard on the liver and kidneys, and can lead to organ failure and early death.
Indeed, I know people who take several OTC (over-the-counter) pain relievers every day and have for years. But some people get away with smoking for years, too, and never develop cancer or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). This does not mean smoking is safe. In the same way, people who take pain relievers every day do so at a cost to their overall health.
Medication is great for the short term because it offers a quick fix, but long-term use of chemicals is unhealthy. Prolonged use of medication leads to a decrease in quality of life. Such patients may be living with less pain, but at what cost to their body?
Consider this startling statistic: “NSAID use causes nearly 103,000 hospitalizations and 16,500 deaths. More people die each year from NSAIDs-related complications than from AIDS and cervical cancer in the US.”[1] Furthermore, I have had too many patients in their late sixties find out that they have stage three kidney failure because of their NSAID usage over the years. And I have known of too many people who have died of liver failure because of acetaminophen usage.[2]
[1] American Gastroenterological Association, “Study Shows Long-term Use of NSAIDs Causes Severe Intestinal Damage.”
[2] Zimmerman, “Drugs Used to Treat Rheumatic and Musculospastic Disease,” Hepatotoxicity.
The Rabbit Hole of Dis-Ease
The pain I experienced after the crash was not only something I couldn’t ignore, but was crippling. Just getting out of bed in the morning would cause me to yelp with pain.
The pain was so severe that I almost succumbed to falling into the “rabbit hole of dis-ease”:
· If you are tired, it is hard to think well.
· If you can’t think well, you may make poor choices (eat comfort foods versus nutrient-filled foods).
· If you are nutrient deprived, you will feel more tired.
· If you are tired, it is more difficult to motivate yourself to be active and exercise.
· If you don’t exercise, your body will become weaker and overweight, making it vulnerable to injuries and disease (like diabetes and heart disease).
· If your body is in pain, it is difficult to rest and/or sleep, making you more vulnerable to sickness and disease.
Can you see how easy it is to fall into this vicious cycle of pain?
After my accident:
· I was in pain.
· I was sleep deprived.
· I couldn’t do all the things I love to do, and I was getting weaker as a result!
· I was journaling my symptoms, limitations, and treatments (incase my case went through litigation). This made me focus on my pain instead of on my improvements.
· I was starting to doubt I would ever get well…
So how do you break this vicious cycle?
Start with one of the three pegs of the triad of wellness:
· Stretch or exercise more;
· Eat and drink healthier;
· Work on sleeping better and thinking positively.
Stop the vicious cycle of pain and weakness with movement! A body in motion tends to stay in motion. Movement is life. Let us help you get moving and back to life again.
We have other instruments and techniques that help facilitate healing and reduce pain.
ART:
Active release technique (ART) involves pinning and stretching tight muscles through movement patterns to decrease muscle tension.
Graston:
Graston treatment uses specialized tools to break up adhesions (scar tissue). To learn more about Graston, Click HERE.
Functional Movement Assessment:
Functional movement assessment uses a series of movement patterns to find compensations that may be causing your pain or hindering your performance in a certain activity.
Movement Specific Rehabilitation Exercises:
Movement Specific Rehabilitation Exercises are specific stability, mobility, or strengthening exercises designed for whatever movement or activity goals you may have. To learn more about how exercises can help, Click HERE
EMS
To learn more about electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), Click HERE.
RRT
To learn more about the Rapid Release Therapy (RRT) for muscle pain, Click HERE
Dry Needling
To learn more about dry needling for pain and myospasm, Click HERE
Chiropractic Adjustments And Manipulative Therapy
To learn more about Chiropractic Spinal Adjustments and Manipulative Therapy, Click HERE
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